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- June 20, 1986 at 6:52 am#5613ProclaimerParticipant
In this vision I saw a light above me and in the corner of my eye I noticed something moving. I quickly focused on what was moving and realised that it was darkness starting to eclipse the light. I started to say to myself “the darkness is eclipsing the light” and I expected it to totally block out the light. But when the darkness covered half of the light it stopped. So I was faced with darkness on my right and light on my left. I then said to myself “I know what you are saying to me God, You’re saying that I have a choice I can either choose the Light or the Darkness”. So I thought to myself which one…
In Revelation 2:11 it says:
“Let the person who has ears listen to what the Spirit says to the churches. Everyone who wins the victory will never be hurt by the second death.
I then said to God “You have shown me Heaven and I have seen your light before and I would love to see more, but I am curious about the darkness.
All of a sudden I was in the darkness and there was no light to be seen anywhere. I was shocked to be there and I said to God something like: “I only thought about coming here and now I am here, I didn’t expect that”. I was instantly transported there just by thinking about it, no time to change my mind. I then thought to myself, oh well I’m here now so I might as well find out what it is all about. As I said before it was pitch black and I could not see any light.
I stood in the darkness for about 5 seconds and couldn’t see anything or feel anything. It was a little bit frightening at that stage but I was unsure of what was going on. I then thought to myself maybe I should leave as there is nothing here and what was the point of this experience. Then all of a sudden I saw something in the darkness. So I focused as hard as I could to see what it was. I then saw the form of a person and I focused and found the face of this person. I started to think, perhaps this is a person in hell? I kept focusing on this persons face and then I saw the persons eyes. All of a sudden I had the most horrible and frightening experience in my life. When I looked into this persons eyes I saw and felt the horror of Hell in an instant. I was absolutely shocking. With that I said “I am leaving” and I was once again faced with light on my left hand side and darkness on my right.
I stood motionless as I got my thoughts together and tried to understand what just happened. I said to myself “What was that horror that I experienced”. I know it was terrible beyond words yet almost straight away I started to forget how bad it was and I said ” I am going back inside and I am going to face this fear and this time I will overcome it for God is with me.” Again I saw this person and again I looked into the persons eyes and the horror happened again. It was like there was an invisible river of pure evil flowing through this persons being and he was in an absolute state of horror himself. Or maybe it was better described as a vacuum there there was no God. The only way I can explain it is to say this. Imagine the goodness, love, wisdom, friendship, peace, joy, and harmony. Well these things did not exist in this place, not even an inch of these things existed. It was just a state of no God. It was pure darkness, suffering and torment. The lack of God is absolutely the most frightening thing you can experience. After this I just wanted to get out and the vision came to an end. Upon reflection, I know what I experienced was really just being totally cut off from Gods goodness. This is way more frightening than you can imagine..
Death when translated means separation and physical death is when your soul is separated from your body. The second death is where your soul is separate from God and all his goodness. Once separated from the God of the Living, you obviously are cut off from his eternal life and goodness.
You see my friend when you travel down the road of sin, your destination is torment followed by destruction. You will suffer in the darkness with time to contemplate, then be cast away from God and his Kingdom forever after the Judgement and never to be given life again. This revelation satisfied my curiosity about the darkness and evil and I am totally convinced that it is not the way to go. Yet I see people every day living sinful lives and not caring about eternal things. How sorry those people will be if they do not turn from their sins and turn to God who can save them from sin and evil.
Years later I really regret not choosing the Light when I saw it the second time in this vision, I believe I would have seen much more of the wonderful glories of Heaven that I had in an earlier vision. But this chance never happened again. I do however feel very fortunate to have experienced both sides (light and darkness). I believe too that God showed me these things because I desired to know the truth with all my heart and he wanted me to tell others about the light and the darkness. In Matthew 7:7 it says
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
Conclusion
The day after my vision of Hell I started to see that in this world we have hope and there are good things to enjoy like love. We can eat nice food and enjoy a measure of good things. But the best thing we have is the ability to ask God for forgiveness for our sins. It is not to late for us. Once we die and your life is over then there is nothing more you can do and the book that records your life is finished.My guess is that all who are in Hell would do anything to be where you are now, i.e., to have the chance to choose God. You are in a privileged position because you can change the course of your life right now.
