Does God Send Christians to Hell to Fire Up their Testimony?
Bill Wiese, a former real estate broker, purports that on November 22, 1998 at 11:00 p.m. he fell asleep alongside his wife Annette and woke up 3:00 a.m. the next morning in the fiery pit of hell, which he describes in a book entitled 23 Minutes in Hell (Lake Mary, FL: Charisma House, 2006).
Naked inside a fifteen by ten foot stone prison cell, Wiese testifies to being tortured by four demonic creatures that stood ten to thirteen feet tall that had the form of humans with grotesque reptilian features. After crawling out of his cell, he witnessed a full panorama of hell’s utter darkness and unquenchable fire. He felt intense physical physical pain, experienced an unquenchable thirst, smelled foul odors far worst than any putrid thing in the world of the living, heard the screams of a myriad of tortured souls, and felt the utter hopelessness of those who come to realize escape to be futile, for God kept out of his thought process the very idea of a savior (1-14).
After 23 minutes in torments, Wiese returned to the world of the living, and reasoned his experience to be an “out-of-body experience [OBE] which falls under the classification of a vision as described in 1 Corinthians 12:2.”[1] This alleged OBE inspired him to enter into a part-time itinerant preaching ministry from 1999-2005, which eventually evolved into a cottage industry with 23 Minutes in Hell as the featured product. In 2007, Wiese entered full-time ministry with the launch of his new para-church organization Soul Choice Ministries.[2]
Wiese is not the first to have an OBE to hell. Mary K. Baxter claims that Jesus gave her a 40-day tour into hell and later into heaven.[3] The Trinity Broadcasting Network film documentary "To Hell and Back," narrated by Dr. Maruice S. Rawlings, presents five individuals alleging to have had Near Death Experiences wherein they describe being taken to a place of darkness and torment.[4] To be sure, many others testify to having voyaged into the dark abyss. Wiese’s talents in speaking and writing, however, have allowed him to become 2007’s dominant figure among those with the ministry platform of sharing their experience to and from the netherworld.
Did God transport Wiese into hell? Wiese’s journey to the Devil’s lair assumes that God is providing new revelation for the church through dreams, visions, voices, visitations. In his case, the Lord orchestrated a supernatural voyage to hell to give Wiese a foretaste of what could happen to unbelievers; in short, “God wanted him to experience hell and warn others” (emphasis in original).[5]
God most certainly has divine prerogatives to unveil spiritual truth to His creation as He sees fit; however, what God has already revealed to us would preclude an experience as Wiese describes. Jesus Christ once taught a parable of a sinful rich man who died and found himself in torments. There was also a righteous beggar named Lazarus who also passed away and entered into Abraham’s bosom. In a conversation with Abraham, the man in torments said, “I beg you, Father, that you send him [Lazarus] to my father’s house—for I have five brothers—that he may warn them, lest they also come to this place of torment.” Abraham replied, “They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them…if they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone rises from the dead” (cf. Luke 16:19-31).
Whether or not God allowed Wiese to experience life in hell is unlikely. Even if one were to grant him the possibility of a divine enabling to traverse the great chasm that divides the physical world and hell, there is no good reason to think his message is inspired, and whatever he says about his spiritual journey into the afterlife is his own opinion, which must be weighed against the final authority of Scripture.
Is Wiese’s portrait of hell consistent what the Bible teaches? To his credit, Wiese has made efforts to understand his own experience against the Scriptures.[6] The content of his testimony, however, unveils the end product of his research to be a muddy mixture of fact and fiction. Wiese attempts to support his own experience with passages from the Bible, and even cites comments from sound Christian teachers like John Piper (3), Sinclare B. Ferguson (5), John MacArthur (9), Millard J. Erickson (11), and Franklin Graham (14) on various aspects concerning the eternal conscious punishment of the damned; albeit even these teachers would not go so far as to teach hell has prison cells wherein sinners are held to be bludgeoned by demon thugs. Wiese’s hell is more akin to Dante’s Inferno than theological soundness.
One can only wonder why God see fit to send Wiese, along with a host of other saints (see above), to hell and back, just to convince the world the place is real. If one can trust what the Bible has to say about the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the resurrection of saints to eternal life, and there are good reasons to trust what it says about these things, why doubt what it says about the resurrection of sinners to eternal conscious punishment?
Christians must remain faithful to the biblical teaching on the eternal conscious punishment of hell. They are not to give into the growing popularity of denying the reality of hell. However, they are to also steer clear of hyper-sensationalistic stories, as in the case of Wiese. If Christians are to speak on the very unpopular subject of hell, they must stand with what Scripture alone teaches, and not capitulate to using fanciful stories of alleged cosmic journeys. Given the aforementioned concerns, 23 Minutes in Hell is not a recommended resource on personal eschatology.
