Jesus spoke often of heaven and hell. The Prophets of the Old Testament spoke about heaven and hell. The Apostles of the Lord spoke about heaven and hell. All of them considered heaven and hell to be real places.
I have never seen heaven, nor have I ever seen hell, but I have experienced the visitation of angels from heaven, and I have experienced the evil demons from hell. I know that both places are as real as I am sitting here typing this post.
I had angels visit me in the midst of middle-of-the-night prayer meetings, many times. I have seen an angel in a body of flesh, just like Hebrews teaches, and as Abraham experienced in the above photo. (Genesis 18:2, Hebrews 13:12) I have had others tell me that they have seen angels surrounding me and my house. I have experienced angels performing the miraculous to keep me from several terrible car accidents. I have sensed the presence of angels while preaching and teaching the Word of God. I have sensed the presence of angels while praying for others to be saved or to be healed.
I have seen demons respond to the Bible as I held it before the demon-possessed people, and I have seen them leave in the Name of Jesus Christ who defeated them at Calvary. I have rebuked demons in the Name of Jesus Christ and have seen them flee from me, just as the Apostle James teaches (James 4:7), when those demons were harassing me during the wee hours of the morning as I was trying to pray or read the Word, and sometimes while I was just trying to get some sleep. I have felt their horrible evil and oppressive presence in many areas of Africa, America, in our cities, and around and in different people. I have seen worship and prayer services break-forth into total liberty of the Holy Spirit after binding the presence of demonic spirits and commanding them to leave God’s people alone. Yes, demons go to church. They even stand in the pulpit sometimes. The Apostle John teaches us to try the spirits to see whether they in fact do come from God or from the devil. (I John 4:1)
So when modern skeptics, who are puffed up in their own earthly wisdom, criticize the Bible as an old-fashioned book of myths which are not to be taken as truth, I just smile and say, “Just wait until you have a personal experience with a demon from hell, and then we will see how fearless and smart you really are.”
Dr. Reggie Anderson, in his book “Appointments with Heaven”, tells several stories of those who are dying and being visited, either by angels from heaven, or by demons from hell. Let me share a couple of brief ones:
Lois was an elderly woman in her eighties who Dr. Anderson visited on his rounds in a nursing home. Lois always referred to Dr. Anderson as Clark Gable. The irony of it all was that Lois was blind, so she couldn’t see the doctor. So the Doctor played along with her and smiled.
On one visit Lois was not feeling well and had to be sent to the hospital for some tests. She was put into a room with patient named Sissy, who had senile dementia. On the day that Dr. Anderson visited Lois in the hospital, she became very agitated and nothing seemed to calm her down, and she began shouting: “Keep them away from me!” “Please! Don’t let them get any closer to me!” The Doctor asked her what was wrong and she said, “Don’t you see them? There are so many of them. Their brilliant lights are hurting my eyes!” “Please get them away from me!”
When the Doctor went to write the order for a sedative, he received a code ten for the same room as Lois and he thought he had missed something and she was dying. He ran back to the room, only to find that it was Lois’s roommate, Sissy, who was having the heart attack. Sissy died even though they did everything to try to save her.
When Dr. Anderson checked on Lois, he found that she was calm now, and she said to him, “They’re gone now, Doctor.” The Doctor asked, “Who’s gone?” Lois said, “The angels. They’re not flying over my bed anymore; they’ve gone with Sissy. They’ve taken her away.”
Doctor Anderson says that, “God had sent a band of angels to escort Sissy home, and He’d allowed a blind woman to see them!” Heaven and heaven’s angels are for real.
Dr. Anderson also was with a dying patient, by the name of Eddie, who had a reputation for being a bad man. He had a horrible temper and had physically and sexually abused his wife and kids. He was a troublemaker and drank too much, getting into fights, leaving his victims bleeding and with broken bones. Eddie also had cancer and was dying. Doctor Anderson tried to talk to him about Jesus Christ, asking him, “where he was spiritually with God?” Eddie soundly rebuffed his attempts at spiritual conversation, saying, “Shut up and treat the cancer! Don’t waste my time talking about something that doesn’t exist!” The Doctor visited Eddie every day, trying to talk to him about God, and every day Eddie would become angry and tell the Doctor to “shut up and give me some pain medicine.”
The Doctor sat every day with Eddie, praying with him, until he died. Dr. Anderson says that right before Eddie died, he looked up and stared off into the distance like he was staring into a great chasm. His eyes grew wide. He was restless and anxious, with fear on his face. Eddie struggled drawing his dying breaths, until his last breath was a grunt.
Dr. Anderson says that this is when he felt some type of dark cloud present in the room, and the lights dimmed, and the temperature plummeted. The room became freezing cold. He then smelled sulfur and diesel. The air became heavy and it was difficult to breathe. Evil had entered the room. Dr. Anderson pronounced the death and quickly left the room. Hell is for real!
You’ll have to read his book, “Appointments with Heaven”, to learn about how Dr. Anderson lost his faith after losing his cousins in a horrible death, and then regained his faith, to be able to appreciate his stories. But Dr. Anderson firmly believes in Heaven, and he firmly believes in hell. He, too, has experienced the angels from heaven and those demons from hell. Heaven and Hell are for Real!
A Few Scriptures on Hell:
2 Peter 2:4 , “For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment;”
Matthew 10:28, “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”
Luke 16:24, “ And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.”
Jude 12-13, “These are hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves; waterless clouds, swept along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.”
Revelation 14:11, “And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.”
Revelation 19:20, “And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who in its presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped its image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur.”
Revelation 20:10, “And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them, and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.”
A few Scriptures on Heaven:
Matthew 18:10, “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.”
John 14:2, “In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?”
Revelation 5:9-13, “And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.” Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”
Revelation 21:4, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
Revelation 22:1-5, “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.”
1 Kings 8:30, “And listen to the plea of your servant and of your people Israel, when they pray toward this place. And listen in heaven your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive.”
1 Corinthians 2:7-9, “But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written, ”What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”
2 Corinthians 5:8, “Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.”
Philippians 1:21-23, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.”
Philippians 3:20-21, “But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.”
The skeptics can deny heaven and hell all they want to in this life; but when their spirit and soul leave their earthly bodies, they will find themselves in one place or the other.
If a person was sincere in their search for truth about such places, they would read the testimonies of those who have died and come back from death, as in Dr. Eben Alexander’s story in “Proof of Heaven” or as in Rev. Howard Storm’s story in “My Descent into Death.” Rev. Storm saw hell in his near-death experience and Dr. Alexander saw heaven. Both are real, true places. Or, the skeptics could just Google some deceased rock stars or movie stars, who died horrible deaths, and listen to their testimonies about ‘selling their souls to the devil’ and how the devil collects on what is due him.
How about you? What do you believe? Why not ask Jesus Christ into your heart today and surrender your selfish ways to Him for eternity? He desires a personal relationship with you that will give you living waters to drink that will always satisfy the thirsting of your soul; a thirst that this world and its pleasures can never quench. Tell Him about your doubts, and ask Him to reveal Himself to you and His Truths about heaven and about hell. He is not far from a sincere, honest, humble heart; although He does refrain from communicating with those who are proud and self-sufficient.