Discussion
March 17, 2005 at 9:00 pm#5719NickHassanParticipantHi t8,
Do you know if it was Hades or gehenna?I respect your experience as being valid anyway and thank you for sharing it. i would love to see more contributions as there must be more out there
One of my daughters was going through a very stressful time with the accidental death of a friend. She had been invited to go out with her that night the friend was killed but had decided not to. She prayed that God would send her an angel to help her and she asked if she could be allowed to see the angel.
She woke in the middle of the night and saw a small older manlike figure sitting perched on top of a chair in her room and dressed in ordinary clothes.
The angel[?]was not looking particularly at her but just sitting there and it caused her no anxiety to see him and she went back to sleep. No person was there in the morning and no one else had noticed anything unusual.
Of course we cannot build doctrine from such experiences but they do add to our understandings. In fact we are warned to be careful in this area as far as it influences us, as it can never equal scripture itself. [Coll 2.18]
March 18, 2005 at 1:37 am#5722ProclaimerParticipantThere isn't much teaching in the scripture as regards to hell or the place of the wicked dead. But some by revelation have decided that there are different levels of hell. Some say that the worse part is called 'Outer Darkness'.
I am not sure about these things, but my experience seems to be similar to this so-called Outer Darkness, (whatever that is). I knew what it was like to be completely cut off, not only from God, but also from all that is from him (that is good), especially love.
I can assure anyone who thinks God doesn't exist that they would be sorry if they were cut off from his goodness. To them it would be like he didn't exist and they would know no love, goodness, wisdom, and light. Instead they would experience the absense of these things which is terrifying beyond belief. They would then wish that they had God or that God had them in his love.
It's easy for men to say that they don't need God, but they are so ignorant. After this vision, I was struck by how much grace there is toward men, even sinners. We have so much to be thankful for. We shouldn't ignore God. His goodness is all around us.
All love, even from sinners originates in God's love for man. Take that away and there is not joy (enjoyment) or comfort. Just the opposite, intense fear.
March 18, 2005 at 1:43 am#5723ProclaimerParticipantI should also say that even greater than scripture, is the Spirit of Truth. We can be led into all truth even if we were in a place where scripture didn’t exist. If we had scripture and even understanding of it’s teaching, it would be useless if we had not the Spirit of God.All that we are shown in life by the Spirit will line up with scripture. Scripture is important in that it shows us when we err and it teaches us the truth. But without the Spirit it is pointless.As it is written: “The letter kills but the Spirit gives life”. Even the scriptures are nothing but paper and words, without the Spirit of God that is.
March 18, 2005 at 1:50 am#5724NickHassanParticipantHi t8,
I agree we need both to have safety on the path. The Spirit wrote the Word through men anyway. But the spirits must be tested too as many are following religious spirits.
2Thess 1.9
“And these will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, AWAY FROM THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD AND FROM THE GLORY OF HIS POWER”December 20, 2005 at 7:45 pm#11011BastianParticipantQuote (t8 @ Mar. 18 2005,01:43) I should also say that even greater than scripture, is the Spirit of Truth. We can be lead into all truth even if we were in a place where scripture didn't exist. If we had scripture and even understanding of it's teaching, it would be useless if we had not the Spirit of God. All that we are shown in life by the Spirit will line up with scripture. Scripture is important in that it shows us when we err and it teaches us the truth. But without the Spirit it is pointless.
As it is written: “The letter kills but the Spirit gives life”. Even the scriptures are nothing but paper and words, without the Spirit of God that is.
t8,It is so true what you said about the scriptures. I want to share this with you. I find it strange, and amazing at the same time. For study purposes I have six or seven different bible versions. I also have a Greek bible, and the Hebrew Tanakh.
I do not completely trust all of the interpretations from the vulgate with its trinitarian slant. That is why I use the Hebrew bible in my studies. For instance, the Holy Spirit is an it, not he, which is the correct translatian. However, when I read the H.B. the words are dead. The spirit of life is not in them. I think I know why. The Tanakh is dependable as long as it has no relation to Christ. Scripture that obviously points to Jesus as Messiah has been altered.
