Why did Jesus build a church?  Why was there a need for an ecclesia–a congregation, an assemblage?  If His true saints (holy ones) are each indeed His temple (residence of His Holy Spirit), and if His temples are indeed holy as He declares them to be (1 Cor. 3:16,17/ 2 Cor. 6:16), then why did He need to bring them together each seventh day of the week?  It is vitally important that we are able to answer these questions because it was important to Him, insomuch that He risked His earthly life and His eternal position with the Father to establish it.  The stakes could not have been higher for Him, the Father and those who worship and serve him during this life.  If He had failed, even one time during His earthly walk, that would have disqualified Him for the title of Messiah, meaning that mankind would have no Savior and there would be no church, no salvation and no future.  Indeed, the man known as Jesus of Nazareth bore incredible pressure.  The pressure began early on.  At age 12 He was already speaking on behalf of the Lord.  When asked by His parents why He had remained in the Temple for three days talking to the teachers of the Law He announced that He had to “…. be about My Father’s business” (Lk. 2:49).  The linchpin of that business was to remain pure.  The pressure for perfection was already upon Him and He knew it.  He also knew at that age that failure was not an option if He was to fulfill His commission from on high.  There was NO MARGIN FOR ERROR.

Jesus said to His original disciples: “I will build My church, and the gates (plural) of hell will not prevail against it (Mat. 15:18).  This statement seemed to come out of nowhere.  He had earlier done verbal battle with some Pharisees and Sadducees, then had warned the disciples not to be taken in by their “leaven” (false truths).  He then had to chastise them for their lack of faith concerning food for their next meal, even though they knew, as Peter had professed, that He was “… the Christ, the Son of the living God.”  And now, for the first time, He mentions the church/ecclesia that He would build on the earth that would eventually spread throughout man’s civilizations.  Not only would He build that church, but the gates of hell would not penetrate it, and would therefore not be able to spread their religious poison.

Biblically, a “gate” was the most important part of a city’s protective wall.  Note in Scripture that an enemy always attacked the gate which was the weakest part of the wall.  City walls were built with large stones and were several feet thick.  Gates, however, were made of wood which was easily opened and closed to allow traffic to move through them.  In saying that the gates of hell would not prevail against His church, Jesus was warning those who would follow Him that there would be continuous warfare between His church and “hell,” meaning the forces of Satan (his false “truths”) designed to replace God’s Truths within the church and defile it from within using a “perverted” Gospel as the Apostle Paul warned about in Galatians 1:6-9.  Recall that in Matthew 7:13,14 Jesus warns us about the “wide gate” (false church system) that the vast majority of salvation seekers would enter which would open onto a “broad” (many variations) way (path) that would lead to death.  Note also that “few” seekers would search for and “find” the “strait” (difficult) gate (church) that opened to a “narrow” (restricted) path that would lead to eternal life.

Jesus was warning His disciples then and now that there would always be an ongoing war between His true disciples and Satan’s false prophets as they would continually try to enter God’s church and destroy it from within using false doctrines, many of which are listed in the Introduction to this website.  Recall Christ’s warning concerning the end times as noted in Matthew 24:4,5.  The devil has been supremely successful in his attacks in that 99.99% of those in “the church” follow him religiously by having entered his wide gate (Catholic/Protestant church system) and having walked his broad (any way you want it, and if you can’t find a church you like you can create another one) path by joining one of the hundreds of churches, sects, denominations, faiths, etc. the two-headed, multi-bodied religious system puts forth as “thus says the Lord” but which, as this website proves, were borrowed from Babylonian mystery religion.  To understanding the genesis of this situation we need to return to Matthew 16:17,18 where we find the foundation stone of the entire evil building known as professing Christendom.

Here we find Jesus calling Simon Barjona by the name “Peter,” (petro), meaning a small pebble, and that He (Jesus) would build His church on Himself, which He referred to as “THIS Rock” (petra), meaning a huge stone such as a mountain.  There is only one man upon Whom the Lord would build His church, and it would not be Simon Barjona.  It is this deliberate error, put forth as truth by Simon Magus (the magician) in 33 A.D. that caused the creation of a religious system that would evolve into the Catholic/Protestant Church System.  In Revelation 17:1-5 she is symbolized as a “woman” (church) who would one day control a super powerful political/military “beast.”  Together mother, daughters and the beast will soon rule the entire world under the religious leadership of the “false prophet” who will perform miracles on behalf of the Antichrist who will present himself as the Messiah who has come on the scene to solve the world’s problems.  The separation of the so-called “protestants” (protesters) from the mother (Catholic) church simply caused the spreading of her religious poison more rapidly in that the Protestants took most of the mother church’s heathen beliefs and customs with them as the Introduction to this website makes clear.  This beast-mounted whore (Catholicism), along with her harlot daughters (Protestant churches) comprise the “gates of hell” that has waged war against Christ’s church from the beginning.  Note that the whore is holding a cup filled with the blood of God’s people.  For more information Read Simon of Samaria: The Legacy.  Key word–Legacy.

Though the whore and her daughters have prevailed in winning the souls of those in the Protestant Church System, they have failed to win over God’s true saints.  Though they have attacked the saints’ gate (singular) they (plural) have not prevailed, just as Jesus said they would.  The Lord has always had a remnant of true believers whom He calls His “little flock,” His peculiar, holy, God-fearing, Biblically-obedient nation of priests who comprise His Very Elect who, though tiny in number, continue to withstand and overcome Satan’s religious onslaught known as Christianity.  These are CINOS–Christians In Name Only–who reject Christ’s true saints who refuse to join them in worship of and service to Satan.  These are the “gates (plural) of hell” Satan uses to attack the Very Elect of God who are the few true winners in the “War of the Ages.”  They have not, nor will they ever prevail against the Lord’s church.  L.J.