If you have not done so, I encourage you to view and read some of the many testimonies of people who have either experienced Hell or had a vision of Hell. They are very compelling and believable. Assuming that these experiences/visions are from God, how does one reconcile them with the Biblical concept of Universal Reconciliation, the belief that ultimately every knee bows and every tongue confesses that Jesus is Lord? For example:
The History Channel did a documentary on the sin of “Anger”, one of the “Seven Deadly Sins” series. A pastor shared how he was an angry, rage-filled man, an atheist, who died momentarily in the hospital while recovering from surgery. When he died he felt like he was in a semi-conscious vision-type state and he found himself walking through the hospital asking for directions. Some people led him from the hospital and suddenly turned into demons and began savagely beating him.
He quickly realized that these demons were of his own making; they were sins that had ruled his life for years! The abuse that he had leveled against people, even his own wife and children, was coming back to haunt him! Words could not describe how terrible the experience was. In the midst of excruciating torment of his soul, he instinctively cried out to God for help even though he was an avowed atheist. A light appeared, a hand reached down and delivered him, and he found himself waking in the hospital, alive. Not only did he come back to life, but he had also undergone a significant change; he had come to have faith in Christ, was born of the Spirit, and was delivered from rage and anger. It was a powerful, moving, testimony.
On a forum on which I participate, the Evangelical Universalist, is the testimony of brother who died and went to Hell (http://www.evangelicaluniversalist.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=1056). He apparently overdosed on drugs and while in the ambulance died for a few minutes. During this time he woke up in Hell smelling burnt flesh, seeing the lake of burning sulfur, and hearing “terrible voices”. He was only there for a moment but it shattered his “annihilationist / soul-mortality cosmology to pieces”, the belief that this life is all there is. He subsequently awoke with a hunger to know the salvation of Christ and was later saved, born again when he repented of his sins and turned to Christ in faith.
Another very interesting testimony is from a lady who was saved while she was dead and in Hell. It was recorded several years ago on The 700 Club with Pat Robertson and Ben Kinchlow. (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6477673356766932160#docid=-122696815623730111) Jesus not only saved her from Hell, but restored her to life, directing her to leave the Mormon Church and seek Jesus Christ and the cross or she would continue to exist in Hell indefinitely.
The first testimony of Hell I ever heard was Mary K. Baxter’s book “A Divine Revelation of Hell” (http://www.nowsthetime.org/revelation.html), a sobbering account of many visions/experiences she had of Hell though she was a believer.
Bill Weise also shares his vision of Hell in his book/video “23 Minutes in Hell.” As you can imagine, it is a long testimony. His testimony can be viewed on various web sites if you are interested. He was a realtor, a committed Christian but not a pastor or theologian. After one Sunday night service, while he was asleep, around 3:00 in the night he suddently felt like he was dropped into a cell with stone walls and bars on the doors. He had no strength and 2 huge reptillian creatures that were filled with hatred for God and were cursing God began torturing him. Terrible heat, wanting just a drop of water, flesh being torn off and regrowing only to be torn off again, an eerie heavy darkness, air so putrid you don’t want to breath but can’t help but breath, and yet no oxygen in the air, complete isolation, no sleep, no strength, exhaustion, no hope, only torment! If you haven’t seen his testimony, I encourage you to watch it. It is very sobering.
If one does an internet search on Hell, the number of people who have experienced Hell is overwhelming! People from all demographics, the rich, the poor, Christians, non-Christians, of all races have experienced Hell to one degree or another. How then can this be reconciled with the scriptures that speak of the salvation of all humanity, the reconciliation of all creation? If these people truly experienced Hell, how can one still believe that Jesus is truly the savior of all humanity, especially we who believe? How can it be true that every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God? How are these visions/experiences to be understood and interpreted in the light of scripture that affirms the reconciliation of all creation (Col.1:20), the salvation of all humanity (Rom.5:18, 1 Cor.15:22, 1 Tim.4:10)?
A key factor in understanding these experiences/visions is to recognize the positive changes that were accomplished in each person. In the first example, the atheist came to faith in Christ, was born of the Spirit, and delivered from the besetting sins of rage and abuse through his experience, even while he was physically dead. In the second story, a drug addict, after coming back from Hell to life was motivated to seek out salvation, a real relationship with Jesus! In the story of the lady caught up in Mormonism, though physically dead and in Hell she was rescued from Hell by Jesus, warned to forsake Mormonism or continue in Hell, and was brought back to life a changed person.
In fact, salvation was the result of all of the testimonies I read or heard in my research of people who have experienced Hell. Atheists, drug addicts, violent people, those caught up in cults and false religions experienced Hell, but it led to their salvation. Some came to faith in Christ and experienced deliverance from Hell and salvation while they were dead. Others came back to life with a passion to seek out truth and freedom and ultimately came to have faith in Christ after returning to life from Hell. Salvation was the result of these experiences.
