23 MINUTES IN HELL BY BILL WIESE

Bill Wiese is a Christian who surrendered his life to Christ at age 16.  He has known the Lord for 32 years. Find below a transcription of his testimony as given in   a convention in Kansas City, KS called “Kansas City for America”. He had the experience in this testimony on November 23, 1998.

First I would like to clarify some notions that may arise in your mind about how did the Lord took me to experience eternity. First, "How do you know it wasn't just a dream that you had? Many people have asked me.  One thing I am sure of is that I left my body.  I saw my body when I returned, lying on the floor.  So I know for sure it was an out of body experience.  Some Christians have said, "Oh a Christian can't leave his body."  But that's not true, In 2 Corinthians 12:2, Paul was caught up into the third heaven, he said, "whether in the body, or out of the body I do not know."  So if he didn't know, that must mean it's possible. He also said in verse 1 that it was a vision, so I believe this comes under the classification of a vision. 

In Job 7:14 it says, "thou scarest me with dreams and terrifieth me with visions."  So this is definitely what the Lord did, terrified me through a vision.  Also in returning from this, it took me a year to calm down, and become like a normal person again.  I was so upset and traumatized from the fear that it changed my whole viewpoint on how to witness and how much to appreciate what God saved us from. 

The experience started at about 3:23am .From my wife’s the account, she woke around this time when she noticed I wasn’t by her side in bed. The next thing, she started hearing my screaming from the Living Room. She found me in a position she had never before, traumatized, holding my skull, between my hands and crying out and screaming.   My wife thought I had suffered a heart attack and she started to pray when I prompted her to pray for me, that the Lord would take this out of my mind. In about ten to twenty minutes, I began to calm down. 

When I got back from this experience, I wanted to find out, if there's anybody in the Bible who has ever experienced Hell.  So I began my research.  In Jonah 2:2 it says, "In Hell he cried out."  And In Jonah 2:6 it says, "The earth with her bars was about me forever, yet thou has brought up my life from corruption."  So at least there was somebody in the Bible that experienced Hell, Jonah. 

In my further research, I found over 400 scriptures that depicted everything I saw, heard, felt, in Hell.  It's already in the Bible, so whatever I'm telling you it's already there.  I'll make reference to some of the scriptures. I also found out there were about 14 other people that had experienced some portion of Hell.  Most of them were near death experiences, people in the hospital dying and were brought back.

This is how my experience started.  About 3:00 o'clock in the morning, I was taken.  I did not know how I got there until I returned. Then the Lord explained. But I was just dropped into a prison cell, just like a regular prison cell, like you imagine, with rough huge stone walls and bars on the door.  I didn't know where I was yet. All I knew was that it was extremely hot, terribly hot.  It was so hot, I couldn't believe, that I was alive. I felt like I should have melted with this heat, but I was still alive. There was light in the room for a little while, and I believe the Lord's presence was there for me to see the scenery better, but then it got dark after about a minute. 

In Isaiah 24:22 it says: "And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison...."
I found myself in the cell, and these four creatures were in the cell with me.  I didn't know they were demons at the time, because I went there as an unsaved person.  God took it out of my mind that I was a Christian.  I didn't understand why, but He explained it to me later.  These creatures were enormous.  They were about 12 or 13 feet tall. One particular demon was all scaly.  This one had scales all over its body, giant jaws with huge teeth, and claws sticking out, along with sunken-in eyes.  They were just enormous.  And the other one didn't looked like this at all, but it had razor sharp fins all over with one long arm and out of proportion feet.  Everything was deformed and twisted and out of proportion, one arm longer and one shorter and just odd looking creatures, horrible looking monsters. 

These monsters were blaspheming and cursing God.  I wondered, "Why are they cursing God? Why do they hate God so much?"  And then they turned their attention to me, and I felt the same hatred they had for God, they had for me also, and again I thought: "Why do they hate me?  I haven't done anything to them."  But they hated me with a hatred that I have never experienced on earth; way beyond what man has the ability to hate with.  They absolutely hated me, and I knew they were assigned to torture me.  In Hell, your senses are keener, being more aware of more than our physical bodies are.  I was aware of distances; I was aware of time, and so forth, much more than on earth.  I knew these demons were assigned to torture me forever.

