The Gates of Hell

There is a comic story in the book of Judges that makes me smile. Here is Samson, known for impulsiveness and impetuousness, and, when God’s Spirit enables him, is able to accomplish feats of great strength. He’s being watched in this city, and in defiance of his enemies, “at midnight he arose and took hold of the doors of the gate of the city and the two posts, and pulled them up, bar and all, and put them on his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that is in front of Hebron” (Judges 16:3). The gates spoke of his enemy’s defense. Samson, the lone man, made a mockery of the wicked city’s strength.

Gates are not offensive weapons, but defensive. You don’t gore the enemy with your gates. Rather, you rely on your gates to keep the enemy out. So when Peter makes his confession of faith about Jesus’s true identity, Jesus says, “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18)

What does it mean that the gates of hell shall not prevail? Does it mean that the gates of hell won’t be used as a club to bludgeon Christians over the head? No, because gates are for defensive purposes. The gates of hell are intended to quell the advance of Christ’s Church against the forces of hell. That is, Christians are to be the grace-filled aggressors against sin and Satan’s hegemony. We are to be advancing, as in “Onward, Christian Soldiers!” 

But the posture of the Church today seems to be much more defensive than offensive. “Lord, please protect us from the world.” And there is a point to this. The helmet of salvation and breastplate of righteousness are prescribed for our defense. We are indeed called to be watchful, and to be wary. But offensively, we are to batter the gates of hell with our prayers, advancing with the sword of the Spirit, mobilized with those “Gospel shoes” that we wear. 

It seems, then, that the Church’s lack of offense should be regarded as offensive. It should be offensive to us, in that we are not being obedient to God’s commands; and offensive to God, because we are not fulfilling the Church’s calling, for which Christ died. 

Don’t be confused. This is not a call for Christian violence (an oxymoron, if there ever was one). But there is victory in faith, and strongholds are destroyed by truth, and with demonstrations of God’s amazing grace there is wonder and the winning of souls from the powers of darkness to the kingdom of light. Let’s emerge from our “holy huddles” to be “My witnesses.”