CHAPTER 1
Oh, I can't believe it‘s true! This place does not exist, but I am here. Please, Lord, let this place just be a bad dream. Please let me wake up and I will be in my own bed and I will be thinking about this dream and how real it seemed. Oh, please let this be a dream. I don’t believe there is a hell or life after death. Even if I don’t believe it, I am here. I must believe, because I am in a place of pain, so it must be eternal punishment. Please, Lord, I pray that you will let me out of this place. I can’t stand the screaming and moaning and I will go crazy if the crying doesn’t stop. It is so dark and the fire is so hot, but the fire is not burning me up! Why can’t I just cease to exist? Why won’t this fire just consume me? OH! OH! PLEASE! PLEASE, give me a second chance! I know I would accept, if I had a second chance.
I remember what I said to one of my Christian friends when he told me about this place. I told him it was all just religious stuff that people want to use for a crutch so they can be good. I never thought for a minute that there really was a place like this. I believe now, but I still wish it was a dream. I know it is not a dream, and I know that I cannot escape from this terrible place. It is so hot and the feeling of pain all through my body makes me think of how nice it was before I suffered that heart attack.
I know I should not have made fun of that Christian friend of mine, but the stories he would tell about going to heaven seemed so far-fetched. They were almost impossible to believe.
The story he told about the compartment of torment was so unbelievable; I rejected his idea of heaven and hell. Even when he gave me scripture to prove his point, I still thought he had a couple of screws loose.
When I first arrived here, I thought back to the story of the rich man and Lazarus that my friend had told me about. He said the story was in Luke 16:19-31. (I wonder how I can remember that so clearly!) He opened his Bible and asked if I would like to read it for myself? I told him I really wasn’t interested, but that did not stop him. He started to read: “There was a certain rich man, who was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day. And there was a certain beggar, named Lazarus, who was laid at his gate, full of sores, And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table; moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom; the rich man also died, and was buried; And in hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and seeth 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 receivedst thy 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 who would pass from here to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from there. 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. Abraham saith unto him, 'They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.' And he said, 'Nay, father Abraham; but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.' And he said unto him, 'If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.' (How am I able to remember all of these details? Is someone putting it into my mind?)
When he was finished, he told me what the story meant. He said that the rich man had everything he ever wanted. He had food, money, a place to live, and he had prestige. He never wanted for anything because he had it all. On the other hand, Lazarus who had nothing, only wanted the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table. My friend then asked me a question. “What is the difference between these two men?”
I answered and said that the rich man had everything while the beggar wished that he had everything. My Christian friend said that was a good answer but it was wrong. “You see even though Lazarus was a beggar and had nothing, he had something that was more valuable than anything the rich man had.”
I stopped him and said that the rich man had everything, what in the world did Lazarus have that the rich man did not have? Also, if the rich man did not have what Lazarus possessed, he could have paid a large sum of money to Lazarus and Lazarus would have sold it.
“What Lazarus had, he could not sell,” he told me.
“You tell me what Lazarus had that the rich man could not buy?” I demanded.
“Lazarus had eternal life through Jesus Christ. It does not make any difference if a person has all the money in the world, they cannot buy salvation. Lazarus knew about the coming Messiah and about the two places where a person would go once he or she died. Lazarus accepted the free gift of salvation and when he died, he when into the compartment known as paradise or Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also knew of the Messiah and of the two places that a person would go once he died. But the rich man was more interested in the things of the world. As a result, he rejected eternal life and he chose to be separated from the Lord for eternity. When the rich man died, he went into the compartment known as torment. The compartment of torment is still active today. Each person that dies will go to that compartment or they will go directly to heaven. The reason we do not go to paradise or Abraham’s bosom is because Jesus took that area, the believer’s waiting place, with him when he was resurrected. Now there is only one compartment in Hades, that being the compartment of torment.
“You must accept Christ to have eternal life,” my friend continued. “If you do not accept, you will go to that compartment of torment and you will be tormented until the end of time. When the end of time comes, everyone that is in the compartment of torment will stand before God at the Great White Throne Judgment and will be judged. One of God’s angels will open the Book of Life to see if your name is written in it, and if your name is not written in the Book of Life, you will be cast into the lake of fire, which is called Hell.”
“I don’t believe that for a moment,” I told him. “You want me to believe that a loving God would cast me into Hell because I did not accept Jesus Christ as my Savior? I’ve done nothing to deserve that!”
