Ever since the founding of the ancient nation of Israel in the time of Moses, to which the Christian church can trace its spiritual and biblical roots, the people of God (YHVH Elohim) have been constructing magnificent buildings in which to worship their Creator. We now refer these buildings as churches. This is not a bad thing for a number of reasons, the least of which goes back to YHVH’s original plan. Did he not “plant” the first humans in a paradise called the Garden of Eden where they could walk and talk with him in an idyllic setting? How is a church different than this, except it has walls and a roof, which is a propitious concept especially when it is cold and raining outside!
What is more, and few Christians realize this, one of the first things that YHVH instructed the children of Israel to do after exodusing Egypt was to build the Tabernacle of Moses—a portable church building where they could gather, praise and worship him, and learn about his ways in a multi-dimensional and sensorial, experiential way. Not only that, YHVH told them that he would dwell among his people in this glorified tent.
And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them. According to all that I show you, that is, the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furnishings, just so you shall make it. (Exod 25:8–9)
This tabernacle took a year to build and employed highly skilled craftsman and artisans who used copious amounts of precious metals, exotic woods and specially died animal skins and colorful tapestries in its construction. The Book of Exodus contains chapter after chapter of detailed instructions that YHVH gave to Moses pertaining to this construction project.
A few hundred years later after coming into the Promised Land, YHVH instructed his people to construct him a more permanent house in which he might dwell among his people. By then, after hundreds of years, the Tabernacle of Moses tent had worn out, and a more solid and permanent structure was needed for the nation, which had greatly expanded in population and territory. This building was called Solomon’s Temple. It contained 100,000 talents of gold and one million talents of silver (1 Chron 22:14). If a talent is equivalent to 75 pounds, then that is 750,000 pounds or 3750 tons of gold or 46,875 ounces of gold. If gold is $2,500 an ounce that comes to more than $30 billion that went into the temple! That was only the value of the gold. Add one million talents of silver at $30 per ounce and that is another $5 billion. This does not include the bronze, wood, stones or other construction materials or the cost of labor to build the temple. The world has never seen any building like this before or since. YHVH Elohim is worthy of the very best!
To this day, YHVH’s people—both Jews and Christians—have been constructing amazing houses of worship. No cost has been spared, the construction efforts have been monumental, amazing methods and machinery invented, engineering feats accomplished, the world’s top artists, craftsmen and musicians enlisted and, at times, construction has continued for decades, hundreds of years and even up to one thousand years as is the case with the Chester Cathedral in England. To this day, in Barcelona, Spain, the Basílica de la Sagrada Familia, is still being constructed having been started in 1882. When completed it will be one of the largest churches on earth boasting the world’s tallest tower at 565.9 feet tall. Presently, it is Spain’s top tourist attraction with 4,707,367 visiting it in 2023 including yours truly. Monumental and costly efforts to build houses of worship for the God of the Bible go on to this very day.
As a frequent world traveler, I’ve had the privilege of visiting Catholic and Protestant basilicas, cathedrals, churches and chapels on five continents in nearly 40 countries over the past forty five years. As a Bible expert who also has a broad knowledge of Western religious and cultural history, and is an academically trained artist, these monumental edifices, constructed at great effort and expense ostensibly for the “glory of God,” have captured my fascination. Their extravagant beauty, the artistry and craftsmanship that went in to their construction before the age of modern machinery is beyond impressive. When one steps into a Gothic cathedral, for example, it boggles one’s mid and leaves spell-bound starring upward. And I’m obviously not the only one who is perennially impressed. The great Christian churches, basilicas, cathedrals down to the lowliest chapel and village church all over Europe in nearly every city are often the top tourist attractions, even to this day in our agnostic, secular humanistic, rabidly materialistic world and even anti-Christian culture. Why this fascination with things religious? Suffice it to say, perhaps despite a secular society’s efforts to eviscerate the God of the Bible from the hearts and minds of Westerners, there is still a God-shaped hole in people’s hearts. Beyond that, this a discussion for another day. What I will discuss here is, more importantly, what does Elohim think of these architectural endeavors of men to reach him? Are these a sort of man-made ladder trying to reach the gates of heaven?
