Reverence in God's house

Not had a chance to slog through the whole thread so forgive me if this point has already been made- but "God's house" is not the place where Christians meet for fellowship.

It is internal and not external- 1 Peter 3:4.

 

respect yes, but to tell people they have to dress up, and if they don't have they can't attend, nope, not biblical at all.

 

My opinion:

When God rent the veil of the Temple, He quit living in a building! His presence is now with US. In us. Around us. Through us.

We don't need a special building to worship in. Church buildings are conveniences cause we don't want to open our houses the way the early church did! But we don't need a building to worship!

Let me see what we need: Where 2 or 3 are gathered in My name, there will I be in the midst of them (Matt 18:20)

That's it. No special dress, no music, kids running around optional, no building required though if its raining you might at least want an umbrella, but hey! there's nothing wrong with worshiping in the rain!

I don't even have to leave my house to worship! I can just call my children around me and we can WORSHIP!

Now, I reallize this goes against all our traditions, but not all of our traditions are exactly Biblical. That doesn't mean going to worship in a church building is wrong, just that its not necessary!

We can worship where we stand and Christ said He would be in the midst of us.

My two cents hereby given freely and totally without reading through the entire thread.

 

you seemed to have hit the nail on the head

The blessing of the Cross is that it took us out of the Temple and put the temple into us.

 

Seriously? Corporate worship is, by definition, a form of fellowship, since it is corporate in nature.

When did we get this idea that worshipping and fellowshipping/socializing are mutually exclusive??

 

*sigh*

The place where we meet for worship, fellowship, socializing or whatever other name you wish to apply to it is not "God's house". Is that better?

 

I guess we can agree to disagree. I'm a little sensitive about this because my church is about to dedicate a new church building "God's house" if you will, this Sunday. This building is special because it was built for worship and for His glory. It was not built for men but for God.

 

God's house isn't a building, it's us, not both, not biblical.

 

I agree, Peggy. When I was a child, my father taught me that I owed respect to God's house, as the church was called. My Father was a Southern Baptist deacon of the old kind, he taught us to revere and worship with respect, and he always, as did all the SBC Pastors I grew up under, called it "God's House".

The Bible says our bodies are "temples"

 

Do we have any Bible basis to call the place where we meet 'God's house?'

Instead of saying 'I am going to God's house' might we do better to say 'I am going to meet with God's house?'

That at least would have a Bible basis.

Can it be God's house if a church meets above a bar in a community centre? It is not a sanctuary after all.

 

Why do we call it a church? Or do you? What biblical basis does that have?

What is wrong with TRADITION, for cryin out loud! :1_grouphug:

 

So is our meeting room above the bar God's house? Is it a sanctuary? Because we share it with a school we have to put up with that school's seasonal decorations. Are we allowing them to violate the sanctity of God's house?

Our church (called out assembly) meets in this room. It is not some special, holy, sanctified place. The assembly of God's people is special, holy, and sanctified.

Is there any Bible basis for reverencing the building?

The church is the body of Christ. It meets and functions in local assemblies of believers. It is that assembly that is special, not the building. During the recent bad weather the community centre was closed. We met in a home. Would this sitting room be any less 'God's house' than some multi-million dollar 'sanctuary?'

 

There's differences between a tabernacle, a meeting place and a sanctuary where the church might meet. "God's house" is that place solely dedicated to God in any form and should receive the utmost reverence . It is nonsense to dote about silly questions

 

What I think is silly is ascribing a special title upon a building which is nothing but a place for the body of Christ to meet. For 9 years we had church in our house in Mexico. There was nothing sacred about the large room in which we met. What sanctified the room was the people meeting in it. When the body of Christ was in absentia the room was just a room, nothing more.

How in the world do we Baptists bow to tradition- and a Catholic tradition, at that- of ascribing holiness to a building??

 

I'm seeing a lot of emotion, but little Scriptural background.

 

Exactly - I think a lot of people are spoiled by their fancy dedicated church buildings and forget that a good deal of the churches in the world have never dreamt of such a luxury.

 

Just shows how little you know about us baptists!!! :laugh: :laugh:

 

Baptists have traditions, but we call them "convictions".