The Church

"And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it." [1] Why did Christ chose a man on whom to build His church rather choosing a building and call that His church?  Could it be that the gates of Hades are unable to overcome a man who has chosen to be united to Christ to the end but those same gates could bring ruin to a building intended to be the house of God?

Hades is the "King of the Underworld" [2] so the gates of Hades are the gates of Hell.  Since Jesus used the plural "gates," I will assume for purposes of this entry that Hell has many entrances rather than just one with a pair of gates. Under this assumption, one can conclude that any house of God (be it a temple, a mosque or a church) that is more concerned with amassing wealth and power and being political behind its walls than with the word of the living God will have doors that are actually gates of Hell.  Accordingly, a church with doors that have been transformed into Hell's entrance is no longer God's house but God's house that is overcome by Satan.

Furthermore, when a house of God is a building situated on a piece of land, it is vulnerable to the influence of Satan because it lives on money, and money is the currency of Satan.  Without money, it will have no water, no electricity, no gas and nobody to take care of it and it will fall into disrepair and no church would be left.  With money, money that ought to have gone to those less fortunate, it will have custodians who will have incidences of ownership even they do not personally have title to it.  In time, these custodians will want to eat well, dress well and generally live well and will continually ask for money in the name of the poor.

Jesus likely foresaw what would happen to a church that is a building and wanted to make sure that His church would be free of all earthly concerns that distract from His teachings. Therefore when He spoke of a church, real estate was not what He had in mind.

"The word church, as used by Jesus, is derived from the Greek ekkasia, which means the 'called out' or 'assembly.'  In other words, the church that Jesus is referencing as His church is the assembly of people who have been called out of the world by the Gospel of Christ." [3]  And it was Peter that Jesus chose to continue His work, to tell people about Christ as Christ did through His parables told those who were gathered around Him about God. [4]

Jesus did not tell His parables while sitting inside a building. He did not have a church or needed one since He was the church.  His church was wherever He was, with no roof but with a gathering of people.  He never asked people to go to church; He brought Himself, the church, to the people.

Toward the beginning of the end of His ministry, Jesus chose Peter to be His church, and only Peter [5]. What about the rest? One can only speculate. Either Jesus chose them as well but nobody wrote it down, or that the rest did not have the character of Peter.  Peter was blunt, spoke what was on his mind and wore his emotions on his sleeves.  He might have been somewhat of a boor but he had no guile.  He was a sinner but he was transformed. He was a fisherman and together with others chosen by Jesus became "fishers of men." [6]

Like Jesus, Peter did not have a church but unlike the church that was Christ Himself, the church that was Peter was built on a sinner who had repented, one that was without walls to wall to wall in and hide in secrecy sins of all kinds, but exposed to the world all the imperfections and the struggles to perfect them.

The church that was Peter is no longer here but there are many churches around the world.  Is any of them like the church that Christ built upon Peter?  If any one of them is a building, then most likely not. Then where is the church Jesus had in mind?  It is potentially everywhere, wherever anyone goes.  Each person is a church and the gates of Hades will not overcome it if it is united to Christ. The saying that the body is the temple of God is apropos.


[1] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2016:18
[2] http://www.theoi.com/Khthonios/Haides.html
[3] http://www.gotquestions.org/gates-of-hell.html
[4] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%2014%3A6
[5] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+16%3A13-17&version=NIV
[6] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+4%3A19&version=KJV