Trollzyn the Infinite wrote:Lower Nubia wrote:Are there any valid Christian theologies which discount the need of the sacraments which also can also be found in the duty, life and mission of the Church for the last 2,000 years? Not 500? No.
You're the only one who brought up sacraments, dude. I didn't say anything about them.
Churches are just buildings. Physical, material constructs of no real consequence. Temporary and finite. God needs no temples on Earth.
Salus Maior wrote:Nubia isn't a Catholic.
And also neither of us are being that harsh with you. It's a fair criticism.
I didn't say it wasn't. I half-joking by making a Skyrim reference to dab on the Catholic gate-keeping that occurs so often in this thread. Just a little light-hearted, humor is all.
Tars and Nubia have already addressed the part about God not needing but still desiring temples, at least in part, but I'd like to add my own little bit.
God did command for His followers to create specific dwellings for Him. He asked for the Ark of the Covenant to be made for His dwelling place, and yes, He could not be entirely contained by it. Anyone who was deemed unworthy and who tried to enter the Temple to see it died immediately. Yet the point was that God still wished to be among His people, to let them know that no matter what, He is with them.
Sure, there are cases in which Masses or services can be said without a church. St. John Paul II, when he was a younger priest, would take his students on kayaking trips, and when he wanted to say Mass (in communist-run Poland this was not exactly safe to do in public), he would take his kayak, turn it into an altar, and he would say Mass with his students as the congregation, somewhere deep in the wilderness. The Sacraments are what made that Mass valid, rather than the saying of a Mass in a building.
So the requirement for buildings is twofold. In normal circumstances, God asks them of His followers, both in the Bible and in Tradition. Yet the buildings become useless if they are not blessed by God's presence, if He is not within them. There is the vision where Ezekiel saw the glory of God leaving the temple of Jerusalem. It's meant to be symbolic, in a sense, but at the same time it does make a literal point. What is a home without its creator, and what must one do if God asks for us to build houses for Him even if He does not necessarily need them?