I was lying on the floor in this cell and I had absolutely no strength in my body.  I wondered, "Why can’t I move, what is wrong with me?"  I was helplessly lying there.  One demon just grabbed me and picked me up, and threw me on the wall like a glass.   That was how light I was, or how strong he was and every bone in my body just broke.  And I felt pain!  I just began to lie on the floor there, crying out for mercy, but these creatures don't have any mercy at all, absolutely no mercy. 

Another demon picked me up, and, with his razor-sharp claws just shredded my flesh right off.  He just tore it off, and had absolutely no care whatsoever for this body that God so wonderfully made.  It had a hatred that was so intense against me.  I wondered, "Why am I alive, why am I living through this?  I don't understand why I am not dead."  My flesh just hung there in ribbons.  And there was no blood, just flesh hanging, because life is in the blood, and there is no life in Hell.  And there is no water in Hell. 

 I understood these demons had about 1000 times the strength of a man.  So even if I had my natural strength, I could not have fought them off anyway.  So I was absolutely at their mercy, which they don't have any mercy.  The demons run your life in Hell. 

The smell of these demons and the smell in Hell were so atrocious; I can't even describe it to you.  There was a smell of burning flesh, of sulphur.   The smell of these demons was like an open sewage, putrid, rotten meat, bad eggs, sour milk and everything you can imagine.  Take it in, times 1000, and put it up to your nose.   And you just breathe it in.  It was so toxic, that it would kill you, if you were on earth.  And I wondered, "Why am I living through this smell, it is so horrendous!”

God has made mankind the highest form of creation, and these demons are the lowest form of creation.   As men, we work hard to get ahead in life, we better ourselves, and we study.  But in Hell, your life is run by demons.  These creatures have a zero IQ, absolute ignorant creatures.  All they know is hatred for God, hatred for you and torture.  And they run your life, and you can't do anything about it. 

I was lying in the cell and it went dark, pitch, pitch black.  I mean a darkness I have never ever felt before. There was a blackness that you couldn't even imagine.  I managed to crawl out of the cell somehow and I got outside the cell.  I looked in one direction, all black, and all I heard were screams, billions of people screaming in this place.  I knew there were billions, and it was so loud.  If you have ever heard someone scream before, it is so annoying.  Well if you hear billions of people screaming, you can't imagine how it affects your mind.  You just can't stand it. You hold your ears because it is so loud and penetrating.  You can't get away from the screams.

And the fear that overcomes you is unbelievable.  Everything is dominated by fear.  There is no presence of God in this place, so you have to endure the fear and the torment and the blackness.   You can't see anything. You can't even see what is coming up against you.  The fear, I got was so powerful it grips you. I had an experience where I nearly got my leg ripped away by a shark when I was a young boy, but this kind of fear in hell is incomparable. So these are some of the things we have to endure in Hell. 

The darkness was so heavy; it just eats up any light.  But there was enough to just see some of the skyline.  It was all brown and desolate!  I mean absolutely not one green leaf, not anything of life of any kind, just stone, dirt and black sky, and smog in the skylight.  The flames were really high, so I could see it.  There is no life whatsoever in Hell.  It is so strange to be in a world where there is no life.  Here on earth we enjoy trees and fresh air, but there, it is absolutely all dead.

That's what is going on in Hell, it is so hot.  All these things should kill you, but you don't die!  You had to keep enduring all these things.  I wanted peace of mind, to get away from the screams and to get out of there.  It's like when you want to go home at night, when you had had a rough day, you just want peace of mind.  But there you endured all the screaming and all the torment.  And you never ever get away from it, ever!

