Hell

            This chapter discusses Jesus’ description of Hell from Luke 16: 19-21.

            Joshua looked at Kylie with care. “That is their choice. It is God’s desire that all people would enter that vision you saw. There is space enough for every creature, man, and organism, born and unborn.”

            “Joshua,” Kylie said, “I saw mansions bigger than any on Earth. I heard such beautiful sounds joined into one inconceivable chorus, yet I heard individual sounds, magnificent and clear. I smelled fragrances so amazing!

            There are no human words that can adequately describe that scent. There were so many overwhelming scents and fragrances that were so amazing!”

            Joshua explained that in Heaven, everything is pure and perfect. The environment is the perfect temperature. “There is love everywhere because God is love, and Heaven is where God is worshipped forever. Hope, joy, peace, knowledge, fellowship, light, plentiful food, water, and completeness exist. There can’t exist any pain, suffering, or death in that place where God exists.”

            Kylie smiled when she remembered, “Yes, I wanted to stay in that vision and never return to earth. My body prevented me from experiencing every good and perfect experience I saw in Heaven. I saw things that no human words could explain.”

            Joshua reached out for Kylie’s hands. “You saw a place where you will be going. In Heaven, there is peace, love, and joy unending. God first created bliss; like many parents on Earth, He loves seeing His children being gratified.”

            Joshua continued, “But, when Lucifer rebelled, he would never be happy in a place of such joy. The devil wanted a place where he could be a god in charge of everything, with nothing of Heaven. But there is a place we spoke of where the devil will experience exactly the opposite thing; a place where he is contained, a place called Hell.” Joshua explained that their rebellion distorted the devil and his angels. So, their home is a place of stenches unmentionable and inconceivable to humans because while in Heaven, the smells are pleasant, which would torture the devil. If the devil became a prisoner in Heaven, it would also saturate Heaven with sin. In Hell, the temperature is inconceivable by humans’ standards. The heat of Hell has been put on the smallest simmer until the last sinner accepts God’s grace and forgiveness for sin. Then, God’s judgment of sin will reach its completion and become His righteous wrath. 

            People have a choice to avoid Hell if they accept God’s grace, forgiveness, and payment for their sins. “Remember,” Joshua said, “God still loves and protects sinful humanity, but the devil simply wants to destroy whatever God loves.

            “Some people think there are parties in Hell. Every human in Hell exists alone because friendship and support exist only from God. The smells are so ghastly and hideous that breathing is gruesome. There is nothing to see but your own pain and suffering. This unending place is filled with suffering and horrific agony because that is the only place where a warped devil and his distorted, perverted demons would be secured and locked. In Hell, the home of the devil and the demons’ is exactly opposite to anything on earth, and their control is absolute. No human can bargain, contain, or reduce his conditions. There is no courage in Hell; because God originally created hope, and despair is the only characteristic the devil allows.”

            “But, Joshua, why did God create Hell if He knew people weren’t meant for it and the environment was only designed for the devil and his associates?” Joshua looked so sad that it looked like his heart would break. He explained, “God is an eternal being, and He can only create eternal life, like from like. Even the devil has an eternal soul that was designed to worship God in a place of peace and completeness. But, when Lucifer and his associates chose with full knowledge to sin in the presence of God, The Father had to provide a place for their eternal souls to exist forever with their decision. God screams to every human soul to prevent the filling of Hell since people didn’t know God’s completeness in Eden.” 

             “But, Joshua, what good can come from people suffering in Hell?” she asked.

            Joshua looked pained as he replied, “People should never be in Hell, but they choose where they will exist daily. Through suffering, people can purify their decisions on Earth. Also, by earthly anguish, people may prevent others from making selections that will lead to Hell.”

            Kylie looked at this man who so loved the whole world. “But what you’re saying is that suffering on Earth may have positive results?”

            Joshua explained that people suffer on Earth, and their pain is obvious to the one who creates and loves each person. But God can use their pain to help in a greater way. “Kylie, think of Mother Teresa. She saw more suffering on this Earth than most people can imagine. Mahatma Gandhi saw more suffering but changed his country to be free. Martin Luther King Jr. loved God and saw more suffering than many people, yet he changed the world by his suffering.

