Room 8 of 20
Matthew 16:18
Gates of hell
Verse
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.
Why they use it
They say the gates of hell cannot prevail, so there was no apostasy and no need to restore the Church.
Why they are wrong
Gates of Hades don’t mean “never die.” They mean death does not get the last word.
Translation note
Greek: katischuō (κατισχύω)
overpower / have the last strength — not ‘never touch’
NRSVUE: gates of *Hades*, not a cartoon hell. FAIR: the promise is that death and the underworld do not win the war. It is not a claim that no apostasy can happen. Paul and Jesus both warn that it can.
The room (aka the context)
- Who wrote it
- Matthew.
- Who is in the room
- Disciples, at Caesarea Philippi — a shrine of the dead at the foot of the mountain.
- Who is speaking
- Jesus, after Peter’s testimony.
- What is going on
- He promises a church built on revelation. Then He talks about Hades — the place of the dead — and a gate. Gates are defensive. They do not march. They hold prisoners.
- What they already believe
- Messiah will not lose His people to the grave forever.
- How they would hear these words
- Prevail is a final win, not “never enter.” You cannot go through Hades unless something first dies. Jesus did. The church did. Restoration is the church coming back out. Paul still warns of a falling away.
Clarifying verse
2 Thessalonians 2:3
Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
Paul, still inside the New Testament, says a falling away comes first. If Matthew 16 made apostasy impossible, Paul is the problem. FAIR’s gates-of-hell page holds both verses.
Gal1:8 topic →Mark it
Tap when you can say the verse out loud.