My Vision of Hell and Why I Don’t Toy With My Eternity

I got saved in 1979.

When I came to Jesus, I was on drugs and alcohol and dropped out of Vanderbilt University. I flew back to Miami from Tennessee to live with my parents who were in a midst of a divorce after twenty-eight years of marriage. I gave my heart to the Lord Jesus, which in itself is another detailed blog entry. I met Jesus by myself without the help of any pastor, priest or church. A few months later, God had changed my heart towards drinking alcohol and given me a thirst instead for His Spirit and His Word. I was still however, smoking marijuana and when someone treated me to the more expensive cocaine, which I could not afford, I would indulge in it.

Kenny Loggins was coming to South Florida. Though he was not one of my favorite rock stars, Kenny is a very gifted musician and I was thrilled to see him in Ft. Lauderdale. I did not know any Christians and was still hanging out with my worldly friends. We bought the tickets and rode up to beautiful Sunrise Musical Theater. I was surprised when one of the guys pulled out a stash of high-grade cocaine. As the concert progressed we snorted more and more of the white powder and were literally flying sky-high.

Today when a concert ends, people shout “encore” or “more” and pull out their lit cell phones waving them in the air. In the 70’s and 80’s there were no cell phones. People would light up matches or pull out their lighters in the air.

When Kenny finished his last song, the shouts of “encore” and “more” began to resonate through the marijuana smoke-filled air. Thousands of matches and lighters in unison illuminated the dark auditorium. Right then, and at that very moment, the Lord Jesus transported me in the Spirit and into a vision.

In this revelation the thousands of match flames became meshed together into one massive fire that engulfed me on all sides, and the myriads of voices around me crying “more” became the thousands of shouts of demons saying “more fire”, “more fire”, “more fire”. It was sheer terror, utter fear, and a sensation of not been able to think or focus on anything else but upon the incident of the immediate horror surrounding me.

I crashed from the drug high that I was on in less than a minute. I was numb and in a silent state of panic. The lights came on and all of my friends, stoned and red-eyed, congregated around me to excitedly remark on the incredible concert. I could not speak. I could just nod. I could not drive myself back home. Somewhere on the one hour trip back to Miami, as I slowly recollected myself, I heard the Lord tell me in His sweet and quiet and still small voice, “My son, no more drugs.” All of my drug habits were instantaneously cured on that day of 1980. I have never touched a drug again, because I never want to experience the fright and the horror of this vision of hell.

Jesus preached about hell three times more than he preached about heaven. To this day, I have never experienced this type of fear again. It’s not His wish that anyone would ever go there. The masses send themselves to hell by rejecting His provision for eternal life. I was in a vision of hell for about five minutes. I can’t foresee what the real deal is for eternity. I do not wish hell on the worse of my enemies.

It’s hard to understand why so many today mock this scenario. What if all that Jesus said was true and you’re wrong?  I appreciate that usually folks are not scared into salvation, yet this prospect is something for one to seriously deliberate.   For me this is My vision of Hell and Why I Don’t Toy with my Eternity.  Ask God to give you your own vision if you doubt mine!

Mary and I right after getting married in 1988, and about nine years after my vision of hell.