Jesus' Promise "The gates of hell will not prevail against the Church"

The great mistake that both Nero and Diocletian (Emperors of Rome) made was to underestimate with whom they were picking a fight with. Granted both men were powerful if not a little mad, but they were picking a fight with the King of Kings, with their own Lord and Master, in some ways not even realizing it. The promise that the Kingdom would never be overthrown was made by the Master in Matthew 16:16-19,

“Simon Peter said in reply, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus said to him in reply, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” (Mt. 16:16-19, NABRE)

Not even hell itself can overthrow the Church. Right from the Church’s very beginning people crucified the Messiah thinking the movement would die, that “The Way” was finished; however, Jesus defeated death and rose again. Shortly after governments, notably the Roman Empire began to execute Christians for all sorts of reasons. In the process the Empire made the Church stronger, so as each martyr shed his or her blood – the Church’s sinews and muscles tightened, gained mass, and became more powerful as the Empire first divided and then crumbled, possibly the Greatest empire on earth was dust and ash while Christianity gained more members and truly was becoming Catholic – Universal.

Throughout the centuries foreign lands and different places were hostile to the Church, each one of those nations, kingdoms, tribes, villages, is long gone, and still the Church remains.

One would think that after 2,000 years people would learn the lesson, don’t pick a fight with Jesus, you are gonna lose! It doesn’t matter how old the nation is that picks this fight with him or how powerful they are because if you attack Christians you attack Christ Himself, “On his journey, as he was nearing Damascus, a light from the sky suddenly flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” He said, “Who are you, sir?” The reply came, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. (Acts 9:3-5, NABRE) Paul was trying to arrest Christians because he thought they were heretics. He was attacking Jesus himself in doing so. The same went for Herod, Diocletian, Nero, and all the rest throughout history and even those now who are trying to redefine Christianity into a religion that is very secular, modern, and does not have right compassion, but wrong compassion, i.e. turning the sin into a good, again for example, “a woman has the right to choose what she does with her own body,” a God given liberty to be able to choose as I see fit. That is wrong, because we do not get to choose the way we want without God, because God is the one who has all the rights over our bodies, c.f. 1 Cor. 6:19, “You are not your own, you have been purchased at a price.”

The attack on the Church is clear, though much more subtle than the attack that Herod, Diocletian, and Nero placed on it, it seems now it is more of an intellectual and spiritual attack, but an attack nevertheless.

The Church will not bend; it will not kowtow or compromise its core beliefs, not even in the slightest degree. And just like Rome, or any other empire, kingdom, dynasty or even the United States the Church will remain while all others come and go, not so much because of us who are its members but rather due to the One who rules it, Christ the King. In recent memory Poland, Germany, parts of Russia tried to attack the Church as well and all of those Communist regimes are gone!  

When it is time for the Church to end its journey on this earth then Lord Himself will return to take her home but when that happens everything as we know it will change and that is the only time the Church will end for a lack of a better term, better put it will change – be made totally holy without spot or blemish.   

The most frustrating part to our new dilemma is that there are Catholics who serve this great nation and have agreed to the attack on the Church and have advocated publically for positions that are contrary to the Church’s teaching. We need to speak out as boldly as they do, but always with the hope that they will see the Truth.

Remember good Christians and all people who pursue liberty, justice, and responsible freedom, the Church isn’t going anywhere, because we do not even fear death itself, so how can a mandate frighten us, or possible monetary penalties? No sir, it’s just dust and ashes, and when they disappear the Church will remain and the stronger.  Amen

FJ

image from  http://freechristimages.org/biblestories/Jesus_before_pilate.htm