            “Kylie, how do think an eternity of suffering compares to suffering on Earth? In Hell, a drop of polluted water is priceless, friendship is hopeless, and breathing is almost unattainable.”

            Kylie’s face lost all color as she whispered, “But why would a loving God send people there?”

            Joshua put his arms around her to steady her as they walked among the sheep and rams, and he said, “God didn’t create Hell for people but for the warped demons. He does everything to plead with each spirit.

            “Ultimately, in His love and for a plethora of reasons, He respects each person’s choice to reject Him and His offer for salvation. Finally, God in Heaven is the only one who cries as He allows His most beautiful creation to condemn themselves to Hell by their choice. Think of a loving artist ordered to throw his creation into a fire.”

            As the afternoon started to set, Kylie sat near her beloved, feeling the love grow, wishing she could make the sun stop in the sky. But, as day moved into night, she knew that Joshua had to return his sheep and rams to the mountain.

            “Kylie, will I see you on the mountain on your personal time?”

            “Could you stop me, my beloved?” They hugged, and Kylie thought her time with Joshua was always too brief. Joshua kissed Kylie’s head and started to walk away.

            Kylie realized that she loved him more each day, whether she saw him or not. Kylie supposed This old-fashioned love has proven to nurture my adoration. I never thought I would feel this deeply about any man.

            Joshua turned and waved to Kylie, and as she waved back, she felt the heat and vibration in her heart. I’ll love you always, my beloved.

            This week progressed more easily for Kylie since she had seen her love. The wash was done effortlessly, and she spent hours devouring the Bible. During the day, she was careful to place the Bible back where it was safe.

            After their workweek was finished, Kylie was the first at the base of the mountain. Kylie greeted each person as they arrived. The other followers arrived, ready to carry the tools and buckets during the usual ascent, which had become more comfortable. Kylie led the group up the mountain, walking where she had become so comfortable. They chatted amicably and helped each other when needed. Caleb remarked, “I wonder if there is more rock breaking.”

            “There’s a reason why Joshua does everything,” Daniel observed. “Would you prefer volunteering with Stan?” Jabez joked. “You know what Stan is doing today?”

            “He spends the day in his big house because nobody wants to be near his stench!” Gideon teased. They all laughed and joked as they climbed up the mountain.

            When they got to the edge of the mountain, Joshua reached down to Kylie and smiled as he commented, “Welcome back, friends. It’s always nice seeing you. I have breakfast ready.”

            “How did you know we’d be here now?” Barak asked. 

            “I heard your conversation as you walked up. It’s not nice to make fun of Stan, even though he only hurts himself by his decisions. He could be with you— breaking rocks.” Joshua teased.

            “You heard that, I’m sorry.” Caleb apologized.

            Joshua laughed. “Don’t worry. We will all be working today, but first, I prepared a filling breakfast. The group sat in a circle, and Kylie sat next to Joshua. “I have flat cakes with berries. Then I have a story and some fun for you before we break more rocks.”

            Each follower took some flat cakes and passed the pan to the next person. In the end, Joshua looked and laughed. As usual with Joshua, “You left plenty for me. Anyone want seconds?” Then Joshua passed his own preserves with strawberries, blueberries, peaches, and raspberries to everyone had plenty to eat. He passed some orange juice in a pitcher around with cups for all. Most people rolled the flat cakes, but from habit, Kylie was still looking for a fork and knife. Joshua smiled and passed her a beautiful set of utensils, “Looking for these? Kylie’s culture uses these to eat. Eat as you feel most comfortable, my friends.” The friends chatted amicably during breakfast. When they had eaten enough, Joshua piled the plates, cups, pitchers, and utensils to the side.

