Excerpts from
Visiting Heaven
or Hell?
By
Pastor
Bob DeWaay
Written in 2005; posted here
on May 6, 2007
The entire article:
http://cicministry.org/commentary/issue54.htm
Some of you
have
asked questions about three popular books:
90 Minutes in Heaven,
23 minutes
in hell, and Heaven Is So Real.
All three authors base their message about "truth" and
reality on feelings
and mystical experience, not on God's revealed Word. The following
warning from Pastor DeWaay deals with the same topics.
Though focused on three older books, it should help
answer your current questions.
Emphasis added
“I know a man in Christ
who fourteen years ago -- whether in the body I do not know,
or out of the body I do not know, God knows -- such a man was
caught up to the third heaven. And I know how such a man -- whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know,
God knows -- was caught up into Paradise, and heard
inexpressible words, which a man is not permitted to speak.”
(2Corinthians 12:2-4)
In recent years, a couple of
individuals have written hot selling books in which they
claim to relate their experiences of visiting heaven and/or
hell. When Paul1 mentioned his experience in
order to fend off the criticisms of false apostles who
boasted about visions and revelations, he said that “a man
is not permitted to speak” of the things which he saw. That
was in the first century. Evidently the rules have changed.
Now those who claim such visions and revelations
write books to describe what they saw. As we shall see, they
also claim to have received special revelation about things
not revealed in the Bible, and to have been commissioned by
"Jesus" to reveal these things to the church.
The two books we will
critique are A Divine Revelation of Hell by Mary
Kathryn Baxter2 and Heaven -- Close Encounters
of the God Kind by Jesse Duplantis.3 Before
we consider the content and merits of these books, we shall
briefly discuss a book that was a forerunner of this genré.
In 1972 the modern day founder of the “Word of Faith”
movement (the health and prosperity gospel), Kenneth
Hagin, wrote a book relating his experience of visiting
hell, and then later having visions of personal appearances
of Jesus himself. The book is I Believe in Visions.4
Unlike Baxter, Hagin’s claimed visit to hell happened before
he was born again. His book focuses more on appearances of
Jesus in which Jesus revealed things to him.
The Exact Words of Jesus?
Hagin, in I Believe in
Visions, claims that Jesus appeared to him in an “open
vision” and called him to (among other things) take on the
ministry of a prophet.5 One of the disturbing
things about this book is that it contains direct quotations
from "Jesus" Himself, published as if they were authentic and
authoritative revelation. This creates a dangerous situation
in which readers are intimidated into accepting these new
revelations lest they be found rejecting Jesus.
For example,
consider Hagins’ citing of the supposed direct words of
Jesus: “The Lord said to me, ‘If I give you a message for an
individual, a church, or a pastor, and they don’t accept it,
you will not be responsible. They will be responsible. There
will be ministers who don’t accept it and will fall dead in
the pulpit.’”6 Hagin then claims this very thing
happened. Pastors are therefore bullied into accepting
Hagin’s prophetic messages under pains of being struck dead.
This creates a false dilemma: either believe the new
revelations of this prophet or be killed by God. There is a
third possibility: search the Scriptures like the Bereans of
Acts 17 to determine whether Hagin’s message is true.
I read Hagin’s book less than
a year after I became a Christian.... Even as a new
Christian, who had scarcely begun my Biblical studies, I knew something was wrong with a Jesus who told
Kenneth Hagin that He would make all Christians wealthy if
they just followed an “inward witness” that was supposedly
the voice of God! The Jesus of the Bible taught “Blessed are
you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God” (Luke
6:20).
...on the last page of Hagin’s book, Jesus supposedly told him that Christians were
in charge of their own personal angels and were to directly
order them around to do things like get money for us.8
As strange as this all is,
Kenneth Hagin went on to become hugely successful in terms
of finding followers and training up others to carry on the
message of the health and wealth gospel....
