Hell is Real

The most
interesting case of resuscitation that ever came to
my knowledge was that of George Lennox, a notorious horse thief
of Jefferson County. He was serving his second term. Sedgwick
County sent him to prison the first time for a similar offence -
stealing horses. During the winter of 1887 and 1888 he worked in
the coal mines. The place where he was labouring seemed
dangerous. He reported the fact to the officer, who made an
examination, and, deciding it was safe, ordered Lennox back to
work. Lennox, continued his work less than an hour, when the roof
fell in and buried him.

He remained there two hours. Missed at meal time, a search was
made and he was found under this heap of rubbish. Life extinct,
he was taken to the top, and examined by the prison physician and
pronounced dead. His remains were carried to the hospital where
he was dressed, preparatory for internment. His coffin was
brought to the hospital. The chaplain arrived to perform the last
rites for burial.

Two prisoners were ordered to lift the corpse and place it in
the coffin, one at the head, and the other at the feet. They were
half way across the room when the one at the head stumbled, lost
his balance, and dropped the corpse. The dead mans head struck
the floor, and to the utter astonishment of all, a deep groan was
heard, then his eyes opened. The physician arrived thirty minutes
later, to find the dead man drinking a cup of water.

The coffin was removed along with his burial robes and the
prison garb substituted. On examination he was found to have a
leg broken. He was in hospital till returning to work. As a
reporter, and rompted by curiosity, I longed to meet Lennox to
hear his story. At last the opportunity came. I was detailed to
the prison offices, when he passed by the office door. I asked
him to come see me, and he told me his story.

Lennox was a young man, less than thirty, a hardened criminal,
very educated and naturally bright. He said, "I had a feeling
something terrible was going to happen. I went to my mining boss
Mr. Grayson, and asked him to examine my area where I was digging
coal. He came and made a thorough examination, saying there was
no danger, and that I was going, ‘cranky.’ I returned
to work, and had been digging for near an hour, when suddenly, it
grew very dark. Then a great iron door swung open and I passed
through it. The thought came to my mind I was dead and in another
world. I could see no one, nor hear sound of any kind.

From some cause unknown to myself, I started to move away from
the door, and had travelled some distance when I came to the
banks of a broad river. It was not dark, neither was it light.
There was about as much light as on a bright, starlit night. I
had not remained on the banks of this river long when I heard the
sound of oars in the water, and a person in a boat rowed to where
I was standing. I was speechless. Looking at me he said he had
come for me, telling me to get into the boat and row to the other
side. I obeyed. Not a word was spoken. I longed to ask who he
was, and where I was. My tongue clung to the roof of my mouth. I
could not speak. We reached the opposite shore. I got out of the
boat, and the boatman vanished. Looking out before me, I saw two
roads which led through a dark valley. One of these was a broad
road and seemed well travelled, the other was a narrow path
leading in another direction.

I instinctively followed the well-beaten road, it grew darker,
however a light would flash up from the distance, and this lit
the pathway. Then I was met by a being. It was impossible to
describe his dreadful appearance. He resembled a man somewhat,
but much larger than any human being I ever saw, at least ten
feet high.

He had great wings on his back. He was black as the coal I had
been digging, and in a nude condition. He had a spear in his
hand, which must have been fifteen feet long. His eyes like balls
of fire. His teeth, white as pearl, were fully an inch long. His
nose, if you could call it a nose, was large, broad and flat. His
hair, very coarse, long and heavy, hung down upon his massive
shoulders. His voice sounded more like the growls of an animal
than any language I can recall.

It was during one of the flashes of light that I first saw
him. I trembled at the sight. He had his spear raised at me. I
stopped. With that terrible voice I seem to hear yet, he bade me
follow, saying he had been sent to guide me on my journey. I
followed. What else could I do? After he had gone some distance a
large mountain appeared to rise before us. The part facing us
seemed perpendicular, just as if a mountain had been cut in two
and one part had been taken away. On this wall, I could
distinctly see these words, ‘This is Hell.’

My guide approached this perpendicular wall, and with his
spear handle gave three loud knocks. A large massive door swung
back and we passed in. I was then conducted on through what
appeared to be a passage through this mountain.

For some time we travelled in darkness. I could hear the heavy
footsteps of my guide and so I followed. All the way I heard deep
groans as of one dying. These groans increased. I could
distinctly hear the cry "water, water, water." Coming now to
another gateway, and, passing through, I could hear, it seemed, a
million voices, and the cry was for water.