            “Ready for a story?” Joshua asked. All the followers said they were eager, so Joshua told them about an extremely wealthy man with everything he wanted. He had worked all his life, and this year was extremely bountiful. He had a family to be proud of, a huge home, and so many workers that some servants had servants. Still, he wanted to do more. So, he ripped down his storage and made the storage something that could be seen from the next city, just so others would notice him.^[1]

            Just outside the boundary was a homeless man who lay on the street and wanted to eat from the trash that the man threw away. But, when the rich man saw the homeless man, Mark Lazarus, the wealthy man believed everyone earned their own blessings, so Mark Lazarus’ character must be weak. The rich man thought to himself, This homeless man wants what he didn’t earn. I will make sure this man never takes anything I earned. I am a self-made man, and that street person didn’t do anything to deserve anything I own.

            Mark Lazarus’ only friends were the dogs that kept him warm and guarded him from what evils they could prevent. One day, Mark Lazarus died and was gently guided to Heaven. The rich man wouldn’t even give Mark Lazarus’ body a burial the next day, but The Father’s angels took Mark’s soul to a place of unimaginable beauty.

            But that evening, the Lord came to the rich man and said, “You fool. You’ve been given all these possessions but missed the greater lesson. The one who gave you the strength, wisdom, intelligence, and talent was the Lord, and you will die tonight, and no money you have can save you.” Next as the rich man sat in the fires of Hell suffering, he saw Mark, now in his Heavenly home-which was larger and more magnificent than his own on Earth. The man now pleaded to the Lord for some relief and suggested that Mark Lazarus drip some water into his dry throat. The Lord explained that Mark suffered all during his life and was now eternally in his home; similarly, the rich man had everything for the short time on Earth and was now eternally in his home.^[2]

            Kylie looked at Joshua, “Is that story against riches or work?”

            Joshua touched Kylie’s shoulder. “Riches are neither a sign of God’s favor nor scorn for any person. The question is about what the person puts his faith in. The rich man in this story puts his faith and confidence in stuff. This rich man had considerable ‘I trouble.”

            Joshua looked at Boaz. “Boaz, what was your property like in your home?” Boaz looked at Joshua and seemed perplexed. “I was the richest man in the country. The difference was not what I had on temporary ground, but I did what was right and legitimate according to the laws and took care of all those who depended on me. I was also given the most beautiful gift- a lovely wife who loved me and gave me my beautiful son; she was and is my most treasured blessing.” Boaz reached next to him and touched Ruth’s hands, looking deeply into her eyes. Their looks toward each other reminded others of Joshua and Kylie.

            “We didn’t know you two were married! Boaz and Ruth are married?

            Well, we’ll have to work on joining your homes.”

            “Why didn’t you tell us you were married?” Questions flew among the followers.

            Boaz gently took Ruth’s hand as she explained, “When we first arrived at Sanctuary, we weren’t sure what had happened. We thought maybe we were taken because Boaz was wealthy, some war, or someone had drugged the water. We were just scared.” Ruth added, “Well, we finally understand some things better than the first week when everyone was walking in shock. As we got to know people, especially on the mountain; we realized people here weren’t that much different from in the town where we had lived. We miss our son so much.”

            Kylie looked at Joshua, wanting to tell them their great-grandson would become a king.^[3] Joshua shook his head to say no. Kylie now knew why Joshua had said to be careful with the Bible. Too much information could change whatever Joshua had planned. She still thought it was strange how these long-dead characters from the Bible sat in front of her now talking.

            Joshua invited everyone to sit on the ground as he started the activity. He handed everyone big blocks of clay. “Your assignment for today is to create the most beautiful jars, cups, platters, and plates you can imagine, and you must use every part of all the clay. They will be fired, and we will evaluate the work afterward.” Dinah wondered, “Could Boaz and Ruth do one clay pitcher together?”

            Joshua lovingly said, “Each person must make their own; however, Boaz and Ruth may join theirs in whatever way they think is appropriate.” Each person made pottery as they felt inspired.

            When the pottery was all done, the men took to the net and went to the lower level to start breaking the walls for the third floor of the terrace. The men had gotten used to climbing the netting and breaking the ground. After putting the jars inside the cave, Joshua joined the men, later climbing the netting.