Then one of the demons grabbed me, and dragged me back into the cell and began all these torments again, which I really hate to talk about, because I don't like to have to re-live the torment.  They began to crush my skull.  One demon grabbed me and tried to crush my head.  I was screaming and begging for mercy, but no mercy!  About this time, they each grabbed an arm and a leg and were about to tear off my legs and my arms.  I thought, "I can't endure this, I can't endure this!" 

And all of a sudden, something grabbed me and pulled me out of this cell.  I knew it was the Lord, but then I didn't know that.  I was there as an unsaved person, so I didn't know these things.  I just went there as if I had never accepted the Lord.  I was placed over next to the fire that I had seen.  I was standing alongside that pit.  I was beneath a cavern, like a giant cave, with a tunnel going up. 

Alongside the fire I could see through the flames, just enough to see bodies, people in the fire screaming, screaming for mercy, burning in this place!  And I knew I didn't want to go in there.  The pain I'd endured already was bad enough, but the heat from that flame I knew was worse.  These people were begging to get out.

There were these big creatures lined all around the edge of this Pit, and as the people were trying to crawl out, they would be shoved back in to the fire and not allowed out.  I thought, "Oh, this place is so horrible, so horrible and horrendous." 

All this was going on at the same time.  You're thirsty, you're hungry, and you're exhausted.  You don't get to sleep in Hell either.  You need sleep just as you do now.  Your body needs sleep. You can’t just imagine it! 

I knew that Hell's location is in the centre of the earth.   I understood that it was about 3700 miles deep in the earth.  We know that the earth's diameter is 8000 miles.  Half way would be about 4000.  I was about 3700 miles down.  In Ephesians 4:9 it says that Jesus descended into the lower parts of the earth. That's were Hell is right now.  Later Hell and Death will be cast into the Lake of Fire and then cast into Outer Darkness.  That's after Judgment Day, but right now it is in the earth. 

I was alongside this pit of fire and I saw all these demons all lined up along the walls, all sizes and shapes of every kind, deformed, ugly creatures.  They were twisted, deformed creatures, huge ones, small ones.  There were giant spiders, huge spiders this big.  Rats, snakes and worms, because the Bible talks about worms that cover thee (Isaiah 14:11).  There were all kinds of abominable creatures everywhere and they seemed to be chained to the walls.  I wondered, "Why are these things chained to the walls".  I didn't understand that, but there's a scripture on that in Jude 1:6 says, "And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day;"

I began to ascend up this pit in this tunnel, and to leave the flames.  Soon it got darker, but I could see all these demons along the walls and they had such awesome power. 

The worse thing in Hell was the thought and consciousness that there was life going on up here on the earth.  And that people up here, most people, had no idea that this world even existed down here!  They don't even know this is a real world down here and there are billions of people suffering and begging for one chance, if they had an opportunity to get out.  But they never get a chance to get out, and being mad at themselves for not taking the opportunity to have received Jesus, that they are stuck there forever. 

This is the worst thing about Hell, that there was absolutely no hope of ever getting out.  I understood that.  I grasped eternity.  I could understand eternity.  Here on earth, we can't quite, can't get a hold of it.  But there I understood it.  I knew I would be there forever and ever, and had no hope of getting out.  I thought about my wife.  I could never get to my wife!  I've always told her that if we were ever separated by any kind of earthquake or something horrible, I said "I'll get to you.  I will find you.  I'll get to you if we're ever apart."  But here I couldn't get to her.  I could never see her again.  She would never have any idea where I was, and I just could never ever talk to her again.  That thought just absolutely bothered me terribly!  To not be able to talk to her, get to her, and for her not to know where I was, and have no hope to ever get out!  You understand, you never get out of here, ever!  See on earth, there's always hope.  Even people in concentration camps had a hope of getting out, or dying at least, to get out of it. 

