23 minutes in hell (6 page)

17. Comfort, “Hell’s Best Kept Secret,” 73.

18. “And it is the Spirit who bears witness… ” (1 John 5:6).

19. “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness” (Gen. 1:26). “All those who hate me love death” (Prov. 8:36). “Do I not hate them, O LORD, who hate You?” (Ps. 139:21). “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you” (John 15:18). Hating God or people has a demonic influence.

20. “The thief [devil] does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). “Jesus of Nazareth… went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil” (Acts 10:38). See also Proverbs 3:2; 19:23.

21. “In My name they will cast out demons” (Mark 16:17). “Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you” (Luke 10:19). “He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4).

22. “… the love of Christ which passes knowledge” (Eph. 3:19). See also John 3:16.

23. “But for him who is joined to all the living there is hope” (Eccles. 9:4).

24. “Those who go down to the pit cannot hope for Your truth” (Isa. 38:18). “When a wicked man dies, his expectation will perish, and the hope of the unjust perishes” (Prov. 11:7). “… that at that time you were without Christ… having no hope and without God in the world” (Eph. 2:12). “So are the paths of all who forget God; and the hope of the hypocrite shall perish” (Job 8:13).

25. Billy Graham, “Angels: God’s Secret Agents” (Nashville, TN: W Publishing Group, 2000), 75.

26. “Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men” (2 Cor. 5:11). “For there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5).

Chapter 4

The Return

I looked down and could see the curve of the earth.[1] It was absolutely breathtaking. As a child, I was always interested in outer space. In fact, for a time I wanted to become an astronomer. Like many young boys, I had always desired to see the earth from space. Now, here the earth was before my eyes, so big, and it just hung there “on nothing” (Job 26:7).[2] I could feel God’s power, and I knew that everything was so perfectly in His control.[3] The earth was turning so precisely, not varying even one mile per hour. The vast oceans are held within their boundaries, never spilling over onto the land, not moving past His command.[4] The earth exhibits His absolute power and control. And not only the earth is in His perfect control, but also the entire universe, with all its planets and stars, is fully in His control.[5] Yet not one sparrow “falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will,” and “the very hairs of your head are all numbered” (Matt. 10:29–30). The expanse of His great power is simply inconceivable.

With all that power, it is a good thing that He is a good and loving God.[6] If you give most people a little earthly power, they become prideful, overconfident, and less compassionate. Yet God has all power, and still He “is love.” That doesn’t mean that everything that happens on the earth is His will. However, it does mean that everything is within His knowledge and control. For that very reason, as Christians we need to pray that “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt: 6:10).

As Jesus and I began moving toward the earth, the continents came into view. I remember the moment when we reentered the atmosphere. I know that reentering the earth’s atmosphere is an extremely complicated ordeal for astronauts, and I sensed when we passed through that barrier.

I believe that anyone viewing Earth from space would have a difficult time denying a Creator. My parents lived near Cape Canaveral, Florida, and would host astronauts in their home on occasion. Indeed, many of them had become Christians after going to space and seeing God’s creation.

I was reminded of God’s loving-kindness. He knows the most intimate details of our lives, yet He oversees the universe. As a child, I grew up watching “Star Trek” and, as I mentioned, had always dreamed of seeing space. It is amazing to me that the Lord would remember even so small a thing as my childhood desire and allow me to experience space—with Him!

We sped toward California and quickly made our way to my home. As we hovered over the house, I could see through the roof. As I looked into the living room I was startled to see my body lying on the living room floor.

I could hardly believe it was me. I thought, “No, this is the real me.” Immediately that scripture came to mind where Paul said, “For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2 Cor. 5:1). My experience was comparable to getting out of your car, then standing back and looking at it. It’s not you; it’s just a vehicle to carry you around. My body lying there looked so temporal, and my life seemed so short. My life span seemed as short to me as the time it takes for steam to escape from a teakettle. It quickly vanishes away.[7] During this experience, I had an understanding of eternity and a greater sense of what was important to God. Sometimes, what we may think is so very important is not really important at all.

I remember passing through the roof and into my living room. As I approached my body, I seemed to be drawn back into it. It was at that time that the Lord left. Immediately, the horrors of hell came back into my mind. You see, as long as the Lord was with me, the fear and torments of hell left me.[8] But when He left, the fear returned.

I started screaming and lay there in a traumatized state. I’m sure you have heard of someone in a war situation going into trauma, or a car accident causing the victim severe shock. Well, hell is far worse than any horror the earth could produce. It was far beyond what anyone could bear. The human body cannot hold up under all that terror. The well-known expression “He died of fright” is entirely possible for anyone who retains the memories of hell. My cries were loud enough to reach the bedroom and wake my wife up from a deep sleep.

I will let Annette give you her perspective of that night.

Annette’s Story

I woke up to screams coming from down the hallway. My first reaction was to look to my right to see if Bill was there beside me in bed. He wasn’t. I turned to my left and looked at the digital clock, and noticed that it was 3:23 a.m. I got out of bed and walked down the hallway to the living room where I found Bill in a fetal position with his hands grasping at the sides of his head. His breathing was erratic, and he was screaming, “I feel like I’m going to die!” I thought he was having a heart attack.

I asked him, “What’s wrong?”

He screamed, “THE LORD TOOK ME TO HELL. PRAY FOR ME! PRAY THAT THE LORD WILL TAKE THE FEAR FROM MY MIND!”

I had never seen him this way. Bill is a reserved, calm person. For all those who know him, they would tell you he is very even-tempered, steady, and consistent, and has been so all his life. So for Bill to be out of control and traumatized like that is completely against his nature.

