I know churches should display a cross, but why?

[spoiltvictorian]

Last night I (Lutheran leaning Catholic) visited a Reformed Baptist church of a friend of mine. After the service I asked him why I could not see a cross anywhere in or on the building. He said:

1. A church is just a utility. Buildings aren’t even necessary.
2. They preach the Word of God so they don’t need a cross.
3. Before the Reformation there were lots of crosses and nobody knew about Christ.

To those I said:

1. We should do more than we need – we should do what’s best.
2. While my friend might not need a cross because he is very pious, it could help others.
3. While pre- (and post-) Reformation Christians were ignorant, crosses reminded even very simple people of their Savior - and that may have been enough to get by.

What should I have said? Everything that came out of my mouth wasn’t up to the standards of my intuition.

 

[Roman_Catholic_1]

Paul preached Christ Crucified.

…but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles… 1 Cor 1:23

This verse may not say, “all churches must have a cross” but to me it does tell me that the fact that Christ suffered and died on a cross was something that Paul and the other Apostles were not bashful about. The incredibly arrogant statement of, “(we) preach the Word of God so (we) don’t need a cross” is something that would not have came out of Paul’s mouth.

1. Before the Reformation there were lots of crosses and nobody knew about Christ.

This is speculation, how does he know? Furthermore this statement is as ridiculous as the previous statement. Nobody knew Christ before the Reformation? 1500 hundred years of Christianity and not one single person knew Christ?

God bless

 

[puzzleannie]

a good Lutheran should above all be conversant with Paul’s writings, without the cross there is no resurrection and without the resurrection we have no faith. If Christ has not been crucified, risen and ascended, then all is vanity and worthless.

 

[Deconi]

Every house of God should bear His Mark, just as every Christian should ‘cross’ themselves to ‘bear’ His mark!

The Living True God is visible in ALL things, just as all that belong to Him should be visible!

The IGNORANCE of the reformers claim that The Church of God was invisible for 1500years until ‘they’ came along, yet, ironically, they prefer to ‘cloak’ Christianity in invisibility.

 

[spoiltvictorian]

I was thinking about the sermon I heard yesterday. I don’t believe the word “cross” was used once except during the reading of I Corinthians. So maybe I should tell him that they aren’t preaching the Cross of Christ and a cross would remind them to do that.

 

[Soutane]

Perhaps if ALL churches had a cross (preferably a crucifix) it would remind us what we have to pick up if we are to follow Him.