About this time, I'm going up this tunnel, and I'm just in absolute fear, hopelessly lost, and fearing these demons.  All of a sudden, Jesus showed up!  "Praise you Lord", Jesus showed up.  This bright light lit up the place.  I only saw His outline, the outline of a man.  I couldn't see his face, it was so bright.   I fell on my knees and collapsed.  I couldn't do anything, but worship Him.  I was so grateful.  One second ago I was lost forever, and now all of a sudden I'm out of this place, because I had already known Jesus.  Those people can't get out, but I could, because I was already saved.  I knew and understood that there was no way out of this place, only by Jesus.  He is the only way to keep from going to this place. 

When I became calm I was able to form some thoughts to ask the Lord some questions. "Lord why did You send me to this place?’’.  He replied, "Because people do not believe that this place exists."  He said "Even some of my own people do not believe this place is real."  I was shocked at that statement.  I thought every Christian has got to believe in Hell.  But not everyone believes in a literal burning Hell.  I said Lord "why did you pick me?"  But He didn't answer me. He continued, “Go tell them that I hate this place, that it's not my desire for one of my creatures to come here ,no, not one!  I never made this for man.  This was made for the devil and his angels.  You have to go and tell them!  I've given you a mouth, you go and tell them." 

I thought to myself, "but Lord, they're not going to believe me.  They're going to think I'm crazy or had a bad dream."  I mean wouldn't you think that?  As I thought this, the Lord answered me and He said, "It's not your job to convince them.  It's the Holy Spirit’s job!  You just go and tell them!"    You can't worry and fear what man is going to think of you, you just have to go and do it and let God do the rest.  And I said, "Lord, why did these creatures in hell hate me so much?"  He said, "Because you're made in my image, and they hate me."  You know the devil can't do anything against God.  He can't hurt God, per say, but he can hurt His creation.  That's why the devil hates mankind, and deceives him into taking him into Hell.  And he inflicts diseases upon him, anything he can do to hurt God's creation.

And then God flooded me with His thoughts.  He let me touch a piece of His heart, of how much He loves mankind.  Unbelievable, I couldn't even take it.  It was so overbearing.  The love He has for man, you can't take it in this body.  You know how much we love our wives and our children?  Well the love we have can't even be compared to the love God has for us.  His love is infinitely greater than our love and our ability to love.  I couldn't believe how much He loved mankind that He would die for just one person to not go to this place.  And it hurts Him so much to see one of His creations going to this place.  It pains the Lord, He weeps to see one person going.  And I felt so bad for the Lord. 

He said to me also, "Tell them I am coming very, very soon."  And He said it again, "Tell them I'm coming very, very soon." 

As we left, we went up above the earth’s surface.  We went above, because we were still in a tunnel.  Soon I couldn't see it anymore, but it was like a giant whirlwind we were in. When we got to the top of it, I looked down at the earth.  It's awesome to look back at the earth!  I know God allowed that for me.  He could have left that tunnel any which way He wanted.  He knew in my heart, as a kid I always wanted to see what the earth looked like from space.  Maybe I watched too much Star Trek or something, you know?  I just thought it would be really neat to see the earth, and to see it hung on nothing.  Like the Bible says.  It says in Job 26:7, ‘He stretches out the north over empty space; He hangs the earth on nothing.”

As we came back down we passed through the heat shield that was around the earth.  I just knew it.  I even thought stupid thought, here I am with God, and I thought, "I wonder how He's going to go through that shield?"   You know how in space they have to penetrate it at just the perfect angle.  We went through it with no problem whatsoever.  No surprise!   I'm sure the Lord must have rolled His eyes and said 'I can handle that one'. 

We were moving so quick, and came up to our house.  I looked and I could see right through the roof of our house.  And I could see myself lying on the floor.  This really hit me strong, right here because I saw my body lying there and I thought, "That can't be me, I'm here, this is me!"  You know, you've never seen two of yourself.  Here I was laying there and I thought, "That's not really me."  And that scripture that Paul says, were we are just in a tent (2 Corinthians 5:1), hit me really hard.  I thought "that's just a tent, that's nothing.  That's temporary.  This is the real me."  This is what eternity is all about.  The life that we worry so much is nothing but a vapour as confirmed in James 4:14 .It talks about and how short this life is. Even if you live for hundred years, it's nothing!  It goes up like a vapour.  And I thought, "We’ve got to live for God."  What we do now, here, counts for eternity.  We've got to witness.  We've got to get out there and save the lost.  We can't worry about all these little petty things that we all get so tied up with.  We need to really get out there and preach the gospel and the good news, because life is really short.  

