Now, a verse that those who believe in a pre-tribulation rapture will sometimes use is Matthew 16-18
to prove their doctrine.
Let me read that for you.
The Bible reads, and I say also unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I
will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
And they point to that and they say, well, the Bible says that the gates of hell shall
not prevail against the church.
And then they say, well, if you look at Revelation chapter 13, the Bible says that the antichrist
will make war with the saints and will overcome them, referring to the fact that he's going
to kill them.
He's going to defeat them physically, obviously not spiritually, but physically he is going
to have them beheaded.
He's going to take over the world.
Christians aren't going to stop him from doing that is what that's referring to.
The same thing is stated in Daniel chapter 7 about the antichrist making war against
the saints and prevailing against them.
And so they say, well, if these saints were the church, you know, then that would be violating
Matthew 16 because the Bible says the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church.
And here we have the antichrist prevailing against or overcoming the saints in this war
where he physically kills them.
Well, there are a few things wrong with that.
First of all, the Bible reads in Matthew 16, if you actually read the context and don't
just take that one verse but read both verses, the Bible says in verse 18, and I say unto
thee that thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell
shall not prevail against it.
And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatsoever thou shalt
bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall
be loosed in heaven.
So in verse number 18, he talks about the gates of hell and then in the next verse,
verse 19, he talks about the keys of the kingdom of heaven.
Well what are gates?
What are the gates of hell?
Obviously a gate is an entrance point, okay?
That's the way that you get in.
And so the gates of hell would be the entrance point to hell.
And what would be the keys of the kingdom of heaven?
Well that's the key to open the door that gets you into heaven, okay?
And so what we're talking about here is the entrance to hell and the entrance to heaven
if you read both verses, verses 18 and 19.
Now what those who believe in a pre-tribulation rapture have mistakenly done is that they've
equated the gates of hell with the antichrist or they've equated the gates of hell with
Satan.
Here's what they need to understand.
God is the one who created hell, not Satan.
In fact, Satan has never even been to hell.
Satan is not down in hell ruling and reigning like Porky Pig in the Looney Tunes where Porky
Pig has the tail and the pitchfork and he's laughing and he's ruling and reigning in hell.
You know Satan has never even been to hell and when Satan does go to hell, he's going
to be tormented there, okay?
And so when the Bible says the gates of hell shall not prevail against it, he's not saying
that the devil's not going to prevail against it.
What he's referring to there is the fact that people will go to heaven, they're not going
to go to hell because the church has a responsibility to get people out of hell and to get them
into heaven.
We as believers and we as a church hold the keys to the kingdom of heaven and that's why
the Bible says, whatsoever we shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever
we shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
You know we have the ability to determine whether people go to heaven or hell because
if we don't give them the gospel, if we don't preach them the gospel, they're going to go
to hell.
And if we go out and bring them the gospel, in many cases they will go to heaven.
But not only that, but the Bible says in Romans chapter 8, because they're saying well you
know these can't be church saints, and of course I don't even believe in the universal
church anyway but this is their argument that when they talk about the church they're talking
about like a universal church of all believers which I don't even believe in, but they're
basically saying that you know the church can't be what he's talking about there when
he says the saints because you know the devil's prevailing against them there and killing
them.
But look what the Bible says in Romans 8 35.
The Bible says, who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long.
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter, nay, in all these things we are more than
conquerors through him that loved us.
So the Bible says there that in tribulation, in peril of the sword, in famine and persecution
and nakedness, and he said we're killed all the day long, but in all these things we're
more than conquerors.
So are the gates of hell prevailing against us?
No.
Just because the Antichrist physically prevails against us and overcomes us with the sword
and cuts off our head, we don't fear them that kill the body.
That doesn't scare us.
That doesn't mean we're not conquerors.
We're more than conquerors in tribulation.
Even when we are killed all day long, the Bible says in all these things we are more
than conquerors.
The gates of hell will not prevail against us because we do not fear them that kill the
body.
We fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell and thanks be to God
we will never see hell because we've believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, we've been redeemed,
we've been saved, we've been delivered from that.
And so this idea that somehow the devil making war against believers and killing them, that
somehow that contradicts the gates of hell not prevailing against the church is really
ridiculous because we're conquerors.
Even if we are killed.
Stephen was killed in Act 7.
He was a conqueror.
He was a glorious martyr for the cause of Christ.
And so the gates of hell did not prevail against Stephen.
Stephen walked into heaven and that's what that verse is really talking about.
That's why he contrasts the gates of hell with the keys of the kingdom of heaven.
And so we need to not make the mistake of equating Satan with hell or equating the antichrist
with hell.
Two completely different things.
Satan will be tormented in hell.
He does not rule hell.
He does not have the key of hell.
You know who holds the key to the gates of hell?
The Lord Jesus Christ said, I have the keys of hell and of death in Revelation chapter
1.
And so he holds the keys to heaven and he holds the keys to hell and he has given us
the keys of the kingdom of heaven that we might allow as many people as possible to
go through that door by going out and preaching the gospel to every creature and shining the
glorious light of the gospel of Christ.