Is There a Hell? Part 1

 

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This post may seem dark and negative, but it ends on a positive note.

In a Bible study some time ago, I expressed a concern for lost souls, saying, “I wish I could convince people that there’s a hell.” For decades, I have been hearing and reading about negative NDEs. Whether you believe in hell or not, if it’s real, you may experience the horror of dying and finding yourself there, which is absolutely the worst thing that could happen to any human being of any place or era. That person may wish they had never been born.

The pastor countered with, “I would rather convince people that there is a loving God, full of mercy and grace, who would receive the sinner into His arms and change their life.” The pastor was absolutely right, of course, but so was I. If I gave you a $100 bill that was blank on one side, you wouldn’t be able to spend it. It takes the wisdom of the Holy Spirit to find a godly balance between the raw truth about hell and the Father's breathtaking love for all humanity.

If I recalled all of the warnings of Jesus about hell and the potential “death” of the soul, this post would be a book, so I have to cherry-pick my resources carefully. I’ll start with Jude,

²² “And on some have compassion, making a distinction; ²³ but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh.”

Inveighing against leaders using the new Christian movement for lawless gain, Jude, the brother of James, launches right into the fear aspect, calling up reminders of the Israelite generation that perished in the wilderness, the fallen angels, “reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day,” and Sodom and Gomorrah. Although God’s mercy is great, the consequences for sin and unbelief can be serious.

Since the Hebrew Bible is mostly about God’s rule over His people on Earth, it has little to say about hell or the afterlife, but depictions of a negative afterlife are not wholly absent. Psalm 49 assures those who live carelessly, though they be rich and popular,

 "This is the way of those who are foolish,
And of their posterity who approve their sayings. Selah
¹⁴ Like sheep they are laid in the grave;
Death shall feed on them;
The upright shall have dominion over them in the morning;
And their beauty shall be consumed in the grave, far from their dwelling.”

And Job 18:13 and 14,

It devours patches of his skin;
The firstborn of death devours his limbs.
¹⁴ He is uprooted from the shelter of his tent,
And they parade him before the king of terrors.

Two oft-quoted passages in the Old Testament are Daniel 12:2 and Isaiah 26:19, which not only speak of a glorious afterlife but also of a supernatural resurrection for the righteous. The wicked awaken and arise to everlasting shame.

Modern near-death experiences have actually raised a lot of debate about whether all the deceased go to a peaceful, loving Light Being who forgives all trespasses, no matter how egregious, or if there are penalties for wrongdoing not dealt with before death.

There have always been reports of NDEs throughout history, but Dr. Raymond Moody, Ph.D, MD, sparked the trend of conducting actual research on the phenomenon. He was originally influenced by a conversation with near-death experiencer Dr. George Ritchie. Even before he entered medical school in 1972, Moody was well into his research. In his famous book, Life after Life,[1] he stated categorically that after hundreds of interviews, he had not heard a word about the classic understanding of heaven, hell, angels, or punishments. However, due to the popularity of his first book, Moody was inundated with new stories. He added a brief preview at the end of his first book, pointing to more to come.

His second book, Reflections of Life After Life, begins with a chapter called “New Elements.” Moody now heard tales of extraordinary downloads of knowledge, a beautiful, peaceful city of light, a river, and fountains, much like what is described in the Bible. On the other hand, one woman described washed-out, gray, bewildered, shuffling souls who continually looked down and seemed depressed. Others spoke of “dulled spirits,” bound to earth because they needed to let go of attractions here or on account of unresolved issues.

Chapter 2 was titled “Judgment,” in which Moody’s patients recalled the shame they felt over parts of their life review. They not only saw their behavior as the Light Being saw it, but they felt the pain they caused others. Most came back with a whole new attitude about life. Moody makes it clear that although he heard no stories of a fiery hell, most of the people he interviewed were normal folks who committed the same misdeeds we all do. He never met “a real rounder.”[2] I’ll deal with the rounders in a later post.

The stories of those who attempted suicide got Moody’s attention. One resuscitated patient recounted that he got the feeling over there that if he succeeded in killing himself, there would be a penalty because he would be “throwing God’s gift back in his face…killing somebody else would be interfering with God’s purpose for that individual.”[3]

Moody records the regret of survivors of suicide. Nothing was solved on the other side. They had to endure seeing the pain and shock of those left behind, as well as experiencing a repeating loop of the despair that caused them to take their own life. When he asked them if they would try suicide again, all said no.

