Walt,

             You had written:

“The "gates of hell"  could be our own government in its continuing efforts to prevail against the Church!”

 

I write this, not to attempt to contradict you or to argue with you, but to encourage you.

Jesus said:

 

Matthew 16:18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

 

All my life, before I had been saved, and even after, I had considered that this line of scripture was talking about the defense of the church.

That it was a promise of defensive protection from the assaulting gates of hell.

Most everyone that I knew thought this same way.

 

However, it really looks like it is a promise of an offensive assault, by the church, against the gates of hell.

First off, a gate has never been an offensive weapon, ever.

Gates do not attack, gates are purely defensive, to protect against an assault.

The gates of hell are there to try and protect the kingdom of darkness from an assault by the church.

We are to go on the offensive and take the gospel everywhere.

And try as they might, those gates of hell will not prevail against “it”, the church that is charging against them, to bring the gospel to those in darkness.

We are not to bunker down in a fort, but to go out, everywhere with the gospel, and the very gates of hell cannot stop us.

 

There is a picture of this with three of David’s mighty men:

 

II Samuel 23:13 And three of the thirty chief went down, and came to David in the harvest time unto the cave of Adullam: and the troop of the Philistines pitched in the valley of Rephaim.

14 And David was then in an hold, and the garrison of the Philistines was then in Beth-lehem.

15 And David longed, and said, Oh that one would give me drink of the water of the well of Beth-lehem, which is by the gate!

16 And the three mighty men brake through the host of the Philistines, and drew water out of the well of Beth-lehem, that was by the gate, and took it, and brought it to David: nevertheless he would not drink thereof, but poured it out unto the LORD.

17 And he said, Be it far from me, O LORD, that I should do this: is not this the blood of the men that went in jeopardy of their lives? therefore he would not drink it. These things did these three mighty men.

 

The well would have most likely been on the inside of the gate, from a purely strategic point of view, to protect it from their enemies.

These three men went by themselves against an entire garrison, of Philistines.

As they came towards the garrison, they may have only originally answered the men with a small number of soldiers.

However, as they saw that these three men were able to kill everyone that came against them, they no doubt sent larger numbers against them.

Yet they kept advancing towards the gate.

As they fought their way to gate, the entire garrison must have been alerted to the threat.

They fought their way through the gate, into the garrison, and right up to the well.

One man was needed to fetch the water, leaving only two to fight.

By then, every Philistine in the garrison must have gathered around these men in order to try and kill them.

Once the man had the water, they had to fight their way back to the gate, with that one man still carrying the water, not using both hands to fight.

So like this, they had to fight their way back to the gate to get out.

They fought all the way to the gate, and back out again.

How far the Philistines kept pursuing them, after they got back out of the gate, is not sure.

However, the Philistines had been severely humiliated, by only three men against their entire garrison.

As a matter of pride and anger, they would have kept fighting.

Also, they wouldn’t have wanted these men to live to tell about how only three men did all that.

So, they must have kept fighting the three men for a long way.

Yet, the three men got back safely to David.

 

They did it for David their king.

We do the same for Jesus, our King.

We are to take the gospel like that.

We are to boldly go even through the gates of hell themselves, to reach the lost in the kingdom of darkness.

Then, no matter how much the enemy fights to stop the gospel, we have a promise that the gates of hell will not prevail.

 

So, Walt, be encouraged, yea, be very courageous!

Take the sword of the Spirit, and go with the gospel, and even those gates of hell will not prevail.

You are a good soldier for a great King!

One other line to think about:

 

II Corinthians 10:4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)

 

Be strong in the LORD, my brother!

Take the gospel to the very gates of hell themselves, they won’t prevail.

 

                          Gino