Visiting Hell
Mary Baxter, an ordained
Church of God minister, claims to have received new
revelations and to have been commission by Jesus himself to
write these so that the “world” will know them.9
Her book is replete with first person, direct quotations
from "Jesus," which she claims to be true and authoritative.
She quotes Jesus, “My child, I will take you into hell by My
Spirit, and I will show you many things which I want the
world to know. I will appear to you many times; I will take
your spirit out of your body and will actually take you to
hell.”10 The book is a best seller and contains
the content of her experiences....
Baxter claims that Jesus
revealed to her that hell is shaped like a woman’s body and
resides in the middle of the earth. She writes, “Jesus spoke
again, ‘Hell has a body (like a human form) lying on her
back in the center of the earth. Hell is shaped like a human
— body very large and with many chambers of torment.’”11...
"Jesus" took Baxter on a
tour, one anatomical component at a time, starting with the
left leg. In this compartment of hell are many individual
pits with fire and brimstone with each pit holding a lost
soul.... On their tour, Jesus would bring Mary
Baxter to individual souls in torment and they would conduct
what amounted to an interview. The interviews reveal how and
why these people were in hell. Here and elsewhere in the
book, people in hell either reveal what they had done, or
Jesus would tell them what they had done. They would also
cry out to Jesus for mercy, but He would tell them it was
too late....
[Notice
how this deceptive book uses a tiny bit of truth to validate
huge lies. Yes, it's "too late," but everything else here is
false. All these tormented "people" faced judgment for
refusing to trust the true Jesus for redemption and
salvation, not for the specific things they supposedly
listed. None could be worthy of salvation apart from faith
in Christ!]
The compartments of hell did
not contain human inhabitants alone. Satan himself dwelt
there with a mass of demons each having appearances such as
grizzly bears, monkeys, and various grotesque forms.14
....
Is Satan in Charge of Hell?
...The idea that Satan is in
charge of hell and enjoying the process of inflicting
various torments on people is a fictitious notion that comes
from popular folk religion but is not taught in the Bible.
Part of the problem with Baxter’s book is that it never
makes a clear distinction between hades and gehnna. Hades is
the Greek word in the New Testament that is used for the
place where the lost go upon death, awaiting the
resurrection of the body for the final judgement. Gehnna is
the final abode of the lost, which is also called the “lake
of fire.” In Revelation 20 we find that hades is thrown into
the lake of fire: “And the sea gave up the dead which were
in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in
them; and they were judged, every one of them according to
their deeds. And death and Hades were thrown into the lake
of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire”
(Revelation 20:13,14).
Mary Baxter alludes to this,
but persists in using “hell” to describe a place where souls
already are, though technically it is the place of final
punishment for the wicked, both human and demonic.
The first two inhabitants of hell shall be the Antichrist
and the false prophet: “And the beast was seized, and with
him the false prophet who performed the signs in his
presence, by which he deceived those who had received the
mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image; these
two were thrown alive into the lake of fire which burns with
brimstone” (Revelation 19:20)....
Christians in Hell
There are lots of ways of
ending up in hell, according to this book. The various
interviews that Jesus conducts with the damned for the
benefit of Mary Baxter’s book, reveal every sort of sin. It
is true that unforgiven sin alienates us from God and if
persisted in even until death will result in a lost soul
consigned to hell. This we are not disputing. However, Mary
Baxter makes a point of highlighting Christians whose “sins
had been washed away” who end up in hell. From preachers who
don’t teach “the Holy Ghost Baptism,” to gossips, ones who
do not forgive, ones who are not generous, to people who
don’t listen to modern day prophets. Though the basic idea
of the gospel is presented in the book, the overall
impression I got from reading it is that one’s salvation is
tenuous and likely to be easily lost.
