I'll post on the silence of God tomorrow. Since learning of Chandler's passing, I thought I'd be a little more apologetic today.
Two big claims against The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are 1. the temple veil tore so no more temples (we believe our bodies are temples and that you don't need a temple in order to be able to worship God) and 2. Matthew 16:18 which means to most that no apostasy was possible. What if they are totally missing the mark in both cases?
The first is addressed in this video.
The second (Matthew 16:18) is addressed here:
From the Missionary Discussions YouTube channel:
They came to Cesariah Philippi where there’s an actual physical location called Hades Gates. They’re standing on the shore and Jesus is probably looking at Hades Gates because that’s what he’s referring to. And he says and he says, “Who do men say that I am?” Simon Peter answered you are the Messiah the son of the living God. And Jesus answered him blessed are you Simon son of Jonah for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto you but my father in heaven. And I tell you you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church.
What is this rock in the context of that conversation do you think? What is the most sure rock upon which a church could be built? Well, he just said he just said that God told Peter the identity of Jesus. So, the principle there is is God talking to people. That’s the only sure foundation upon which the church could be built is that God is communicating to people. And then he identifies Peter as the rock.
He’s actually making some kind of a of a play on words here. And he says, “And the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.” Okay. Yeah.
Hades is the land of the dead. That’s what Hades is, right? It’s the place where all dead people go. It’s not an evil kingdom. It’s just where all dead people go. It’s not an interpretation in Israelite thought. Hades is just the land of the dead. Gehenna and Hades and Shaol. Shaol in Hebrew, Hades in Greek. These are just the lands. This is just where dead people go.
So the gates that hold back the dead won’t prevail against my church. Well, how could the gates that hold back the dead be relevant to a church that can’t die? They can’t be because the church would never die. So, if Jesus meant to say that the church can never die, then he would have just said, “My church will never pass away.” Like he says in Matthew 24, right? ‘My words will never pass away.’
See, he has the language even in this text to say my church will never pass away. But he doesn’t say that. He says the gates of the land of the dead will not prevail against it. Because then what does he do? He goes on and just a few verses later, he goes down and he says, “I’m going to go down and suffer and be killed by the chief priests in Jerusalem.”
What he’s talking about is things that die, don’t worry about it because I have the keys to the gate. I can resurrect them. So if the church finds itself on the other side of the gate, don’t worry. If I find myself on the other side of the gate, don’t worry. He’s trying to reassure them of the validity and the power of resurrection, including his church. So the gate can’t prevail against things that pass away because who has the key to the gates of Hades? Christ, right?
So how could anything that dies be overcome by the gate?
It can’t because Jesus has the key. That’s what’s going on.
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