What is a Stronghold? - 2 Cor 10:3-5

Title: What is a Stronghold
Date: November 1, 2009
Text: 2 Cor 10:3-5

History of Strongholds

- When we look at Reno today, we might not recognize it as a stronghold
- Cities today generally do not have walls, nor are they fortified
- Walls would make very little difference today as aircraft could bomb a city into oblivion (ROTTERDAM)
- Even before aircraft were invented, walls became obsolete when cannon were invented
- With the right sized cannon, any wall can crumble
- When the walls come down, the inhabitants of the city would be shocked into quick surrender, like with “shock and awe” during Desert Storm
- The cannon signaled the end of walled cities
- Until that time, though, walled cities were considered to be strongholds (NINEVEH)
- If an invader were to come into your country he could not allow your stronghold to remain
- This is because you would use it as a base to counter-attack and drive out the invader
- The main purpose of armies is to remove strongholds inside conquered territory
- As Christians we have allowed Jesus into our territory, we asked him to come into our life
- He actually comes to dwell in us (John 14:23, 2 Cor 13:5)
- When we ask Jesus to take over the throne of our life, he now starts to consolidate His territory
- This involves removing the strongholds
- Mehmett II was the sultan of the Turkish or Ottoman empire (MEHMET)
- He had a Hungarian gunsmith construct cannons whose size was unheard of before
- He used these cannon to pulverize the walls of Constantinople and the city fell in 1453.
- Mehmet’s intention was to use the stronghold of Constantinople as a base to expand the cause of Islam throughout Europe and the Middle East
- He died before he was able to do so

What is a stronghold?

- A stronghold is a defensive position. (CASTLE)
- It is a walled city, a castle, anything which is protected from intruders or invaders
- A stronghold can also be offensive
- A stronghold can give an army a secure base from which to launch operations
- It would be a place where soldiers can rest and recuperate between offensive attacks
- The more secure the location, the more effective and powerful the force inside it could be
- From this secure position, the army could move out into the surrounding area and capture more territory
- As they moved away from the initial stronghold, they would create another fortification further away
- Dances with Wolves - Kevin Kostner
- In this way they would establish control over a region and eventually empires would be created this way

Strongholds were hard to defeat because of their design

- The design included the walls, their location, often on a hilltop, and the strength of the army within
- The army would be protected inside the city, would launch attacks outside the city and then return to the safety of the stronghold
- Spiritual strongholds are the same
- They are points of operation from where attacks are launched on outlying areas
- They become centers of offensive operations which are hard to remove without a concerted effort to eradicate them

Bible definition

- 2 Cor 10:3-5 – Paul defines a stronghold as anything that exalts itself against God (PAUL)
- It is a point of operation from where Satan can keep the unbeliever captive, or make the believer ineffective
- An example of physical warfare
- Israel enters the promised land
- Sent out spies
- Beautiful country
- Spies had even brought back some of the produce
- But as they cross Jordan and enter the land – someone else’s territory, their first obstacle was a walled city – Jericho (JERICHO)
- This obstacle was obvious, it faced them immediately
- This city had a double wall, 18 feet high, built on top of a hillside
- It seemed impregnable
- The fall of the city of Jericho is described in Joshua 6

Need to examine self, to discover strongholds

- Moses sent out spies to discover where the strongholds were
- We are told to examine ourselves as well
- 2Corinthians 13:5 Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?
- We need to examine ourselves for various reasons, but one of these is to know where our weaknesses, our strongholds are
- We will continue this series about overcoming strongholds, in the next few weeks