THE TABERNACLE OF DAVID (part 2)

In part 1 we saw that king David had introduced a completely new way to worship God, in his kingdom. He brought back the Ark of the covenant, which represented the "Presence of God", and instead of placing it in the empty Holy Place in the Tabernacle of Moses, he erected a simple tent to house the Ark. We saw that in (Acts 15:13-18) James quoted an OT scripture from Amos about God restoring this Tabernacle of David, in reference to the Church that was just starting to be formed. We know from reading church history, and the book of Acts, that the early believers met in homes and in rooms attached to the temple of the day. This temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD, and never rebuilt. After the church became part of the Roman Empire under Constantine, he erected large cathedrals for the church to worship in, and put in place a religious system based on the OT temple worship, plus some traditions borrowed from the Pagans of the day. This system of church structure and traditions has remained more or less the same ever since that time. The Reformation under Luther changed certain doctrines, but never changed the main system of temples and priests!

In the past few years there has been a move toward a simpler form of church structure based on "House Church Networks". This method of doing church is centered in homes, with more participation by the people. This is an attempt to get back closer to the way the church functioned, as recorded in the book of Acts. A typical house church meeting would closely resemble the type of meeting outlined by Paul in (1 Cor 14:26). This type of meeting is not possible in the normal church setting, where the layout of pulpit and pews does not lend itself to this type of participation.

Some churches have introduced "cell groups", where people meet in small groups during the week, and still come together in the church building on Sundays. This has helped to improve the participation of the members, but still comes short of the house church "Koinonia" that can only be experienced in a small group that are truly functioning as described by Paul in his letter to the church in Ephesus. Here the "Ark", which is the presence of God, can be fully displayed in all it's Glory through the individual members. This koinonia brings the presence of God like it was in the "Tabernacle of David" long ago!

Sincerely submitted.

Gramp