Black Christian Mind

Hell is Here and Now on Earth, Not in the Future
by Sabrina Dawkins

While growing up in the false church, I envisioned hell as this fiery, terrifying place that I didn’t want to go to when I died. After the routine Sunday church service, I would try hard not to sin because I was scared of ending up in hell. But it would be like holding my breath, and maybe 30 minutes or up to two hours after Sunday service, I was back to sinning, at least through my thoughts. It was frustrating. I wanted to be good, go the right way; however, by my own strength, I was incapable of being a godly person. But was hell what it was portrayed as? I found out later the answer to that question was no.

In the false church, I don’t remember the pastor ever talking about metaphors used in the Bible, so when I heard the word “hell” I always pictured the literal fire, being burned by fire forever. As a child, I never suspected the preachers would use the word “hell” as a trigger word to control congregations through their emotions. I just knew that I would leave church often afraid of this place called hell that burned forever and ever. It was a waking nightmare to even imagine such a thing. Getting burned for a split second was an awful feeling. Being burned forever was inconceivable. Yet I could not do what was required to stop myself from meeting that fate. It was such a tormenting feeling inside for at least a few hours after church on many Sundays as I tried to force myself into being something that I just wasn’t. Yes, it felt bad inside to be torn because my body and mind would not conform to what I needed to become in order to avoid this place that had been described to me by preachers during intense, emotionally charged sermons. Yes, I failed many times trying to be holy, but I never thought that I was experiencing hell here on earth within my own body.

But there are clues in the Bible that hell might not be what it seems. It might not be some place deep underground or in some spirit world far away that we will be carried off to after death if we don’t stop sinning. In Genesis 19:24 God rained fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah. And in Revelation 19:20 “the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.” This means that the beast and false prophet were still alive when they were cast into the lake of fire and brimstone; they were not dead in some otherworldly place. They were alive and in body when they experienced hell. Psalm 11:6 indicates that “upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup.”

Hell is on earth. God rained down fire and brimstone on earth, on wicked Sodom and Gomorrah. Revelation 14:11 says, “And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.” It doesn’t say that they will have no rest day nor night—it’s not a future event, it is now. We should “fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28). If hell were strictly a spiritual place that we go to upon death due to sin, why would God need to destroy the soul and the body in hell? The body would’ve been destroyed on earth. Hell is on earth. Torment is on earth.

“He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; he that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death” (Revelation 2:11). The first death is the death of the body. The second death is the death of the soul. And those who overcome will not experience the death of their soul. Their physical body will die, but their soul will not. That is why God said, “Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith the LORD, and thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel” (Isaiah 41:14). He was telling Jacob and the men of Israel not to fear their physical death, their physical bodies being consumed by worms, because he will keep their spirits alive even after physical death.

However, for the wicked, their torment on earth can be prolonged. John 1:21 shows that John the Baptist did not know that he was Elijah from a past life. But Christ knew that John the Baptist was indeed Elijah (Matthew 17:11-13), which means that reincarnation can occur and without memory of past lives. John the Baptist carried out his mission without knowing who he really was. But while the righteous fulfill their mission and are pruned (John 15:2) and refined in each lifetime as God “holdeth our soul in life” (Psalm 66:9-10), the wicked get worse: “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived” (2 Timothy 3:12-13).

Living without the guiding light of God is torment. Living in spiritual darkness is hell because the only guidance you have is from demons and people living with the mark of the beast, governed by their beast nature. When people pick up the cigarette that kills them slowly, they experience hell. Those drug addicts who stumble up and down the streets who have lost everything including their self-control and self-respect and are now living only for the next fix are in hell. The sex addicts who play Russian roulette using their body and another person’s each time they have sex are in hell. People who are drowning in debt are in hell. Hell is where demons rule secretly within human bodies, driving them to a slow suicide through, for instance, various addictions.

I experienced hell as a child and teenager going to that false church, being made afraid of a mythical hell out there somewhere, when the real hell was raging inside of me as demons and my beast nature controlled my body even when I had it in my mind to try to do right. It was like watching a car crash in slow motion, and I was in the car. There was nothing I could do to stop the crash. My body could not react quickly enough. And even if I did slam on the brakes, I was too close to crashing to prevent the crash at this point. All I could do was look in horror at my fate as it happened, as time slowed down for me to savor each moment before the crash. Hell is being in a body that is not controlled by the Holy Spirit, having awareness as you sit in your vehicle but being unable to stop the crash, unable to stop the beast nature, unable to stop the demons from getting in and misusing your vehicle until they destroy it.

To live without the Holy Spirit is to experience a living death in which the fire is never put out and your worm does not die (Mark 9:48) because your corpse is not completely consumed by it. Instead, you walk around already dead but unable to physically die, a mere passenger in your own vehicle, controlled by forces that you don’t understand because the living God’s Spirit is not within you to steer you in the right direction and protect you from evil spirits and your own beast nature.