Most modern churches don’t have an altar. Well you may be thinking, what do we need an altar for? We haven’t a need for one. We’re not in Old Treatment times. Christ was the ultimate sacrifice. If that’s what you believe, you’re right, theologically speaking. However, conceptually speaking, the altar isn’t for God, it’s for us.
Let’s look at what the altar represents. In the Old Treatment one brought a sacrifice to atone for their sin. Today we don’t bring physical things to the altar, but we bring other things. Things in our lives that we may be struggling with. It could be a habitual sin we can’t seem to get victory over. It could be a burden that’s been weighing us down. It could be a situation that we need direction on.
As one writer puts it, “an altar is a place of sacrifice and a power point to draw spiritual and supernatural strength. Altars are places of separation where we separate ourselves to God…”
It’s not a one and done thing. Because we all struggle with human nature there are times we need to spend time around the altar and allow the Holy Spirit to minister to us. You’ve heard the saying, “lay it on the altar “
I remember, as a teenager in the 70s that the altar was a place that I could feel the power and presence of God. Although I would often backslide, allow my youthful lusts to get the better of me, I knew that I could go to the altar and make things right with the Lord. And no matter what I did I could not deny the reality of the power of God.
At my home church in Western PA, the pastor would often invite everyone to the altar after the sermon was concluded. He say something like, “I know that some of you have to go. That’s okay, but please leave quietly as not to disturb the ones that chose to terry at the altar. Then the power of God showed up. We’d sing songs like, “have thy own way Lord”, “Fill my cup Lord”, “I surrender all.”
People got healed. Lives were rededicated to the Lord. People got baptized with the power of the Holy Spirit. They spoke in tongues. There was prophecy, tongues and the interpretation of tongues. Some got sleighed in the Holy Spirit. Many got delivered of various addictions. All because we allowed God the time to move. We came to the altar.
Today, we’re in such a hurry to leave church. We’re fine with singing a few worship songs and hearing a positive sermon. We did our religious duty. We gave God an hour and a half of our time. Then we wonder why we keep falling into sin. We wonder why we allow life to really “rock our boat.” We wonder why we just can’t seem to break that bad habit. We wonder why we can’t seem to live in victory. Why we’re not growing in our faith. Why we don’t feel close to the Lord.
Between not spending time at the altar and not having a personal daily devotional time, or a very brief one, many walk around in defeat. We even wonder why we can’t seem to hear God. The disciples waited 50 days for the Promise of the Father; the Holy Spirit. But we find it unreasonable to wait 50 minutes after church to allow that Promise to manifest Himself!
No, we don’t have to have a physical altar in the church today, although I don’t think it’s a bad idea, but we do need to implement what the altar represents.
Is it missing in your church?