But later, Jesus left.  I came up to my body, and something pulled me back into my body as if I was sucked back into my nose or my mouth.  Right then, when Jesus left, all the fear, the torture, and the torment came back into my mind!  I was screaming.  I was in agony.  I couldn't live with it.  I knew that this body was not capable of withstanding that kind of fear.  You can't hold up under that kind of pressure.  Your body isn't strong enough.  So that's when I prayed and I was able to pray, "Take it out of my mind!"In the natural, you would have to go through all kinds of counselling to get through this kind of trauma, but God took it out, but left the memory. I was so grateful. 

 What the Word of God says about Hell.  Do you want to take that chance and say, "No, I don't believe that's real."  You have to throw out all the Word of God, and all of us trying to tell you.  Are you willing to take that chance with your whole eternity?  That would seem pretty foolish to me.  You can't let the devil deceive you. 

You might be saying to yourself.  "I'm pretty good.  I'm a pretty good person. I don't deserve that place."  And you probably are pretty good, compared to most people.  But that's not what you need to compare yourself with.  We need to compare ourselves to God's standard.  His standard is so much higher than ours.  He says in the Word that if you lie once, just once in your whole life, that makes you a liar.  If you've stolen one thing in your life, a paper clip, a couple of minutes of your boss's time, anything, just once.  That makes you a thief.  If you were angry without cause, if you didn't forgive someone that did something wrong against you, if you lusted after a women, any of these things, if you just did it one time, that makes you a sinner, and you can't make it to heaven.  So you see all of us come short.  We all fall short and can't get there on our own works.  Titus 3:5 says, “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy “We can't get to heaven on our own.  God made it a free gift.  He said in John 14:6, "I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No man comes unto the Father but by Me."  Jesus is the only way out of hell.

Let me tell you, that place, just the heat alone would be horrible to endure.  Those people that we saw jump out of the New York towers during the 9/11 terrorist suicide bombing held hands and jumped.  How horrible that must have been.  You know if you've ever been up high and looked down, to jump would be unthinkable.  But they could not just endure the heat and that was only for about five seconds! This heat was just about 2,000 degrees.  Scientists say that the heat in the centre of the earth is about 12,000 degrees. And imagine, enduring that for eternity.  If you're willing to go through that, that would be awfully foolish.  Now is the time....

The Bible is real plain, we are all sinners, and whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.  Jesus said if you will confess me before men, publicly, then I will in turn confess your name before my heavenly Father and the Holy angels.  But if you deny me before men, I will deny you before my Father. Remember, Jesus hung naked on a cross, in a market place, he hung there for you, He endured your shame. If you want to make that decision for the Lord Jesus Christ, then say this prayer:

"God I believe in You.  You are my Creator.  I am a sinner.  I sinned in many ways, wilfully, and unconsciously.  I've fallen short.  I've missed the mark.  I'm stained with sin.  Jesus I believe in You.  You are the eternal Son of God.  You're the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, who takes away my sin.  I believe You died on a cross, shedding Your innocent blood for my guilty soul.  I believe You were buried and on the third day You arose.  You are alive forever more.  I call You my Lord.  I call You my Saviour.  I give You my life.  I will love You, serve you for the rest of my days.  I belong to You, the good parts, the bad parts, the sinful parts, all my plans, all my dreams, I give everything to you.  Thy will be done in me.  I believe I'm saved.  Not by good works, but by faith, by trusting in You.  In Jesus I pray.  Amen."

SPARE A PRAYER FOR THIS MINISTRY AS WE MARK OUR THIRD YEAR THIS MONTH.THE LORD HAS REALLY BEEN FAITHFUL.