Sunday, June 20, 2021

James H. Anderson (1933) on the Gates of Hades and Matthew 16:18

  

GATES OF HADES, OR SPIRIT WORLD

 

As to the period of the final culmination of events marking the full triumph of the Church of Christ against which “the gates of hell shall not prevail,” that declaration includes the work of Jesus Himself and the gospel application made by His authorized representatives to the complete triumph thereof in latter days. The word “hell” in verse 18 is translated from the Greek word Hades, and means the unseen or spirit world. Jesus said “I will build My Church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” It is unseemly distortion to say that the “gates” of Hades (the invisible spirit world) would attack the Church. Such a claim is clearly a false figure; an attacking city does not carry its “gates” with it. Under the leadership of Christ, His Church is an aggressive force. Immediately after His crucifixion He passed through “the gates of hell” into the spirit world, and gave relief to the dead by bringing to them the resurrection. “The gates of hell” did not prevent this liberation. The gospel was “preached to them that are dead” (John 5:25, 28; 1 Peter 4:6) that they might receive its benefits of salvation. Gospel ordinances, such as baptism for the dead, etc. (1 Cor. 15:29), are performed “according to men in the flesh.” When accepted by those in the unseen or spirit world, salvation comes, and “the gates of hell” cannot prevail against it; for they who obey the gospel in the spirit world “live according to God in the spirit” (1 Peter 4:6). Truly the carrying of the gospel past the gates of Hades, through the personal visit of Christ for the resurrection, and the further works of His authorized servants for the redemption of the dead, is of a character that no force can overthrow; and in the fulfilment of that saving mission of the Church, “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” That is the plain, unequivocal declaration of Jesus, the divinely revealed Christ, the Son of the living God, as set out in the Bible record. (James H. Anderson, The Present Time and Prophecy: Being a Selection of Addresses Made by Elder James H. Anderson Uniting this Subject with the Divine Testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith [Salt Lake City: The Deseret News Press, 1933], 117-18)