I am not saying that God ever approves of altering his word. But, I do believe that,”messin with his son” makes Him really
December 21, 2005 at 12:50 am#11012kenrchParticipantQuote (t8 @ Mar. 18 2005,19:43) I should also say that even greater than scripture, is the Spirit of Truth. We can be lead into all truth even if we were in a place where scripture didn't exist. If we had scripture and even understanding of it's teaching, it would be useless if we had not the Spirit of God. All that we are shown in life by the Spirit will line up with scripture. Scripture is important in that it shows us when we err and it teaches us the truth. But without the Spirit it is pointless.
As it is written: “The letter kills but the Spirit gives life”. Even the scriptures are nothing but paper and words, without the Spirit of God that is.
t8,
I should also say that even greater than scripture, is the Spirit of Truth.
If you have the Spirit of truth then scripture would agree with the Holy Spirit.
I believe as long as you stand on this scripture then you can't receive a false spirit. If you ask for the Holy Spirit then that's what the Father will give you. That's what His Word says, and I believe His Word.
Some people say well how do you know that spirit is the Holy Spirit? Because the Word gives me assurance that I have received the Holy Spirit.Rom. 8:16 and:
Luk 11:13 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?Thanks t8 I enjoy reading your posts.
December 28, 2005 at 11:41 am#11029ProclaimerParticipantTo Bastian & kenrch,
thanks for your encouragement.
March 22, 2006 at 3:15 am#11893sandraParticipantI appreciated your sharing and completely understand what you are speaking about for I had a very similar experience while awake. After, I needed to take my daughter out of the crib and hold her and have love flowing through my person again. I had asked for the experience and shall never do so again. Man needs to seek the Lord, while He may stilll be found….Seek and Ye shall find, Knock and the door shall be opened….or they shall beg that the mountains shall fall on them but, they shall not die…..
July 13, 2008 at 9:32 pm#97228Theologian-and-ApologistParticipantThank you for sharing, Hell is a real place and it is not happy at all. I heard Goerge Forman describe how hell was like when he went there temporarily, he said it was the land of broken dreams and sorrows that outnumber anything on earth.
August 22, 2008 at 3:11 pm#102607John3:3ParticipantT8, I was shown a waking vision of Hell in 1978 when I became saved. My experience sounds very close to yours. Total Blackness, Indescribable physical and mental torment and having your concious mind stripped of anything that was ever good, lovely or pure in this world during your lifetime. Only the memory of evil and sin and the realization that there is no more time, just an eternal NOW. Only way I can describe the pain is like every atom of your being is on fire. The pain is so terrible you cannot put it in human terms. Human terms are finite, and the suffering is infinite, because the God that you sinned against is infinite.
The “worm that dieth not” rips at your mind with all the chances to accept Christ in this life that you rejected. Every second of every day you lived was a chance that you had to accept Christ and give him your heart and life.
4 words echo through your mind for eternity “THERE IS NO HOPE”
This terrible fate will never let up, never subside, never cease.
How great and awesome is the foregiveness for our eternal sins that Jesus paid on the cross by his eternal sacrifice!!! We will never fully know in this lifetime I can assure you.
August 22, 2008 at 3:34 pm#102612Not3in1ParticipantWelcome John 3:3!
Your first post is an attention graber! Look forward to hearing more.
Glad that you are here,
MandyAugust 25, 2008 at 9:45 pm#102873John3:3ParticipantQuote (Not3in1 @ Aug. 23 2008,03:34) Welcome John 3:3! Your first post is an attention graber! Look forward to hearing more.
Glad that you are here,
Mandy
Thanks for the welcome Mandy. 2008 marks the 30th year since I became saved and had this vision and it has not faded in my mind all these years. The past 30 years, I have been able to get a lot of questions answered regading Hell by passages in the Bible and by the wisdom that the Holy Spirit has given me. when I accepted Christ, I only knew 1 verse in the Bible, guess which one?I am going to put something down in writing soon about this topic that explains the 5 W's about Hell (Who,Why, Where,What,When)
I hope it will bring some people from the darkness in to the light. Pray for me that God's wisdom directs this effort.
