But if you want nothing to do with God, you want to deny Him there is a place prepared that has nothing to do with Him. God gives man a choice because that's what love does, it gives a choice. He is the only way, there is no other way. I don't care what you were raised with. Jesus is the one way. I share an experience I had on
November 23rd 1998 that forever changed my life. It doesn't
matter if you believe my experience. What matters is that you check out what
God has to say about hell and avoid it just the same. God chose a man like this to take him there, to come back and tell us about it because he's got no reason. He's got no agenda. He's got no reason to make up
stories. And when you hear it tonight you'll realize this is real. God bless you. We are so blessed to be back in
Johannesburg, South Africa. Praise the Lord! Excited! And to be at Christian Family Church! Pastors Theo and Bev, we love you with all our heart and we thank you so much for having us here. We are so honored. You know it's interesting. If most of us
go on a vacation we check out the sites, the hotels, the restaurants. We do some investigation. Yet most people do no
investigation on where they're going to go after they die.
They put a great deal of effort into a short holiday, and no effort into eternity. Why is that? I believe it's because most people tend
to believe whatever their raised with and not question it. But not questioning something,
you can remain ignorant or uninformed. You could be on
the wrong path. The wisest man that ever lived was King
Solomon, except for Jesus, and he said in Proverbs 14:12, "There is a
way that seems right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." So if you're here tonight, and you're not familiar with the Bible,
and you don't call yourself a Christian, we're here to share with you some
information that will enable you to make an informed decision. So we just ask that you simply remain
open and listen. Mark Twain even said, "We're all ignorant,
just about different things." And another wise man in our world today is Dr. Chuck Missler, a Bible
teacher, and he said, "The only sure barrier to truth is to
assume you already have it." So if you can remain open. And this is not a message of condemnation.
This is simply a message of warning. You know, what loving parent wouldn't
warn their child not to play in a busy street? 11 years ago, November 23rd 1998, this experience
happened. And when it first occurred I don't really wanna share it with anyone. I'm a conservative person by nature and
to be identified with something seemingly as wild as saying "I've been to hell" was very uncomfortable for me. You know you usually picture someone, you know, with wild hair and a wooden sign
standing on a street corner screaming, "You're gonna burn," you know, and that's what I envisioned so I didn't want to be identified with that. I shared it with one close friend two
weeks later and my parents. Well, the close friend asked us to come to their Bible study and share it. Well three months later I went,
reluctantly, and shared it. We began getting invited to
different Bible studies and then churches and then some television and radio. It started spreading so for the next seven years, my wife and I would take her two days off a week and her
vacation time and we would travel around the country
wherever we were invited and we did this for seven years. We paid our own way everywhere and we
never took one dime from anybody during that time. This was prior to the
book coming out. And then about 4 1/2 years ago the publisher
came to us and they asked us to write the book. So it was not something we wanted to self
promote. But I was happy to do the book because I really wanted to put in there, the Word
of God. So we have over 150 verses in our first book and 250 verses in our second book that tell you everything I saw is already in the Bible.
And so if you're here tonight and you say, "Bill I don't know if I believe you you know," well, I'm not here to convince you to believe me or to espouse to my experience. What I'm here to do is to convince you to
believe the Word of God. That's all that matters. It's not important to believe me. That's why we put all those verses
in from the Bible and I'll quote some of them along the way but I can't give them all because of time
constraints and so forth but that's what's important for all of us to believe. You might ask, "Bill how do you know this
wasn't just a bad dream?" Well, three reasons but just to give you one quickly, on the way back from this experience, I had viewed my body lying on the floor. This
was not a near death experience. This was an out of body experience that comes under the classification of a vision in the Bible. Do you remember in 2 Corinthians 12:1 and 2 when Paul was caught up in heaven in a vision he said, "whether in the body or out of
the body, he didn't know" Well, the Lord just happened to show me that I left my body so that's how I know it wasn't just a bad
dream. There was two other reasons but that was the first reason. And on the way back I was traveling back
with the Lord, which I will tell you about but 1John 4:18 says, "perfect love casts out fear" so I had no fear whatsoever being with
the Lord but when He left and I came back into my body the
memories and thoughts of hell flooded back into my mind and I immediately started screaming and
my body I felt was dying. You cannot even live in
this body with the memories of hell. It is that severe. You will literally die of
fright. And I started screaming and I went into a
traumatized state and my screams woke up my wife. So I
wanted her to share with you how she found me. Certainly. This happened November 1998 and Bill and I had been Christians for
quite a while. We never studied the topic of hell and we
never entertained dark movies. We actually only thought about hell as
this is a place that's hot and we're glad we weren't going there as Christians. We went to bed, it was a Sunday night, we
had a prayer meeting and we went to sleep it was about 11, 11:30
and I woke to screams coming from our living room. And the first thing I did is I looked at
our digital clock which read: 3:23. Now Bill had gotten up in the middle of the night it was 3am
and that's where the 23 minutes in hell comes from. And I proceeded down the hallway and I
found my husband in a state that I have never, ever seen him in. Anyone who knows Bill knows he is calm, conservative, he has a very peaceful
nature. So to see him in this state was extremely
shocking. And he began to scream and cry out, "pray
for me, pray for me, the Lord has taken me to
hell!" And I know it sounds strange but when he
said that I actually felt a peace inside because I knew he wasn't having a heart
attack or physically dying. And I began to pray for him and the Lord
very, very graciously took away the horror and the fear from his mind but left the memory of what had happened
so he could share his story. Give 'em hell honey (laughter) My wife is even more beautiful on the
inside so I'm a blessed man. I married way over my head but praise God. God is still in the miracle business. Amen. (laughter) I can't see anybody but anyway I just want to explain a couple
of things before I get into what happened, a few questions you
might have. Some people have said, "Bill, what about in
Luke 16 the rich man said to Abraham could you send back Lazarus to warn my brothers of this place and Abraham said, "Even if one came back from the dead they
would not be persuaded," so Bill why would God send you? I've been asked that question. Well, two reasons I don't fit that scenario. Number one, I wasn't dead so I'm not coming back from the dead. This was a vision. I'm not
telling anyone to look at me and be persuaded. I'm just a signpost to point people to the
Scriptures. OK and number two "How can a Christian see hell?" Only
in a vision can a Christian see hell and if you remember in Ezekial
chapter 8 and chapter 3 Ezekiel had a vision where he was picked up by his hair and he was carried to Jerusalem. He was told to eat. It became bitter in his stomach. He wept, he conversed, he was told to dig through a wall. My point in bringing those things out is
in a vision you can experience the same things that you could in your physical
body so in a vision you can enter into a spirit
body, 1 Corinthians 15:44 talks about a natural body and a spirit body
and just like he ate and it became bitter in his stomach. The same with John in Revelation 5:5 and 10:10 he was caught up in heaven. So you can
travel in a vision also. Genesis 15:5 Abraham was brought forth abroad and many other examples I could give you.
