I AM STILL LEARNING

Hugo McCord

Of everlasting importance are Jesus’ words, “I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). Those are the words from my mother’s Bible, the King James Version. Later I learned that Jesus did not use the word “hell” (geenna), but “Hades” (haides, “from a privative and idein, not to be seen, Thayer).

Then later I learned that the word “church” (Gr., kyriake [doma]), meaning “an edifice consecrated for public worship” (Webster), Jesus did not use. Jesus used the word ekklesia (from ek, out, and kaleo, call, and so a called-out people). Accordingly, my NT translation records Jesus as saying, “I will build my called-out people, and the gates of Hades shall not overpower them.”

Now I have looked at the Webster’s second meaning of “church” as “the collective body of Christians,” which definition is exactly Jesus’” called-out” people. Accordingly, I have sent to Freed-Hardeman University for the 4th edition these words: “I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not overpower it.”

However, I am still learning, and I appreciate Charlie F. Arnett (Murray, Ky.) showing me that the “it” does not refer to the permanent existence of the church, but the fact that the gates of Hades could not prevent the establishing of the church. I hope it is not too late for a more correct translation to be used: “I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.”

It is true that the church is permanent and indestructible “according to the eternal purpose” of God in Christ which causes God to receive all of the “glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end” (Ephesians 3:10-11, 21). But I believe in Matthew 16:18 Jesus was saying that the gates of Hades would be unable to prevent his building, his establishing, the church.

However, before Jesus could build his church, a called-out people destined for “heaven” (1 Peter 1:4), an “uncountable multitude” (Revelation 7:9) of “all them that obey him” (Hebrews 5:9), death had to be conquered. Mankind had been given, from Adam’s day, such a “dominion” (Genesis 1:26-28; Psalm 8:6) over this earth that it could be written that God “left nothing not subject to” mankind (Hebrews 2:8). But “yet now we do not see everything subject to” mankind (Hebrews 2:8). Death remained to be subjugated. “Sin” had brought “death,” a penalty handed down even to “those who had not sinned in a way that is similar to Adam’s transgression” (Romans 5:12, 14). Before Christ conquered death, all mankind “through fear of death had always lived in bondage” (Hebrews 5:15). Every grave is a testimony that “the devil” has had “the power of death” (Hebrews 2:14).

What did Jesus mean by saying that “the gates of Hades” would not prevent his building his church? Literally, the not to be seen (Thayer) definition of Hades often was the grave. Job described it as “rest in the dust” (Job 17:13 in the Greek translation abbreviated as LXX), and as “the pit” (Job 17:16, KJV). David did not speak of the grave as a “bed in hell” (Psalm 139:8, KJV), but as a “bed in Hades” (Psalm 138:8, LXX). What David called “the grave” (Psalm 6:5, KJV) is called “Hades” (Psalm 6:6, LXX). What Solomon called “the grave” (Ecclesiastes 9:10, KJV) is “Hades” in the Greek translation.

But the Hades of Jesus’ words was a non-physical picture of the devil’s using his “power of death” (Hebrews 2:14) to keep Jesus’ body in the grave to prevent his rising from the grave and building his church. Jesus used a phrase first spoken in Isaiah 38:10, but he did not use the Hebrew of Isaiah 38:10, sha`arey she’ol, translated the “gates of the grave” (KJV). Jesus used the Greek translation “the gates of Hades.” The picture is of an enclosed real estate compound, a cemetery, with a grave called “Hades.” The cemetery has “gates” with locks requiring “keys,” of which Jesus later spoke (Revelation 1:18).

How could the devil prevent Jesus building his church? Simply by keeping him dead in a locked cemetery with the “gate-keepers of Hades” (puloroi de haidou, Job 38:17, LXX) standing guard. But, thank God, at the appointed time, God put life in Jesus dead body (Acts 2:24), and presented to him “the keys of death and Hades” (Revelation 1:18). Also the Father gave him “all authority in heaven and on the earth” (Matthew 28:18) and he proceeded to build his church, a spiritual house of “living stones” (1 Peter 2:5).

4-6-00