Saturday, May 2, 2015

...Shall Not Prevail...

May 2
The Gates of Hell Shall Not Prevail Against It by Dr. D. James Kennedy

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?—Romans 8:31

We cannot possibly fail with Christ’s love in our corner. Paul says, in what I call the “Golden Shield” of faith, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” Who can fight against us and succeed? No one! God’s love shields us from all attacks of the evil one and his followers. Despite such attacks, we are safe and secure for eternity. Who can be against us? The world, the flesh, and the devil may try to defeat us, but all will fail.

To grasp the truth of Paul’s statement, think of the persecution the early Church endured. In the first few centuries of Christianity, Christ’s followers went through the most difficult persecution ever seen on this planet. For nearly three hundred years, in ten great waves of persecution, the Christian Church was under attack.

The Roman pagan state used all of the hatred it possessed to try to destroy the Church. Everything the depraved and demonic mind could conceive of, the Romans did. They crucified Christians right side up and upside down; they burned Christians alive; they put Christians in sacks with vipers; they gave Christians to bulls to gore; they fed Christians to the lions. Yet nothing could break the Christian will.

The Roman Empire eventually perished, but the Church remains to this day. The greatest persecution the world has ever seen (rivaled, perhaps, only by that of the Communists in our century) was unable to break the Herculean might of Christians armed with nothing but faith, prayer, and the Word of God.

This applies to us today as well. With such a Golden Shield, we may deflect all of the attacks against us (from without and from within) because of what Christ has done for us. Come what may, nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. If God is for us, who can possibly be against us?

Caesar and Christ had met in the arena [Coliseum], and Christ had won. —WILL DURANT



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