“No, you have it all wrong. God does not cast you into Hell. You cast yourself into Hell. By rejecting, you have chosen the second death. God gives each and every person a choice of either life or death. If God could choose for you, He would choose life instead of death, but God cannot choose for you. It is left up to you and it is left up to each person where they will spend eternity. I accepted and chose life and if you continue to reject, you may never have another chance to accept. If you never accept, one day you will regret that decision.”
When he was finished with the story, I told him I would accept, but not at this time. There was plenty of time for me to accept, so I decided I would just put it off for a little while. That little while went from days to weeks and from months to years. I also explained to my friend that I had a lot of living to do and I did not want to be tied down to a lot of rules and laws from the Bible. I wanted to have parties and girls, lots and lots of girls. I just wished I would have accepted before I ran out of time. I can remember very clearly the day my heart gave out, and before I decided to accept.
I was up early in the morning with a cup of coffee. Next I would fix myself three eggs, 3 slices of bacon, one pancake, hash browns and two pieces of toast. I was always told to have a really good breakfast in order to set the mood for the rest of the day. After breakfast, I dressed, kissed my wife good-bye, and off to work I went.
Once I was in my pickup truck, I turned the radio on to my favorite program. I had driven about three miles when I had this pain in my chest. I knew exactly what it was. It was heart burn. I had been having heart burn for the last six months and every time the heart burn started, I would take a
swallow of Mallox. Within a minute or two, the heart burn would go away. When the heart burn started this morning, I opened the Mallox and took a bigger drink than I ever had taken before because the heart burn hurt more this day than any other day. The rest of my trip to the office only took ten more minutes.
At the office, the normal things I always did seemed to be in the farthest parts of my mind. The only thing I had on my mind was the idea of retiring. I was sixty years old and had spent thirty one years of my life doing the same thing. If I retired now, I thought, I would have enough money in savings and in the retirement plan to live on for the rest of my life. The decision had to be made. Retire now or wait for another two years. As I sat there thinking about retiring or continuing to work, the pain hit me once again. This time the pain was almost unbearable. I hollered at Sam who was only twenty feet from me.
“What’s the problem Gene?”
“I left my Mallox in my truck and my chest is really hurting.” Sam came running over to me as quickly as he could and told me to relax and take it easy.
He said he was going to call for an ambulance. He thought I was having a heart attack. “Sam, it’s just heart burn. I’m in great health." With the word health still ringing in my mouth, the massive heart attack hit. I grabbed my chest because the pain was so severe and then I saw the floor coming up to me very, very slowly. I heard a thud and then I also felt a pain on my forehead. I had hit the floor hard, very hard.
Sam was hollering and screaming, “Someone call an ambulance! Gene has had a heart attack!” The rest of the people in the office came over to see if there was anything they could do, but it was useless. I had taken my last breath.
I remember leaving my body and ascending just a little way above where my body was laying. I could still hear and see Sam giving orders and saying he could not feel a pulse. It seemed as if I was floating in mid air and the feeling of being free from my body was overwhelming, but then something took a hold of me and when I turned, I saw an angel with his hand around my arm.
“I am sorry, but you must go with me,” he said in the most authoritative voice I had ever heard. For some reason I felt I was not in a very good situation. I felt as if I was in a lot of trouble. You know when you get caught doing something wrong. However, this feeling was a feeling of guilt and that I was about to be punished for something I had done. I had no idea I was going to be punished for something that I did not do. You see the thing that I did not do was to accept Christ as my personal Savior.
I took one look at the angel and I started to panic. I hollered as loud as I could for Sam. He acted as if he did not even hear a word I said. I hollered even louder and then I started to scream. “Sam, Sam please help me! Please, someone help me.” But Sam and the others never even looked in my direction; he just kept giving orders. I shouted out again, “Sam, you idiot, I am up here! Help me!” The angel who had a hold of me said we must leave for a short trip and that he was very sorry that I had rejected for all of these years.
He then took me on that trip that I would never forget. I asked where we were going and he stated that he was sorry, but that he was taking me to the compartment of torment. I started to ask about the compartment of torment and then I remembered the story of the rich man and Lazarus. I knew where I was going, but deep down I thought I was having a dream. A voice told me I was not dreaming.
“THE COM