Hi,

 

I have been following the controversy re: heaven and hell.  I did not want to put my two cents at first, but I feel I can contribute something to this topic.  I can vouch for a fact, that even unbelievers have been taken to Hell; this happened to my brother Ravi  in  Dec 1989, Brisbane, Australia.

 

My brother, older than I by 5 yrs, but youngest of my 3 elder brothers is a Civil Engineer, educated in City University London, UK; worked in quite a few countries( England, Sri Lanka, Nepal with the UN, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and Canada) as Engineer, and he had at that time just come from Canada.  He went there a year before to settle down with his family, but the weather was a factor he could not get used to, and he gave up his residency and came over to Australia, where Mum and my family had come a couple of years before.  He is a very level-headed person, used to hunting in the jungles and it takes a lot to rattle him.  In fact, in ’77, he was hunted like an animal during our race riots (back in Sri Lanka) for 5 days.  He survived hiding in the jungle with his driver and his Tech Asst with a little water and hardly any food.  He managed to get the three of them to safety through the maze.  It was awful, and we nearly gave up on him.

 

Anyway, coming back to my story, he was with us for the Xmas ‘89, leaving his family behind in Canada until he secured a job in Australia.  One night he had a bad experience of going to hell.  He went and put up my Mum, and according to my Mum, he was shaking like a leaf and had difficulty breathing.  He was at that time into fitness programme and there was nothing wrong with him.  She got up in the middle of the night and made him a hot cocoa and tried to persuade him to go back to sleep. But he was so shaken up he wanted Mum to sit up with him in his room, for he wanted Mum to hear the horrors he had experienced in Hell.  My Mum had just lost my Dad an year back and just come out of a battle -torn country (Sri Lanka), and was certainly  not in a mood to listen to his gruesome details, especially in the middle of the night, when things all look a little sinister.  After about an hour she wanted to go back to her room to sleep, but my grown brother of 35yrs refused to sleep in his room, and went and slept in Mum’s room on a blanket on the floor; fortunately it was mid-summer for us here. 

 

 I knew something had taken place for I heard some slight commotion in the night, but did not want my ex to know about, whatever that was going on.  Next morning my bro got hold of me after my ex had gone to work and gave me a graphic detail of Hell, and believe me, I was having goose bumps all over.  It was spine chilling!!  He said he suddenly found himself in Hell, and he tried to get out of a pit, but every time he tried to catch the rim of the pit, there were gruesome things (people) who were repeatedly pulling him down by his leg.  He also mentioned that the place was full of smoke, heat and the most stomach-churning thing was that, he said that he could actually smell the burning flesh and the strong odour of sulphur as well. Added to this he mentioned that the stench of putrid, decaying flesh  was revolting and nauseating to him, when he was trapped there. The worst thing was he insisted that it was not a dream but he was actually there!  You can imagine, we come from a family, with Hindu background, not familiar with the concept of Hell and suddenly he was taking to me about an “experience”, whereas we were not even into visions and dreams for that matter. At that time we never believed in devil, demons, or angels!! We thought it was all  old wives tales and was for the feeble minded people.  We were almost atheist.

 

Of course, I am have not given the word to word account of  what he related to me, but only the gist of it; I can tell you, I was just plain scared listening to him.  On the other hand, I was glad that it was daytime and we were seated on the patio!!  Even just relating the experience to us he was shaking like a leaf and his face was all pallid.  I know he was not making up, not him!  He did mention that he had had this experience once before in Canada too.  In retrospect, I believe, though we were not overly religious as Hindus, yet the families my two brothers (both Engineers, like my father)  married into were into black magic, and by that time they had started dabbling in it.  We were for the most part very Westernized and we were familiar with Christianity, for we were educated in Christian schools, like  our parents.  Though my parents were broad minded and were quite  well-versed in Bible, for under the British, they were forced to learn the Bible for Religious studies yet they did it as a subject and never sought the Lord. I was in a Catholic school in London and was exposed to the Bible and later on, it was one of the reasons I started seeking answers for the knotty problems that cropped up in my life and found the Lord, or the other way around in ’92! At that time we were all unbelievers, but I was already aware of the Second Coming and bits and pieces from the book of Revelation, and in a way this was another prod that pushed me towards the Lord. 

 

Unfortunately my brothers, including Ravi, has not yet turned to the Lord, but the Lord even before I gave my heart to Him, showed me in a vision (few months before my conversion) that my whole family will be saved.  Subsequently after my conversion so many times I have been given visions (in the first year) that my two brothers will definitely come to the Lord. I have a strong feeling that they would turn to Him only after the Rapture.  At the moment they are strong Hindus, which as a family we had never been.  Nowadays there is no question of straddling the fence I guess; I see our kith and kin are really turning to Hinduism with such fervency, which is so frightening.   For that matter, they think we are unbalance and brain-washed and they laugh behind our backs and call us “Coffin-cheaters”, for we have testified about the rapture and the fact that we will be caught up in it J.

 

The point I wanted to bring out was that even unbelievers have had the experience of going to Hell.  I guess the Lord has given this experience to my brother so that after the rapture he would never DENY the Lord, all because he has had a foretaste of Hell. 

 

I guess some are given these experience of heaven and hell for a purpose and only the Lord knows why it was given to them.  I was given an experience of going up in the rapture, and even in the face of being called a liar, I Will not DENY that.  I did go up and it was not a vision or a dream, it was an experience. So I, personally, read dreams and visions posted on five doves and let us not question the Holy Spirit.  On the other hand, there are some who make it up for sensationalism,  but we  can use our discernment.

 Remember we are living in the End Times as Joel said....

 

Joel 2:28

 28 "And afterward,
       I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
       Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
       your old men will dream dreams,
       your young men will see visions.

 29 Even on my servants, both men and women,
       I will pour out my Spirit in those days.

 

YSIC

Shanthi