The Church- Unstoppable?

I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it—Mt 16:18b
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Sometimes it feels as if the visible church in Ontario is struggling, battles within, battles without, slow decline. In large part that is true, however, amongst faithful Gospel congregations there is hope, signs of growth, and indeed often already vitality. In light of all of this it is encouraging to see what Jesus said about His Church.

A few observations may be drawn:

• It is Jesus’ Church and He is the one, primarily, who is building it.
  • And that if we are about His business (Great Commission), He will be with us.
• That if the King of kings is responsible for building it, then there is surety it will be built according to His purposes (no haphazard builder here!).

Yet, what about the gates of hell not prevailing, what does that mean? Surely whole areas of Ontario, or other places throughout history have become de-Christianized. Does this mean Jesus was wrong? No, it means our understanding of the promise is askew. Extirpation is not the same as extinction. Extirpation is regional extinction, like the Prairie-Chicken, which is no longer found in Canada but still exists in the USA. Some areas of the world are seeing the Church in decline whereas in other areas there is great growth.

Yet still, does prevailing against mean the Church is really on the defensive or ought it to be understood as an offensive promise? Well, gates are a defensive structure in a city’s defence, so if it said, “and the gates heaven shall not prevail against the force of hell,” then it would clearly view things defensively, but that is not what we see. Rather, we see that hell is on the defensive, and neither now nor ultimately shall hell ultimately prevail against the forces of authentic Christianity. This is the normative promise[1] in Mt 16:18b, that as we are faithful, though hell may hurl its darts at us and try to block our advance, hell must decrease in power and the Church will increase until Jesus has put His enemies under His feet and the Church rules with Christ in heaven.
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So may we be faithful and look to the head and builder of the Church to do great things in Markdale as the Church increases and as Satan’s forces go on the defensive.


[1] I say normative because sometimes in God’s providence faithful churches are persecuted and don’t grow. As a normative rule, however, Mt 16:18 stands.