Thanks again,
John3:3 (Chris)
August 26, 2008 at 12:58 am#102897AnonymousGuestLooks like we have a new member! Welcome, I am an old member, but had to renew my membership because of trouble with my computer.
I am looking forward to your post on “Hell”. Do you believe there is one?
Peace and Love IreneAugust 26, 2008 at 6:28 am#102938davidParticipantHere is one of the larger threads on “hell”
August 26, 2008 at 12:04 pm#102994ProclaimerParticipantQuote (John3:3 @ Aug. 23 2008,03:11) T8, I was shown a waking vision of Hell in 1978 when I became saved. My experience sounds very close to yours. Total Blackness, Indescribable physical and mental torment and having your concious mind stripped of anything that was ever good, lovely or pure in this world during your lifetime. Only the memory of evil and sin and the realization that there is no more time, just an eternal NOW. Only way I can describe the pain is like every atom of your being is on fire. The pain is so terrible you cannot put it in human terms. Human terms are finite, and the suffering is infinite, because the God that you sinned against is infinite. The “worm that dieth not” rips at your mind with all the chances to accept Christ in this life that you rejected. Every second of every day you lived was a chance that you had to accept Christ and give him your heart and life.
4 words echo through your mind for eternity “THERE IS NO HOPE”
This terrible fate will never let up, never subside, never cease.
How great and awesome is the foregiveness for our eternal sins that Jesus paid on the cross by his eternal sacrifice!!! We will never fully know in this lifetime I can assure you.
Thanks for sharing that. In my vision, I knew what it was like to experience no love, no light, no hope, and it was truly terrible beyond description. A sort of negative dimension if you can consider our existence a positive one because of God's love and mercy for us.
But I think this torment does end because Death and Hell were thrown into the Lake of Fire, the second death.
This hell is a temporary abode of the wicked, till the Lake of Fire judgement. Then will the saying come to pass that the wicked will perish. “That the wicked shall be destroyed.”
August 26, 2008 at 3:11 pm#103009TiffanyParticipantQuote (t8 @ Aug. 27 2008,00:04) Quote (John3:3 @ Aug. 23 2008,03:11) T8, I was shown a waking vision of Hell in 1978 when I became saved. My experience sounds very close to yours. Total Blackness, Indescribable physical and mental torment and having your concious mind stripped of anything that was ever good, lovely or pure in this world during your lifetime. Only the memory of evil and sin and the realization that there is no more time, just an eternal NOW. Only way I can describe the pain is like every atom of your being is on fire. The pain is so terrible you cannot put it in human terms. Human terms are finite, and the suffering is infinite, because the God that you sinned against is infinite. The “worm that dieth not” rips at your mind with all the chances to accept Christ in this life that you rejected. Every second of every day you lived was a chance that you had to accept Christ and give him your heart and life.
4 words echo through your mind for eternity “THERE IS NO HOPE”
This terrible fate will never let up, never subside, never cease.
How great and awesome is the foregiveness for our eternal sins that Jesus paid on the cross by his eternal sacrifice!!! We will never fully know in this lifetime I can assure you.
Thanks for sharing that. In my vision, I knew what it was like to experience no love, no light, no hope, and it was truly terrible beyond description. A sort of negative dimension if you can consider our existence a positive one because of God's love and mercy for us.
But I think this torment does end because Death and Hell were thrown into the Lake of Fire, the second death.
This hell is a temporary abode of the wicked, till the Lake of Fire judgement. Then will the saying come to pass that the wicked will perish. “That the wicked shall be destroyed.”
t8 You have a good understanding of the Lake of Fire. In Micah it says the the Saints will trample on the Ashes of the wicked. I have often wondered how we will have to clean up the earth after the destruction of the wicked. Will all happen in a twinkling of the eye, or will it take time?
What do you think?
Peace and Love IreneAugust 27, 2008 at 9:11 am#103094ProclaimerParticipantGood question but of course any answer is only speculation on my part.
In order for people to inhabit earth, it might need a quick cleansing process. Sounds to me like the Tribulation period will transform the earth into a death zone. Poisonous water, scorched plants, etc.
But perhaps after the planet is inhabitable, the work begins to rebuild cities etc. That could take time.