So you can travel and it's just as real as it would be in your physical body.
And in Job 7:14 it says, "You scare me with dreams and
terrify me through visions." You can have a terrifying vision. Isaiah
21:2 he was given a grievous vision. And in Job 4:14, Eliphaz was given a vision
that caused his bones to shake. So you can have a grievous, terrifying, bone
shaking vision. Okay so this was at least one of those. (laughter) So you might ask, "Bill, but I'm a Christian, I'm not going to hell why do I need to hear about it?" I just want to give you quickly, three reasons. Number one, when you understand how severe hell is,
you'll be much more appreciative of your own salvation, and what you
were saved from. Many Christians have you know in churches today have
downplayed the topic of hell and said, "Well, it's not really a
place of torment. It's not really a geographical location. It's maybe just a state of the mind. It's
maybe just separation from God," as if that wasn't a big deal, which we'lll
find out it is. And a lot of Christians even believe in
annihilationism. A teaching that says if you deny Jesus when you die, you
simply cease to exist. Well that is not true. We have many
Christians that write us and tell us that. And it's just wrong teaching but Jesus
said remember in Matthew 25:46, "These shall go into everlasting life. These shall go into everlasting punishment." He used the same word Aionios for everlasting so just as Heaven is eternal, so is hell. And he said the same thing in John 5:29, Mark 16:16, Daniel 12:2 explains that but just to give you two more scriptures,
there's about 30 I could give you, but two that prove there is not annihilationism is Revelation 20:13-15 and Revelation 14:10-11 and no time to really read all those
but you can check those out and that absolutely refutes annihilationism so you will be much more appreciative of what you were saved out of, so thankful that we don't have to go to
this place. Number two, it will cause you to walk more
in the fear the LORD. You know, there's a lack of the fear of the
Lord in the church today. Many Christians live compromised
lifestyles, they live in sin and they feel
comfortable living in sin because there's a lack of the fear of the LORD. And Psalms 89:7 says, "God is greatly to
be feared in the assembly of the Saints." The word fear there is the word Arres, which means to shake in terror. So how many of us really shake in terror
over the Lord? And Moses, he shook and quaked exceedingly and he was called a friend of God, so how much more us? You say, "But Bill what about crying out
Abba father, daddy father?" Yes, we are to get to be able to call that
out, call daddy father, but first we have to have a
healthy, reverential fear of Almighty God because God hates
sin and there is a punishment coming on sin. And to live in sin and compromised you should not feel comfortable
doing that. Mark 9:47 Jesus said, "If your eye offends thee," the word offends means to cause you to sin, He said, "Pluck it out. It's better for you
to enter into life mame than into hell fire." Jeremiah 32:40 says, "I will put my
fear in their hearts that they will not depart from me." So the fear the LORD will keep you walking
that straight walk. You will not want to walk the edge. You
know some people want to live right on the edge, on the fence of sin. You wanna be so
far away from that fence and walking in holiness and straight
before God when you understand how fearful and horrific hell is. And so that's the second reason, the
third reason is it'll give you much greater passion to witness. Bill Bright
said, "Only 2% of Christians even bother to witness." Now Charles Spurgeon said that 90%
of our witness is through our life example. Do we keep our word, do we show up on time, do we work with excellence, do we show forgiveness, do we show love, all those things people observe that's 90% of our witness. But also we are to open up our mouths and
share the Gospel but most people don't open their mouths
and share the Gospel. And then 2 Corinthians 5:10-11 Paul said, "Knowing therefore the terror
of the Lord, we persuade men." So in that scripture, even though it is
talking about the judgment seat, the reward seat for Christians, most all the commentaries agree that it's also talking about judgment and hell in general. So when you understand how severe hell
is you'll be more persuasive with men, you'll want to persuade men and Ezekiel
33:8 says, "If we fail to speak to warn the sinner
from his way, his blood will I require in your hand." That's a strong scripture. God holds us accountable if we don't open
our mouths and it says the same thing an Acts 20:26 and Acts 18:6. Colossians 1:28 says, "Christ in you, the hope of glory whom we preach warning every man." We're to warn every man. That's why Paul said, "Woe is me if I
preach not the gospel." So those are three quick reasons why
it's important for us as Christians to understand hell and how severe it is, so we can warn
people. And one more thing that was unique about
this vision, God hid it from my mind that I was a Christian. You know I've been a Christian 39 years, this happened eleven years ago. He blocked it from my mind that I was saved. You say, "Bill, where's that in the Bible?" Luke 24:16 where Jesus appeared to the disciples on the road to Emmaus. It says,
"their eyes were holden that they should not know him." John MacArthur's commentary says they
were kept by God from recognizing Him. God hid it from their mind. Same thing in John 20:14, Luke 18:34, Daniel 4:34, 2 Kings 4:27, these are all examples were God hid
something from someone's mind for a purpose and he did from mine, for a reason which I will get to. Okay? And, alright, we went to a prayer meeting, came home like my wife said, Sunday night, went to bed, nothing unusual about the night. I've never had a vision before. Like my wife
said, we've never entertained dark movies, none of that. I went to bed at
three o'clock in the morning, I mean I got up a 3 o'clock in the morning and suddenly I was pulled out of my body and I found myself falling through the air and I landed in a prison cell in hell. I had no explanation of how I got there,
