THE OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD
The birth of Christianity came about 2016 years ago. The coming of Jesus Christ into this world marks the beginning of this religion and from then onwards has help inspire and heal many through prayers and love. Though there have been denominations and branching out into other Christian groups, the main person that we all worship is Jesus Christ. Many churches back in the olden days stuck to the notion that many ornaments and decorations would show how much we appreciate and adore Him. By putting a lot of thought and effort into carving and creating all this ornaments, they perceived that God would be happy.
As we can see from churches in the Gothic era between the 12th and 16th century, they consist of architectural elements such as pointed arches, ribbed vaults and flying buttresses. Many cathedrals, abbeys and churches across Europe used this style. This style has also been implemented in other buildings such as castles, palaces, town halls and universities. Though mostly used for churches, it has expressed its characteristics and power through the experience and feeling one would get just by entering the building.
In today’s age where modernization has taken place, many new buildings are beginning to use the modernism architecture style. As a Christian, I have been to a few churches around Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore. Every church with its own character and design. Some churches at Johor Bahru are rather old such as the Church of the Immaculate Conception which was built in 1883. It was built when the bridge connecting Singapore and Malaysia was just a wooden bridge.
To me a religious building should be a very minimalist and simple place. It must be welcoming and at the same time magnificent in its own way. I don’t think that churches now would need a lot of ornaments and decoration. As we progress through the centuries, the importance of the structure of the church decrease while the content within the church building increased. This can be clearly seen in the works of Tadao Ando with his design of Church of the Lights. The focus currently is on the Word of God, the rituals as well as the Bible. Anything else would be deemed materialistic. Churches now tend to lean towards the bare minimum – enough to cope for its followers as well as activities such as Sunday classes, choir practices, funerals and others.
From what I understand, the theory behind all this is that God does not look at the earthly materials. He does now care how much money we have or how nice we build a church or even our statuses. To Him everyone is the same on an equal level. What is important to Him is genuine prayer from the heart as well as performing acts of kindness which comes with Love. Nothing else can buy a place in heaven. Even all the richest will be left back on earth during Judgement day. As the book of Genesis states that, “By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return.". This has come to show that our souls are only here in a body made from dust and will perish.
I believe that churches should be a place that transcends time and space. A place where followers can worship God and makes them feel as though God is close and near. A church that creates the effect of the omnipresence of God such as the Church of the Light. It totally breaks away from the notions of the past and moves on with the current understanding on the topic of religion where what we do on in inner is more important than the outer. This church is a good example that God’s presence can be anywhere in this universe. Believe it or not, he is also in your toilet ;)
