ALTARS OF SIN
Most religions, past and present, employ altars as especially holy places where religious sacrifices and offerings are made by religious leaders in front of their congregations. Altars are mentioned so often in the Bible, and are such common and accepted features of all religions, that no one doubts their significance and appropriateness for religious activity.

Given the ubiquitous presence and acceptance of altars, however, we should not be surprised to learn that God is adamantly opposed to them. We see God’s attitudes about altars and high places in many scriptures where he instructs Israel to tear them down and utterly destroy altars, high places and sacred pillars of surrounding nations. And we see obedience to these commands in stories of Israel actually tearing down altars.

STUDY TIP: Read more about altars in Tabernacles, Temples, Altars, High Places and Pilgrimages.

The reason God had has such strong feelings about altars is that they are places where religion is practiced. And anyone, including people with evil, impure hearts, can perform a religious activity at an altar. People who watch these religious activities might be fooled about the heart status of the one who performs at an altar, but God is not fooled because only he knows the condition of the heart.

Altars are the premier places where holiness and the presence of God was presumed to reside in ancient pagan religions. Even in these modern times they are the focus of attention for worship in all religions — including Judaism and Christianity. And this practice continues to exist despite what the Bible says about where God’s home is, and despite what it says about his people worshiping in spirit and truth.

The truth about physical altars is that God uses the example of physical altars — which people know and understand — to symbolically represent the unknown spiritual truth about the location where true, spiritual worship occurs: In the heart/spirit. We see this truth represented in John 4:19-24 which represents the ideal place for New Covenant disciples to worship. This is why God places so much value on what is in a man’s heart. Because the heart is God’s ideal for the location where worship occurs, worship at any physical location, including physical altars, misses the mark of what God really wants.

Worshiping at altars also violates the condition that worship must be by faith which cannot be seen. And because worshiping at altars is not a matter of faith, such worship is sin. We can bring this thinking to the conclusion that religion is sin by applying the following logic:

If this argument is not convincing, consider the following logic:

The bottom line here is that Old/First Covenant religionists sin when they choose to worship at physical altars in religious buildings. They do not understand spiritual worship which occurs only in the heart of New Covenant disciples. They only understand worship that involves use of their flesh (i.e. physical bodies) to worship at special locations like altars in religious buildings. They do not understand that when God said “make an altar of earth” he meant that the bodies of New Covenant disciples are living tabernacles and altars for making spiritual sacrifices and offerings for worship. With these truths in mind we can begin to understand why God wants physical altars torn down. We can also begin to understand why physical altars are places where people sin.

This might not seem serious to most people, but it is very serious to God because spiritual worship is the standard, or the mark, by which God evaluates righteousness. In other words, people (i.e. New Covenant disciples) who worship in spirit in their hearts/spirits without any outward physical activity (e.g. praying, singing, raising hands, etc.) and without using any religious artifacts (e.g. buildings, altars, incense, etc.) hit the mark of true spiritual worship. And, on the other hand, people (i.e. Old/First Covenant religionists) who insist on worshiping with physical activity in the context of religious places miss the mark (i.e. sin).