why I was there, I was fully awake and cognizant, just like I'm standing here now, it was just as real. And this prison cell was filthy, stinky, dirty, smoke-filled, rough hewn
stone walls and bars. Isaiah 24:22 says, "They shall be
gathered together as prisoners gathered in the pit and shall be shut up in
the prison." Proverbs 7:27 mentions going down to hell to chambers of death. The word chambers means, "inner rooms." Job 17:16 says, "They shall go down to the
bars of the pit." Jonah 2:6 says, "The earth with her bars was about me forever." And it's talking about literal gates and bars. According to Tyndale, the new international commentary and many other respected commentaries. It's actually talking about bars and gates, so that's
where I found myself in this stinking prison cell. And the first thing I noticed was a
tremendous heat. I wondered, "How can I be alive? I should be incinerated already." It was so unbearably hot, but yet here I was, alive. I was lying facedown on this stone floor and I noticed I could hardly move, I
tried to move and it took so much effort to even move. I
thought, "What's wrong with my body, why can't I move?" But see Isaiah 14:9-10 says, "Hell from beneath is moved to meet thee at thy coming. They will say art thou become weak as we?" The word weak there is the word "ill" or "faint," the same word used in Judges 16:7, where Samson became weak when they cut off his hair. Psalms 88:4 says, "I am counted with them that go down into the pit. I am as a man that has no strength." So one of the things you have to endure for all eternity is you are completely void of any kind of strength. Now that might not sound like a big deal
but really, if you ever thought about remember a time when you had the flu? And you just felt weak from the flu? Well, it's a thousand times worse than that. Any movement takes so much effort. Bt see Acts17:28 says, "In Him we live and move and have our being." Even movement comes from God. It's not
automatic. I looked up and I saw these two enormous
beasts in the cell. I didn't realize what they were yet, they were demons. But they were reptilish in appearance, bumps and scales all over the one's body, huge jaw, sunken in eyes, claws about
a foot long. These particular two were about twelve or
thirteen feet tall. And that sounds like an exaggeration but
I could give you scripture for that too, but I have to keep moving, and these two were pacing in the cell like a caged animal, the most
ferocious, vicious demeanor of anything you've ever
seen. And they were blaspheming and cursing God. They had extreme hatred for God. And we know hatred comes from the demonic realm, Revelation 13:6, James 2:7. And as they were cursing and blaspheming God, the one picked me up and threw me into the wall, like I weighed the weight of a water
glass. Tremendous strength, I hit the wall, bones
broke, I collapsed on the floor, I felt pain but
I understood that I only felt a small amount of the pain. The Lord explained on the way back, that He blocked almost all the pain but he did allow me to feel some of it, so that I could relate to people. It's not
metaphorical or allegorical pain, it's real literal pain you're gonna feel in hell.
And the amount I felt was enough. And the other one picked me up and dug it's claws into my chest and just tore the flesh open. It hung like ribbons. I couldn't
believe it, how could I be alive? I should be dead from these wounds, but yet here I was alive. You have a body. Matthew 10:28 says, "Fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." Remember Luke 16, the rich man, he had a tongue, he had eyes, he thirsted. But I noticed there was no blood or water coming from the wounds, and just something I happened to notice, but we know Leviticus 17:11 says, "The life of the flesh is in the blood." Well, there's no life in hell so there's no blood. And Zechariah 9:11 says, "Thy prisoners out of the pit where
there is no water." There is not one drop of water in hell. They had absolutely no mercy, none. They had extreme hatred. And we know Psalms 103:17 says, "The mercy of the Lord is upon those that fear Him." Well, they don't fear Him in hell, so you don't derive that benefit of mercy. Two more walked in and, uh, one of them crushed my head like flat, and I couldn't believe how could
I be alive through this?" But you can't die. I didn't see the two as they walked
in because right about that moment it went dark. Now I believed it resumed it's normal state
and, but God's presence was there in the form a light, for me to see to
describe to you what it looked like, but then it resumed it's normal state of absolute pitch black darkness. I mean it was so dark, Lamentations 3:6
says, "He has set me in dark places as they that be dead of old." And Jude 13 talks about blackness or darkness forever, but it's not just
dark like here in the dark, you can feel the darkness and that's not
an exaggeration. Exodus 10:21 talks about a darkness that may be felt. It would just penetrate right through every
cell in your body because it's such evil in this place. Total evil, no love of any kind. And all four of them then grabbed an arm and a leg and were going to pull my arms and legs off. I thought I can't, I can't endure this and then something right at that moment grabbed me and pulled me out of the cell. Now it was God but I didn't realize that then and placed me over next to this pit of fire, this raging pit of fire that was about a mile across, enormous pit with flames raging high up
into this open cavern and there was brimstone falling and uh, like lava falling from, from above. And this is where I could first see people. I was listening to the screams all
this time. It is so loud and deafening in hell. I mean the screams, you ever heard someone scream, an agonizing scream? Well it's terrible to hear that when there's
millions of people screaming and it just penetrates you again. Isaiah 57:21 says, "There is no peace saith my God to the wicked." You have no peace of mind whatsoever. And I looked through the flames and this is where I could first see people. There were people literally inside this pit, in the flames burning. And it was
not metaphorical or allegorical fire, it was real, literal fire.