I pulled my copy of Angie Fenimore’s memoir off the shelf. It is so full of stunning revelations, it’s hard to know where to begin. She came from an extremely dysfunctional family full of tragedies, alcohol, depression, and drugs. Her own life spun off in all the wrong directions until one day, she attempted suicide. After her life review, she found herself on a dark plane with some teenagers who had taken their own lives. There was no joy there, no beauty, love, or connection, just dullness.

She was then whisked to a new plane that was called Purgatory. There she met with both the Father and the Son. It was also grim and gray there, full of adults (no children) who were as dulled out as the teenagers. They were so engaged in self-pity that they had no thought for others. They were unable to see the presence of God that Angie saw. “Everyone I saw was wearing dirty white robes. Some people’s were heavily soiled, while others’ just appeared dingy with a few stains.”[4]

A voice came out of the darkness, “Is this really what you want?” Angie perceived herself to be in the presence of God and naturally wanted to plead her case. “But my life is so hard…” God’s response, “You think that was hard? It is nothing compared to what awaits you if you take your life.”[5] The depressing information didn’t stop there. “So sad, they were so young and so dead. As I watched them filing in by the dozens, I was told that most of us who are dying now are going to a place of darkness.”[6]

The good news for Angie is that she fully recovered and turned her life completely around. She was informed that the difference between those who get a second chance and those who go straight to a negative eternity depends on their “willingness.” I assume that meant, depending on one’s response to the life review.

Angie is not the only near-death experiencer who saw souls trapped in an unpleasant liminal afterlife. The story of Dr. George Ritchie began in September 1943, when he was a twenty-year-old private recruit in the Army. He caught a severe case of pneumonia that killed him. In Chapter 5, Ritchie meets the Son of God and gets a unique tour of the afterlife. He saw that some souls would not move on because they wanted to manipulate the same situations and people that they controlled on Earth. There were suicides, following the people they grieved and begging for forgiveness. Others were chained to their earthly addictions. Then he was taken to a plane where souls were in constant, hate-filled battle. Lack of forgiveness and a desire for revenge drove these souls to punch and gouge each other, but of course, in an immaterial world, harm could not remain.[7]

Ritchie did return to his body, which at that time was covered with a sheet in the morgue. He was able to obtain the medical education and license he had obsessed over as a disembodied spirit, and, of course, he now had a special message of healing to offer the world. That’s the good news to share today. If you’re reading this post, you’re still alive. You have time to ask yourself, have I learned to love? Is my life selfish and self-centered? What would the Judge of all the Earth say to me if I died today?

Is there actual fire for some in hell? I have a lot more to share on this topic. I not only have a shelf full of classic afterlife books from the 1900s, but there are also plenty of YouTube interviews on the topic. Anyone who wants to assess whether or not there’s a hell can search online and access books, movies, and contemporary podcasts.

I’m going to distill more of these stories in my next post, but first, there’s an important takeaway in Angie Fenimore’s book that we need to consider. Why have so many people been sent back since World War II? One reason is that resuscitation methods have improved immensely, and the ability to share information and stories has exploded. There is possibly one more reason. Angie was told that the Earth is being prepared for the Second Coming of Christ.

If Jesus appeared in the air tomorrow with tens of thousands of his saints and angels, would you be ready?

[1] Moody, Raymond A. Life after Life. (Harrisburg, Stackpole Books, 1969) 89, 90, 123.

[2] _______. Reflections on Life After Life. (New York. Bantam Books, 1978) 39.

[3] Ibid., 44.

[4] Fenimore, Angie. Beyond the Darkness: My Near-Death Journey to the Edge of Hell and Back. (New York: Banta Books, 1995) 96.

[5] Ibid., 102.

[6] Ibid., 130.

[7] Ritchie, George A. Return from Tomorrow. (Grand Rapids: Fleming H. Revell, 1978) 47-67.

Check out my website www.janetksmithpersonal.com where you can read for free The Legacy: A Memoir of Personal Guidance and Korean War Sabotage.