We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded solely by your direct support. Please consider supporting this project.
Storming the Gates of Hell
Jesus said:
“I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.” (Mt 16:18)
To understand Jesus’ teaching here, there are a few things you should know. First, “Hades” was the standard term for the underworld, which means that Jesus was probably referring to the whole of the Satanic kingdom. Second, the phrase “gates of Hades” is a metaphorical reference to the fortified walls of the Satanic forces. They are closed to keep opposing forces out, and therefore they need to be overcome. Third, Jesus says that these gates will not be able to “prevail against” the church. Jesus is here portraying the church as being on the offensive and Satan’s kingdom as being on the defensive.
Jesus is saying that he is going to build his church on the rock of his divinity—the confession that he is the “Son of the living God”—and the way this church is going to be built will be by bashing down the gates of Satan’s fortress. In other words, the church is to be involved in the very same warfare work that Jesus himself was involved in throughout his ministry. Ministering in his authority and his accomplished victory on the cross, the church is to storm the fortress of Hades and bash down its gates.
Jesus follows this by saying “I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven” so that what the church binds and looses on earth will be bound and loosed in heaven. Whatever the church locks up when it bashes down the gates of Hades will be locked up in heaven, and whatever it unlocks and sets free will be set free in heaven. I can only read this as referring to the church’s authority to bind up demonic forces and to set people free.
This teaching provides a blueprint of what the body of Christ is to be about. It is to be about what Jesus was about: aggressively breaking down Satanic fortresses wherever we find them. In people’s lives, in families, in churches and in society at large, the church is to expand the rule of God on the authority of Christ by binding evil and setting people free. In a word, our charter is to live out a theology of revolt, throwing all we are and all we have into guerrilla warfare against the occupying army, the tyrannizing powers of darkness.
—Adapted from God at War, pages 216-217
Photo credit: zoomion via Visual hunt / CC BY-NC-SA
Category: General
Tags: Christian Living, Church, Satan, Spiritual Warfare, Warfare Worldview
Related Reading
Podcast: Overflow Episode 5 — Christ-Centered Leadership, Church Growth, and Training in Wisdom
Dan Kent and Matt Tebbe (of Gravity Leadership) talk about Christ-centered leadership, church growth, and how to grow in wisdom. He can learn more about Gravity Leadership on their website or on their twitter portal. http://traffic.libsyn.com/askgregboyd/Episode_0456.mp3
Greg Shares His Journey and Some Challenges Ahead
http://youtu.be/YdZKPG20kmQ Last September, Greg was asked to give the opening address at the Missio Alliance event Church & Post-Christian Culture: Christian Witness in the Way of Jesus. You can find more information here. Special thanks to our very own Stephen Konsor for his role in filming and editing this and other sessions. Enjoy!
Do You Know of Patients Who Have Benefitted from a Spiritual Warfare Worldview? (podcast)
Greg and Dan talk about spiritual warfare and mental illness. Episode 591 http://traffic.libsyn.com/askgregboyd/Episode_0591.mp3
Did God Cause the Polar Vortex?
When is this polar vortex thing going to end? It’s March, and even in Minnesota we expect to see temperatures warmer than this. With all of the sleet and cold in the south, it seems like schools are closing more than they are open. While this is not a catastrophic event like a hurricane, tsunami,…
Tips on what NOT to say to someone struggling with their faith
Neal Fowler via Compfight Here’s a post from a year ago from Elizabeth Esther on What NOT to say to someone struggling with their faith. Historically, the church has been a very unsafe place for people expressing doubts or struggles. Let’s be safer than this. From the blog post: “Don’t throw the baby out with…
Christus Victor Atonement and Girard’s Scapegoat Theory
Many of the major criticisms of Crucifixion of the Warrior God that have been raised since it was published four weeks ago have come from folks who advocate Rene Girard’s understanding of the atonement. A major place where these matters are being discussed is here, and you are free to join. Now, I have to…