Psalms 11:6 says, "Upon the wicked that He will reign snares,
fire and brimstone and a horrible tempest." Psalms 140 verse 10 says, "Let burning coals fall upon them. Let
them be cast into the fire in the deep pits." Matthew 13:49 says, "The angels shall sever the wicked from the just and cast the wicked into a furnace of fire." John 15:6, and many other scriptures I could give you but it's real, literal fire. And just to give you one verse to prove
to you it's fire, in Revelation 9:2 during the Tribulation
time on the earth here, when the bottomless pit is opened, it says,
"There arose a smoke and our air and sky were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit." Well, it couldn't have been a metaphor or metaphorical fire to produce real smoke. It takes a real fire to produce real smoke to darken our sky. You see and in Luke 16 he wanted a drop
of water to cool his tongue. So if it was just flames of mental anguish, why would water suffice? If you remember in the Twin Towers, when people jumped, you remember how awful that would have been, to jump out of those towers and they said that the temperature of
the burning fuel was two thousand degrees, which is I think about eleven hundred
degrees celsius and that they would be incinerated in 15
seconds, facing that heat. So those people chose to jump rather than face 15 seconds of fire. And scientists say that the center of the earth as twelve thousand degrees. That's why
Jesus warned, you know there's 46 verses in the Bible where Jesus talked about hell and 18 of
those verses are about the fire of hell. You see so that's why He warned us. This
place is real. It's severe and um, I knew, I understand that I was down deep in the Earth. I just understood that but there's 49 verses that talk about where hell is currently located. I'll just give you two, Ezekial 26:20, Numbers 16:32-33. But there's 49 verses and I
just understood that I was down deep in the earth. Now after Judgment Day, death and hell are delivered up and cast into the lake of fire, Revelation 20:13 and into outer darkness, Matthew 25:30. But down deep in the earth, I understood that there were different levels of torment. I don't know what level
I was in but I understood there were different degrees
of punishment and levels of torment. Now you remember Jesus said, "You shall receive the greater damnation." Matthew 20:14, inferring there's a lesser. Or He said, "It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city," inferring there's a less tolerable. Or Hebrews 10:28 says, "How much worse
of a punishment supposed thee for you, you who would trodden under foot, the Son of God." Luke 12:47 talks about beaten with many stripes or beaten with few. Anyway the point is, there is no
comfortable, nice level in hell. They're all horrendous beyond anything you can ever imagine. I was so thirsty. Just a drop of water would have been so precious, like the
rich man. I felt like if you were to imagine running through
the Sahara Desert for a month with cotton in your mouth. I desperately wanted a drop of water. But you never get that drop. The smells
in hell are so foul and putrid and disgusting, worse than anything you can ever imagine, like uh, the worst open sewer, bad eggs, rotten milk, everything again times a thousand but
also add to it sulfur, and sulfur is actually toxic to breath. You go to Hawaii, to the volcano, they have signs posted where you can't go past a certain point because the toxicity coming up from the volcano, the sulfur will kill you. Well that's
what you're breathing in hell. And you know, I learned this from
John Bevere but he said that man can adjust to any kind of odor any kind of foul odor man can adjust to, but he cannot adjust to sulfur. You cannot adjust to
that smell it is so foul and pungent, putrid and
disgusting and this is what you're breathing in hell. Remember, Jesus rebuked the foul spirits, Mark 9:25. It is so foul and putrid but it's worse
than that because you don't really wanna breathe the air
anyway. I mean it's so foul but you can't because there's not enough oxygen to
breathe. Like here, you take a nice deep breath, well you don't have enough air to breathe in hell. You have to fight and gasp for even the tiniest bit of air. And maybe only an asthma patient can relate to this but I'll demonstrate to you, this is how you breathe in hell. It was like, (gasp sounds) And that's as much air as you can get. So any moment you feel like 'I'm gonna die. I don't have enough oxygen,' but you keep going. But see Isaiah 42:5 says, "The Lord gives breath to the people upon the earth." You're not upon the earth, you're down beneath the earth. God's real specific with His word. So you don't derive that benefit again. You need to sleep in hell. Like here we need sleep, right? Well you
know I was only there 23 minutes but I felt like I was there twenty three weeks and I understood that you need to go to
sleep. I wanted to go to sleep, I was so exhausted but you can't ever go to sleep again. Can you imagine staying up? You've been up one or two nights you know how you feel, but for all
eternity, you never get to go to sleep. Revelation 14:11 says, "And the smoke of
their torment ascends up forever and ever and they have no rest day nor night. Now it
primarily means no rest from the torments, but no rest of any kind because Isaiah
57:20 said, "The wicked are like the troubled sea that cannot rest." But see again that's a blessing and benefit
from God because Psalms 127:2 says, "The Lord gives His beloved sleep." You''re not His beloved theere. You're hungry. You never get to eat. You never get to drink. You're in total darkness. The fear level, everything you have to
experience in hell is so far beyond anything you can imagine. I was standing by this
big pit of fire and I was observing all these
people burning and you know you feel so helpless. You can't help yourself. It's a useless wasting away. You
have no purpose, no destiny. Ecclesiastes 9:10 says, "There's no work,
nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in Sheol." It's
just a complete useless wasting away. And it doesn't matter who you are, if you're
somebody famous here, no one would know who you are there. You're completely lost and alone. Ecclesiastes 6:4 says, "Your name is covered in darkness." So no one would know who you are and you're forgotten in hell. Psalms 88:12, Isaiah 26:14, no one will
remember you in hell. And it's confusion and turmoil in hell. It's just
everything is confusion. You know we like things in order here?
Neat and orderly? Well hell is the opposite. Jeremiah 20:11 and Isaiah 45:16 talk about
everlasting confusion. And Job 10:22 talks about a land without
any order. These are all things that that hell is
like. And as I was looking at this pit there were individual pits of fire all around
this big pit with people inside their individual pits. Some were in the big pit. Some were in individual pits. I can explain that. Psalms 94:13 talks about pits. And uh, flames would come up and just burn the flesh off. And there were just skeleton forms of people with flesh just hanging off. Psalms 49:14 explains that also. But uh, as I was looking at these people and all around me was this tunnel. I was standing beneath this tunnel. And there were demonic creatures of all sizes and shapes in
this tunnel. Some were two and three feet tall.
