part 2:
We are given the freedom to choose between evil and good, between God’s will and our own. God is simply honoring our choices — and allowing us to face the consequences.
One of the things I was told years ago is that hell is simply being separated from the presence of God for all of eternity. But according to Revelation 14:10–11, that is not a true statement in the way most people understand it.
None of us can fully comprehend what the absence of God in our lives would mean. Regardless of whether we credit His existence or not, “in him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28), and “by him all things consist” (Colossians 1:17). Existence without His sustaining presence is horrifying. But we don’t have to imagine anything; the Bible presents us with that reality:
And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. (Revelation 14:11)
God is experienced by those in hell in two very terrible ways: First, He is present as a witness, along with the holy angels:
And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand,
The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb.(Revelation 14:9–10) [emphasis added]
Second, He is there in the memory of the damned. One of the greatest torments for them will be to remember how God spoke to them continually, in the depths of their hearts, telling them “This is the way; walk ye in it” (Isaiah 30:21). And they will remember that they refused to listen to Him. In hell, people aren’t able to “get away” from God. They rejected and denied His all-loving presence for every second of every minute of their lives on earth, and must exist, riddled with regret, for every second of eternity.
But over and over, God has clearly said we are choosing. For example:
He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. (John 3:18)
For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. (1 Corinthians 11:31)
God is the glory of heaven and the terror of hell. It is the wrath of God that makes hell hell. If you wind up in hell, you end up being away from the glory of the Lord — His goodness — but you will never get away from His wrath.
Some people think Satan is in charge of hell, but Satan is a defeated foe and isn’t in charge of anything. God is always in charge! He is the sovereign ruler over all of heaven and earth — and hell. Hell is not a kingdom for Satan to rule, or a place for people to party. It is a place of eternal punishment.
The worst part of hell is not the torment, but that the torment will never end. If you are one of those rejecting the truth of God, it will be a fearful thing for you to stand before God one day. Picture the scene as portrayed by the prophet and apostle, John:
And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.
Some people think Satan is in charge of hell, but Satan is a defeated foe and isn’t in charge of anything.
And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:11–15)
The first death is when our soul separates from our body. At that moment, if we are believing in and loving God, our soul also will go to be with God. Paul wrote when pondering the inevitability of his own death:
We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. (2 Corinthians 5:8)
The second death happens at the last judgment, when a soul who didn’t go to be with God, and who has been in hell until then, is formally sentenced along with the rest of condemned mankind to separation from the all-loving presence of God and goes into the lake of fire for eternity.
We will all experience the first death, but how can you and I make sure that we don’t experience the second death? We will see very shortly what determines the difference between eternal life in heaven and eternal suffering in hell. You will want to be sure you never go anywhere near there for even ten seconds, let alone for ten-million-plus years.
“It’s Not Safe to Die”
I talked with a young man one day who mentioned that he had been injured and wound up on an emergency-room operating table. He said his heart had stopped beating and, as his soul rose up out of his body, immediately the sense of an evil presence began to come over him and he could hear an evil hissing laughter. He told me he was so glad to get back into his body and be alive! He now knows how real evil is.
A respiratory nurse who works in an emergency room told me about a patient who had gone “code red” — he flat-lined. She and some other medical personnel rushed over with the defibrillator to try to bring him back to life. They applied the paddles and revived him. She said that he started screaming and shouting, “The heat, the heat!” Then his heart stopped again. They brought him back a second time. He shouted, “The flames, the flames!” They lost him again. Four times the man flat-lined and was brought back, each time shouting about the heat or the flames. After the last time, he died and they couldn’t bring him back. She said all the doctors and nurses just stood there for a few minutes and stared at the body. They all knew that man went to hell. He was screaming it to them before he even got out of here.
I have met several people (all in a non-drug and non-alcohol-induced state) who experienced a burning hell rather than being with Jesus, or the typical “tunnel and white light” scenario. So don’t believe that sweetness-and-light near-death stories are the only kind people report.
Dr. Maurice Rawlings, a cardiologist, has witnessed numerous patients during and after their near-death experiences and reported his findings inBeyond Death’s Door. After interviewing 300 patients immediately after resuscitation, Dr. Rawlings says that nearly half of them reported seeing a lake of fire, devil-like figures, and other sights reflecting the reality of hell. “There is a life after death,” Rawlings said, “and if I don’t know where I’m going, it’s not safe to die.”
He also discovered that when patients who had described their experiences in hell vividly were asked about those experiences a few days later, they couldn’t recall them.
This may explain why many researchers find only “good cases.” He believes some patients change their story because they’re embarrassed to admit where they’ve been, even to their families, while those who had heavenly visions remember and report the details.
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So don’t get a false sense of security that what follows death is always a pleasant thing. Hell is a very real place — one that you really don’t want to go to when you die.
Voltaire, the famous French author, philosopher, and atheist, was once asked if he would say something to comfort a friend who was dying. Voltaire responded, “I don’t think I can do that. The thought that there might really be a hell plagues me continually.”
Yes or no, do The Beasts spoken of in John’s visions do signs?