The first time round, God made all things and then placed man in paradise. Maybe it won't be so different this time except that there will be more than 2 people to start with.
September 4, 2008 at 5:27 pm#104004John3:3ParticipantQuote (t8 @ Aug. 27 2008,00:04) Quote (John3:3 @ Aug. 23 2008,03:11) T8, I was shown a waking vision of Hell in 1978 when I became saved. My experience sounds very close to yours. Total Blackness, Indescribable physical and mental torment and having your concious mind stripped of anything that was ever good, lovely or pure in this world during your lifetime. Only the memory of evil and sin and the realization that there is no more time, just an eternal NOW. Only way I can describe the pain is like every atom of your being is on fire. The pain is so terrible you cannot put it in human terms. Human terms are finite, and the suffering is infinite, because the God that you sinned against is infinite. The “worm that dieth not” rips at your mind with all the chances to accept Christ in this life that you rejected. Every second of every day you lived was a chance that you had to accept Christ and give him your heart and life.
4 words echo through your mind for eternity “THERE IS NO HOPE”
This terrible fate will never let up, never subside, never cease.
How great and awesome is the foregiveness for our eternal sins that Jesus paid on the cross by his eternal sacrifice!!! We will never fully know in this lifetime I can assure you.
Thanks for sharing that. In my vision, I knew what it was like to experience no love, no light, no hope, and it was truly terrible beyond description. A sort of negative dimension if you can consider our existence a positive one because of God's love and mercy for us.
But I think this torment does end because Death and Hell were thrown into the Lake of Fire, the second death.
This hell is a temporary abode of the wicked, till the Lake of Fire judgement. Then will the saying come to pass that the wicked will perish. “That the wicked shall be destroyed.”
Some people think that there will be an eventual end to the punishment in Hell (generic term I am using for Sheol,Hades,Gehenna), when these are cast into the lake of fire.This is the doctrine of annhilation.When Death and Hell are cast into the lake of fire along with Satan, The Antichrist and the False Prophet, as it mentions in Revelation, my belief is that the temporary holding place for the unrightous dead (Hades,Gehenna,Sheol) will no longer be needed. This does not, however, mean that the Lake of Fire is any less of a punishment or that there will be an end to the torment of the wicked.
Many people have a problem reconciling God's love with the idea that God/Jesus can cast those that reject Jesus into Hell to suffer an unspeakable fate forever.
God is a God of love, no doubt, and he is also a God of Mercy and Justice. Those that have heard the Gospel and still don't accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior by faith alone as the only way to heaven will have rejected God's mercy and foregiveness and only his wrath (Justice) awaits them after they die.
I would like to believe that there will be an eventual end to the suffering that those in Hell/ Lake of Fire will experience, and I wrestled with this for a long tiime after I received the vision of Hell.
The Holy Spirit eventually gave me the wisdom to understand, although it's still diffcult to comprehend, the fact that when we willfully sin against God, even one sin, there can never be a way to pay it off by any amount of suffering in this life or the next. Our mortal minds cannot fully understand how aggregious to God even one sin is.
Look at what the consquences of 1 sin committed in the Garden of Eden has done to mankind for the rest of history. that will give you perhaps a small idea of what I am talking about.
The question that many should be asking God rather than “How could you send a person to Hell to suffer for eternity” should be “Why should ANYONE deserve to go to heaven after sinning against a God that is infinite”
A sin may take only a momemt to commit, but it is a sin against an infinite God and therefore the sin is infinite. That is why man can not “work or suffer off his sins” . Man is a finite creation and sin is an infinite debt.
That is why Jesus Christ,as God incarnate, had to die in our place and why God laid the sin debt for the whole world on Jesus while he was on the cross. The infinite nature of Jesus paid the infinite debt that we cannot pay.
That is why, when one rejects Jesus, he must pay infinitely for his sins. To believe otherwise, gives one hope, even if that hope is for annihlation eventually. In Hell, There is no hope, as I mentioned previously.
