“23 Minutes in Hell” or “23 Minutes in Fear?”
Regarding those who claim to have had mystical and near death experiences regarding visitations to hell, I have no doubt many of them had heartfelt experiences.
But, I also believe that what we have erroneously been taught to fear about hell can also allow for distorted, strange, and angst-ridden visions to result. And as to what testimony we should receive as personally authoritative, we each have to follow our spirit-quickened consciences of course.
But, I don't take the bulk of these people's testimonies who have returned from Hell to have the strength of eternity. I have read several of their testimonies, including the "23 Minutes in Hell" book. The ones I have read all say that the number one quality of Hell is that nobody can EVER escape its torturous environment once they enter it.
Well, my counter observation is merely this-- they themselves were able to escape it, and the one fellow after only 23 minutes. These people don't just claim they saw Hell through an external window, but that they actually entered and experienced it, so their own quick escape seems to contradict their claim, at least to the inescapable aspect of it.
And even if they did get a brief vision of it on some human level, how can they then claim to have witnessed an "eternal" aspect of it from only a brief time there? I can certainly see how our fractured and deceived inner states of being-- shame, guilt, bitterness, fear,and pride-- could all create hysterical delusions of toxic terror and hopeless agony.
Jonah, when he was in the belly of the fish, thought he had been there for "eternity," but in truth it was only three days. And he was a changed man when he came out of the fish's belly. Jesus confirmed that Jonah's experience in the fish was a prophetic allegory of His own descent into hell. What seems one way to humans seems quite another way to God.
I agree with F.F. Bruce that "eternal conscious torment" is inconsistent with the revealed nature of God in Jesus. This is why Jesus boldly declared in Acts 2 that the heavenly Father would NEVER abandon His son's soul in hell.
And, regarding the people who claim hell is eternally inescapable because they have literally been there and back, let's not forget this champion truth. Jesus, according to Ephesians 4, kicked the gates of hell off their hinges as He "led captivity captive" and "ascended" into heaven so that He could "fill all things"— on, beneath and above the earth.
In others words, Jesus, though He was weighed down with every sin of every human who ever lived had ever committed, proved that hell was NOT inescapable. Jesus not only escaped it, but He also "gutted" it of its misperceived power over humanity’s postmortem destiny.
So perhaps these visions of Hell are simply our worst nightmares and fears amplified by suggestion, condemnation, and accusation which we feverishly project onto our postmortem expectations. But, as the Beloved John says, God continually shows Himself “greater than our heart” by showing us that no matter the garish nightmare state we may fearfully concoct, He WILL deliver us from it.
I propose that God sees this whole dynamic far differently than do we.
What if Hell (aka God's judgement fire of 1 Corinthians 3), from Gods viewpoint, was in truth a medical facility for the woefully wounded, the carnally crushed, the incessantly insecure, the insidiously indifferent, the feverishly fearful, and the murderously mad?
What if Hell, from God's view, was a place of intimate healing where He rehabilitates humanity from all their self-obsessing, self-sabotaging, and self-cutting ways which result in them creating fanatical fig leaves of delusions behind which the fearful and unbelieving hide from God?
What if God patiently endures and ministers to these sick people in, through, and around their delusions? What if God applies the intense "therapeutic treatment" needed to awaken these poor souls to the truth - - an ultimately irresistible truth which will set all men free - - God loves them and gave His life to cure them from their sicknesses?
Like the most intense form of chemotherapy we know in the physical, all the sin-masks and sin-identities which have cancerously grafted themselves onto our being will be irradiated and destroyed with the wise and curative fire of God.
The human under judgment May suffer a searing "identity crisis" which, though in the long term will bring great positive transformation, may, in the short term, produce cathartic anguish and weeping.
On thing is for sure. God’s parental punishments are illuminative, curative, restorative, and rehabilitative. He is the Great Fatherly Physician who rescues and restores us from the gutter most to the uttermost. And His quality work takes a lot longer then a mere 23 minutes to rightly perceive and understand.
Yeassssss!!!!
Posted by: Karina | August 05, 2021 at 09:03 PM