Some looked like spiders and they were three and
four feet across. I mean I don't like spiders but three and four feet across. And there were snakes of all sizes and shapes. Some of the demons were twelve and thirteen feet tall. There were maggots everywhere, millions of maggots crawling. I could only see a little bit from the
light from the flames but it illuminated it enough for me to see the ground was covered
solid with maggots. And you know I learned this from
John MacArthur's teaching on hell but um, you know first of all Isaiah 14-11 says, "Where the maggot will be spread under thee and will cover thee." He uses the word maggot in the original. John MacArthur said that you know if an animal, a dead animal, I know this is disgusting but just bear with me. If a dead animal is being eaten by maggots, well when the flesh is consumed, the maggots will die. I never knew that but when the flesh is fully consumed the maggots will die. Well that's why Jesus said, "Where their worm dies not and the fire is not quenched." It's also the
word maggot. You see so in other words the flesh is never fully
consumed so the maggot feeds sweetly on thee. As it says in Job 24:20. I mean is that disgusting enough? The fear level that you have to
experience in hell is so far beyond anything you can imagine. You know and I'll relate to you an experience that I had. I used to surf when I was 16, a lot. And I was surfing off the the coast of Cocoa Beach Florida. A bunch of guys were out and a shark came by and grabbed the guy next to me and ripped his leg off. And the shark came back. There was about 30 sharks probably and 100 guys out and we we're scrambling trying to get to the beach. And the shark passed by me and I got up on my knees and I was on a nine foot board. And the shark was longer than my board. The paper said they were tiger sharks. If you know anything about sharks, they are really vicious. And the shark passed by, turned his head and I saw his teeth were about this long and his mouth was about that wide. And he passed by and he came back and he bit my board in half. Now I was in the water, and I was with a friend of mine Rene, and Rene was also in the water and you know, Rene just said to me, "I guess we're dead." That's a bad confession for sure, but I mean that's how you felt. Anyway the Shark came back and grabbed my leg and pulled me down under the water. Now you can imagine the fear that I felt,
right? Well that fear paled in comparison to what you feel in hell. It wouldn't even register. Psalms 73:18 and 19 says, "You cast
them down into destruction where they are utterly consumed with
terrors." Anyway, the shark let me go. Praise God. That's a miracle of God, right? It let me go and then opened it's mouth
and I didn't even have a mark in my leg. Can you imagine? That's a miracle of God. Not one mark and that's impossible with
any shark but especially a tiger shark. God was watching over me. You know and I was not even a Christian then. But I got saved immediately after that. (laughter) Praise God. Thank you Lord. You would too, right? I thought about my wife. You know my wife and I are really close and I thought about her and I knew I would never get out, I would
never see her again, I could never talk to her again. She would never know where I was at even. And for all eternity. Can you imagine living with that thought
alone. That she''ll never know where I'm at and I can't even tell her. That alone, was extremely tormenting for
me. And it would be for any of you. You never get to see your love ones. Even though you saw people all in that pit of fire, all close together, it's not like that in reality. You're all
kept apart and isolated. So you don't get the pleasure of being next
to a person even and having conversation. You see there's
pleasure in being with somebody right, and having conversation. You don't get to do that now. You're kept in the dark and isolated for all
eternity. I mean can you imagine all this? And
maggots feeding on you and all the things that you have to endure. Any one of these things, you should die
from but you keep living because our soul is eternal. God
made us in His image so our soul can't die, it lives on for eternity no matter what
you do to it. And um, you know you might say, "But Bill, why is hell so horrible?" Well, I want to explain something. First of all, Matthew 25:41, Jesus said that hell was prepared for the devil and his angels. Well, the word 'prepared' there is the same
word He used in John 14:2, where He goes to prepare a place for us in Heaven. And in that preparation, what God did was, He withdrew His attributes from hell.
You see, James 1:17 said, "Every good and perfect
gift comes down from above from the Father of lights." So God prepared a place, He just
withdrew His attributes. Because see, hell is dark because 1 John 1:5 says, "God
is light." There's only death in hell because John 1:4
said, "God is life." There's only hatred in hell because 1 John 4:16 said, "God is love." There's no mercy in hell because Psalms 36:5 said, "The mercy of the Lord is in the heavens." There's no strength in hell because
Psalms 18:32 said, "The Lord gives us strength." There's no water in hell
because Deuteronomy 11:11 says, "Water is the rain of heaven." And there's no peace in hell because
Isaiah 9:6 says, "He is the Prince of Peace." So you see, remove God from the situation or He removes Himself and all the good
goes with Him. There's no good thing apart from God. So to think you can enjoy fresh air,
sunshine, comfort, conversation with people,
food, no. All that comes from God. Because Psalms 33:5 said, "The earth is
full the goodness of the Lord. So we get to
enjoy God's goodness when we're here on the earth. But if you
want nothing to do with God, you want to deny Him? There is a place prepared that has
nothing to do with Him. Other than one thing. His wrath is poured out in the form of
fire because God hates sin, so he pours out
His wrath and that's the fire in hell. It's His wrath. Revelation 14:10 says so. Uh, Jude 7. Deuteronomy 32:22. Isaiah 33:14. I could go on, but His wrath, that's the fire of God. So, but hell is horrible because God has withdrawn His attributes from that place. And so
when people look at the green tree, the water, the sky and they say,
"Oh, isn't mother nature wonderful?" No, that's not mother nature, that's Father God that provided that. (clapping) Amen. Praise the Lord. Thank you Lord. So that's why hell is so horrendous, because God's goodness does not exist there. As I was viewing all this in this tunnel I began being raised up this tunnel and
suddenly, all of a sudden, this bright light showed up. I knew immediately who it was. I didn't have to ask. And I just said, Jesus! And He said, "I am." It was a bright light, like I've never
seen a light like this before. I only saw the outline of a man. I didn't see His face. And when He said, "I am," I just fell at His feet and I felt like I died. I can only explain that through Revelation 1:16 where John, when he saw Him, it says, "His countenance was bright as the
Sun and I fell at His feet as one dead." So I don't know if I died or what happened
but, He touched me and I came to and I was at His feet. And it was there that I realized, even
though I've known this all my years as a Christian, but it really hit me so
strongly that, because He went to the cross, I didn't
have to go to that place. I was so grateful for the cross. If He wouldn't have gone, all of us would be
there. Every one of us. I was so thankful all I wanted to do was
say, "Thank you Jesus, thank you Jesus, thank you Jesus for
saving me, thank you Jesus, thank you Jesus. I didn't want to ask Him any questions. I just wanted to worship Him. But thoughts started coming to my mind
after a time, and He would answer my thoughts. Psalms 139:2 says, "He answers our thought afar off. And I thought, "Lord, why did you send me to this horrible place?" And He said because many people do no believe hell is real. He said, "Even
some of my own people do not believe Hell exists. And I thought, "Don't all Christians believe in hell?" But they don't. A lot of Christians are even misled. And He wanted me to go and tell people because a lot of the churches aren't teaching the truth about Hell. And He doesn't want anybody to go there.
He didn't make it for man. Like pastor said, Matthew 25:41, Hell was prepared for the devil and his
angels. But man will go there if he chooses
to reject the only provision for our sin, which is Jesus Christ. I thought, "Lord, why did those demons hate me so much?" He said, "Because you're made in My image and they hate Me. Remember John 15:18, Jesus said, "They hated Me before they hated you." And we're made in God's image, Genesis 1:26. Those demons hate you. All the evil we see in the world today, sickness, disease, cancer, all that. That all
comes from the demonic realm. I was so aware of that when I was in hell. I looked at those demons and that's where cancer and all this comes from. It's not from God. People blame God falsely. Jesus said, "I
have come that you might have life and have it more abundantly. Satan has come to kill, steal and destroy."