1. Soul Choice Ministries, “About” (http://www.soulchoiceministries.org/about.html)
2. Ibid.
3. Hell, according to Baxter, is a place deep within the earth, shaped like a human being, where snakes and rats dwell, and where worms slither through ignited corpses (Mary K. Baxter, A Divine Revelation of Hell [Washington, D.C.: National Press, n.d.], 17-20).
4. Trinity Broadcasting Network, “To Hell and Back” (http://media.tbn.org/download/tbn/gallery/To_Hell_And_Back.wmv).
5. Beliefnet, “23 Minutes in Hell by Bill Wiese” (http://www.beliefnet.com/story/188/story_18811.html).
6. Soul Choice, “Product” (http://www.soulchoiceministries.org/product.html).
Naked inside a fifteen by ten foot stone prison cell, Wiese testifies to being tortured by four demonic creatures that stood ten to thirteen feet tall that had the form of humans with grotesque reptilian features. After crawling out of his cell, he witnessed a full panorama of hell’s utter darkness and unquenchable fire. He felt intense physical physical pain, experienced an unquenchable thirst, smelled foul odors far worst than any putrid thing in the world of the living, heard the screams of a myriad of tortured souls, and felt the utter hopelessness of those who come to realize escape to be futile, for God kept out of his thought process the very idea of a savior (1-14).
After 23 minutes in torments, Wiese returned to the world of the living, and reasoned his experience to be an “out-of-body experience [OBE] which falls under the classification of a vision as described in 1 Corinthians 12:2.”[1] This alleged OBE inspired him to enter into a part-time itinerant preaching ministry from 1999-2005, which eventually evolved into a cottage industry with 23 Minutes in Hell as the featured product. In 2007, Wiese entered full-time ministry with the launch of his new para-church organization Soul Choice Ministries.[2]
Wiese is not the first to have an OBE to hell. Mary K. Baxter claims that Jesus gave her a 40-day tour into hell and later into heaven.[3] The Trinity Broadcasting Network film documentary "To Hell and Back," narrated by Dr. Maruice S. Rawlings, presents five individuals alleging to have had Near Death Experiences wherein they describe being taken to a place of darkness and torment.[4] To be sure, many others testify to having voyaged into the dark abyss. Wiese’s talents in speaking and writing, however, have allowed him to become 2007’s dominant figure among those with the ministry platform of sharing their experience to and from the netherworld.
Did God transport Wiese into hell? Wiese’s journey to the Devil’s lair assumes that God is providing new revelation for the church through dreams, visions, voices, visitations. In his case, the Lord orchestrated a supernatural voyage to hell to give Wiese a foretaste of what could happen to unbelievers; in short, “God wanted him to experience hell and warn others” (emphasis in original).[5]
God most certainly has divine prerogatives to unveil spiritual truth to His creation as He sees fit; however, what God has already revealed to us would preclude an experience as Wiese describes. Jesus Christ once taught a parable of a sinful rich man who died and found himself in torments. There was also a righteous beggar named Lazarus who also passed away and entered into Abraham’s bosom. In a conversation with Abraham, the man in torments said, “I beg you, Father, that you send him [Lazarus] to my father’s house—for I have five brothers—that he may warn them, lest they also come to this place of torment.” Abraham replied, “They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them…if they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone rises from the dead” (cf. Luke 16:19-31).
Whether or not God allowed Wiese to experience life in hell is unlikely. Even if one were to grant him the possibility of a divine enabling to traverse the great chasm that divides the physical world and hell, there is no good reason to think his message is inspired, and whatever he says about his spiritual journey into the afterlife is his own opinion, which must be weighed against the final authority of Scripture.
Is Wiese’s portrait of hell consistent what the Bible teaches? To his credit, Wiese has made efforts to understand his own experience against the Scriptures.[6] The content of his testimony, however, unveils the end product of his research to be a muddy mixture of fact and fiction. Wiese attempts to support his own experience with passages from the Bible, and even cites comments from sound Christian teachers like John Piper (3), Sinclare B. Ferguson (5), John MacArthur (9), Millard J. Erickson (11), and Franklin Graham (14) on various aspects concerning the eternal conscious punishment of the damned; albeit even these teachers would not go so far as to teach hell has prison cells wherein sinners are held to be bludgeoned by demon thugs. Wiese’s hell is more akin to Dante’s Inferno than theological soundness.