September 5, 2008 at 10:47 am#104114theodorejParticipantQuote (John3:3 @ Sep. 05 2008,05:27) Quote (t8 @ Aug. 27 2008,00:04) Quote (John3:3 @ Aug. 23 2008,03:11) T8, I was shown a waking vision of Hell in 1978 when I became saved. My experience sounds very close to yours. Total Blackness, Indescribable physical and mental torment and having your concious mind stripped of anything that was ever good, lovely or pure in this world during your lifetime. Only the memory of evil and sin and the realization that there is no more time, just an eternal NOW. Only way I can describe the pain is like every atom of your being is on fire. The pain is so terrible you cannot put it in human terms. Human terms are finite, and the suffering is infinite, because the God that you sinned against is infinite. The “worm that dieth not” rips at your mind with all the chances to accept Christ in this life that you rejected. Every second of every day you lived was a chance that you had to accept Christ and give him your heart and life.
4 words echo through your mind for eternity “THERE IS NO HOPE”
This terrible fate will never let up, never subside, never cease.
How great and awesome is the foregiveness for our eternal sins that Jesus paid on the cross by his eternal sacrifice!!! We will never fully know in this lifetime I can assure you.
Thanks for sharing that. In my vision, I knew what it was like to experience no love, no light, no hope, and it was truly terrible beyond description. A sort of negative dimension if you can consider our existence a positive one because of God's love and mercy for us.
But I think this torment does end because Death and Hell were thrown into the Lake of Fire, the second death.
This hell is a temporary abode of the wicked, till the Lake of Fire judgement. Then will the saying come to pass that the wicked will perish. “That the wicked shall be destroyed.”
Some people think that there will be an eventual end to the punishment in Hell (generic term I am using for Sheol,Hades,Gehenna), when these are cast into the lake of fire.This is the doctrine of annhilation.When Death and Hell are cast into the lake of fire along with Satan, The Antichrist and the False Prophet, as it mentions in Revelation, my belief is that the temporary holding place for the unrightous dead (Hades,Gehenna,Sheol) will no longer be needed. This does not, however, mean that the Lake of Fire is any less of a punishment or that there will be an end to the torment of the wicked.
Many people have a problem reconciling God's love with the idea that God/Jesus can cast those that reject Jesus into Hell to suffer an unspeakable fate forever.
God is a God of love, no doubt, and he is also a God of Mercy and Justice. Those that have heard the Gospel and still don't accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior by faith alone as the only way to heaven will have rejected God's mercy and foregiveness and only his wrath (Justice) awaits them after they die.
I would like to believe that there will be an eventual end to the suffering that those in Hell/ Lake of Fire will experience, and I wrestled with this for a long tiime after I received the vision of Hell.
The Holy Spirit eventually gave me the wisdom to understand, although it's still diffcult to comprehend, the fact that when we willfully sin against God, even one sin, there can never be a way to pay it off by any amount of suffering in this life or the next. Our mortal minds cannot fully understand how aggregious to God even one sin is.
Look at what the consquences of 1 sin committed in the Garden of Eden has done to mankind for the rest of history. that will give you perhaps a small idea of what I am talking about.
The question that many should be asking God rather than “How could you send a person to Hell to suffer for eternity” should be “Why should ANYONE deserve to go to heaven after sinning against a God that is infinite”
A sin may take only a momemt to commit, but it is a sin against an infinite God and therefore the sin is infinite. That is why man can not “work or suffer off his sins” . Man is a finite creation and sin is an infinite debt.
That is why Jesus Christ,as God incarnate, had to die in our place and why God laid the sin debt for the whole world on Jesus while he was on the cross. The infinite nature of Jesus paid the infinite debt that we cannot pay.
That is why, when one rejects Jesus, he must pay infinitely for his sins. To believe otherwise, gives one hope, even if that hope is for annihlation eventually. In Hell, There is no hope, as I mentioned previously.
Greetings John….You present a frightning scenerio of which there is no hope….I fail to see a loving mercifull God in your depiction of death and hell…of which Iam not sure is opened for business yet….( Hell that is )…”For the dead no nothing”,I would think that scripture means just.. that !
The scripture is saying they know No torment they are just asleep…awaiting a resurection to judgement…At which time all will have an opportunity to know God through Jesus' rule over his kingdom/government of which he will preside as King of Kings and Lord of Lords..There will those who reject Gods government/kingdom,they will be cast into the lake of fire and consumed never to exist again… - AuthorPosts
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