(First published July 22, 2021)

In Matthew 16, Jesus takes his disciples somewhere you would not expect a Bible teacher, especially God Himself, to take His students: the “gates of hell.”

Caesarea Philippi, a city in northern Israel not far from the Sea of Galilee, was known to be given over to the worship of Greek gods. Jesus led His group to a cave north of the city reputed to be the birthplace of the Greek god, Pan (the city, in fact, had been called Panias until renamed by the Roman leader Herod Philip); it was believed that this cave was where fertility gods spent the winter before reemerging through the waters of the underground spring. Maybe those thin-skinned gods couldn’t handle the harsh Israeli winters, or perhaps they had to rest up for all the hijinks you can read about in any Greek mythology book. At any rate, the entrance to this cave was called “the gates of hell,” and this is where Jesus asked the question every person on earth must answer for him/herself:

“Who do you say that I am?”

Peter, as usual the first to speak (the tendency got him into trouble a few times), nailed it: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Jesus praised Peter’s confession of faith and took it a step further: that on this rock (play on Peter’s name, which meant Rock) He would build His church and—here’s the text for this post—”the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Many scholars think Jesus was referring to Peter’s confession of faith in Him as the Messiah as the foundation of the modern church.

Let’s see how Jesus’ declaration has held up since He said it.

Jewish persecution: Stephen, arguably the first martyr, was stoned as Saul, a chief harasser of Jesus’ followers (later to become Paul, author of 2/3 of the New Testament), looked on. After this, a fire of Jewish persecution began that scattered disciples throughout Judea and Samaria. Imprisonment and beatings were common for followers of “The Way.” What happened? The church preached the gospel everywhere they went, and grew.

Roman persecution: Nero. Marcus Aurelius. Decius. Trebonianus Gallus. Valerian. We’re talking about Christians thrown to lions for public entertainment, covered in tar and set on fire as torches, sewn up in the skins of wild animals and released to dogs. What happened? The church met in the catacombs, and grew.

Through the years, opposition and persecution has come to the church in every part of the world where it has found a foothold: the Middle East, Europe, China, Japan, Russia, North Korea, India, Africa. The result? The church keeps growing.

In fact, the church has survived 2000 years of imprisonment, torture, executions, denial of basic human rights, threats, intimidation, losses of jobs and housing. Family members have been torn from each other’s arms and then beaten or killed in front of each other. Unspeakable torments have been inflicted on those who refuse to retract their faith in Jesus as the Messiah, Son of the living God.

2021. Because the internet, we now have current information on the plight of persecuted Christians all over the world; if you’re interested in the shocking facts, here is a “World Watch 2021” page with all the information. We know that 2.4 billion people on the planet identify themselves as Christians. Think of it: from that group of less than 20 ordinary men gathered at the “gates of hell” that day, 2.4 billion people now confess Jesus as Messiah, Son of the living God. According to Open Doors, 3.4 million of these Christians experience persecution for their faith, and last year more than 4700 were martyred.

However many times the gates of hell have attempted to prevail, they’ve never been able to avail.

This has all been a background perspective for the point I want to make in this blog. If you spend much time on social media these days (I actually try to spend progressively less as time goes on), you may think the church is teetering on the edge of extinction and battle stations have been called before all systems fail. I want to reassure you that it is not.

Last year when churches were shuttered during COVID lockdowns, it appeared, from the plethora of frantic posts, that American Christianity was collapsing. Not a whole lot of people countered these posts with the facts that restaurants, ballparks, nail salons, post offices, and yogurt shops were closed as well. Churches were shuttered because they were indoor gatherings of sometimes hundreds of people, sitting for lengthy periods, all breathing the same air during a pandemic of an airborne virus, but from these posts it appeared that floodgates of imminent demise were about to eradicate His people. Yet we had options to live stream services, meet outside, Zoom home fellowships, etc. so we could encourage each other, worship, and hear the Bible taught by our pastors (need I say, all these freedoms many of those on Open Doors’ World Watch page do not enjoy). Further, your church has been open again, probably for months now, as has mine. As are restaurants, ballparks, nail salons, post offices, and yogurt shops. The church survived, and I would not be surprised to find that it has grown since March 2020, much because so many online options were suddenly available.

Posts decrying the harassment and mistreatment of American Christians continue to fill social media feeds. The issues are many, but the sentiment is the same: we need to fight so the church doesn’t fall. This fighting seems to include re-posting sometimes untrue articles, writing elaborate and emotional diatribes against politicians/political parties, and shaming fellow believers who don’t rally to the cause.

Let me stop here and take a clarifying stand. I do not disagree with the truth that Christians are increasingly restricted, legislated against, untolerated, and verbally attacked these days. It is shocking to me to hear how viciously the word “Christian” (which means “little Christ”) can come out of a person’s mouth. It grieves me on behalf of the Lord who hung on the cross for those who spit His name. I do not deny that faith-based systems are under attack and that we are not being afforded the freedom of speech and exercise of our biblical beliefs that should be matter-of-fact under the Constitution of the United States. I know things are darkening as never before in this nation, and I agree that we cannot just roll over and let them happen without a squeak of complaint.

This also needs clarifying: these are not exactly Nero’s persecutions. At this point, persecution of the American church looks like Facebook jail, not torture chambers. No one is being publicly flogged or being forced to watch their children’s eyes gouged out. We know from the book of Revelation that for believers here during the Tribulation, these kinds of things will happen…and we can see how current restrictions and intolerances could lay the groundwork for that, but as of today in America, you are free to be a Christian walking down the street with your Bible in your hand, humming to the worship playlist in your AirPods.

So yes, we need to wisely mark the times in which we live and where they land on the Kingdom calendar. We need to pray, hard and long and consistently. We need to vote. We need to respect authority, but not agree to edicts that violate Scripture. We must be willing to share the gospel in conversational moments given to us by God in our friendships and family gatherings. We must use our social media to shine the light of Jesus and the hope of redemption.

Paul had good counsel for his disciple Timothy, who didn’t have Facebook or Twitter but ministered in a pretty challenging social climate just like us: “And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.” 2 Timothy 2:24-26. Paul told Timothy the ultimate goal was the repentance and redemption of those who opposed him.

Folks: “..on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” Jesus doesn’t need our help to keep His church going. He’s not stressed, angry, or tearing His hair out. He’s not calling an emergency council of the Trinity: “Father, Holy Spirit, we’ve got a serious problem going on in the American church! Got any ideas?” He’s not appearing to us in dreams and visions urging us to repost rants and rally an army of stirred-up saints. He’s got this. In fact, He told us things would get crazy near the end (Matthew 24), so if things are getting crazy, guess what? Whether in a day, week, month, decade, or century, He’s about to call this thing done, because it’s been firmly under His control since Day 1. He will wrap it all up, and I’m thinking we will then realize we didn’t have to worry about our government or “the other side” of the political aisle destroying the church. Surprise! The gates of hell didn’t prevail. I’m thinking we will find ourselves wishing we’d used the time, instead, to gently do life with the people in our immediate face-to-face circles who needed to know Jesus loves and saves and would come again for those who wanted Him.

Let’s let Jesus keep His church going. He’s got a perfect track record since the day He committed to do so back at Caesarea Philippi. Let’s go and make disciples instead.