So here you are, and here you shall remain forever. This place, if you can call it a place, it’s more like a nightmare, is utterly dark – there’s no hint of light, not a pinprick. There is nothing here, you gave up trying to scream, even trying to breathe soon after you arrived, for there is no air. You do not have lungs anyway, no body, nothing at all but your spirit and agony, fear, and memories. Memories of former life on earth, friends, camping trips, birds singing in trees, but alas, those things, those people and events no longer exist but as ever-present after thoughts of that life, forever inscribed into your lonely consciousness. The indescribable loneliness is the worst part, you’ll never again be in the company of another soul – anybody – forever
The agony is unbearable, you never dreamed that a being could undergo this torment you suffer. You incessantly pray to God Who does not remember you, He no longer hears your piteous pleas, though there was a time when He patiently waited to hear from you. There were preachers and even old hillbilly bloggers who tried to warn you of this existence, but you were too busy pursuing worldly lusts and decadent living to listen to them. The Bible you kept on prominent display in your living room was rarely opened. You mocked those who believed in Jesus as though they were crazy; most people did. But where are all of your worldly friends now? Though you will never know, for you’ll never see or hear from them again, you suspect they – at least those who shared your unbelief – are in a similar situation as you, utterly alone in darkness and agony for all of eternity. Some of them – especially your family and friends you loved are painfully missed.
There is no sound where you are, no music, no birdsong, not even the aggravating wail of the ubiquitous sirens that pealed through the city streets – there’s nothing. If you were engulfed in an entire universe of sponge, it would not be quieter. You’ll never hear a sound again, never taste an apple nor even have a single drop of precious water on your tongue. The memory of water is one of the most agonizing, every time you think of it – beautiful, pure mountain springs of clearest blue water!
When you left your former life, you were allowed to experience another existence, one of abundant joy and serenity where angels sang in notes that the greatest composers through human history did not know. Voices of unimaginable beauty sang praises of God with melody that you could actually feel. You had an invitation that was personally sent to you by way of preachers, prophets, your unread Bible, and the Lord Jesus Himself whereby had you accepted, you could have stayed there forever in the indescribable happiness of the presence of the Almighty God and the Lamb. You threw it out with your junk mail, too absorbed in the idolatrous life that the servants of evil kept before you. You don’t remember how long you were allowed to experience that paradise, maybe an hour, a day, maybe a million years, but the whole time you were there, you knew you’d have to leave it, and when you did go you experienced the most horrific realization that a human could ever imagine – you’d never see that place again, though you will longingly remember it forever. The presence of the Lamb of God was too awesome and wonderful to imagine! How on earth could you have passed that up? Then, you were cast into the outer darkness – the privations of incredible agony and torment – a place, or state of mind, who knows? Then it hits you that it will be your prison for all eternity.
God said the former things will be forgotten. Once the harvest was completed and the new Kingdom established, there would be no more thought of those sins nor the people who lived in them. Utterly forgotten, alone in agonizing darkness, all traded away for a few short years of that sinful and immoral lifestyle that you chose. Now, with consummate regret, you realize just what an incredibly short time it was – in which you could have been preparing yourself for the grandest of homecomings in the other place. That unimaginably beautiful, peaceful home of eternal joy and most of all, the presence and the love of God, which you could also feel – it was unbelievable! And you passed up your chance to be there – forever. Now, you are merely one of the former things which has become forgotten – not a soul in all of creation remembers you ever existed, and no help will be forthcoming. But here you are, and here you will be – forever. You cannot even look forward to death to end this torment. This is death, the second death mentioned in the Bible.
If a person, or a spirit were to happen to come before you in this piteous state and offer you a way out of this predicament, you’d absolutely listen and plead for his help. The anxiety you’d experience at the possibility of relief from this everlasting torment and darkness would captivate your attention as never before. You’d be willing to do anything to get help out of this place. You’d be utterly enrapt with hope at the prospect this fellow offered.
When you ask how this can happen, the man says you must be able to travel through time, and if you can do that, you can go back and learn about Jesus Christ and He could lead you to eternal life in that wonderful place you saw. But you know that time travel is not possible – there’s nothing here, no materials to try and build a time machine even if you knew how, so you reply to the man that it would be impossible for you to travel through time. To which he says, “Then there’s no help for you, but if there was some way for you to go back in time – say to the late summer of 2024, you could call on Jesus to save you from this torment”, and suddenly you are reading this post and realize – I’ve actually traveled back in time to the late summer of 2024 and I can go to Jesus and He can make my relief happen before I get cast into that abominable torment and darkness! Thank you, Lord!
This is as real as it gets, folks – we all desperately need Jesus.
May God’s blessings find you all.
MK