The religion of Christ is the religion of joy. Christ came to take away our sins, to roll off our curse, to unbind our chains, to open our prison house, to cancel our debt; in a word, to give us the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. Is not this joy? Where can we find a joy so real, so deep, so pure, so lasting? There is every element of joy – deep, ecstatic, satisfying, sanctifying joy – in the gospel of Christ. The believer in Jesus is essentially a happy man. The child of God is, from necessity, a joyful man. His sins are forgiven, his soul is justified, his person is adopted, his trials are blessings, his conflicts are victories, his death is immortality, his future is a heaven of inconceivable, unthought-of, untold, and endless blessedness. With such a God, such a Savior, and such a hope, is he not, ought he not, to be a joyful man?
Octavius Winslow

I Have Seen Hell

I Have Seen Hell

I HAVE SEEN HELL!!!

SOME people do not believe there is a literal hell. I do. I believe it, first, because the Bible emphatically teaches that there is; and, second, because of a tremendous miraculous experience which God brought to my heart, and which I cannot deny.

As I lay prostrate on my back for over three hours, one afternoon, the Lord gave me a vision. It shook and stirred me to see some of the glories of Heaven; and then He allowed me to see some of the horrors and awfulness of Hell.

I did not die – I want that clearly understood. I simply fell into a trance, as did the apostle Peter (Acts 10:10). I am not a person given to dreams and visions, but that day God portrayed the awful reality of hell before my mind in such a way that I never can forget it.

I saw pictured before me the soul of an unsaved man going into eternity at the same time of his physical death. That soul left its mortal tabernacle, the earthly body, and moved out of the sick room, into space. It began to descend. Down, down, down it went into the lower regions, and everything grew dark. Soon it was so black that one could not see an inch away from his eyes, though he had the keenest eyesight. But, still, the motion or sensation of descending continued, and after a while there began to appear, faintly at first, weird, fantastic lights and shadows. It was like a flickering firelight, which gradually grew brighter and brighter.

The atmosphere, which had been warm, suddenly became stifling hot and almost unbearable, and the descent ceased for a little time. From the lower regions there ascended a weird-looking creature that had been sent evidently to guide that lost soul on the remainder of the journey to the lower kingdom. Together the lost soul and the strange creature continued the descent; and at a short distance I was permitted, in vision, to descend and watch again.

Far below us, by this time, things began to take on definite shape. There appeared, far below, a great glowing orb. That was the source of the flickering firelight I had seen. It became larger and larger, as we came nearer, until ultimately it was so huge, a person couldn’t begin to see around it. All one could see was a small portion lying within his vision. I want to say this: That huge orb was covered with flames of literal fire – no, I think I would be more accurate if I said liquid fire; for that is as it appeared. Tongues of liquid fire covered every portion of that orb, and licked to the tongue of flame at its top. Finally, the descent ceased, as we came right up against this great orb, or close to it. There was evidence of a fierce struggle, for a conductor that had come for him. Then suddenly, with a wild shriek, that soul was plummeted headlong into the wall of flame. Then everything was silent, except for the licking of the flames of fire.

Suddenly a weird sensation passed over me. A messenger sent from the Lord stood by my side and said, “Be not afraid. I have been sent of the Lord to sustain and strengthen you.” Then the weird, strange sensation passed through my very being, and suddenly I felt myself plummeted headlong thru that fire. It did not burn or hurt. In an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, I found myself in another realm. It was like being in another world. And in that world I heard the shrieks and groans of souls by the countless thousands. I heard ironical, sarcastic laughter. I heard weeping and wailing; I heard cries and curses. Instinctively, before my heavenly conductor told me, I knew I was in the regions of the lost, the place that we speak of as hell. Let me pause long enough to say this: I believe in literal hell fire, because the Bible says it is literal; and also because I’ve seen it. I know that it exists. Not only will souls of lost men and women be tormented eternally by literal fire, but they will also be tormented by the sins and vices that caused them to be lost. For I discovered, as my guide conductor led me through the various caverns and corridors, that hell was divided into sections.

