How many times do you want to die?

Today my heart is drawn to Revelation chapter 20 and what the Bible calls the second death. To give you a glimpse of what Revelation is saying, I want to begin by asking you to choose how you want to die. While this might sound odd, the reality is that no amount of health care can prevent death, only delay it a bit. So, how would you like to die? Once you’ve made your choice, I want to take you on a tour of the other side of death’s door.

The first stop after death is the transit station. Upon entering you look around and notice that there are two lines formed with an angel sitting at their head. You go up to him and ask what this is all about, and he says, “This is the beginning of your final journey; your life on Earth is now over, and these two lines are here to lead you to your final destination. To determine which line is for you, I’ll need your name.” When you tell him your name, he looks down in a book and after a brief search looks up and says, “That’s your line over there.”

When you turn and see the line he is pointing to, not only do you notice that it is the longest and busiest, but it has a sign over it that says “Hell.” So you turn to the angel and say, “There must be some mistake; I want to go Heaven.”

But he assures you that there is no mistake. In his book are the names of all those who had repented of their sins and turned to Jesus Christ for the salvation of their soul, but yours is not there. So sadly, you turn and get in your line, and though the line moves briskly, you find no satisfaction, just an odd apprehension that grips you as you move ahead and board your train.

When your train stops, your group is met by a guide who begins herding you down a long corridor that grows darker with each step. With each step you notice the temperature rising and off in the distance you begin to hear the roar of a furnace. As you draw closer, you can even pick out the voices of people screaming in agony and pain, and as fear grips your soul, you begin to cry.

Finally you reach the end and all hell opens up before you; one by one people are being thrown off a cliff into flames that seem to leap miles into the air. And then, as an ogre-like creature turns and reaches out for you, you cry out and ask, “How long will I be here?” As he grabs you by your neck and looks deep in your eyes, he says, “This is your first death; you will be here till called for the next.”

With these words you are hurled out into Hell, and as you fall, the flames begin to lash out at your naked soul and you begin to scream for the searing pain they inflict. As you land, crashing at the bottom, you find yourself in a sea of people; you cannot see them clearly through the darkness, but you cannot move without stumbling over them or they on you, and their screams of anguish are so loud you can hardly scream above them.

As if this weren’t bad enough, you begin to feel tiny creatures all over your soul, and as you draw them to your face, you recognize them as maggots which feed on dead carcasses.

Yet as they feast on you, and grow in size and number before your very eyes, your soul is not consumed.

Before we go further, you need to understand that this place we’ve just described, Hell, is totally avoidable.

Nearly 2,000 years ago God sent his Son, Jesus Christ, into this world to die on a cross to pay for your sins and so offer you eternal life. Yet while this is avoidable, I know there are those who remain unconvinced. If this is your situation, join us next week as we journey out of hell on to your final destination, the Lake of Fire — also known as the second death.

Ron Hamman is pastor of Independent Baptist Church of Wasilla; contact him at 357-4229 or ron.hamman@gci.net