My ventures into cathedrals and churches over the past forty-five years be they Romanesque, Medieval Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, neo-Gothic, Art Nouveau or modernist, have occurred all over the British Isles, the European continent, Africa, Central and South America and the North American continent from Alaska to Quebec and southward. The more notable houses of worship in which my feet have echoed include Notre Dame Cathedral (before and after the great fire of 2019) and Sacré-Coeur both in Paris, St. Paul’s and Westminster Abbey in London, and the Lausanne Cathedral in Switzerland. In Italy, I have marvelled at San Marcos in Venice, the Duomo di Firenze in Florence, the Cathedral and famous Leaning Tower of Pisa and, of course, St. Peter’s in Rome), and ornate churches Palarmo in Sicily. And I cannot forget massive Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain and the nineteenth century French church in Carthage, Tunsia in Africa. And then there are the churches in Mexico, South America and New York City and elsewhere around the U.S. that I have visited. When in Israel, I viewed many ancient churches and synagogues that go back for nearly 2,000 years. I have viewed some of the largest church buildings in world including Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome which can hold 60,000 worshipers as well as the smallest Catholic church in the world on the tiny island of Guernsey in the English Channel which measures only eight feet by 16 feet in size. I Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia whose tallest tower, when completed, will reach 565 feet into the heavens making it the tallest church in the world, a church that doubled as a Medieval fortress in the mountains of northern Spain, Europe’s most famous Gothic cathedral, the last church that the ill-fated Titanic saw, the abbey where 1,000 years of British monarchs have been crowned, the church that was the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance and a church in Pisa that took 400 years to construct and another in England that has been a construction project for a thousand years. Typically, when visiting most of these churches, I have merely been a curious tourist taking in the sights, learning the history and marveling at the artistry and labor that went into building them. But now in my mid-60s and having reaching a more philosophical stage in my life with a aerial view of life that only age and time can provide, I am now seeing these churches from a little different perspective—from, I think and hope, a more heavenly, kinder, even loving heart of YHVH Elohim one.
My first trip to Europe was in 1980 where I spent a year studying in Switzerland. During spring break, I ventured into Italy where I spent several days in Rome. By this time, I had visited many cathedrals including Westminster Abbey and St. Paul’s in London, Notre Dame in Paris, and St. Mark’s in Venice, but nothing prepared me for St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican. Upon arriving in Rome, I fought my way on foot while braving the terrifying melee of cars to cross countless interminably wide and often crosswalkless boulevards to finally reach St. Peters Square in the Vatican, the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church. I nonchalantly meandered into St. Peter’s Basilica and was immediately overwhelmed. My jaw needed a crutch as it dropped to the exquisite marble flooring and my eyes remained transfixed looking upward. I was unable to move not unlike one of the numerous marble statues that adorn the place. After what seemed like an eternity, I collected my overwhelmed senses and sat down on a simple wooden, nondescript chairs (in stark contrast to the wealth and opulence that surrounds them) set out for worshippers, where I remained motionless and almost spell-bound drinking in the awesomeness of the place. My emotional response struck me as strange, since neither I nor my family are Catholic, and, quite frankly, I, at best, had been apathetic toward that church, and even harbored a certain level of antipathy toward Roman Catholicism. After 45 minutes of just sitting there, I remember thinking, “I can’t take all of the immensity and opulence of this place in at one sitting,” and suffering from cognitive and emotional overloading, I resolved to come back the next day to absorb the rest of it. And I did. The majesty, immenseness and artistry of it all was too much to fathom on my first visit. I have been marvelling over the beauty and majesty of church buildings ever since.