Another large door opened at the knock of my guide, and we had
passed through the mountain. Now a broad plain lay before me.
Here my guide left me to direct other lost spirits to the same
destination. I remained in this open plain for a time, when a
being somewhat similar to the first came to me, but instead of a
spear he had a huge sword.

He told me of my doom. He spoke with a voice that struck
horror to my soul. "You are in hell - for you all hope is gone.
As you passed through the mountain on your way here, you heard
the groans and shrieks of the lost as they called for water to
cool their parched tongues. Along that passage there is a door
that opens into the lake of fire. This is soon to be your doom.
Before you are conducted to this place of torment, never more to
emerge as there is no hope for those who enter there, you are
permitted to remain in this open plain, where it is granted to
the lost to behold what they might have enjoyed instead of what
they must suffer."

With this I was left alone. Whether the result of the terror
through which I had passed I know not, but now I became
stupified. Anguish took hold of my being. My strength departed
from me. My limbs no longer supported my body. Overcome, I sank
down a helpless mess. Drowsiness took control of me. Half awake,
half asleep, I seemed to dream.

Far above me, in the distance, I saw the Beautiful City of
which we read in the Bible. How amazingly beautiful were its
walls of jasper. Stretching out and away in the distance, I saw
vast plains covered with beautiful flowers. I, too, beheld the
river of life and the sea of glass. Vast multitudes of angels
would pass in and out through the gates of the city, singing,
such beautiful songs. Among the number I saw my dear old mother,
who died a few years ago of a broken heart because of my
wickedness. She looked toward me and seemed to beckon me to her,
but I could not move. There appeared to be a great weight upon me
that held me down. Now a gentle breeze wafted the fragrance of
those lovely flowers toward me, and I could now more plainly than
ever, hear the sweet melody of angelic voices, and I said, "Oh,
that I could be one of them."

As I was drinking from this cup of bliss it was suddenly
dashed from my lips. I was aroused from my slumbers. I was
brought back from happy dreamland by an inmate of my dark abode,
who said that it was now time to enter upon my future career. He
bade me follow him. Retracing my steps I again entered the dark
passageway, and followed my guide for a time, when we came to a
door that opened in the side of the passage, and going along
this, we finally found ourselves passing through another door,
and lo! I beheld the lake of fire.

Just before me I could see, as far as the eye could reach,
that literal lake of fire and brimstone. Huge billows of fire
would roll over each other, and great waves of fiery flame would
dash against each other and leap high in the air like the waves
of the sea during a violent storm. On the crest of the waves I
could see human beings rise, but soon to be carried down again to
the lowest depths of this awful lake of fire. When borne on the
crest of these awful billows their curses against a just God were
appalling, and their pitiful cries for water was heart-rending.
This vast region of fire echoed and reechoed with the wails of
these lost spirits.

Presently I turned my eyes to the door through which I had a
few moments before entered, and I read these awful words,
‘This is thy doom; Eternity never ends.’ Shortly I
began to feel the earth give way under my feet, and I soon found
myself sinking down into the lake of fire. An indescribable
thirst for water now seized upon me. And calling for water my
eyes opened in the hospital prison.

I passed through all of this, and I am convinced as I am that
I live, that there is a Heaven and there is a Hell, and a regular
old-fashioned Hell, the kind the Bible talks about. But there is
one thing certain, I am never going to that place. As soon as I
opened my eyes in the hospital and found that I was alive and on
earth once more, I immediately gave my heart to God and I am
going to live and die a Christian.

While the terrible sights of Hell can never be banished from
my memory, neither can the beautiful things of Heaven I saw. I am
going to meet my dear old mother after awhile. To be permitted to
sit down on the banks of that beautiful river, to wander with
those angels across the plains, through the vales and over the
hills carpeted with fragrant flowers, the beauty of which far
surpasses anything that mortals can imagine- to listen to the
songs of the saved - all this will more than compensate me for
living the life of a sacrificial Christian here on earth."

Several years ago a book was published, entitled Beyond
Death’s Door by Dr. Maurice Rawlings. Dr. Rawlings, a
specialist in Internal Medicine and Cardiovascular Disease,
resuscitated many people who had been clinically dead. Dr.
Rawlings, a devout atheist, considered all religion
‘hocus-pocus’ and death nothing more than a
‘painless extinction.’

