The foundation of the church stands sure; unmovable, unchanging, eternal. Make ready the battle!
Matthew 16:18 – 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.
_____________________
Yesterday I wrote to you of the declaration of war Jesus made on “the gates of hell” as He took His stand in Caesarea Philippi. There He declared that “the gates of hell shall not prevail against” His Church. My dear reader friend, from the moment of that declaration of war, NO PEACE TREATY HAS BEEN SIGNED with His foes. That war still goes on today, it is still a war of offense in which we “go up and take the country,” and we “take it by force.”
Now, two millennia later, though physical appearances have changed, verbiage and languages have greatly expanded, and the populous of mankind is greatly multiplied, that war still rages. Christians today are still called to be soldiers of the cross, ambassadors of God, kings and priests of God. We are not to passively sit back and allow the darkness of this world to rule, abuse, and destroy the work of the Lord. But how do we identify those same “gates of hell” that still try to stop the Kingdom of God? Can we still see clearly the work of Pan, Zeus, Nemesis, Caesar Augustus, and the dancing goats of Caesarea Philippi in 2021? YES, we can. Allow me to reveal them to you, at least in part, as our space here is not sufficient to name them all.
When you see sexual perversion, pornography, pedophilia, LGBTQ lifestyle, people loving pleasure more than God, child abuse, child pornography, and the like, you are seeing Pan in operation. When you behold the rise in false religions, the attempt to strip away the rights of the Church and give them to demonic and cultic groups, staged devices used to attract people rather than the power of God, celebrity status having priority over holiness, and liberal thinking attempting to displace the truth of God, you are beholding Zeus at work. When you feel the pressures of political correctness, “awoke” culture, deviant social norms, uber tolerance, the rewriting of history, false science, removal of morals and moral codes, media propaganda supporting all that, and equity thinking, you are feeling the retribution of Nemesis. When government becomes god, when people depend on government (god) and not on Jehovah God, and when people bow in fear to government and push aside the commands of Jehovah God, we are watching as Caesar Augustus ascends his throne over mankind. And about those “dancing goats;” voyeurism, spectator generation, vicarious living, Hollywood, social media, secular television, accessibility to sin and legalized degradation marks that platform yet today. The goats may not be dancing, but the world is surely dancing to Satan’s tune.
Yes, the “gates of hell” are still here, but so is Jesus’ Declaration of War. Arm yourself. The battle is engaging.
Manna for Today – Matthew 16:13-21; John 6:63; John 15:7; Hebrews 1:3; Matthew 5:18; Luke 16:17; Psalm 119:89; Matthew 11:12; Galatians 3:13-29
My Second Miler by Dr. Beechard Moorefield 