Different faces of church altars - What makes them sacred?

To some Christians, an altar of God is a sacred place exclusively reserved for God and his angels and so must not be entered into indiscriminately; yet to some, Christ has removed such restriction making it open for everyone. In this piece BIODUN MOHAMMED and MODUPE GEORGE take on some pastors on issues relating to the sacredness of the altar and its prescribed features.

IT was a very funny scene as the disciplinary committee of a well known church sat to listen to the case of a girl who claimed she was impregnated by the shepherd in charge of a local branch of the church. The girl narrated everything that transpired between her and the said church leader but the interesting part of it was that she said the man even made love with her right in front of the altar. The fact that the altar is supposed to be a special part of the church brought in the question of whether people still really know the importance of the altar or not.

If one takes a look at the history of the altar before the coming of Christ, one would be made to see the sacredness of the altar in such a way that makes one tremble with fear for the merciless judgment that became the lots of people who would want to go into the altar of God with blemish, or questionable character by God’s standard.

The altar then was as sacred and secret as the evil forest of the Yoruba literature. It was not open to all and even those qualified to enter and offer sacrifice to God must be very sure they had no skeleton in their cupboards. The coming and the death of Christ on the cross at Calvary ushered in a new dispensation in the history of altar as a prominent feature of the church.

The altar now could just be seen in the light of the dictionary definition of it as a raised ceremonial religious structure. The altar, from what it is made to look like today could be seen as an avenue for people to showcase their talents in speech making, singing and dancing or even drama presentation.

Pastor Yomi Ojuolape of Springs of Salvation Church said, “the altar was used in offering sacrifices to God in the early history of the Bible. Considering the Bible history, altar could also be built in memory of a particular remarkable event where God’s presence was felt extra-ordinarily. The bottomline is that altar, of God has to do with the setting aside of a place for offering sacrifice to God. Altar, terbanacle or temple at a point in the history of the church was used to offer burnt offerings to God. Animals’ blood was offered to God. The Israelites offered sacrifices to God on the altar to get their sins atoned. God commands the Israelites to offer the blood of the lamb as remittance for their sin. Incense was also burnt on the altar as a sign of the prayer of the people to God.

The altar described above belongs to the church of the old testament. Offering of animal as sacrifice and burning of incense don’t have a place in the church of the new testament. The death of Jesus Christ on the Cross and the shedding of his blood marked the fulfillment of all the offerings needed to atone for the sins of mankind. It is really Jesus’ crucifixion that has the power to cleanse and not the sacrifice of the old testament. An altar, in the new testament is a table of joy, a place of communion. It is a source of unity. It is the centre of our praises and thanksgiving.

"If we see the altar as the center of praises and thanksgiving, then our heart is an altar of God. Thanksgiving, meditation, praises are from the heart. Human heart is an altar. The heart can however be an altar for God or devil."

"Today, anybody that is a child of God can have access to the altar because in the book of Matthew, we are made to know that the death of Jesus Christ torn the curtain of the temple. There is no more veil covering any part of the altar. We however need to know that we should not constitute pollution to the altar in our character or way of life."

There were so many altars raised to God in the bible to worship God. There was the Golden altar of incense built in the tabernacle in the wilderness during the Mount Sinai experience of the children of Israel.

According to the book, House of Gold by J. Round, the golden altar of incense was not in the court but the holy place. The sacrifices brought there did not consist of animals but sweet-smelling incense. The incense was burnt in the golden censer on the altar. The prayers and worship of the believers rise up as incense and are pleasing to God.

Also, there was also the brazen altar where daily evening burnt offering occur. Here, the sacrifices were brought for the atonement of sins. Through them, sinful people found forgiveness. The golden altar of incense was not used to offer animal for sacrifices as was the great brazen altar. Only sweet-smelling incense could be burnt there. The pleasant odour of the incense rose up to God. What this symbolises becomes clear when we read Psalm 141:2 and Revelation 3.

Talking more on the incense, it speaks of the prayers of the saints (the believers) but it also signifies thanksgiving, praise and worship of the people of God as we can see in Hebrews 13: 15... By Him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. It all ascends to God, but it is brought upon the altar. The altar as it were, brings it to God.

However, today under the dispensation of God, Jesus takes the place of the altar, He brings our prayers and thanksgiving to God. The question is, could they be accepted to God if they came directly from us? No, Christ purifies and sanctified them. I Peter 2: 5-9, says: “Ye also as living stones are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ...

Based on this fact, every believer may approach God as a priest but besides this, all the children of God together, as a holy priesthood, can offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

The issue of raising a family altar could be traced to the great command the Lord gave to Israel in Deut 6 verses 4-7 ... “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. And thou shall love thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart and thou shall teach them diligently unto thy children and shall talk of them when thou sittest in thine house and when thou walkest by the way and when thou liest down and when thou riseth up.”

The purpose of the family altar is to worship God together and learn more of His ways. Also, the children should learn to worship God in their early years that they might have respect for God in the later years.

Going by Col 3:16 that says, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord,” the home is a good place to practise these. The home makes a good bible school where the children can be grounded as they face the modern society. The family altar in a home also helps praying over family problems and needs, burdens children may have to pray and intercede for others such as the pastor, missionaries, sick folks, love ones, neighbours and fellow believers in need.

In his own submission, Pastor Amos Faturoti of the Christ Herald Evengelical Ministries said.” In the old testament there were two types of altar, altar of baal and altar of the living God. While the baal’s altar is specifically for the devil. The altar of the living God was the platform for offering clean and holy sacrifice to God. Noah, Abraham and others made altar and affered sacrifice to the living God.

“Talking about altar after the coming of Christ as could be found in the book of Matthew and Colosians, Jesus has taken the altar away from the level of offering animals and other physical objects as sacrifices. According to Malachi I vs 6, we see that an altar is set aside as a special place to honour God. Colosians 1:17-18 also bears withness to the fact that God deserves a special place in the church (the highest honoured place).

“Those days, some people were prevented from having contact with the altar but Jesus Christ came and died for everybody so, today, the altar is for all who are pure in heart. “On the issue of family altar, I see it as ignorance on the part of some people that prefer to set a place aside as altar in their home. The bible book of 2nd Timothy 3 vs 7 answers that well. People don’t have adequate knowledge. Every part of the house of a Christian should be made the abode of God if God must be by our side in every situation and everywhere.

There is no place where family altar is specifically referred to in the bible. The altar of God in Celestial Church of Christ is one aspect of the church that we do not toy with said Superior Evangelist R. O. Akolade.

He said that those who see the church as being earthen because of the arrangement of the altar with a candle stand have limited knowledge about God and what He is capable of doing. He made reference to Hebrew 9 : 2, Rev. 1 : 12 and Revelations 4 : 5 adding that John in the book of Revelation did not mince words that he was given the revelation in order to show God’s chosen people what must happen very soon.

According to one of the church’s pamphlets made available to Tribune Church, “Christ made these things known to John by sending his angel to him and John had told all that he had seen” (sic) “Happy are those who obey what is written in this book.”

Evangelist Akolade explained that an altar of God is a sacred place where any profane thing must not go into. That, he said explains why women are never allowed in Celestial Church to go near the altar no matter the circumstance.