That's where the evil comes from on the earth, not from God. He's the giver of life. And I thought, "Lord, why did you pick me?" He didn't give me an answer, so I have no idea why He would pick me. You know, I was not a Billy Graham. I just was a realtor, going to work like
every body else, every day. You know and I, I like everything neat and clean and perfect
and hell is the antithesis, you know. I know we all do, but I'm like a fanatic
about these things and um, I mean I don't even me like the summertime, that's too hot for me, you know. It doesn't matter why He picked me you know, He's given us all a job to do. Everyone has a job to do for the Lord
and no one is more important than anybody else. We're all equally as important. And you
know I was uncomfortable for seven years giving this testimony, extremely uncomfortable and I complained. And the Lord said to me, "Bill, it's not about you being comfortable. It's
about you being obedient." If we will be obedient, we'll become
comfortable. And now it doesn't matter what anybody
thinks of me. If one person can get saved and not go to
this place, just one, it's worth it all. Amen? I said, "Lord, I don't want to tell anybody about this experience. They're gonna think I'm crazy or had a bad dream." And He said, "It's not your job to convict
their hearts. It's the Holy Spirit's job. You just go and tell them." I said yes Sir, I'll go. Whatever You want. We kept ascending up this tunnel I said,
"Lord, why didn't I know you? Why didn't I know you?" And He said, "Because if you would have known Me, you would have had hope and I wanted you to experience what they feel there. Hopelessness. You see if I would was there as a Christian, like I am, then I would have said, "Praise God He's getting me out of here." Right? I would have known, I would not have to have stayed there. But He blocked it from my mind so that I could experience what those people feel. Hopeless.
Hopelessness for all eternity. Isaiah 38:18 says, "Those who go down to the pit cannot hope
for thy truth." And we know the truth is Jesus. He said,
"I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes unto the Father, but by me."
Well those people, Jesus is the only hope for us, and they
have no hope for Him. He's the only hope. They have no hope.
It's too late for them. The decision is final. So that was really the worst part of hell, besides the pain and being separated from
God and all His goodness, was to know that you'll never, ever get out.
Ten million years will go by and you're still there suffering. We went out into space, all the way out into space. And I looked back at the Earth, and it was like you would look at the Earth, like a globe. It was so awesome to see the Earth from
space. I mean it was absolutely glorious. I looked back and I said, "Wow, what's holding that up? You know, Job 26-7 says, "He hangeth the earth upon nothing." It's like what's holding it up?" What's making it turn so perfectly, at a thousand miles an hour not varying even one mile-per-hour. All these thoughts were going through my mind. I'm just sharing you what was in my mind. It was so beautiful to see the earth. I
don't how you could not get saved by seeing God's creation from space. And you know, when I was a child I wanted to be an
astronaut and I believe God remembered that thought and He says He'll give us the desires of
our heart. I mean how great is that? You know He didn't have to take the scenic
route home, you know. But He did that for me. So how much more will He give us all the
desires of our heart if we serve Him. As I was looking at the earth, I looked out at space, and God allowed me to experience a little bit more His power. Numbers
12: 6 says, "He reveals Himself in a vision and speaks in a dream. He
revealed to me just a piece more of what we can grasp here of His
awesome power. And I looked out in space and I could see all the vastness of the universe, the stars, the billions of stars. And I looked at Him and I thought, "Oh Lord! You're in control of every one of them and not one is colliding, not one is out of control." The billions of stars, He's controlling
all that, all at the same time. I thought about all the people on the
earth. The billions of people on the earth. That He knows every single thought that
we're having in every single moment. Can you imagine a God that big? And He's running heaven and controlling everything
with not one error anywhere. He knows every sparrow that falls to the
ground. He knows every hair that's on our head, which
changes daily, right? It's increasing for us men (laughter). Praise the Lord. But you know I was just enjoying all
that, God's glorious creation and His awesome power. But then He wanted me to see and remember. He had me turn around, I looked at the tunnel we just came out of, and people were falling one after another, after another, after another, back down the tunnel we just came out of. And He wept. Because it's not His desire for anbody to go there. Ezekiel 33:11 says, "He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked." And people were falling, and He wanted me to remember that, so I would go and witness. And I could not stand feeling, He allowed
me to feel a piece of His heart, and it was so overwhelming to feel what God feels, His love. Ephesians 3:19 says, "His love passes knowledge." It's way past our ability to even conceive how much He loves us. And I want to share with you quickly a scripture that He opened up to me. Psalms 139:17-18 says, David says, "Your thoughts toward me are all precious and I suppose if I should count them,
they are more than the sands." Now we glibly read over that and say, "Oh, that's nice." But God opened that up to me and showed me that you know, if you were to pick up a handful of sand, granules of sand, there would be thousands of granules in your hand, right? If each one represented a thought, and I stood here and I said, I took one grain,
and I said, "Wow, I love how my wife prays for me all the time. I love how beautiful she is. I love how she prays for others. I love how she
loves the Lord." And I went on like this and you came back
three or four hours from now I'm still trying to exhaust this amount in my hand. You would think, "Bill's really gone over his
wife. He is absolutely bananas over her. Right? That's just too
exhaust this little bit in my hand. Well, God said His
thoughts are more than the sands on the whole earth. That's not an exaggeration because God
can't exaggerate. Can you imagine every granule is a thought that
He has for you and they're all precious. Now can you kinda grasp the idea of how
His love passes knowledge? To have that many thoughts for each one
of us, He loves us all that much. And so when
people think God's mean, that He's sending people to hell, they are so wrong. He's not sending anybody to hell. You know, God's not up there saying, "Oh this one goes to heaven, this one goes to hell..." All of us, above the age of accountability, are
already on our way to hell automatically. You see, God came to get us off that road. I like what Reinhard Bonnke said, "He planted a cross right in the middle of that road, of all of us going to hell, so all we have to do is look up to that cross
and be humble enough to admit we're sinners,
and call out on God, and He'll save us. That's the God we serve. A loving God that
is trying to keep all of us out of hell. You know God warns us in five different
ways I have seen, at least five. Number one, He gives us creation. And in
creation, man is without excuse, Romans 1 says.