One can only wonder why God see fit to send Wiese, along with a host of other saints (see above), to hell and back, just to convince the world the place is real. If one can trust what the Bible has to say about the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the resurrection of saints to eternal life, and there are good reasons to trust what it says about these things, why doubt what it says about the resurrection of sinners to eternal conscious punishment?
Christians must remain faithful to the biblical teaching on the eternal conscious punishment of hell. They are not to give into the growing popularity of denying the reality of hell. However, they are to also steer clear of hyper-sensationalistic stories, as in the case of Wiese. If Christians are to speak on the very unpopular subject of hell, they must stand with what Scripture alone teaches, and not capitulate to using fanciful stories of alleged cosmic journeys. Given the aforementioned concerns, 23 Minutes in Hell is not a recommended resource on personal eschatology.
1. Soul Choice Ministries, “About” (http://www.soulchoiceministries.org/about.html)
2. Ibid.
3. Hell, according to Baxter, is a place deep within the earth, shaped like a human being, where snakes and rats dwell, and where worms slither through ignited corpses (Mary K. Baxter, A Divine Revelation of Hell [Washington, D.C.: National Press, n.d.], 17-20).
4. Trinity Broadcasting Network, “To Hell and Back” (http://media.tbn.org/download/tbn/gallery/To_Hell_And_Back.wmv).
5. Beliefnet, “23 Minutes in Hell by Bill Wiese” (http://www.beliefnet.com/story/188/story_18811.html).
6. Soul Choice, “Product” (http://www.soulchoiceministries.org/product.html).
Regardless of how unpopular Hell is and how many rational objections there are against it, anyone who claims to be a follower of Jesus ought to reject Hell purely because he did!
ReplyDeleteI've actually written an entire book on this topic--Hell? No! Why You Can Be Certain There's No Such Place As Hell, (for anyone interested, you can get a free ecopy of Did Jesus Believe in Hell?, one of the most compelling chapters in my book at www.thereisnohell.com), but if I may, let me share one of the many points I make in it to explain why.
If one is willing to look, there's substantial evidence contained in the gospels to show that Jesus opposed the idea of Hell. For example, in Luke 9:51-56, is a story about his great disappointment with his disciples when they actually suggested imploring God to rain FIRE on a village just because they had rejected him. His response: "You don't know what spirit is inspiring this kind of talk!" Presumably, it was NOT the Holy Spirit. He went on, trying to explain how he had come to save, heal and relieve suffering, not be the CAUSE of it.
So it only stands to reason that this same Jesus, who was appalled at the very idea of burning a few people, for a few horrific minutes until they were dead, could never, ever burn BILLIONS of people for an ETERNITY!
True, there are a few statements that made their way into the copies of copies of copies of the gospel texts which place “Hell” on Jesus’ lips, but these adulterations came along many decades after his death, most likely due to the Church filling up with Greeks who imported their belief in Hades with them when they converted.
Bear in mind that the historical Protestant doctrine of the inspiration of the Scriptures applies only to the original autographs, not the copies. But sadly, the interpolations that made their way into those copies have provided a convenient excuse for a lot of people to get around following Jesus’ real message.
Rick, I appreciate your insight. I'd like to respond briefly on your objection to hell on the basis of textual corruption. You mentioned:
ReplyDelete"...there are a few statements that made their way into the copies of copies of copies of the gospel texts which place “Hell” on Jesus’ lips, but these adulterations came along many decades after his death, most likely due to the Church filling up with Greeks who imported their belief in Hades with them when they converted."
What evidence do you have to support that assertion? Please provide me with at least one or two of your best examples of such corruptions taking place?
While we are still on the subject of textual corruptions, did you know that Luke 9:55, which you mentioned ("You don't know what spirit is inspiring this kind of talk!")is not found in a number of ancient manuscripts, and its inclusion is likely to be the result of a scribal addition? (For a discussion on this, cf. Walter L. Liefeld, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 8 [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1984] 934n.)
Whatever the case, it is difficult to use Luke 9:55 as a foundation for a belief that Jesus denied the existence of hell, if even that can be implied in the statment "You don't know what spirit is inspiring this kind of talk!".
Keep in mind that it is man who has sinned against God. It is God who extends mercy by giving His own Son so repentant sinners can be forgiven of their sin and cleands from all unrighteousness. In the same breath, it is also true that God is just in condemning unrepentant sinners.
And, yes, Jesus does make it clear that there is coming a time in the future when the dead shall rise from the grave, with the righteous to a resurrection of life and the unrighteous to a resurrection of judgment (John 5:28-29; Matt. 25:31-46).