“He made shrines on the high places …” (1 Kings 12:31, NKJV)
The first Reformation is largely the result of the insight and revelation of the former Roman Catholic priest Martin Luther. Without this we would still today be stuck in the Middle Ages. That he played a very central role is inarguable. That he later contributed to the misleading of this initial movement of God is however also true. I still struggle with the fact that the excellent film Luther only portrays the first few years of the Reformation hero’s life, but consciously avoids the fact that his later commands brought about that millions of believers (who believed in the water baptism of the believer, the Anabaptists) were harshly persecuted and murdered in an even more cruel manner.
Regardless of this, Martin Luther is however not to blame for the wrong direction the Reformation headed into when it comes to the church as building. In his book The Misunderstanding of the Church, Emil Brunner writes the following: “Of all the great teachers of Christianity, Martin Luther perceived most clearly the difference between the Ecclesia of the New Testament and the institutional church, and reacted most sharply against the quid pro quo which would identify them, Therefore he refused to tolerate the mere word ‘church’: he called it an obscure ambiguous term. In his translation of the Bible, he rendered ecclecia by ‘congregation’.”
Luther placed great emphasis on the fact that the word church never points to a building, but that it should always be understood as a unit of a group of believers, a spiritual community. Yet the Roman Catholic tradition did indeed dictate the entire discourse surrounding the nature of the church – more than 1500 years of church conditioning made it impossible for Luther to establish the true meaning of ekklesia. (See Luther’s Works, pp. 53-54.)
Obviously Luther was also greatly opposed to the church tower. Ever since man’s attempt building the tower of Babel, “a tower whose top is in the heavens” (Gen. 11:4), we have been preoccupied by buildings that seem to connect heaven and earth. At one stage the Catholic popes found inspiration in Egyptian obelisks, and this led to the establishing of the church tower (Edward Norman: The House of God: Church Architecture, Style and History). After the great London fire in 1666, and the resulting destruction of most of the city’s 800 churches, the new architect of the restoration topped most of the churches with a tower. This tradition soon spread to the rest of the world, especially to North America. (Colin Cunningham: Stones of Witness.)
The tower clearly has its root in pagan history. Even the cock on its steeple, which is a sign of betrayal (Luke 22:61) should worry us. John 12:32 remains the only guideline in this regard: “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.” This does not happen via a pagan tower reaching to the heavens.
- Selah: Examine the other occult roots of the church tower.
- Read: Joshua 22-24
- Memorise: Joshua 24:22
- For a more in-depth understanding: Read Norman’s book if you would like more information on the subject.
