23 minutes in hell Read Online Free PDF Page B

people to feel this way. We have seen how our country always comes to the rescue for the rest of the world. This inborn desire to protect the defenseless continued in my adult life. Now, without the ability to help even one defenseless, tormented soul, I felt the hopelessness deepen. To witness people in terror, in desperation, and in unending torment was more than I could bear.[3]
    Now try to picture the most fearful moment of your life. For me, I remember one morning when, as a teenager, I was surfing off the coast of Florida. A school of sharks showed up and surrounded us. We frantically began paddling toward the beach, and in the frenzy, a guy nearby had his leg torn off. Then one shark knocked me completely off my board. My friend Rene and I were now literally swimming with the sharks. We desperately tried to get to the shore, but I sincerely felt that the blood in the water combined with the number of sharks was a certain death sentence. Suddenly, a nine-foot shark grabbed my leg in its mouth and pulled me down. For seemingly no reason, the shark let me go without a mark (thank God!), and Rene and I swam to shore. At the time, I was an avid surfer. Needless to say, I didn’t go near the water for almost two years.
    That was one of the most terrifying moments in my life, and that experience paled in comparison to the fear you endure for an eternity in hell. There is no way of escape. No one can rescue you.
    “Indeed, all other senses will be affected too: the ear with hideous noises, shrieks and yells from fellow damned sinners; the eye with fearful, ghastly, and horrible spectacles; the smell with suffocating odors and nasty stench, worse than that of carrion or that which comes out of an open sepulcher.”[4]
    —Thomas Vincent
    When I had first arrived in the cell, I had noticed that I was naked, which is another form of shame and increased vulnerability. In such a hostile environment, that vulnerability adds another layer of helplessness and fear to an already terrified mind.[5] In life, well-adjusted, healthy people would feel shame if stripped and exposed publicly. How much more so would such shame and fear be felt in a terror-filled environment. I am reminded of the millions of Jews who were stripped naked and humiliated before being murdered with poisonous gas or cast into ovens during World War II. They experienced many tortures and humilities, but being naked was an attempt to strip them of their dignity and to intensify the fear. Many have died horrific deaths on the earth; how much more the torment when it lasts forever?
    “The duration of Hell is endless. Although there are degrees of punishment, Hell is terrible for all the damned. The occupants are the devil, evil angels, and unsaved human beings.”[6]
    —Robert Peterson
    I also experienced the misery of total exhaustion in hell. The continual emotional, mental, and physical trauma feeds this vicious cycle of sleep deprivation. You desperately long for even a few minutes of rest, but you never, ever get that privilege. Imagine for a moment how terrible you feel after only forty-eight hours of no sleep. In hell you never sleep, rest, or find a quiet moment. Any form of rest is completely nonexistent.[7] Even though I was only there for twenty-three minutes, the torment and trauma was so intense that it felt like I hadn’t slept for weeks. It could only worsen with time.
    There is never any peace of mind.[8] No rest from the torments, the screams, the fear, the thirst, the lack of breath, no sleep, the stench, the heat, the hopelessness, and the isolation from people.
    I desperately wanted to talk to a human being, but I knew I would never get that chance.[9] You are kept from any kind of fellowship, conversation, or human interaction.
    Relationships are so valuable, and it’s easy to take them for granted. At the moment of death, a person does not want to be surrounded with “things.” That person wants to be surrounded by people who truly care for