23 minutes in hell (3 page)

As I stood outside the cell, I actually felt the darkness. Exodus 10:21 speaks of “… darkness which may even be felt.” It was not like the darkness on the earth. I was once in a coal mine in Arizona that was completely void of light. I couldn’t see anything, yet it was nothing like the darkness in hell.[17] It was as though the darkness had its own power, a power that consumed me.[18] The darkness was not simply the absence of light—it had a distinctive evil presence, a feeling of death, a penetrating evil.

“Hell is a place of unrelieved torment and horrible misery… a place of impenetrable darkness… a place of fire… a place of unrelieved torment for both body and soul. Hell will be horrible for everybody there, but some people will suffer more than others.”[19]

—John MacArthur

I looked off to my right and could faintly see flames from afar off that dimly lit the skyline. I knew the flames were coming from a large pit, a gigantic raging inferno approximately one mile in diameter and about ten miles away. This was just one of the many things I simply knew. My senses were keener.[20]

The flames were intense, but the darkness seemed to swallow up the light.[21] The skyline was barely visible. The darkness was somewhat like a black hole. I have heard scientists say that within our universe’s black holes, the pull of gravity is so strong that it actually stops light from traveling, and it cannot escape from the hole. The darkness in hell is like that. It is so dark that it seemed to hinder any light from traveling.

The only visible area was that which the flames exposed. The ground was all rock, barren and desolate. There was not one green thing, not one living thing, not one blade of grass, not one leaf on the ground—it was just a complete wasteland.[22] In Ezekiel 26:20 we read: “Then I will bring you down with those who descend into the Pit… and I will make you dwell in the lowest part of the earth, in places desolate from antiquity, with those who go down to the Pit.” On Earth, even deserts contain life that has adapted to its harsh environment and have a natural beauty. But the place I saw was barren—nothing like the desert.

One of the most painful thoughts I had was the realization that I could never get to my wife. She had no idea of my existence in this place. I would never, ever see her again. I couldn’t even explain or tell her of my doom. My wife and I are extremely close, and I used to tell her that if there was ever a disaster in the earth, and we were apart that day, I would find a way to get to her. I would stop at nothing to get to her. Now, to never see her again was so inconceivable to me.[23] I understood that I would never, ever get out. In Psalm 140:10 we read: “Let burning coals fall upon them; let them be cast into the fire, into deep pits, that they rise not up again.” I couldn’t even tell her what had happened, and that knowledge alone was too much to endure.

“It is an experience of intense anguish… a sense of loneliness…. There is the realization that this separation is permanent…. Thus, hopelessness comes over the individual.”[24]

—Millard J. Erickson

The air was filled with smoke, and a filthy, deathly, decaying odor hung in the oxygen-depleted atmosphere.[25] It seemed as if all the oxygen had been sucked up by the high leaping flames in the distance. I could barely breathe. The lack of oxygen in the atmosphere left me gasping for every little bit of air I could inhale. There was no humidity or moisture in the air. It was exhausting even to try to get just one breath.

One of the worst sensations I experienced was an insatiable thirst and dryness. I was so extremely thirsty. My mouth was so dry it felt as if I had been running through the desert for days. There was no water, no humidity in the air, no water anywhere. I desperately longed for just one drop of water.[26] Like the man in torment in Luke 16:23, just one drop of water would have been so precious to me. It is difficult to conceive of a world without any water. It would truly be most miserable. It is inconceivable for any of us to imagine such extreme dryness. Water has always been very valuable and pleasurable to my wife and me, and now so much more so. Water is a life-giving substance, and in hell there is no life of any kind. All is dead.

With thoughts of utter hopelessness flooding my mind, I looked out at the desolate, barren cavern toward the flames. All the memories of what a wonderful life I had enjoyed was now a world apart, just a thing of the past. There was no work, no goals, no wisdom, and no opportunity to speak to anyone or to solve any problem. No need to offer advice, help, or comfort of any kind. Purpose was nonexistent. All life was over, and a useless “wasting away” permeated my being.[27] After seeing these grotesque and deformed creatures with their jagged scales, bumps, and twisted limbs, smelling their putrid, rotting odors and seeing the thick, smoke-filled atmosphere, I longed for my life back. I thought of my beautiful wife with her warm, loving green eyes, her zeal for life, her perfectly smooth, clear skin, and her great love for me. I missed her so deeply. I thought about us standing at the cliffs on the ocean’s edge, watching the waves and ice-blue water crash onto the rocky shore. I remembered the clear skies, white clouds, sunshine, and fresh air. I yearned for her so deeply.

