Written by Joseph Nimeskern and edited by Daniel L. Baker, Assistant Pastor, 5th

Street Missionary Baptist Church.

Submitted by Dr. D.R. Baker

Revelation 20:15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

For a moment let us try to imagine what it would be like to die and go to hell. Try to imagine that for every single moment, throughout all eternity, a time with out end, every inch of your body will be in absolute pain. It will be more suffering than anything you have ever had before, worse than the most excruciating sunburn. It will be like having scalding, boiling water poured over your body every single second. You might possibly say to yourself, "Surely the pain will subside!", but it never comes. An eternity without rest or relief. Now added to your torment is the agony of your body moving. It is the writhing pain of a sin drenched, eternally undying person. Because, as the skin stretches, untold daggers of pain flash through you. You want so badly to hold still, but the burning of the flames is so great that you just can't bear it. The bubbling of the brimstone makes you scream in horror. Your feet and hands blister, and your hair catches fire and you begin to gnaw your tongue, trying desperately to relieve the torment. Your throat becomes raw from screaming and wailing as spasms of anguish drop you into the molten lava. You go under the surface gnashing your teeth. As you gasp for air the burning brimstone flows into your mouth, running down your throat and into your stomach. You are on fire inside and out. Lava, red hot and smoking, flows in your ears. You try to focus your eyes in the endless, everlasting, permanent dwelling place of total torment and torturous surroundings but they burn with such pain as though they were melting in the sockets. Through the smoke and flame, you finally focus on the worms that have begun to totally engulf your body. They are crawling all over you, and you realize in horror that they are feasting on you. You can feel them as they crawl in and out of you, but you are not consumed. A pleading scream comes from your burning, flaming, fiery lips. A cry for "Water" is felt throughout your whole being as you begin to bitterly weep. With out warning, you find yourself falling in the darkness. You can feel something solid next to you and you grab on. `Oh, if only I could stop falling!' you think and you try to cling to the solid surface, but the lava is too much... you are slipping. Again, you fall into the bubbling lake and you swallow another mouthful of burning slime. The horrid smell of blazing sulfur combine with the sickening odor of burning hair and scorching flesh linger in you nose and nausea overwhelms you. Something suddenly reaches out of the darkness and grabs you. In terror, you cry out as you begin to feel teeth sinking into your flesh.You violently struggle, desperate to shake the gnashing person off in the darkness. A scream deafens your ears as the tormented person cries out in agony. You can only echo theirs and you both scream out in the darkness. Breathing heavily from the concentrated exertion, your lungs fill with smoke. You cough and gasp, and the word "WATER!!!" escapes your inflamed lips again, but quieter this time as your throat is on fire from the molten brimstone. Your tongue feels like a white-hot iron against the parched roof of your mouth. Your gums pulsate with agony, while every nerve in your teeth stabs you with flashes of indescribable torment. The roar of the flames and the piercing screams of the damned seem to tear at your eardrums. Oh, for just a moment of silence! But that silence never comes. You can't run away this time. Thoughts of law-abiding so-called Christians didn't tell you of this place, or did you just not listen? Additionally, your thoughts go to and from the time you were in a Bible-believing, preaching church. Memories that are so clear and vivid. You can still remember the time when the preacher was talking to you about this hopeless place of darkness and pain, but you didn't want to listen. He talked about Jesus and His saving Blood...... "He told me that I was a sinner! Now I accept Jesus as my Savior. I accept what He did for me on the cross. Can't you hear me? I want to be saved! You know, born again! What the preacher said! Won't you listen? Can't you hear? Another scream escapes your burning lips.!" For eternity you will scream those words again and again, over and over, repeating them for eternity, but alas, they go nowhere. Words, meaning- less words that can't be heard by God Almighty, but by the doomed only. I want to be born again! Can't you hear me! Why didn't someone tell me! Why didn't they continue to tell me when I had ignored them! Didn't they care! The doomed tell you it won't work. Your words are not heard. You see, this isn't imagination, this is reality. The living and their prayers can't help. Their money won't help you here. You are condemned here for eternity just as we are. Another scream escapes your burning lips, "NO!" This isn't fantasy or imagination. No, this is reality, and your reality without Christ.