Journey To Hell. A.W. Trenholm

either a sheep or a goat. The various religions of the world usually claim to guide people along a path to better life and to let love shine through their life. And there are just two rules in life and they are: firstly, to love God with your whole heart and secondly, to love your neighbor as yourself.”

      I added, ”That makes it all really simple. But that changes the whole religious landscape and does away with some of the exclusiveness and differences people feel in their religion, by putting all mankind on the same level before God, whether they are a Hindu like Mahatma Ghandi or an evangelist like Billy Graham. The Holy Spirit strives to teach all of mankind the truth of love.”

      “Both men had to live for love to be great persons,” said Elatia. “But of course Billy knew more about Jesus, the source of all love. To be allowed to live with Jesus in His city of Love, New Jerusalem, one must believe in Him and receive Him. Just knowing the truth, and living the spirit of it, are two different things entirely.”

      “Is there any hope for those who didn’t make it into New Jerusalem the first time around to eventually be accepted in?” I asked.

      “That will be our job for millenniums to come, to lead and feed others not in the city yet with the healing fruit from the tree of life that grows in the city.”

      “Wow! This is really expanding my concept of what the spirit world has to offer.”

      “Well I hope that your understanding of Hell is expanding so you can share your experiences. Not many have been here and lived to report about it. Most of them only saw the worst regions of Hell, and took back those accounts and stories about them. Think of Hell as a sort of temporary sorting and storage place for people. It has many different transitional levels and degrees of existence that range from existing in the paradisiacal to being in perpetual torment.”

      “What I still can’t understand is just what kind of a body that the souls down here have. Or how a person can go from life to death and still retain a semblance of himself. How is it that his being can feel pain not unlike he would have felt in his earthly body?”

      “You want an entire course in astrophysics, and details about the transmigration of souls, which I cannot give you in the brief time that we have. Suffice it to say that the human soul is made of extremely sturdy stuff and can survive the passage from the physical world to the spiritual with relative ease. It isn’t that you take on new material from the spirit world to form your body. You simply shift your principle source of being from the physical to the spiritual. In a very real sense you at last become what you really are. It’s like you hatch or break out of your cocoon, free at last from your physical bonds. “

      “Just what is the material that the soul is made from?” I asked.

      “It was created from the very breath of God, from Whom comes all life and being. Having that origin, we are like God Himself, immortal until God withdraws His breath.”

      “That is pretty heady stuff. It gives me a much greater appreciation of humans than I had before. I see what St. Paul meant when he said, ’Fear not them which can kill the body but are not able to kill the soul. Rather fear Him who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell.’”

      “Many souls come here for a time to adjust to this transition. It’s a kind of universal soul processing plant, where some choose to ascend and others continue down. Those going down are the souls of people who caused great pain to others in life or else saw great suffering and did nothing to prevent more or help those in suffering. Now they are experiencing some of the pain and hurt that they caused their fellow man. You see, if you think of the mass of humanity as sharing and descendent from one original body in Adam, and since Jesus came and became part of that same body, and died for us and then rose again, we also have hope that through Him Who conquered death, we too might rise again in Him.”

      “Is there any hope for those who go down, or does their punishment go on forever?”

      “Mercy and grace are given by God, and He gives it even in Hell. God is love, and His Spirit is love. And where iniquity abounds, His love much more abounds. A verse that I am claiming on this mission is Isaiah 49:9: ‘That thou mayest say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Shew yourselves. They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be in all high places.’”

      We had at last reached the entrance to the bridge. It was a walking bridge, built of sturdy construction and able to take heavy traffic. It provided a way over the very large and very deep crevasse which seemed to form a natural border around this Paradise, thus separating this region from Hell itself.

      Commenting on the bridge, Elatia said, “This is the bridge of Hope Eternal. Those who have faith in the Lamb may cross it, the crevasse surrounds Paradise and prevents all access to this island-like retreat, other than by the bridge. Presently it is guarded by a cherub and a pair of guerlions. Don’t be afraid. They look frightening but they will not hurt you. Come let us cross.”