“The lost will be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord (2 Thess. 1:9). No one lives without God…. He gives you every breath you take. His kindness surrounds…. He makes the sun rise on both the evil and the good and sends rain on the unjust as well as the just (Matt. 5:45). He gives you the beauty of a summer evening, the coolness of a refreshing breeze…. He delights you with the taste of fresh crusty bread or the juice of a ripe peach. Perhaps you have experienced the ecstasy of love. These are God’s gifts…. All of these are blessings from God…. But in Hell, all this will be taken from you…. all the dignity that you now have as an image bearer of God will be stripped from you…. The wicked will burn with fire but they will not be consumed.”[28]

—Edward Donnelly

I wanted to talk and interact with someone. But to have an intelligent conversation—or simply any conversation—with a human being, now so valued, was completely unattainable. All these things flashed through my mind. However, to entertain such memories was futile and would only lead to bitter disappointment and total frustration. How could I accept the reality I was now faced with? It was a reality filled with an endless eternity of pain, loss, loneliness, and doom—a most miserable existence. It would be impossible. My brief moment of remembrance faded away, and once again I was faced with my present gruesome situation. My mental escape had lasted only a few seconds. I realized this horror would last for an eternity, and that knowledge thrust me back into a frantic state of mind.

I didn’t even possess the thought of calling on God for help, because I was there as one who didn’t know God. The Lord didn’t even come to mind.[29] One of those demonic creatures grabbed me and carried me back into the cell. It threw me on the floor, and another creature quickly grabbed my head and began to crush it. Then all four of the creatures were on top of me, each grabbing a leg or an arm as if I were lifeless prey.[30] I was so far beyond terrified that there are no words to describe it. They were just about to pull apart my body when, all of a sudden, I was taken out of the cell and placed next to that pit of fire I had viewed from a distance earlier.

“Hell is going to be eternity filled with grief and pain, an unquenchable fire, according to the Bible.”[31]

—Franklin Graham

Chapter 1 Notes

1. “Fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matt. 10:28); “…and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell” (Matt. 5:29, KJV); “Let us swallow them up alive like Sheol, and whole, like those who go down to the Pit” (Prov. 1:12).

2. It is interesting to note that Deuteronomy 3:11 speaks of the remnant of giants: “Indeed his bedstead was an iron bedstead…. Nine cubits is its length [approximately thirteen feet].” Genesis 6:4 talks about giants in the earth: “There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old.” The term “sons of God” refers to fallen angels. Giants came as a result of evil angels in contact with women. See chapter 10, “Dealing With the Demons of Hell.”

3. John Piper, “Behold the Kindness and the Severity of God,” a sermon delivered June 14, 1992, at Bethlehem Baptist Church, available at http://www.soundofgrace.com/piper92/06-14-92.htm as viewed August 4, 2005.

4. “His soul draws near the Pit, and his life to the executioners” (Job 33:22); “I will also send against them the teeth of beasts, with the poison of serpents of the dust” (Deut. 32:24). This scripture speaks of what happened to the Israelites for their rebellion. If this is what happened to them on the earth, how much worse will it be in hell where His wrath is poured out?

5. “They did not like to retain God in their knowledge… being filled with all unrighteousness… murder… haters of God… unmerciful” (Rom. 1:28–31). Although these verses are referring to people, the power that influences them is demonic. Ezekiel 28:14–16 describes Lucifer with these words: “You were the anointed cherub who covers…. Therefore I cast you as a profane thing.” “I am profaned [degraded, vulgar language, blasphemous] among them” (Ezek. 22:26). “Your enemies take Your name in vain” (Ps. 139:20). These are scriptures referring to people who profane the Lord, but “to profane” is an influence that is demonic in nature, as Ezekiel 28:14–16 states. Also, in Lester Sumrall’s book “Alien Entities,” he mentions the famous case of the demon-possessed girl, Clanta Villanueva, whom he confronted, stating: “There was a raging battle with the girl blaspheming God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Her eyes were burning coals of fire and full of hate” (page 137).