But something happened in 1977 that brought a dramatic change
in the life of Dr. Rawlings! He was resuscitating a man,
terrified and screaming. Each time he regained heartbeat and
respiration, the patient screamed, "I am in hell!" "He was
terrified and pleaded with me to help him. I was scared to
death," Rawlings said. "Then I noticed a genuinely alarmed look
on his face. He had a terrified look worse than the expression
seen in death! This patient had a grotesque grimace expressing
sheer horror! His pupils were dilated, and he was perspiring and
trembling. His hair was standing ‘on end.’"

Then another strange thing happened. He said, "Don’t you
understand? I am in hell. . . Don’t let me go back to
hell!" "The man was serious, and it finally occurred to me that
he was indeed in trouble. He was in a panic like I had never seen
before." (Maurice Rawlings, Beyond Death’s Door,[Thomas
Nelson Inc., 1979] p. 3). Dr. Rawlings said, "No one, who could
have heard his screams and saw the look of terror on his face
could doubt for a single minute that he was actually in a place
called hell!"

The Bible continually warns of a place called hell. There are
over 162 references in the New Testament alone which warn of
hell. And over 70 of these references were uttered by the Lord!
In Luke 16, Jesus gives a frightening picture of hell: "The
rich man also died, and was buried; And in hell he lift up his
eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in
his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on
me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in
water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. But
Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime received
good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is
comforted, and thou art tormented. And beside all this, between
us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would
pass from us to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that
would come from you. Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father,
that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house: For I
have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also
come into this place of torment." (Luke 16:22-28)

Hell is a place of fire! The man in Luke 16:24 cries, "I
am tormented in this FLAME." In Matthew 13:42, Jesus says,
"And shall cast them into a FURNACE OF FIRE: there shall be
wailing and gnashing of teeth." Also in Matthew 25:41, Jesus
says, "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting
FIRE…" Revelation 20:15 says, "And whosoever was
not found written in the book of life was cast into the LAKE OF
FIRE."

The Bible gives the location of hell. When Jesus Christ died
on the cross, He descended into hell. Peter speaks in Acts 2:31,
"…seeing this before spake of the resurrection of
Christ, that His soul was not left in HELL." When Jesus
Christ died His soul went into hell. And in Matthew 12:40, Jesus
Christ says, "For as Jonah was three days and three nights in
the whale’s belly: so shall the Son of Man be three days
and three nights in the HEART OF THE EARTH." The Bible is
clear - Hell is inside the earth! Ephesians 4:9, says of Jesus,
"Now that He ascended, what is it but that He also descended
first into the LOWER PARTS OF THE EARTH."

Dr. Rawling’s patients who described hell said, "This
place seems to be UNDERGROUND or WITHIN THE EARTH in some way."
The Birmingham News, April 10, 1987 had an article entitled
"Earth’s Center Hotter Than Sun’s Surface, Scientists
Say." The article stated that scientists have recently
discovered, "THE EARTH’S INNER CORE HAS A TEMPERATURE OF
OVER 12,000 DEGREES FAHRENHEIT!" Have you seen pictures of a
volcano erupting, spewing a lake of fire from inside the earth -
consuming everything within miles just from the heat?

When Mount St. Helens erupted in May 18, 1980, it was
described by reporters, "when HELL surfaced upon the earth." The
book, Volcanoes, Earth’s Awakening (p.91)
describes an erupting volcano as "descent into HELL." Thousands
of years ago, the Bible described a place called hell in the
heart of the earth that matches exactly what science is
discovering.

THERE IS A PLACE CALLED HELL! In Numbers 16:32-33, the Bible
gives the account of people falling into hell alive! It says,
"And THE EARTH OPENED HER MOUTH, and swallowed them up, and
their houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and
all their goods. They all went down alive INTO THE PIT, and the
EARTH CLOSED UPON THEM." Inside this earth, this very
moment, there are millions of lost, tormented souls - burning,
weeping, wailing - without any hope whatsoever! In Mark 9:46,
Jesus says about hell, "Where THEIR WORM dieth not, and the
FIRE is not quenched."

The Bible teaches that Christians will one day have a body
like the Lord Jesus Christ. Could it be, as some Bible students
teach - that men and women in hell take on the form of their
father, Satan (John 8:44)? In Rev 12:3, he is described as a
"FIERY red dragon."