"Stealin' It Back" does not always refer to those of the non-Christian or anti-Christian minset. There are those times when you have to steal things back from other folks who think and believe the same way you do. That is, as a Christian, sometimes I have to steal back cliches from other Christians so the truth can be told. For example: despite the fact that the place referred to as "Hell--which is sheol in the OT and Hades or "lake of fire" in the NT--is never viewed as being under the control of Satan, Christians persist in thinking that this is Satan's domain. When they see evil, they say things like, "That's right from the pit of Hell!" Of course, they mean it originated with Satan, but they commit a huge error in implying that Satan rules over Hell. In Milton's Paradise Lost, Milton has Satan say that "It is better to rule in Hell than serve in Heaven;" this is another colossal blunder. Satan rules nothing except those portions of the present evil age (on earth!) over which God permits him to exercise his vile ways.

"Stealin' It Back" does not always refer to those of the non-Christian or anti-Christian minset. There are those times when you have to steal things back from other folks who think and believe the same way you do. That is, as a Christian, sometimes I have to steal back cliches from other Christians so the truth can be told. For example: despite the fact that the place referred to as "Hell--which is sheol in the OT and Hades or "lake of fire" in the NT--is never viewed as being under the control of Satan, Christians persist in thinking that this is Satan's domain. When they see evil, they say things like, "That's right from the pit of Hell!" Of course, they mean it originated with Satan, but they commit a huge error in implying that Satan rules over Hell. In Milton's Paradise Lost, Milton has Satan say that "It is better to rule in Hell than serve in Heaven;" this is another colossal blunder. Satan rules nothing except those portions of the present evil age (on earth!) over which God permits him to exercise his vile ways.

So: stealin' it back: 

• Matthew 25:41 "Then He will also say to those on His left, 'Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels."
• Revelation 20:10 "And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever."

In other words, Satan and his demonic followers will end up simply as eternal prisoners in "Hell," aka "lake of fire, "hades," "eternal fire," et al. Satan will have no power there.

One more thing:

• Matthew 16:18 "I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it."

So, if "Hades" does not represent any power or rule of Satan, then in the above verse, "Hades" must mean what it meant to every Greek-peaking person of the 1st-C AD: It simply meant death! It is the "gates of death/the grave" that will not stand against the church. Satan is not in this verse.

To be continued . . . The Thief