We often have wondered about it and perhaps received our answer to it a few weeks back, upon reading a book called Bloodline Deliverance.
The issue?
That’s what Jesus said in Matthew 16:18: “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 Bewer, authors of aforementioned book, is that 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.”
“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,” they point out.
“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.
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, but instead seeing the Church now on the front lines, launching an assault by the words of Jesus against every demonic deity and hostile god, that such “deities” not prevail.
“Every demonic deity and hostile god is now under attack and will not repavil,” 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 at the foot of the Acropolis.
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]