How does the church structure relate to the heavenly life?

The church building reveals the character of the heavenly assembly. Origen comments on the words of David, “When I remember these things, I pour out my soul: for I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the House of God” (Ps. 42:4) by saying, “What then is that ‘place of the wonderful tabernacle’ from which one enters ‘the house of God,’ because of whose memory his soul has been poured out in him and, as it were, has been dissipated in a kind of intolerable desire. Are we really to believe that the prophet, desiring that tabernacle

1184 J. Rykwert, Church Building, Faith and Fact Books (New York: Hawthorn Books, 1966): p. 9.

which consisted of hides and curtains and goat-hair coverings and other common materials was poured out in soul and failed in his whole mind? It is evident that the prophet felt in a far different sense about this tabernacle … Leave earth behind and follow the understanding of the prophets and apostles and — what is greater than all — the word of Christ, with your whole mind and understanding and ascend to heaven and there seek the magnificence of the eternal tabernacle whose form is imperfectly represented on earth by Moses.”¹¹⁸⁵

The church historian Eusebius says that the visible church is built according to the image of the invisible One — it is heaven on earth. Also Origen says, “Church is the form of that kingdom which is to come.”¹¹⁸⁶ St. John Chrysostom says, “We have to depart from this holy place possessing what is befitting of a holy place, as if descending from heaven itself … Show the people outside that you were in the company of the Seraphim, counted with the heavenly creatures and the angelic chorus, speaking to God and in the presence of Christ.”¹¹⁸⁷