History of the Church Building

You might be surprised to learn that the first church building was not built until after Constantine made Christianity the national religion for the Greco-Roman world after AD 300.

How did the early church members still meet in homes when their numbers grew? They remodeled their homes. The house of Dura-Europos in Syria (AD 232) was the first identifiable Christian meeting place that shows evidence of such remodeling. It was a private home with a wall torn out between 2 bedrooms to create a large living room. But it still served as a private home when they weren’t meeting.

Here is how the church building evolved. Christians met together in homes and in cemeteries. The later started because of those Christians who had been martyred. Christians felt closer to their dead brethren when they met there. They began to share a meal while there in order to remember that dead person and worship God in that person’s company. Nothing wrong there. But wait. It was just a matter of time before these places began to be seen as “holy” and Christians built small monuments over the burial plot. These became larger and larger shrines. It was a common pagan practice to build such shrines and call it holy. Christians also began to collect relics (bones of martyrs) and regard them as sacred (this was also borrowed from the pagan Romans). The Lord’s Supper also devolved from a full meal to a ceremony which was renamed “Holy Communion.” The bread and cup were regarded as sacred. By the 3rd century, Christians had sacred places (shrines built for the dead) and sacred objects (bread, cup, martyr’s bones). I don’t know about you, but in my opinion and God’s book that is called idolatry. Satan wanted to get us to worship places and objects to get our eyes off Christ—the only one we should worship. Christ is holy and God calls His people holy. That’s it folks.

Because Christians had already begun regarding certain places as sacred, they fell hook, line, and sinker for Constantine’s initiation of church building. He began ordering the construction of church buildings by 324. He wanted Christians to have their own sacred buildings like the Jews and pagans did so that their faith would seem legitimate. What you need to know about Constantine is that despite his supposed conversion to Christianity, he continued to worship the Sun god and himself until he died. He is the one to name the day of our week “Sunday” after Mithras, the Unconquered Sun. Hmmm. Ironic isn’t it that we Christians set aside Sunday for worship. Surely Satan’s getting a real laugh out of that.

I digress here for a minute: why do we worship on Sunday? Some say we do because it is the day of Christ’s resurrection. But look in the New Testament to find any mention of a specified day of the week for worship and you will be hard put to find it. Why? We are to worship all day every day. You can’t “tithe” a day out of a week for worshiping Him and think that He will be satisfied with it. Also, you should be meeting with believers often and not just one day a week. It doesn’t have to be the same group of believers. But you do need to be in continual contact with other believers throughout the week who encourage you in the Way.

Back to church buildings: Constantine started his church building program throughout the empire and named each church after a saint just as Roman temples were named after their gods. Many were built over the tombs of the martyrs. They were built with fountains in front of them so that people could go through purifying rituals before entering the “sacred” place (reminds me of Judaism). The buildings were built on the model of the Greek pagan temples. The design encouraged crowds of people to sit passively while watching a performance. Wow! The interactive people-centered gatherings which resulted in mutual edification had now been relegated to a spectacle of mystery and magic (communion becoming something mystical and words being spoken in a language the people didn’t speak) that made God seem less accessible than ever. Hello! Christ came so that we might boldly approach His throne of mercy; He died so that we might believe and accept His salvation and become His brothers/sisters; He taught us to pray “Abba” (Daddy) so that we might know Father’s love; He rent the veil to the Holy of holies so that He could live in our hearts. He is moving toward us. Why are we putting such distance between ourselves and Him?

I think that as long as we continue to go to a place to worship Him and gather with other believers rather than letting it happen naturally every day within the real context of our lives, we are missing out on His presence and His people. It could be so much more. What are you waiting for?