Scroll forward more than 40 some, I have again recently found myself in several European countries during a couple of trips starring in wonderment at churches and cathedrals like a little child as fascinated as ever. Like magnets drawn to steel, my wife and I are attracted to these cathedrals and churches of all sizes, types, architectural styles and ages. After dealing with the initial awe of entering many a cathedral, one of the first questions that often enters my mind is this: what does the God of the Bible think of this colossal and superhuman building projects? What is his perspective?
Immediately a flood of impressions begin to flood my mind.
First, a cathedral or church, pick one, anyone, is a monumental and colossal endeavor; it’s a sort of Tower of Babel-like affair on man’s part in some crazy way to reach God. And if not to reach him, then, perhaps to please him and perhaps atone for a nation’s sins, as was the case with Sacré-Couer in Paris. Beyond that, these religious edifices, in the very least, stir up the imagination and the spiritual zeal of the religious devotees who visit them leaving them with a sense of awe and wonderment if not of the Creator, certainly of those who constructed these edifices in ostensible honor of him. They have this affect in me, and this is notwithstanding the fact that I could care less about Roman Catholicism, Protestantism or any sub-denomination thereof in the least. So what unexplainable something stirs me at the deepest leave when I visit these places? This is the question that perennially bounces around in my head like a beebee sucked up in a vacuum cleaner.
Second, most of these churches, which are massive works of stone, wood, glass and metal, are endeavors, it is doubtless true, on the part of a religious institutions to exert influence and control over the people for the purpose of money and power. They are an attempt to control the masses of largely ignorant and uneducated people often for selfish carnal and greedy purposes for the benefit and enrichment of their religious elite overlords. Additionally, it seems to be an attempt by a church system to impress and awe its sheep-subjects through grandiose building projects and, at the same time, to hold these same people spellbound and beholden to church leadership through fear of losing one’s eternal salvation resulting in an eternity burning in hellfire should they be disloyal to said leadership. This perspective is the more unsightly if not ugly side the whole affair, of which YHVH Elohim, who is all-knowing, is obviously aware. But there is still more to be considered, and it is not all negative!
Third Gothic cathedrals and similar churches wow the senses in a multiplicity of ways:
- Their soaring architecture causes one to look up—heavenward. Not a bad thing.
- Their stained glass windows tell biblical stories though in an extremely abbreviated and a caricaturised way. Again, not necessarily a bad thing.
- Their stonework evokes solidity, power, stability, strength, endurance and permanence, which reflects the religious institution that commissioned, built and maintains them—a perception that may, hopefully, even transcend in the minds and hearts of the worshipper to Elohim himself and the enduring and permanent nature of his Word and character.
- The artwork of the cathedrals including the engineering of the building itself from the marble flooring and gold-gilded mosaics, up to the ornate altars with their marble statuary, metalwork, intricate wood carvings, the hand-hewn inlaid marble marquetry, and the stained glass all serve to lift the human senses, elicit jaw-dropping awe and wonderment, but in what? In the works of men or in Elohim or both? Is this a good or bad thing? This depends on your point of view. To my mind, anything that glorifies Elohim and points men heavenward, even remotely is a good thing. In this regard, I hear the words of Yeshua and Paul echoing in my head.
And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.” (John 12:32)
But Jesus said to him, “Do not forbid him, for he who is not against us is on our side.” (Luke 9:50)
Some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife, and some also from goodwill: the former preach Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my chains; but the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached; and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice. (Phil 1:15–18)
- And then there is the grandiosity of the organ music along with celestial sounds of choirs of men and angelic-sounding boys, which fills these massive cavernous stone, wooden and lead echo chambers in almost divine polyphonic reverberations penetrating even shaking not only the edifices themselves, but, in many cases, the stoney hearts of the hearers. For many, including me, this music is soul food that also refreshes my spirit, to quote J. S. Bach, and is attractive because of its beauty as well as its biblical themes. It draws the soul inward and heavenward. Is this not a good thing? Who cannot be deeply moved by this?