Over yonder I saw the greatest gambling games that could ever be imagined. I shuddered. There were devices of gambling which I am sure have never been perpetrated on the face of the earth. There were great piles of gold and silver and precious gems; and these lost souls were gambling with them. They gambled furiously. Every time they touched the devices, every time they touched the money, it burned, and they drew back; and yet some irresistible force drove them to gamble again. They loathed it, they hated it, they wanted to get away from it, but they couldn’t. They were held to the spot as by some magnetic force.

Not long ago, when we were traveling to Boise, Idaho, I had a strange experience. We read signs along the highway advertising a certain gambling place in Reno, Nevada. We stopped in Reno for just a few moments, and I said, “I want to go in that gambling place and see just what goes on.” It was evening time. We stepped inside and walked thru some of the corridors. Hundreds of people were engaged in gambling of every form. Suddenly my blood chilled. I turned to my wife and said, “Oh, please, let’s get out of here. I’ve seen this place before, and I don’t want to stay around it.” We went outdoors, and it was so good to get a breath of fresh air again. I had seen something just like that, only worse, in the realms of the lost!

In another section of hell I saw an eternal dancing party going on. As I came close, and looked into the faces of those lost souls, my heart pitied them with a great pity; for they were so utterly, abjectly weary and tired. They pleaded and said, “Oh, can’t we stop for just a moment?” But there was no stopping. The eternal dance went on and on, just like some great churning caldron. I never spend much time preaching against worldly amusements; for I believe that, when people really get saved, the Lord will take the desire for such things out of their hearts. But I’m going to pause long enough to say this: The modern dance hall is one of the devil’s biggest trap doors leading directly into hell.

In another place an eternal drinking party was going on. I have witnessed some scenes of drunken debauchery in this life that have been hideous, but nothing to compare to the wild, drunken orgies that go on eternally in hell. And they can’t stop it, friends. That thing, that took them to hell, torments them continually throughout all eternity.

In another place in hell, I saw the rankest, rawest form of fear that ever existed. We have never seen anything like it on the face of the earth. Every time there was a cry, a shriek, a groan, or any other sound, any time the cracking of the flames of hell could be heard, these poor, abjectly fearful people darted back into the shadows, trembling, horrified. And I saw more people in that classification than in all the other classifications combined! These, the messenger, who was with me, said were the millions of people who were too fearful to publicly and openly confess Jesus Christ. Their fears had taken them to hell; fear of their families, fear of their parents, fear of wife or husband, fear of friends or business colleagues, fear of this or that kind. There they were lost, filled with an abject fear that tantalized them, as the flames of hell burned endlessly on.

Last of all, you may be shocked when I tell you that I also witnessed a form of religion in hell. The music that went with it was enough to make a man tear his hair. You talk about a minor music, but you never heard anything like this. It was the worst kind of funeral dirge that grinds into the very bones, and into the very marrow inside the bones. Religion!

No worship of God, but a form of religion. And, as I looked at these multitudes, I was told by my messenger that these were the ones who once had a form of religion but who denied the power of the gospel.

Friend, only the blood of Jesus, applied by faith to the heart, can save a man or woman from being eternally lost.

People in hell were screaming for release everywhere, but there was no help; for they had ignored the blood which alone has power to save. None escaped! That wall of fire that covered the great sphere seemed to be an eternal barrier thru which a lost soul could never pass, once it had penetrated the flames at the time of physical death.

Oh, I wish I had the power to make hell as real to you, my friends, as God made it to me. I would give anything if I could help you to realize how awful it is. It is ten thousand times more horrible than I can describe. Are you saved and on your way to Heaven? Or, are you bound for Hell?

If you have not accepted Christ as your personal Saviour, please do it this very hour. Tomorrow may be too late. God is calling you. He has said, “My Spirit shall not always strive with man,” but He is striving with you now. I beg you, from the depths of my heart, turn to the Lord while you have the desire and opportunity: “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found.” I have seen hell. I don’t want you to see it.

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Rom. 6:23. “Repent ye and believe the gospel.”

Lorne F. Fox

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