Hi there,

I would like to thank you for your very informative site. May God continue to bless you abundantly and may many more people come to the truth.
I have one scripture that’s puzzling me – Mat 7:13.
What is the “destruction” that is referred to in this verse?
God bless

S____

Hi S____,
Thank you for your encouraging comments.
You ask about the meaning of the word destruction in this verse:

Mat 7:13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:

The truth is that we will all enter the broad gate and be destroyed before we will enter the narrow gate into life. This admonition by our Lord will be experienced by but few while we are still in these vessels of clay. But we will all in the end be saved through the destruction of our old man. Christ Himself taught this, and so did all of his apostles:

Joh 12:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.
1Co 3:13 Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.
1Co 3:14 If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
1Co 3:15 If any man’s work shall be burned [ destroyed], he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

It seems counter- intuitive to the natural man, but life comes only through death:

Joh 12:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.
Col 1:22 In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:
Heb 2:14 Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;

We find life only by losing it:

Mat 10:39 He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.

Sight comes only through blindness:

Joh 9:39 And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.
Joh 9:40 And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also?
Joh 9:41 Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.

Light comes out of darkness:

2Co 4:6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

And our salvation comes only through the destruction of our old man of sin:

2Th 2:8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

“That Wicked” is our old Adam who sets himself up as God in God’s temple of our body.

1Co 3:16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
1Co 3:17 If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

The only thing that keeps us from seeing that we are God’s temple is our worship of our own will over God’s will. That is the old Adam, who must be destroyed if we are to know life.

2Th 2:3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
2Th 2:4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
2Th 2:5 Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? [“Ye are the temple of God”]
2Th 2:6 And now ye know what withholdeth that he [ the mah of sin] might be revealed in his time.
2Th 2:7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth [ same Greek word translated ‘withholdeth’ in verse 6] will let, until he be taken out of the way.

I hope this helps you to see that the broad way that leads to destruction is the destruction of our old Adam. I hope that you can now see that God’s word really is “a sharp two edged sword, and that we will all indeed “Live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” (Mat 4:4). Destruction is common to all men. It is simply a matter of who will be first and who will be the last to experience the destruction of the first Adam.

Ecc 9:2 All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.
Mat 4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
Rev 2:12 And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write; These things saith he which hath the sharp sword with two edges;

Your brother in Christ,
Mike