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