It took a few seconds to process the shock of what I had heard. Although shocked, I felt a sense of peace inside, and I believed Bill completely. I felt a sense of relief in knowing that he wasn’t having a heart attack. In my heart, I knew he’d be OK. I started to pray. After a short while, Bill began to calm down and regain his composure. His screaming subsided, his breathing returned to normal, and he was able to gather his thoughts. He asked me for a glass of water.

My Story Continues

I remember being amazed as I looked at the water in the glass Annette handed to me. It was life in a glass. I gulped it down and asked for another—I never wanted to be thirsty again.[9] After the second glass was finished, my wife and I returned to the bedroom. As we sat up in bed, I began to tell her what happened. I mentioned that somehow I was aware the time was 3:00 a.m., now November 23, when I left our home. After she prayed for me, God left the memories of my experience with me, but without the horror. I’m thankful that He did.

If the Lord had not taken the horror of those memories with the pain and suffering from me, I know I would have died. A person cannot live with such horror in his mind. Even natural tragedies often take years, even decades for the pain to subside to where people can look back and talk about their situations without turmoil.

I am reminded of a friend, Jake Greenwald, who is a survivor of the USS “Indianapolis,” which was sunk in the Pacific Ocean during World War II.[10] Approximately nine hundred men were left drifting in the ocean for five days without lifeboats. Approximately six hundred of the men were eaten alive by sharks. Jake has shared with me the horror that he endured as he heard the screams of his fellow crewmen during the night as they were being eaten one by one. Though he survived the sharks, the severe sunburn and salt water literally split Jake’s back and legs open. The experience was so traumatic that it took him more than fifty years to finally talk about it.

I truly thank God that it didn’t take me years, or even days, to recover from my visit to hell. In an instant, God removed the fear and left the memory so that I could retell the story to others. Although I was no longer bearing the emotional distress, I was completely exhausted. The fatigue was greater than any I have ever experienced in my life.

Even so, the next day, I wanted to call everyone I knew who didn’t believe in hell and make them listen to me. I knew that I needed to rest and allow myself to recover, but I had to alert them. It wasn’t just my friends and family, either. I wanted to do that with everyone. In fact, it took the next year for me to settle down.

I didn’t want a single person to go where I had been. I woke up each morning thinking I had to warn people, and I went to bed each night wondering whom I might have missed that day. Everywhere I went, I would look at people and think, “I wonder how many of them are going to hell.[11] I must find a way to tell them about Jesus.”

During the next year, there were times when I would get irritated with people who say they don’t believe in Jesus, heaven, or hell. When you know the truth, you want so desperately to convince others that hell is real and that Jesus is their only way out. Sometimes I would simply run short of patience, because I know where they are going if they don’t listen. It is not just that I am anxious to talk to others because of my experience—it’s also because of what God says in His Word. That is what counts. I do not get upset at the people themselves but at how hard it is to persuade them of the truth.

“It is our bounden duty to warn sinners of their fearful peril. To remain silent is criminal.”[12]

—A. W. Pink

To give an analogy, try to imagine how you would feel if you were sitting beside a pool and saw a tanker truck pull up with some evil-looking men in it. The men got out of the truck and began to drain the pool water to about half-full. Then they filled it back up with another liquid from the large truck. However, it’s not water—it’s acid! You watch the men throw a wooden board into the pool, and the board immediately disintegrates. Obviously, these men are planning on killing whoever jumps into the seemingly harmless pool.

Then the men drive away. A few minutes later, some children come running up to the pool to swim. You immediately scream and warn them of the acid in the water, but they don’t believe you. You desperately yell, telling them to stay out of the pool. However, the water looks great to them—it’s inviting. How frustrated you would be! You couldn’t let them jump in, even if they insisted. You would feel compelled to do whatever it took to save them.

I am reminded of a day when I received a call from an elderly lady who was considering selling her house. She asked me to come over to talk with her about it. She said she wanted to sell right away because she was ill.

I told her, “Why don’t you wait until you’re feeling a bit better and not make such a big decision while under the stress of cancer surgery?”

She then agreed to wait. In talking with her, since she seemed so close to death, I asked her if she knew Jesus. She said, “I don’t believe in all that Bible fairy-tale stuff.”

I tried my best to convince her not to take a chance on her eternity. She said she thought it was all silly and told me to keep my beliefs to myself. I left with a feeling of deep sorrow. She appeared so frail and sickly that I felt she wouldn’t live much longer.

The next morning she was dead. I felt such anguish for her soul. If she rejected God’s last efforts due to her hardened heart, I knew that she would now be in that terrible place.

It’s frustrating to hear someone say, “I don’t believe in that Bible stuff. If there is a God, He would never send someone to such a horrible place.” Well, He doesn’t! He doesn’t want anyone to go there—ever. He gave His life so that we might live.[13]

Here’s a bit of irony. On one hand, I was almost obsessed with warning people about hell and wanted to tell everyone how to avoid it. However, at the same time, I didn’t want to tell anyone about my personal “visit” there or about the time I spent with the Lord. Words cannot express what it was like to be in His presence. I suppose I felt somewhat like I was protecting a treasure.

For three months I kept it to myself, except for sharing it with my mother and one close friend.

Chapter 4 Notes

1. “It is He who sits above the circle of the earth” (Isa. 40:22). Isaiah was written in approximately 750 B.C., and yet man thought the world was flat until the time of Christopher Columbus.

2. “He made the worlds… upholding all things by the word of His power” (Heb. 1:2–3).

3. “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth” (Matt. 28:18).

4. “…when He assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters would not transgress His command” (Prov. 8:29). “You have set all the borders of the earth” (Ps. 74:17).

5. “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork” (Ps. 19:1).

6. “God is love” (1 John 4:16).

7. “For my days are consumed like smoke” (Ps. 102:3). “What is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away” (James 4:14).