Because when you see creation, and God's heavenly's, and man and a baby being born, you have to admit there has to be a
designer for all this design. There has to be a creator. You're without excuse. God holds you
accountable just for that. Number two, He gives you a conscience.
Romans 2:15 says we have a conscience. And in our conscience we're made aware
that there is a God. There is a supreme being. And we know
that there is right from wrong. That's in our conscience. Number three, He gives us the Bible, the written word. And you know in real estate, we always
look for things in writing. You thought if you had in writing, you've got it. Well, God gave it to us in writing. Sixty-six books written by forty authors.
He put it in writing and told us exactly how to stay out of hell
and how to get to heaven. He gives us evangelists, pastors, teachers. He gives us radio, TV, missionaries going
around the world to witness to people. And then lastly, He gives us Job 33 which says, "He gives man dreams and visions to keep
back his soul from the pit." He will even give that person in the remote mountains somewhere, He'll give him a dream or vision is that person just seeks out and says, "God, I know there's a creator. I know there's a God. I wanna know you." God will reveal himself to that person so
man is without excuse. We came back down on the earth and came up on my body and we were hovering above my house, my wife and my house, and I looked through the roof and I
could see myself lying on the floor. It was so strange to look at my body. I
thought that's not me. This is the real me. It looked like if you
were to get out your car. It's just a vehicle to get you around
in. It's not really you. That's how temporal the body looked. And then I saw a puff of smoke go up and I said, "Lord, what's that?" And He said, "Your life." I said, "That's it?" It was over in a second. He said, James 4:14, "Life is but a vapor." It was so fast compared to eternity, like a little tea
kettle, the smoke going up, that's how short our life is compared to eternity. I thought , "Lord, we don't have much time." He said, "Yes, but what you do for me during that time I will count for all eternity." Isn't that
awesome that God would do that? Praise the Lord! (clapping) You know that short time, it gave me a
better overall, eternal perspective on life, what's
important really. Serving God is most important. All the
rest of it's gonna pass and burn. It doesn't matter. It won't last. But what you do for God, witnessing, getting involved in a
church, feeding the poor, preaching the gospel, anything you can
do for God helping... all these people that help around here,
all these things are rewards in heaven and will last for all eternity.
I'm telling you it gave me, I thought, "Lord, I don't want to waste a second. I wanna do everything I can for you. I wanna live, eat and breathe the Gospel." And that's how we all should feel.
Because we have the good news, we need to go out and tell a dying world about Jesus. He's a good
God. We have the words. We have His word. All
we have to do is open our mouths. And the Lord said to me, "You know many of my people make excuses why they don't witness. They say, "I didn't feel led" and I felt convicted because I've done that. Now, I know we all need to feel led and not beat people over the head with a Bible, but so many times we makes excuses and say, "I didn't feel led" when really we were fearing man rather than fearing God. We need to fear God and be obedient to do what He's called us to do. Anyway, you know you might be here and you might say, "But Bill, I'm a good person. I'm not gonna go to hell." There was a 2006 Barna poll that showed
that 54 percent of Americans generally believe that if you're a good person you'll
go to heaven, and if you're bad, you to go to hell. That's
the common misconception because it's not based on being good. It's based on a relationship. You see and
it's a good thing it wasn't based on being good because none of us would get there. You
see, you might be pretty good compared to people, but if you're gonna go
by that standard, you have to compare to God's good. And God says if if you lie once, Revelation 21:8 says, "All
liars shall have their part in the lake of fire." Just once. If you steal one thing, no thief will inherit heaven. 1 Corinthians 6:9. If you lust just one time, Jesus said that's
the same as committing adultery. No adulterer will inherit heaven. Just one time because James 2:10 says, "If you offend the law on one point, you're
guilty of all. Well, that's just three of the ten commandments. If we're gonna be judged by that
standard, would we be guilty or innocent? We'd all be guilty right? That's a pretty
high standard. So there's a penalty to pay for our sin.
But Jesus paid that penalty. Romans 6:23 says, "The wages of sin is
death but the gift of God is eternal life." He paid it. You can either let Him pay or you can. But you see, you could never
pay it because it took an eternal God and the blood of Jesus to
pay for our sins. Time in hell would never suffice. You
can't be in hell for five hundred years and say, "Well, I paid, I worked off my sins." That would be a works trip number on. And time would never suffice because
we're saved by grace through faith. You're not saved by time and God will
not violate His word. His Word is forever settled in heaven so He can't come get you
out of hell and someday take you out. No, hell is
permanent. It's eternal. We're saved by grace through faith. You know, but you might be like... I was on
a radio talk show with one of the toughest radio announcers in the country. And they said, "Bill, watch your back.
This guy hates Christians and he'll just chew you up on the air. It was
syndicated across the nation... Chicago, New York, Miami. It was live. It was supposed to be a ten minute interview and he started off and he said, "All right first of all, I don't want to hear one Bible verse out of your mouth. Don't you quote the Bible to me over my airwaves, you got that?" I
said, "No problem." And he said, "I submit to you that your God is unreasonable and unloving because He doesn't consider my
viewpoints, only you Christian's viewpoint. That's unreasonable and unloving. He should let me into heaven because I'm a good person and He should respect my viewpoints. Your God is actually guilty of a hate crime. So what have you got to say for yourself? I thought, "Lord, what do you say to that?" And I can't give scripture, and I love to give
scripture, you know? And the Lord gave me an analogy right then. And I said, "Let me give you an analogy." I said, "Say you went and knocked on the
door of the most expensive home in the country. And you knocked on the door and you said, 'Um, excuse me. I'm moving in with you because I'm a good
person.' What do think the people would say?" No, right? And you wouldn't expect them to because
you have no relationship with them. The same way you go through your whole life, you have nothing to do with God. You deny that Jesus is the Son of God,
then at the end of your life, you come and knock on His door and you say, "Uh, excuse me. I'm moving in with you. I'm a good person." It's not based on being good. It's based on
a relationship. You have to know Him. And He offered Himself to be your Father but you rejected Him over and over again.
