We are physical creatures, living in a physical world. At the same time, God has put eternity in our hearts, which means that we are enabled to look beyond what is merely physical. Because we are material creatures, God always works with us through means. Because we are spiritual creatures with an immaterial soul that is not bound by matter, we are enabled to know what those means mean.
Those who look to the means alone, stopping there, are superstitious and blind. They think Jesus is the bread and wine. They think salvation is the sinner’s prayer. They think that God dwells in houses made with human hands.
Those who look to the meaning alone, bypassing the means that God has established in the world, are gnostics and rationalists. They are too spiritual to be confined to physical things. They think that Jesus does nothing in and through the bread and wine. They think salvation means looking down with contempt on the sinner’s prayer. They think that God dwells in the bone box on top of their body.
But the man who is given a true, spiritual understanding approaches God through His appointed means, knowing that the material creation is a window through which we are called to see God. It is not a mural of God, and it is not God itself. Neither are we on the other side of the window, able to apprehend God directly.
Focus on the sacraments and you are an idolater. Focus on a gospel presentation straight out of the book of Romans alone, and you are an idolater. Build a church building that functions as a mausoleum for a dead god, and you are an idolater. Throw away the sacraments, and the Bible, and places for meeting, and you are the worst idolater of all—thinking that your ego by itself might be able to ascend to the sides of the north. So our church sanctuary will have windows, of course. But it will also be a window for the faithful.
So let the stones cry out.
Given Scripture as a material creation, then focus on Scripture = idolatry as well?
This Week in Doug:
Romanists are saved, Baptists are idolaters.
Let the angsty blog commenters cry out (I’m sure doing my part).
“Catholics to the left of me, Sydney Anglicans to the right, here I am, stuck in the middle with you.”
Good stuff, but there is an architecture to this as well, and it is Triune. Since it is Triune, divvying up the material from the spiritual is like separating the Father from the Son.
Genesis 1 – Physical Order
Genesis 2 – Social Order
Genesis 3 – Spiritual Order
This same process then plays out in the Covenants: Adam-Noah, Abraham, Christ.
This also has implications for baptism, but my friends tell me I’ve ranted enough this week.
rorwal, it reads to me more like:
Some Romanists are saved, Presbyterians can be idolaters (with any other group able to be substituted for “Presbyterians,” if they chuck out means that God has given in favor of their pet God-given means, or their own invented means.)
If you are genuinely interested in a biblical pattern for your church building, you need neither windows nor artificial interior lighting.
And it should be as large a cube as you need to accommodate your assembly.
If you feel that a large cube sitting on a hill on the Palouse is too avant-garde, you could always go with the retro-movable-tent look.