In Mary K. Baxter’s and Bill Weise’s testimonies they were already believers, saved, and filled with the Holy Spirit. They did not need salvation but apparently needed to be motivated to share the Gospel. The vision filled them with an overwhelming compassion for those who do not know Jesus and a passion to share with them the good news of God’s love that would deliver them from Hell. Sharing their vision has both brought many unbelievers to salvation in Christ and, even more so, it has motivated other believers to have an urgency in sharing the Gospel!
As I have considered these testimonies, I have come to believe that these people did experience the reality of Hell, separation from God and eternal, seemingly endless, torment. However, these visions of Hell are not visions of what “will be” and “will always be”, but visions of what “are”. Hell is a “present” reality. Many people are “currently” separated from the love of God, do not have a relationship with God, and are oppressed by all manner of evil forces from within and without.
People are presently being harrassed, tortured by demons of their own making and the making of those around them - emotional, psychological, and spiritual patterns of life that are very destructive. Separation from God is their current state of existence. And that state of existance will continue to get darker and darker, hotter and hotter, more and more evident until they recognize their need of God, call out to Him and receive a revelation of the love of God as revealed in Jesus!
I call this the "present reality of Hell", the reality that because of the sin of Adam and our sins people are presently separated from the love of God, presently bound in sin, presently tormented by evil, presently living in the darkness of hatred, unforgiveness, rage, depression, etc. It is a present seemingly hopeless and seemingly unending reality! People are consumed by the fire of their lusts and conveteousness right now!
One person who was saved while dead and in Hell explained that he has come to understand Heaven and Hell as plains of existance that "transcend time", “eternal realities”. He explained that in this temporal life, everything relates to time, but in eternity nothing relates to time, it just "IS". Thus when he was in Hell, he was in Hell eternally, having no concept of time and no hope that things would ever change. How long was he in Hell? Forever! And yet from our temporal perspective he was only dead for minutes. So though he experienced the eternal, time-transcending, forever, essence of Hell, he also experienced the salvation of Christ, was born of the Spirit, and now is in Christ restored in relationship with God.
One might ask whether or not there are any examples in scripture of people experiencing "Hell" and being saved. The answer is yes, though they are easily overlooked.
In the Old Testament, Jonah rejected the call of God to warn Ninevah of empending dome calling them to repentance. He took a boat in the opposite direction from Ninevah and due to an unnatural storm was eventually cast into the sea where he died, went to Sheol, the realm of the dead. The KJV actually translates Jonah 2:2 saying, “I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and He heard me; out of the belly of Hell cried I, and Thou heardest my voice.” Wow! Jonah died, went to Hell (Sheol, Hades, the realm of the dead), was “afflicted”, tormented, cried out to God, and God saved him, restored Jonah’s life and even put him back on track to fulfill his calling. How gracious, merciful, and forgiving is our God!
And in the New Testament, Peter speaks of Jesus preaching the Gospel to the most wicked generation of people ever to live, the people who refused salvation under the ministry of Noah and died. Jesus preached the Gospel to them while in “prison … so they could live in the spirit as God lives” (1 Pet.4:6 NCV).
In conclusion, from the testimonies I have reviewed, the apparent purpose and result of people experiencing "Hell" is Salvation, NOT Damnation! Jesus has the keys of death, Hades, and the grave; and Jesus came to set the captives free! When we physically die, we shed this flesh and enter the full reality of our current spiritual state of being. If a person is alive in Christ, we see the Lord in all of His glory. If the person is not alive in Christ he comes into the full reality of his current separation from God, calls on God, and is raised to spiritual life from spiritual death.
I have come to believe that Hell, as these people experienced it, is not a place where people end up, but it is a present spiritual reality, a present spiritual state of being! People do not die and go to Hell; rather, they are currently in Hell. Due to unbelief and a lack of faith they are spiritually cut off from the love, forgiveness, righteousness, freedom, goodness, joy, peace of God – right now. In this present life the experience of the present spiritual reality of Hell is mitigated by our existance in flesh. And when such people physically die they are exposed, experience, the full, unmitigated terror of their spiritual separation from God; they experience the full torment of being separated from the light, the life, the love, the hope, the joy, the peace of God.
This lines up wonderfully with what Paul said that Jesus came to free us from. Note what he wrote in Galatians 1:3-4 "Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen."
Jesus died for us to "rescue us from the present evil age!" Scripture does not say that Jesus died for us to save us from "Hell" as it is commonly understood; rather, Jesus died to rescue us from the present reality of being separated from God, slaves to sin, and oppressed by demonic bondage, this present evil age, what I call "the present reality of Hell"! Jesus died so that we will be reconciled to God, if not in this life, the one to come. Jesus died so that we can be restored into right relationship with God and one another NOW!