He's your Creator, but He's not your Father. Galatians 3:26, Romans 9:7-8 John 1:12, John 8:44 all explain that. That He's your Creator but He's not your Father until you invite Jesus into your heart, then He becomes your Father. So who's the arrogant one expecting to live in a house where you don't even know the person? You have no right. He says, "Well, you
Christians are narrow minded. You think you're the only ones that's right."
And I said, "Well, let me give you another analogy." I said, "Say you invited me over to dinner
and you said, 'Bill I want you go south on Highway 95, turn right at Main Street, go up the hill,
you'll come to my house. That's the only way to get to my house.'" And I say to you you, "You know what? I think I'm gonna go north on 95. I'm gonna get off at Beach Boulevard.
Because I think all roads lead to your house. That's what I think." (laughter and clapping) You're gonna say, "Bill, I'm trying to give you clear directions to my house." Well, I think God knows where He lives. Right? He's given us clear directions. All we have
to do is follow His directions and we'll get there. If we don't, we send ourselves to
hell. That's not narrow-mindedness, that
specific. God is specific with His directions. And he said, "Well, if there's a God how come there's so much evil in the world?" I said, "Well, if there is no God, how come there's so much good in the world?" Amen. Praise God. Where's all this good come from? He said,
"Well, okay, so I'm a sinner. I'm not
that bad though. I don''t kill anybody. Can't God overlook my sins?" That's what he said to me. I said, "No, He can't for two reasons. Number one, He's a just judge. And a good judge in our land would not
be considered good if he let the criminal go free, would he? The crime has to be punished. Well, our sin has to be punished. And it was. Jesus took our punishment for
us. So again, you can either let Him take it or
you can take it. But you would have to pay for it for all eternity. Because you can never pay for sins. I said, "But secondly, the second reason He can't overlook your sin is because Hebrews 12:29 said, "God is a consuming
fire." And what that means is, say you stuck
your hand in a fire to retrieve something and it burned you. You wouldn't say, "Why did that fire burn me? That was mean of that fire. I didn't do anything to that fire." You wouldn't say that, would you? Why? Because the nature of the fire is to burn. You would expect it to. Your hand and fire are not compatible. Well, the same with God. God and sinful man are not compatible. See and that's a problem for us. We are
sinful. So we can't show up in His presence. We would be consumed because He's a consuming fire. You see that? So how can man ever stand before a holy God? Only one way. We would have to appear to
be sinless. Well, how can that happen? Again, only one way. Someone would have to come and live a perfect life,
and never sin once. And that someone is Jesus. And stand before God and say, "I've lived a perfect life. I'm gonna
exchange their sin for my righteousness. If they
would trust in me, instead of their works." Titus 3:5 says, "Not by works of righteousness, which we have done but according to His mercy He saved us."
So if we would trust in His work and not ours, He takes on our sin and
washes it away with His blood. And we can now stand there as if we
never sinned, because our sin is washed away. Isn't that an awesome plan that God came up with? Praise God He came up with this plan! (clapping) Thank the Lord! People complain and say, "I don't like this one way business." You outta be grateful there is a way! Amen! God made a way. This is the directions to heaven. John 3:36 says, "He that has the Son has
everlasting life. But he that has not the Son shall not see
life, but the wrath of God abides on him." How do you know the Son? Two things. You have to repent of your sin. Luke 13:3, Jesus said, "Unless you repent, you shall all likewise perish." Repent means
to turn away from your sin. Walk away from it. It's not enough to
just mentally assent to the fact that Jesus is the Son of God. You have to
agree to walk away from your sin and say, "Lord I recognize I am a sinner. I cannot save
myself. I don't want to sin anymore. I want
to walk and follow you." If you repent of your sin then Romans
10:9-10 says, "If you confess with your mouth the Lord
Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved." That's the way to
heaven. Jesus said in John 14:6, "I am the way, the
truth and the life. No man comes unto the Father but by me."
And I'm not here to denigrate anyone's belief, but I am here to
dissuade you from believing anything other than what Jesus just said. He is the only way. There
is no other way. I don't care what you were raised with. Jesus! There's one way. One way But you know it's your choice. God gives man a choice because that's what love
does. It gives a choice. You know He could have made us robots but He didn't. He gave man that free will so you could choose. One last scripture. Revelation 20:15 says, "Whosoever was not found written in the
Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire." God has a book. And on judgment day, if you're not saved,
you're gonna stand before Him. He's gonna open this book. And wouldn't it be a horrible thing to hear Him say, "Your name's not in this book. Depart from me into everlasting fire, prepared for the
devil and his angels." That would be worst words you could ever
hear, because it's eternal. So I want to ask you one question tonight. Do you know if your name is written in
His book? If you want your name in God's book, then just repeat this prayer, and say it from your heart. Say, "Dear God in heaven. I know that I have sinned and I cannot save myself. I believe you sent your Son Jesus, to die on a cross for me. That He was crucified, died and was buried, and rose again. I ask you to forgive me of my sins. I repent. I turn from my sins. I ask you to come into my heart. I
receive you as my Lord and Savior. Thank you Jesus for shedding your Blood
to wash away my sins. I believe I am now a born-again Christian, going to heaven. Thank you Jesus for
saving me. In Jesus name. Amen. This was the wisest decision you could ever make. Your spirit is alive to God now and you
are in His family. Now this is only a first step. There are
a couple of things that are really important. First, read your Bible everyday,
especially the New Testament, because it will change you from the inside out as
you begin to do what it says. It is God's instruction manual for life.
Second, learn about all that Jesus paid for on the cross. Learn about God's great love and His
grace, His power that He's given us to overcome
Sin, to break addiction and lust over our lives. But
it's not automatic. We must do our part by developing our
relationship with God. Connect with other believers. Get planted
in a good church. And cut off ungodly associations so that
you won't be pulled back down into your old ways. And always remember. If you mess up and sin, don't ever run away from God. Jesus said, "I will never leave you, nor forsake you." Immediately ask Him to forgive you, and run right back to Him. He will help
you every time. No matter what. Keep Him first. Pursue Him and you will truly live. Thank you for watching. We really
appreciate those who have written to us, who have prayed for us. Thank you all so
very much. And we wish we could write every one of you back. We truly appreciate your kind words and your prayers. And we pray and hope that you all can be soul winners. God bless you.
