Deep below the surface of the
earth, lies a terrible and forlorn land, a land of the departed, a cursed land
of hopelessness and evil.
It is a land of utter darkness
and unbearable heat. The air is filled aloud with screaming, howling and
wailing. There is nothing good, nothing beautiful, nothing of any value at all.
There is no purpose, no system, no order, nothing but meaninglessness….. The
air is thick with smells more horrible than anything on earth. Toxic smells of
sulfur that would kill any living being constantly invades the nose. Every
breath is a challenge. Every effort to move is immensely difficult. The body is
so weak, so tired, with no strength at all. One can hardly move, hardly crawl. There
is unbearable hunger, like when one hasn’t eaten for many days. The hunger
gnaws and hurts in terrible agony, but even then, worst still is the thirst,
the dreadful unbearable thirst. Even a single drop of water would be so
precious, but there is no water, no water at all in this forsaken land. And
then, there is that intense, dreadful fatigue, like when one hasn’t slept for
days and days on end. But there is no rest, no rest at all in this tormented
place.
Across the horrendous landscape,
there are millions of prison cells in the rock, harsh chambers each harboring
one suffering soul accompanied by foul tormentors. The tormenting demons come
straight out of the worst nightmares. Many have reptilian features. They have deadly,
sharp teeth and claws. Fueled by pure, intense hatred, they mercilessly attack
the prisoners again and again, biting out pieces of flesh, mutilating them, tearing
apart their limbs. The tormented souls long for death but death does not come.
Only incredible pain, only unspeakable fear. After a while, the torture ceases,
only to leave the poor soul with the dreadful anticipation of going through that
all over again very soon, repeating itself again and again for all eternity.
Unspeakably, body parts come back together only to be soon torn apart again.
Even in all the torture, there is no blood, for there is no life, only the pain
of the flesh, again and again and again.
In another part of this forsaken
land, there are small pits of fire for individuals, and larger pits for many. Large
pit or small pit, it does not matter. All there are suffering intolerably in
the flames, as their flesh continually melts away causing unspeakable agony.
Cruelly, there is still some flesh that remains, and that flesh is feasted upon
by indestructible maggots that eat and eat unceasingly.
All across this terrible land and
at different levels are still other sections of torment, with unspeakable
horrors and tortures of different souls according to what they have done.
Some call this land Sheol, Hades,
Neraka, Hell. It does not matter what they call it. What matters is that this
place is real, and it is not temporary! It is forever! Therefore, we need to take
heed, and find out as much as we can on how we can possibly have any chance of
escaping it! Even if there was the
slightest possibility that this place is real, should not every reasonable
person take it most seriously?
Essentially, it is a place where
God has removed His presence and His goodness. The earth is so full of God’s
goodness, and He provides so much good for us that we take for granted. On
earth we can breathe easily without difficulty. We are generally free from foul
smells. We have light to see each other and the beauty of God’s creation in the
skies, the waters, the trees, the animals. We have strength to move about, to
eat, to drink. If we only understood the horrors of hell, no matter what we
faced on earth, we would still be eternally grateful to God!
The Bible says that God is not
willing that anyone should perish. This
dreadful place was not prepared for human souls, but for the devil and his evil
angels. In fact, God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that
whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. After living
a pure and sinless life about 2,000 years ago in Israel, the Son of God, Jesus
Christ gave up His life to be crucified on the cross as the ultimate sacrifice that
would bring salvation from hell to all mankind who would put their faith in
Him. Jesus means Savior, and He came to save us from our sins. If only we
repent from our sins, and put our faith in Him as our Lord and Savior, we move
into His salvation. And you can do this right now, by saying the following prayer
right where you are anywhere on this earth! “Dear Lord Jesus, thank You for
having mercy on me, a sinner. I thank You that You died for My sins on the
cross that I might have eternal life. Please come into my heart to be My Lord
and Savior. In Jesus name, Amen.” Once you pray this prayer, the Lord
Jesus immediately puts His Spirit in your heart and gives You His supernatural
peace. Thereafter, you have God’s promise that He will never leave you or forsake
you as you walk with Him and pray to Him. Friends,
do not put off this decision! Hell is too real for us to take that chance! If
we had a poisonous snake in our bedroom, would we delay in killing it as soon
as possible?
Once we pray to accept Jesus as
Lord and Savior, we move into the ark of salvation, but it is only the
beginning. The ark will take us to the beauty and safety and peace of Heaven,
far away from the dreadful place of suffering. However, once we get on the ark, we must
remain in the ark. Jesus said “I am the vine, you are the branches. Remain in
me, and I will remain in you”. How do we remain in the ark of Jesus? We have to
follow Him and seek to obey Him in living holy lives according to His Word.
Here, it is critically important that we do not try to do this in our own human
strength for we will fail. Instead, we
are to live by the Holy Spirit which Jesus gave us. The Holy Spirit is our
teacher and guide, and we are to listen to His leading and follow Him, and He
also empowers us to live life the way God wants! Also, we are not meant to be
islands, we need to keep in fellowship with other Christian brothers and
sisters who will walk alongside us to encourage us and strengthen us as we walk
the road to Heaven together, which has many challenges and trials.
Also, it is important for us to keep in repentance, that is to keep on
turning away from sin as we continue to live on earth. This does not mean
we do not sin, but sin must not continue to be a lifestyle for us. As we walk
closely with Jesus, and the Holy Spirit makes us aware of certain sins, we need
to ask God to forgive us and turn away from those sins, and the blood of Jesus
will cleanse us from sin. If we deliberately turn away from God and choose to
go back to sinful living, there is no more sacrifice for sins left, and we step
out of the ark, in danger of falling down the slippery slope to the horrors of
hell again! We need to persevere in our pursuit of righteousness, continuing to
pray and set our hearts to follow Christ sincerely. In the Christian life,
there is a process of overcoming, and if we don’t give up, we will ultimately
overcome and receive eternal life when we reach our destination!
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