We often have wondered about it, and perhaps received our answer a few weeks back, upon reading a book called Bloodline Deliverance.
The issue?
What Jesus meant in Matthew 16:18 when He proclaimed, “I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.”
What was meant by the “gates of Hades [or hell]”? How could “gates” attack us?
The explanation from Mike and Andrea Brewer, authors of the aforementioned book, is that when it comes to evil, Jesus is telling us that we have the power; that we are on the offensive; that we are tasked with busting down and defeating those “gates.”
Most interpret “Hades” as meaning the place of the dead and sin or darkness. In short, evil.
“Archaeological evidence supports that Jesus was speaking near a massive rock face with a cave the pagans called ‘the Gates of Hades,” notes a scholar. “It was a shrine to Pan, the Greek god of nature and fertility, where sacrifices were thrown into a deep chasm thought to reach the underworld. So Jesus’ words—’upon this rock I will build my Church’ — may have been delivered while standing before that rock and cave, turning a pagan image of death and fear into a declaration of victory and life.”
In the ancient world, “gates” symbolized power, authority, and defense. City gates were where leaders sat to make judgments, where armies entered or were held back, and where a city’s strength was tested. So “the gates of hell (Hades)” doesn’t mean literal doors in the underworld but a poetic image representing the power of death, or the forces of evil, persecution, and destruction.
Evil and demonic forces will not succeed in destroying the community of believers.
As the authors explain, “Another theological key to further understand what Jesus said in this declaration is to recognize that it is the gates of Hades that will not prevail. Gates are not offensive weapons but are defensive structures.
“In ancient Israel, gates served as the single most important element of defense against attacking enemy forces as they were located within the exterior walls of the city, granting or closing access. The prophet Jeremiah described a terrifying reality of a city ‘that has no gates or bars.’ Isaiah further adds that a city is strong only when it is able to ‘turn back the battle at the gate.’
“In this context, then, the gates of the underworld are no match for the advancing Kingdom of God through the declaration of war from Jesus. Their gates will ultimately fail.”
Hades was an ancient demon-god and in this cosmological worldview, the Kingdom of God is the aggressor.
It’s worth repeating. For it drastically shifts the understanding, from anxiously (and often timidly) awaiting the next demonic attack from the enemy in a purely defensive posture. This is instead seeing the Church now on the front lines, launching an assault by the words of Jesus against every evil deity and inimical god, that such “gods” not prevail.
“Every demonic deity and hostile god is now under attack and will not prevail,” they write. “Every realm in the ancient cosmological structure is now involved and actively engaged in this battle.”
That means Zeus and Apollo and Jupiter and Neptune but also New Age and witchcraft and yoga, astrology, and Tarot cards.
In Athens is Mars Hill [below] at the foot of the Acropolis. It is a metaphor for our time.
It was there—at the “gate”—that Saint Paul first preached the real God.
It is there, too, that you find: rock.
[resource: Bloodline Deliverance]