For example, Baxter overheard
the conversations of two fellows who lived their lives as
Christians but ended up in hell. A person in hell is quoted
as saying: “I know Jesus, He washed my sins away. In fact, I
don’t know what I’m doing here. Nor do I, [another said]”28
We find out that one of them would not loan money to a
neighbor for the man’s wife’s funeral because he didn’t
believe the neighbor would use it for that and another would
not buy clothes for a boy from church because his father was
a drinker.29 So for these sins the two Christians
whose sins had been washed away by the blood of Jesus are in
hell being tormented for eternity. It is right to give
generously and to do everything else Jesus commanded. But
the notion that some oversight, some moment of selfishness
rather than selflessness, might send us to hell even if we
are Christians is likely to leave no one with assurance of
salvation. Any lapse and we go right to hell if we die
before we get a chance to repent. That is the message I got
from reading this book.
This type of teaching arose
in the early church after the death of the apostles and
eventually resulted in the Roman Catholic system of penance,
purgatory, etc. The idea was that any sin committed after
baptism would be a blot in the account of the Christian and
would stay that way unless the Christian and/or others did
some works to resolve the guilt. They imagined (contrary to
1John 1:7) that the blood of Jesus only cleansed the sins
committed before baptism. Though Mary Baxter has no clear
explanation about just which sins and how many of them cause
Christians to lose their salvation, that they are likely to
lose salvation if they die at the wrong moment is clear.
... Can Baxter “prove” that the doctrine of
perseverance is wrong on the basis that she personally
talked to people in hell who are damned and at one time were
true Christians? How is this any better than the
extra-biblical revelations of the Roman Catholic Church?
Are New Revelations Authoritative?
There are other similarities
with Rome. Mary Baxter presents us with the exact words of
Jesus, in direct quotations, claims they are true, and
dangles her readers over the pit of hell if they might
decide not to listen to her. For example, she quotes Jesus
as He admonishes Mary’s readers: “You have not hearkened to
the words of My servants, the prophet and the prophetess.
Curses instead of blessing have come upon you. . .”30
So which prophets and prophetesses are we cursed for not
listening to — Joseph Smith and Mary Baker Eddy? Maybe it is
the Popes speaking ex cathedra. Once you allow new
revelations to be added to the Bible, all these and more are
on the table. This is nothing new. Historically, people who
claim to speak for God condemn all those who refuse to
listen, including the various cults and false religions.
Only the Bible provides solid evidence that its writers
really did speak for God.
A Divine Revelation of Hell
claims to give new, authoritative revelation to the church.
It even adds material to that provided in the book of
Revelation, which Revelation itself forbids (Revelation
22:19). In Mary Baker’s version, the Mystery Babylon, the
mother of harlots, has “seven heads and ten horns.”31
In Revelation it is the beast with the seven heads and ten
horns (Revelation 13:1 & 17:3). She tells us that the beast
will have a high tech “mind-destroying machine” that will
mellow people out and make them happy with Antichrist and
also a “big bother machine” that will be invisible and let
the beast watch every move people make.32 This is
information that is not given in the book of Revelation but
directly pertains to it. To make matters worse, listen to
what Mary Baxter says about this information: “All these
things were revealed to me by the Lord Jesus Christ in an
open vision. They are the words of His mouth, and they
concern the times of the end.”33 She has just
added to the words of the Biblical prophecy of Revelation
which the Bible forbids.
The underlying problem of all
books of this type (where the author makes direct quotes of
Jesus and claims new revelations) is that they undermine the
authority of Scripture. Paul told us not to even listen to
an “angel from heaven” with a different gospel:
“But even
though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a
gospel contrary to that which we have preached to you, let
him be accursed” (Galatians 1:8).
Once we get away from the
Reformation principle of “Scripture alone” as our authority,
we shall be faced with a multitude of competing voices, each
claiming to speak authoritatively for God. Today in America
there are hundreds of supposed prophets who are publishing
material that claims to be directly inspired by Christ and
authoritative to the church. But the Scriptures teach that
God “has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of
all things, through whom also He made the world” (Hebrews
1:2b). The tense of “has spoken” indicates a full and final
revelation. Everything we will know about heaven and hell
during this life and in this age is contained in Scripture.
