Jesus said that the gates of hell would not prevail against the Church. Most of the Postmillennial, Kingdom-advancing persuasion like to point out, and often, that gates are not an offensive weapon. Jesus is not promising that we will withstand the attacks of the Devil and his minions. He's saying we are on the offense, and hell has no defense against us.
Well and good. But once we examine what, exactly, is being said here, we really begin to see the awesome commission given to the Church and the might which she wields in her Lord.
The Lord is not referring to the place of eternal torment of the damned. He's also not referring to some contrived idea of a place where Satan sits around running his show. He's referring to Hades, the place of the dead, Sheol of the Old Testament. And He is saying that the Church is going to bust down its gates and grab people out of it. And not just in a soul-saving evangelistic way. I know people who have seen resurrections.
In subsequent posts, I'm going to look at this as it relates to our spiritual warfare in the Heavens as we remake them and the Earth under God. See, He makes all things new.
3 comments:
While surely not ruling out your interpretation, have you heard the idea the "gates of hell" is actually a cave or pit geological landmark in ancient Israel?
I'll try to look up where I heard that.
Really? You know people who have seen resurrections? Or was it that they really saw resuscitations?
Dan, they saw obviously dead people get up after praying for them. I don't care what we call it.
Chad, that works for me, too. No place is outside of the Church's reach either!
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