6. “…nor complain, as some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the destroyer” (1 Cor. 10:10). “…delivered him to the torturers” (Matt. 18:34).

7. “Hell from beneath is excited about you, to meet you at your coming…. They all shall speak and say to you: ‘Have you also become as weak as we?’” (Isa. 14:9–10).

8. Christopher W. Morgan and Robert A. Peterson, eds., “Hell Under Fire” (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2004), 220.

9. “Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver” (Ps. 50:22). Psalm 32:10 emphasizes the sorrows experienced, “Many sorrows shall be to the wicked.” “Is it not destruction for the wicked, and disaster for the workers of iniquity?” (Job 31:3). “The adversaries of the LORD shall be broken in pieces” (1 Sam. 2:10).

10. “You who hate good and love evil, who strip their skin from my people, and the flesh from their bones…” (Mic. 3:2). This verse speaks of the country’s leaders doing this to the children of Israel; it is not speaking of this happening in hell. However, where do evil men get their inspiration? To support the thought of devils inflicting pain, see Mark 5:5, which mentions, “…cutting himself with stones.” Also 1 Kings 18:28 says, “…and cut themselves… until the blood gushed out on them.” In Mark 9:18–22 we read that the spirit “seizes him, it throws him down; he foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid…. And often he has thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him.”

11. “Your mercy, O LORD, is in the heavens” (Ps. 36:5). “The mercy of the LORD is… on those who fear Him” (Ps. 103:17).

12. “I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit” (Zech. 9:11). “For the life of the flesh is in the blood” (Lev. 17:11). (And there is no life in hell.) “Send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame” (Luke 16:24).

13. Edward Donnelly, “Heaven and Hell” (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 2002), 33.

14. “[Jesus] rebuked the foul spirit” (Mark 9:25, KJV).

15. “These shall be punished with everlasting destruction” (2 Thess. 1:9). “The fear of the wicked will come upon him” (Prov. 10:24).

16. Of course, God can do anything, but to give scriptural references, in Luke 18:34, when Jesus was telling His disciples about being crucified and dying, we read: “…this saying was hidden from them,” even though Jesus had told them. After King Nebuchadnezzar lost his sanity because of sin and lived like an animal in the fields for a time, we read in Daniel 4:34 that “…my understanding returned to me.”

17. “You have laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the depths” (Ps. 88:6). “He shall go to the generation of his fathers; they shall never see light” (Ps. 49:19).

18. “When I was with you daily in the temple, you did not try to seize Me. But this is your hour, and the power of darkness” (Luke 22:53). “These are wells without water, clouds carried by a tempest, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever” (2 Pet. 2:17). “His lamp will be put out in deep darkness” (Prov. 20:20). “…for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever” (Jude 13).

19. John MacArthur, “Hell—the Furnace of Fire,” Tape #GC2304 http://www.jcsm.org/StudyCenter/john_macarthur/ sg2304.htm (accessed September 19, 2005).

20. In “One Minute After You Die,” Erwin W. Lutzer says that those in Sheol (hell) have “heightened perception and a better understanding” (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 1997, page 39). Luke 16:23 also infers this when it speaks of the rich man in hell who “saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.” Being a great distance away, how could he recognize Lazarus? Or how did he recognize Abraham, whom he may not have ever known?

21. “…a land as dark as darkness itself, as the shadow of death, without any order, where even the light is like darkness” (Job 10:22).

22. “We are as dead men in desolate places” (Isa. 59:10).

23. “He who goes down to the grave does not come up. He shall never return to his house” (Job 7:9–10). “The eye that saw him will see him no more” (Job 20:9).

24. “Christian Theology,” second ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 1985, 1998), 1242–1243.

25. “The enemies of the LORD shall be as the fat of lambs: they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away” (Ps. 37:20, KJV). “The smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever” (Rev. 14:11). “The sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke of the pit” (Rev. 9:2).