And The Gates Of Hell Shall Not Prevail Against It. 
Have we misunderstood it?
I certainly can't speak for all of you, but as for me, I always took The Holy Gospel According to St. Matthew 16:18 to mean that Satan will never overcome Holy Mother Church. The Church will always be within those gates safe and sound... warm and cozy, no matter how badly Satan and his minions batter against said gates, right? Hmmm... maybe not.
I heard this the other day and it really got me to thinking...
Gates are to keep something out, right? Of course. Let's take the gate to my backyard, for instance.
The entire purpose for that gate to to even exist is to keep stray dogs, winos, in-laws, people I owe money, etc... out. Right? Of course. My backyard gate prevails against those nasty stray dogs, winos, in-laws, people I owe money, etc. If a gate prevails, it's done it's job. It's kept something out, the nasty stuff hasn't overcome it. Right? Of course.
Now what could the Gates of Hell be prevailing against? As Jesus tells St. Peter, the gates of hell shall not prevail against (keep out) The Church that Christ Himself gave to us. Christ will be the victor. Satan will be crushed. The Gates of Hell will be kicked in and hell will be overrun and destroyed by Holy Mother The Church. And without a doubt... a platooon of Marines with lead the way.
Of course Jesus loves Marines... forget about being on the defensive, ATTACK!
Have we misunderstood it?
I certainly can't speak for all of you, but as for me, I always took The Holy Gospel According to St. Matthew 16:18 to mean that Satan will never overcome Holy Mother Church. The Church will always be within those gates safe and sound... warm and cozy, no matter how badly Satan and his minions batter against said gates, right? Hmmm... maybe not.
I heard this the other day and it really got me to thinking...
Gates are to keep something out, right? Of course. Let's take the gate to my backyard, for instance.
The entire purpose for that gate to to even exist is to keep stray dogs, winos, in-laws, people I owe money, etc... out. Right? Of course. My backyard gate prevails against those nasty stray dogs, winos, in-laws, people I owe money, etc. If a gate prevails, it's done it's job. It's kept something out, the nasty stuff hasn't overcome it. Right? Of course.
Now what could the Gates of Hell be prevailing against? As Jesus tells St. Peter, the gates of hell shall not prevail against (keep out) The Church that Christ Himself gave to us. Christ will be the victor. Satan will be crushed. The Gates of Hell will be kicked in and hell will be overrun and destroyed by Holy Mother The Church. And without a doubt... a platooon of Marines with lead the way.
Of course Jesus loves Marines... forget about being on the defensive, ATTACK!
posted by Kevin Whiteman at
8:38 PM
6 Comments:
Since, I believe I am the one responsible for this post let's engage in a friendly discussion.
I certainly can't speak for all of you, but as for me, I always took The Holy Gospel According to St. Matthew 16:18 to mean that Satan will never overcome Holy Mother Church.
This is true - but I'm not sure you can get that from the passage in the spotlight.
The Church will always be within those gates safe and sound... warm and cozy, no matter how badly Satan and his minions batter against said gates,
Who's gates? Now you are talking about the Church's gates keeping out Satan and his minions ... which is it? Gates of Hell or Gates of the Church?
In any case, the literal translation of the passage is as follows:
He saith to them, `And ye -- who do ye say me to be?'
and Simon Peter answering said, `Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.'
And Jesus answering said to him, `Happy art thou, Simon Bar-Jona, because flesh and blood did not reveal [it] to thee, but my Father who is in the heavens.
`And I also say to thee, that thou art a rock, and upon this rock I will build my assembly, and gates of Hades shall not prevail against it;
and I will give to thee the keys of the reign of the heavens, and whatever thou mayest bind upon the earth shall be having been bound in the heavens, and whatever thou mayest loose upon the earth shall be having been loosed in the heavens.'
So the hell referred to is NOT gehenna (lake of fire). I encourage anyone else to look it up in the original - it's hades that is used. And since it is hades used, any reference to Satan is therefore injected into the text. The original languages are much more precise than english. we need to keep that precision when reading the text - seems prudent enough.
Now what could the Gates of Hell be prevailing against? As Jesus tells St. Peter, the gates of hell shall not prevail against (keep out) The Church that Christ Himself gave to us.
Did Christ give the Church to us? or did God give the Church to Christ who loved it and gave Himself for it? The account from the OT of Abraham sending his servant to fetch a bride for Isaac gives this pisture real depth.
Christ will be the victor.
Amen! He has said that he has already overcome!
Satan will be crushed. The Gates of Hell will be kicked in and hell will be overrun and destroyed by Holy Mother The Church.
Wow! I'm not sure where you got this. Reading Revelation doesn't say anything about the bride of Christ being anything other that the glorious Church married to her Lord. I had no idea she was a butt-kicking GI Jane! ;)
Thomas,
Thank you for your thoughts. In all honesty, I have no desire to be engaged in a long, drawn out cyber discussion.
By the way, you give yourself too much credit. You aren't the one responsible for this post. As I said on the post, this was something I heard in discussion the other day.
But nonetheless, thank you for your thoughts and opinions.
Merry Christmas to you and yours
Why no discussion? Why post at all then?
Have a Merry Christmas too!
Why no discussion? Why post at all then?
Let me be as polite as possible... Because I said so, that's why.
You see, this is MY blog. If I choose to get into a cyber-discussion, then I shall. If I choose not to get into a cyber- discussion, then I'll simply post I have no desire to be engaged in a long, drawn out cyber discussion (hey, didn't I already do that?) and leave it at that.
Hopefully, the other individual(s) will give me the same consideration I have him/them.
Reference the ending of your "gates of hell" remarks, you're probably right. Why? Only God looks down on a Marine, everyone else looks up.
LOL Anon!!! Well said.
May God bless you and yours this Christmas Season
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