Even if the purpose of books like Mary Baxter’s is to
motivate us to repent, they do more harm than good in that
they undermine the final and complete authority of
Scripture.
Visiting Heaven
Jesse [Duplantis] claims to have gone to heaven and been sent
back by Jesus to tell people He is coming again. This was
not a near death experience but an actual trip to heaven,
though he did not know whether in or out of the body.34
A big “blond-headed” angel was involved in his experience.
This book is written in the
simple, down-home, southern “awe shucks” approach that
characterizes the evangelist who wrote it. Being of the
“Word of Faith” ilk, he manages to line up Biblical
characters he meets in heaven who agree with him on the
prosperity message. For example, he meets King David in
heaven who tells Jesse that he should have done a better job
with some of the Psalms:
“[As David] explained, ‘I allowed God
and the anointing to come through in that song [Psalm 23].
In other songs I sang strongly about my troubles. I think I
should have allowed more of the answer to come through,
instead of the complaining.”35
David also told
Jesse, “I wish I had written more songs about God’s answers
than about my problems.”36 Jesse evidently does
not realize that this undermines the doctrine of the
inspiration of all Scripture (1Timothy 3:16). If David is
apologizing for the lament Psalms, then why did the Holy
Spirit inspire him to write them and include them in the
canon of Scripture? But when one realizes that the health
and wealth teaching has no time for such things as human
sorrows, it makes sense that one of their teachers would go
to heaven and find out from David that those passages were
some sort of a mistake.
In a similar vein Duplantis
talks to Paul and Paul agrees with him on his mis-interpretation
of one of Paul’s passages. This is the passage:
“Therefore
we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying,
yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For
momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal
weight of glory far beyond all comparison” (2Corinthians
4:16,17).
The passage and its context make it clear that
Paul is contrasting this temporal lifetime with eternity.
However, Jesse Duplantis and supposedly Paul in heaven read
it thus: “a moment is not a lifetime.”37 “Paul”
in heaven is quoted, “Change it back to a moment.”38
So Paul, now that he is in heaven, is a faith teacher who
doesn’t think Christians should experience afflictions
except for perhaps a moment....
Conclusion
The Bible
contains the whole counsel of God — everything that will be
revealed before the second coming of Christ. People have
written books about heaven and hell in the past. It used to
be that they were at least in the form of fiction, like
Dante’s Inferno. The books we have reviewed claim to impart
new revelations to the church. As such, these books ought to
be rejected. They not only teach extra biblical ideas, they
teach unbiblical ideas, some worse than others. Thus they
lead people astray.... It is the Scriptures that make us wise unto salvation:
“...you have known the sacred writings
which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to
salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All
Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching,
for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness”
(2Timothy 3:15,16).
See also
Heaven and
90
Minutes in Heaven and
Duplantis:
"Close Encounters of the God Kind"
Please
read the rest the of this much-needed message -- along
with the endnotes -- at
http://cicministry.org/commentary/issue54.htm
Other articles by Bob DeWaay:
The Gospel: A Method or a
Message?
True and False
Unity
|
Redefining the Church
Faulty Premises
of the Church Growth Movement
“Church Health
Award” from Rick Warren or Jesus Christ?
Bob DeWaay is
the Pastor of
Twin City Fellowship, a
non-denominational evangelical Church in Minneapolis, MN:
"We are a
body of believers who attempt to live our Christian
faith according to Acts 2:42 by devoting ourselves to
prayer, fellowship, searching the Scriptures, and the
Lord’s Supper. Our mission is to equip the saints for the work of
ministry and to reach the lost with the Gospel of Jesus
Christ. We do this through expository preaching, study
of the Scriptures, publications, our website and
neighborhood outreaches."