            From the ground, Stan’s followers looked up to see Joshua and his followers crawling on the mountain like spiders, appearing so secure in what they were doing. None of Stan’s followers could understand why they were doing this, but they thought that people breaking rocks was a laughable waste of a good personal day by breaking rocks.

            The women cleaned the terrace and took care of the seedlings.

            At about noon, the followers gathered with Joshua for lunch. While Joshua prepared a small loaf of bread with warm, fresh turkey meat, tomatoes, lettuce, and a collection of toppings, they all chatted about the events in Sanctuary. They all sat in a circle, bowed their heads in unison, and said the words that brought them closer to God.

            After lunch, Joshua put most of the plates to the side and asked the followers to discuss a difficult concept. Joshua said that there are consequences for every decision. God set up a world that has reliable, consistent rules. Joshua took the plate and held it out, “What would happen if I dropped this plate?” 

            Hannah replied, “It would break.”

Joshua looked at the followers and asked, “Would it break because I don’t like it?” 

Hannah joked, “Did you find that a more effective way of cleaning plates?”

            Joshua described how God set up consequences so we can live in a consistent and reliable world. You count on gravity as a consistent force. God, in His love, wanted people to learn to depend on a system of logic. He wanted people to plant seeds in the ground, expecting them to grow in the ground; an action leads to an expected consequence.

            However, when people chose to know sin, the twisting of the normal, the people also received the distortion of the plans of God for consistency into a paradoxical confusion. “That,” Joshua said, “is why people ask why. People are created to know that this confusion is not what should be expected, and that the situation is what should not be expected. So, everyone can choose to live a life of searching for or rejecting God. Either choice leads to a consequence. Last week, we spoke of a choice everyone must make. Last week we spoke of sin and its consequences. This week, we will speak of the permanent effects of a life of sin.”

            Joshua brought out the tray with the pottery the people had made earlier in the day. Many people laughed when they saw the pottery they had created because some looked nothing like what they had formed. Joshua placed the pottery tray with all the items, and the followers looked carefully at the collection.

            Boaz and Ruth had made two jars intertwined with a piece of clay from both mounds. Their sturdy jars were creative and striking. Dinah had created a pitcher that stood strong, tall, and thin. Deborah had made a beautiful, sturdy platter. Many other items looked useful, some were comical, and a few were just miserable.

            Joshua explained that inside the kiln, the fire exposed the weaknesses and flaws inside each pottery piece. The fire burned off the dirt and dust like the fire of struggles in life burns off the effects of sin’s dirt, filth, and weaknesses in our lives. Like Boaz and Ruth, the fire can harden the connections between two like human jars. But the fire of life’s struggles can also harden a weakness and make the pottery unusable. “Did any of you make the pottery to be useless?” The followers gave various answers.

            Each follower took the broken pots and threw them into a section of the mountain. When they were all back in the circle, Joshua explained the lesson more completely. “In order to earn Heaven,” Joshua explained, “you must be perfect all the time. You won’t be able to enter Heaven with even a partial imperfection; flawlessness must be faultless every second of every day. There are no scales to offset the good with the bad, and you can’t be above average or better than other people.”

            Jonathan looked at Joshua and said, “Nobody is perfect every second. Does that mean none of us can go to Heaven? If we don’t get to Heaven, where do we go?” Joshua pointed to the pile of broken pottery. “There are only two choices in life. You are perfect or you are not. If you are imperfect, you will be sent to a place of unrecognizable pain and suffering.”

            Joshua asked the followers to list as many blessings as they could. “Think of all the things we take for granted while we are on Earth. Things such as air, cool breezes in the summer, water, friendship, peace, music, and love are rarely noticed.”

            So, followers broke into groups and started to think about the blessings they all enjoyed. Eventually, all the followers got back together into a circle and listed all their blessings in Sanctuary. Joshua gave Kylie a pen and pad of paper. “Would you list them and then organize them for us?” So, Kylie compiled the list; and as the followers noted the blessings, Kylie wrote them on the paper. Followers called out gifts like life, shelter, food, clothes, and beauties of nature, freedom, skills, jobs, security, physical protection, healing, love, joy, family, friends, good weather, memories, freedom, music, faith, abilities, laughter, kindness, happiness, and the beauty of different cultures.

