The notion that the church is an “extension” of the incarnation has been a source of controversy. For many, especially Protestant theologians, the notion seems to blur the necessary distinction between Head and body, Husband and bride, Lord and servants. If the church is an extension of the incarnation, the church may become as divine, inviolable, infallible as Jesus is.
When we take John’s gospel and Revelation together, we have a way of thinking about the issue that may avoid these problems. John famously describes the incarnation as a “tabernacling” (John 1:14): The word became flesh and tabernacled among us (ho logos sarx egeneto kai eskenosen en hemin). It’s the beginning of John’s temple Christology, which runs through his entire gospel.
But the tabernacling analogy isn’t just a way of describing the church. In Revelation, it becomes a way of describing God’s relation to the church. One of the blessings promised those who come through tribulation and stand before God’s throne is this: “He who sits on the throne shall tabernacle over them” (Revelation 7:15; Greek, ho kathemenos epi tou thronou skenosei ep’ autous). Faithful witnesses are not the incarnation of the word; but faithful witnesses do come under the same covering. We might put it this way: the Word and the saints are brought under the same covering, into the same tent, which the Enthroned One provides.
Similar language is used in Revelation 21:3, where the verb skenoo describes the descent of the bride from heaven, which completes God’s purpose of setting up His tabernacle (skene) among men. Here the bride herself seems to make an incarnational movement, descending from heaven like the Word to pitch a tent, God’s tent, on earth. We might connect this back to Revelation 7 and John 1: The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us; faithful witnesses are invited into the tent with the Word; and then that tabernacle, in which Word and witnesses dwell together, descends to earth as a bride.
These descriptions are often taken as eschatological visions of the church of the end. Even if that is so, we might still be able to apply them to the church in history, which, if not a tabernacle of God among men, is a tabernacle-in-preparation.
Dear Reader,
Can I be direct with you?
War abroad. Socialists on the rise. AI upending human life. Endless uproar online. The modern attention economy doesn’t want readers — it wants users enslaved to the tyranny of the present.
First Things is the antidote: literary excellence, timeless truths, and a fixed point of reference in a culture that has lost its bearings.
But we can’t do it without readers like you.
Our goal: Raise $150,000 by November 1 to sustain First Things in the year ahead.
Your gift anchors readers in the permanent things.
Make your Fall Campaign gift now using the button below.
If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Giovanni Del Piero, Director of the Editor’s Circle, at gdelpiero@firstthings.com or 212-627-1985.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
The Church in the Age of Therapy
In 1966, Philip Rieff wrote in The Triumph of the Therapeutic that “Religious man was born to…
Canada’s Deadliest Blind Spot
On September 20, the Daily Mail ran a story with the provocative headline, “Our 83-year-old Christian grandmother…
The Faithful Joy of Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen
Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen seem to have had little in common. She favored rhinestones; he wore…
