What if Hell is real?

Would we behave differently?

If the greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist and if his second greatest trick was convincing the world he is the good guy, then perhaps his third greatest trick was getting millions to believe Hell isn’t real.

If Hell isn’t real then do what thou wilt.

Life is much easier when you don’t believe Hell is an actual destination for damned souls who’ve allowed sin to keep them from God’s good graces. The fire and brimstone threat is a bit of a downer. It’s feels like a manipulative tool to control the masses and keep them in line. Hell doesn’t chime with the ‘positive thoughts only’ mantra drummed into New Age thinking skulls to ward off any negative vibes. We rarely hear a priest or a pastor mention Hell with a capital H these days from the pulpit. Imagine listening to a sermon like this one from preacher Paul Washer of a Sunday.

“I will not lose sleep, understand this, worrying whether or not you have self-esteem. I will not lose sleep worried about whether or not you feel like you’ve got purpose in your life. I will not lose sleep. I will not be interceding tonight because your cheque book doesn’t balance. It will be because you’re going to Hell. That’s why we preach.”

Would the collective behave differently in life if we knew fore sure that Hell exists? Hell yeah. Would the Covid scam have been possible, for example, if people feared eternal damnation for their sins? There’s not a chance it would have succeeded the way it did if people understood the repercussions of their actions and words in this realm. The fraud was only allowed to take hold because of wonky morals, the absence of ethics, New Age thinking, fake nice combined with fake science and money lust.

An honest Christian could never accept a medical product derived from aborted foetal cell lines no matter who in authority said it was grand. It wasn’t a hard test. An honest Christian wouldn’t close the door on his neighbour because he declined such an abhorrent injection. An honest Christian would have spotted the wolves in sheep’s clothing masquerading as the good guys with their safe and effective solution to the phantom virus that had replaced the flu. The Covid scam separated the wheat from the chaff in some ways although there were plenty of wolves in sheep’s clothing in there too. The refining process has yet to be completed. There remains more chances of redemption if only these errors were acknowledged and acted upon. True mercy. So many opportunities to correct course. There can be no moving on from a test of this magnitude. The consequences play out daily in sudden deaths, cancer diagnoses, heart attacks and clots. We’re being shown how our compliance with tyranny has real-life repercussions. It didn’t have to be this way. We could have said NO. Free will.

So if this life is some kind of test, how’s it going? I’ve been watching Near Death Experience testimonies on YouTube of late, at least one or two a day. Tales from beyond our range of understanding, from people who have been clinically dead and have returned from that flat line with stories of Heaven and Hell, with grave warnings from Jesus to get our act together, that the end really is nigh, the Book of Life is nearing completion. Is it a psy-op? Maybe their stories are being used to push a certain agenda but they seem genuine, from all walks of life, across many nations, over many years.

Here’s one from a man who had a tough start in life which seems a bit unfair but as he says the Devil doesn’t care if you’re a child or a grandparent he will do whatever it takes to undermine the Kingdom of God.

According to these kind of testimonies, Hell is a place devoid of God, devoid of hope, devoid of mercy. No more chances. It’s not a makey-uppy place to threaten people with so they’ll behave. It actually exists. The message from those who return remains constant: it’s our sins that separate us from Heaven, our rejection of God’s offer of redemption. It’s down to us. We get to choose either way.

If we’re doing what thou wilt, over Thy will be done - looks like we’re headed south to join Aleister Crowley in that Lake of Fire. So much for sex, drugs and rock’n roll. It’s a trap.

If we’re at least attempting to do the will of God, we’ve a better chance at making it through the Pearly Gates but it’s our hearts that will be assessed in the end so nothing is guaranteed. If our intentions were impure, there will be no hiding that reality in the higher realms. Every day we have to prove our worth by the sounds of these testimonies. Hell seems to be full of people who thought they were saved but they were only going through the motions without conviction or they fell away from their faith through temptation.

In Luke Chapter 16, versus 19 to 31, Jesus tells the parable of the rich and the poor man named Lazarus who was afflicted by sores and who lay outside the rich man’s house in the hope of some leftovers from the table. They both died. The rich man ended up in Hades ‘where he was being tormented’. The poor man ‘was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham’.

In Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried out and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your life you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things; but now he is being comforted here, and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you there is a great chasm fixed, so that those who wish to come over from here to you will not be able, and that none may cross over from there to us.’ And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, that you send him to my father’s house— for I have five brothers—in order that he may warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’ But Abraham *said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ But he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!’ But he said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.’ 

Maybe if we all had a Near Death Experience we’d know for sure what lies beyond but from this parable Jesus wants us to listen to the prophets and to pay heed before it’s too late.

Hell sounds so godforsaken I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy and I certainly don’t want to be one of those who thought she was saved only to end up there through pride or false doctrine or some such sin. I’ve listened to enough Near Death Experience testimonies to take these warnings of Hell seriously. I’d prefer if the place didn’t exist. I don’t want Hell to exist but I’m not in charge and my range of understanding is limited.

Perhaps we’re better off living our lives being aware of the consequences to sin. Perhaps we’re better off knowing why it’s important to seek forgiveness and mercy for our daily trespasses, to not be led into temptation. The Bible makes much more sense these days. The Covid scam showed us step by step why its teachings are still relevant to this day. We got to see how New Age thinking deceived people into believing they were doing the right thing by rolling up their sleeves, for the common good, for a series of toxic shots made by bad people with bad intentions. We got to see the false prophets, the false idol worship, the call to ‘Trust The $cience’, not God. It was all a sham and we were shown where, how and why. Incredible, really.

Sometimes I think people who fear death are just not ready to pass over. Their souls know there’s work to do and that’s why they fear dying. If they go now, there may be no coming back for a second chance. Better off getting the work done on this side of the divide so that when death comes, there’s no fear, just acceptance. No more clinging on, no more tests for this and that to buy more time.

We’ve just witnessed the consequences of living life like there’s no Hell, no repercussions for bad behaviour. We get a form of Hell on Earth. The Devil wins more souls. The demons run amok. The place starts to look more like a hellscape. People start to look more like zombies. Sin abounds. Life becomes less valuable.

In this context, it makes more sense to care about our words and deeds, understanding that there are consequences to our output. It makes more sense to accept the spiritual protection rather than to reject it out of pride or disbelief. There’s where humility comes in.

Perhaps it’s about time we started to see through the Devil’s trickery to avoid his traps and temptations. He is real. He’s not the good guy and Hell is his domain.

Let’s wrap up with Nirvana’s rendition of Lake of Fire by the Meat Puppets, MTV Unplugged in New York, 1993.

Kurt Cobain opens with:

“Where do bad folk go when they die? They don’t go to Heaven where the angels fly. They go to a lake of fire and fry, won’t see ‘em again ‘til the fourth of July”.

Not sure if we get to see them again. It’s all a big mystery but the more we witness here, the more likely it appears that there’s a lot more to this life than we’re led to believe. We spend more time dead than we do alive so it’s in our interest to consider the options.