            While Kylie organized the list, the women started planting seeds on the second level of the terraces. The men continued to carve the mountain for the third terrace during the afternoon. Kylie wished she could spend the afternoon with Joshua, but he was helping the men to carve the mountain. She had questions for Joshua tomorrow; however, counting the blessings did help Kylie remember some things that made Sanctuary pleasant.

            When the afternoon passed, the group gathered in a circle. Joshua asked Kylie to lead the discussion, and Joshua explained how each blessing was created by the Father for the enjoyment of people. The Father originally created the world, it was perfect; however, sin has warped all the blessings not to be as originally designed.

            All things are a gift from God and will meet their perfection in Heaven. But for those who reject the love of God, they choose the only other option-Hell.

            Gideon asked, “How can a loving God create a place of such pain and torture?” Joshua looked at each person sitting around him. “Hell was created by God for rebellious angels^[4] who wanted nothing to do with God and would never be satisfied in Heaven. Lucifer was the highest of angels who rebelled because he wanted to become equal with God, and then sin warped Lucifer into the devil. His followers were unable to live in a place of perfect blessings. So, God created a containment system for the distorted and rebellious angels, now called Hell.

            “When man was created, he was created to never die and live in a place that is perfect and was given the same freedom of choice as all the angels. Yet, people weakened and took in the knowledge of evil, and that sin meant there was no possibility for people to enter Heaven or know the Father.^[5] Earth became an inferior example of the original intent.

            “There was no place in Heaven where evil could exist^[6], so the only place that could contain sin was where the rebellious angels existed. However, because of the Father’s love and mercy for the people He created, He gave time for a deliverance plan from the death and pain sentence. While there is still clean water, food, shelter, clothing, love, and other blessings, the rebellious angels didn’t win.

            “In the land of rebellion, the land is the exact opposite of the world with blessings. The air we expect becomes foul and insufficient. Food and water from Earth are non-existent, and pain from Earth becomes exponentially more unbearable. Living becomes surviving without any hope of change. Love, joy, friendship, and family can’t exist in this warped land. However, when men chose to rebel, there was no place for them except where rebellion’s eternal consequences never ended. In Hell, there is no compassion, love, joy, peace, or water^[7] because those blessings are from the Father.”

            Kylie asked what everyone was thinking, “How can people who are sinful avoid such a place of pain and torture?” Joshua looked with love at each follower. “A substitution had to be made for the evil and suffering of the consequences of death.”

            Daniel said, “How can one person pay for all the sins of all humans? That seems like an impossibility.”

            Like a proper parent, the Creator also knew there needed to be a plan if people chose to rebel. And this plan was designed from the beginning as a Plan B. People truly could choose either way.

            Puah said, “I always heard about a place like Hell, but I never thought each person made a choice to enter Hell from his own rebellion.”

            Jonathan said, “So, what you’re saying is that there is a benefit from Hell and suffering on Earth?”

            “Yes,” Joshua said, “You are thinking ahead in this lesson. Suffering on Earth may cause us to enjoy Heaven by contrast, like someone who is deprived of something and appreciates it more when it’s restored. Similarly, suffering on Earth helps people become stronger, which helps us comfort others who are weak or sick.”

            Joshua said, “There is only One who sheds tears in Heaven. The Judge must send those He created, with incredible love, to a place where He can never share any good things with them because He respects their choice.”

            The sun was setting, and all the followers knew that the path down to the city of Sanctuary was difficult. Though they wanted to stay with Joshua, they all knew that it was time to finish this week’s activity.

            As they finished, they hugged each other and collected their tools. As they walked down the path, they all discussed all the blessings in Sanctuary. Caleb commented, “That makes the time in Sanctuary easier.” Men helped the women down the path and started unifying as fellow workers in faith.