Scripture doesn’t promise wealth or health or even life. What, then, does it promise? My grandfather was a preacher at Beaverdam, a black Baptist church in Alabama. Periodically, when his ministry would take him from the pulpit, the associate pastor would step in. The joke around my family was that every time the associate preached, he chose the same text: Ezekiel and the valley of dry bones (Ezek. 37:1–14). In the passage, the Spirit takes the prophet to a place where the remains of the dead are strewn about. God commands Ezekiel to preach to them, and when he does,…
“Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah!… I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matt 16:17–18). The “gates of hell”? Why did Jesus respond to Peter’s confession, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” in this way? (16:16) The Gates of Hell in Cosmic Geography When we read “hell,” we naturally think of the realm of the unbelieving dead. But the Greek word translated “hell” (ᾅδης, hadēs) is also the name for the Underworld—Hades, the realm of all the dead, not…