How could such a monumental and amazing human endeavor as the construction of any one of a number of Romanesque, Gothic, or Baroque-style that I have visited that and which, in some cases, took hundreds of years and thousands of people to build, be totally devoid of God or Elohim? What peasant who lived and died in the shadow of one these monolithic structures, some of whose towers reached more than 500 feet heavenward and dominate the skyline for many miles around, would deign to question whether this was a God-thing or not? To have questioned the validity or authority of the church system that built these buildings may have meant, to the hapless and usually illiterate and Bibleless parishioner, losing one’s eternal salvation if not their land and property and, possibly even their physical life. Does not our Father have mercy on the impoverished peasant whose revelation of him and his truth was only that which was engraved on or painted in these buildings, or what was preached from the daises and ambos contained therein?
Even though the Creator of heaven and earth does not and cannot dwell in any building made by human hands, did he not commission the children of Israel to build him a tabernacle and later a temple for him to dwell in the midst of his people, and a place where they could congregate to learn of and worship him? Let us graciously view this issue pragmatically and objectively. Worshippers of the Creator, by whatever name they call him—Yeshua, Jesus, Jesu, Jesús, Jezus, Jeesus, Jésus, Iisous, Isus or whatever—need a place to gather out of the cold, dark and rain to seek and worship him collectively as well as to learn about him in some fashion or another. Why not make such a place as beautiful as possible, so that he can be worshipped in the beauty of holiness? YHVH Elohim is big and merciful enough to interpret correctly the language of the human heart regardless of linguistic issues or topography whether humans worship him under a tree or the vaulted roof of a Gothic cathedral.
So in the final analysis, what does YHVH Elohim think of all of men’s efforts to build him houses of worship?
It would be foolish and presumptuous of me to assume that I have the definitive answer to this question, but as I pondering the issue, while wandering around in many cathedrals and churches on my latest trip to Europe, several strong impressions floated to the top of my mental pool of thoughts.
True, these churches were, I suspect, to one degree or another, built to impress and control the masses for the benefit of the religious and regnal elite. Although they were often constructed to satiate human greed, lust for power and wealth at the people’s expense, do these ulterior motives on the part of a few humans with questionably morals and ethics make these churches themselves as well as all of the people who worship in them bad? I am not inclined to think so. There is some good in nearly everything if we adjust our hearts to find it. Does not our Father in heaven love us in spite of our sins? Did he not send Yeshua to this earth even though Elohim knew what men would do to his Son? Does he not love it when his earthly children endeavor to come near to him, even if they are only baby steps in his direction? If his children are moving incrementally toward him, is this not a good thing? After all, humans have only two directions in which to move: upward or downward, toward the light or away from it, toward Elohim or toward the devil. Any step in the right direction is not to be disdained, mocked or sneered at!
In contradistinction to the secular and religious leaders who orchestrated the building of these cathedrals often for selfish gain and out of ungodly ad ulterior purposes what about the common people?
Yeshua’s view of the religious leaders of his day, was anything but positive, and I too share a similar view of institutionalized religious systems and most of its hireling and greedy leaders. They are all too often enabling a system which the Book of Revelation calls “Mystery Babylon” and which the same book graphically likens to a voluptuous whore! The Christian religious system—colloquially referred to by some of us as churchianity—is comprised of both good and evil, the holy and polluted, the precious and the vile and is a conglomerate of both biblical and pagan elements. Scripture likens this system metaphorically in unglowing terms as an adulterous woman.
Yet, even though Yeshua often eviscerated and rebuked the religious leaders of his day, for wanton greed, elitist arrogance, hypocrisy and apathy if not disdain for the people they were called to serve he, at the same time, he treated the sheep-people or sheeple, who had been caught up in these leaders’ religious systems and schemes, with tenderness and grace. It was even his regular custom to visit the local synagogue on the Sabbath. Let’s not forget that this was the very same religious system that eventually condemned him and nailed him to a cross.
With the example of our Savior in mind, it is curious to me why some of my fellow ministers, who have left the traditional Christian church system where they were saved, now view it so pejoratively even to the point of questioning my curious interest and amazement at Christian church buildings. For example, prior to my recent trip to Rome, one of my colleagues, a pastor for decades, condescendingly wondered why I should want to visit that pagan city. I replied that Paul did, so why can’t I? Most of these individuals who have exited mainstream Christianity for one reason or another, I suspect, have narrow and provincial if not bigoted viewpoints when it comes to the Christian church as a whole. This may be because many have never traveled outside the four walls of their geographical or psychological locations to see the larger picture of things. Many, too, are viewing the church through the colored and dark glasses of their own past hurts. To them I say, “It is time to grow up and see things as our Father in heaven does.” Let us not forget that there for his grace go all of us!
Some of these ministers tend to focus on the fact that behind the building of these mighty churches were often the nefarious and ungodly schemes of men to financially rape and control for selfish purposes the common people who came to worship and to seek Elohim in their own simple and uneducated and even biblical naive or quasi-pagan ways. On top of that, many of these leaders peddled ungodly doctrines, traditions of men and outright pagan beliefs and practices to the unsuspecting masses. However, I neither refuse to judge the hearts of my fellow ministers who view the Christian church and its churches through a tinted lens nor the laity who, in simple childlikeness, came (and still come) to seek Elohim the only way they knew under the rubric of churchianity. This includes both peasant, princes and monarchs, as well as many monks, priests and nuns, lords and ladies. Who is in the place of Elohim to know much less evaluate how he will judge them in that day for their religious efforts directed toward him in the best way they knew?
One thing I know: there for YHVH Elohim’s grace go you, me and everyone else who has ever lived. This I also know. I could have been born as one of those hapless and illiterate peasants who was irrevocably tied to the land on which they and generations before them had toiled in impoverished anonymity. I could have been birthed into this untouchable caste class slaving away my entire life for the benefit of the church and nobility under the shadow of cathedrals and churches (which existed in nearly every town) and castles, with little options in life to do anything else, to go anywhere else or to know anything else.
With these realities in mind, I tend to think that the Elohim of mercy and justice will judge the people more favorably than many of us may think. Sadly, a growing number of us who have left traditional churchianity have an acrimonious taste in our mouths, even going the point of arrogantly refusing to refer to ourselves any longer as Christians. Sadly, many people harbor a supercilious heart attitude toward their Christian brethren forgetting all the good things that happened to them in the Christian church including coming to a knowledge of the Savior and being delivered from evil and sinful lifestyles. Therefore, we may want to rethink our position in light of a gracious Elohim who still loved us while we were in churchianity and has led us to where we are at today. If you hold a negative if not a bitter disposition toward the church, I am praying that you will find the heart of our magnanimous and gracious Father in heaven who causes it to rain (a blessing, not a curse) on all people including the just and the unjust, at the very least, and, at the most, is even now regathering his lost sheep of the house Israel from many places in many lands out of many churches in preparation for the second coming of our Messiah. The very people Yeshua commissioned us to help regather or those who are going to these churches and cathedrals. Many of you used to go there too, but YHVH in his mercy has opened your eyes and you have heard his voice to “come out her my people” (Rev 18:4). Can he not yet do the same for many of his spiritual sheep still trapped in these churches like you once were?
In conclusion, to be sure, the most glorious church building on earth is nothing at all compared to the most common place and taken-for-granted regularly occurring aspect of Elohim’s creation such as a sunset, a lily flower, a starry heaven, a waterfall or a snow-capped mountain, a mountain stream, a butterfly, the human body, a loving human family, or a saved person whose name is written in the Lamb’s book of life. The most opulent and extravagant Gothic or Baroque cathedral is little more than pile of refuse compared to these. This speaks to the greatness of our Elohim and to men’s puny, yet commendable efforts to reach out to him, to honor and learn about him and then to worship him. So in light of his merciful and magnanimous grace toward each of us, let us give him the honor, praise and worship he is due. Soi Deo gloria!
