Thomas Hobbes Would Agree

I’m always interested in reading accounts of people who claim they’ve been to heaven or hell. Some of them are true, and you can learn useful things from them. Even if you learn nothing new, you can get confirmation of things you already know.

I just finished reading a very old account. It surprised me to find it existed. The author is a man named John Bunyan. He wrote books during the 1600’s. His most famous work is a novel called Pilgrim’s Progress. The story of his visit to the supernatural world is called Visions of Heaven and Hell.

Bunyan decided to kill himself. While he was on the way to the place where he planned to commit suicide, an angel appeared to him. He took Bunyan to heaven, where he met and spoke with Elijah. Afterward, they visited hell, where Bunyan saw Satan and a number of damned individuals, including the famous philosopher Thomas Hobbes. Bunyan had known Hobbes.

I think Bunyan’s book is true. It seems very consistent with scripture and with other credible accounts of similar visits. It’s also consistent with my own revelations and supernatural experiences.

The first thing that impressed me about the story was Bunyan’s description of Earth. As he and the angle rose toward heaven, Earth started to look like a small dark spot. Bunyan said it appeared to be something to be despised. The word “despised” means “contemned.” People think it means “hated,” but that isn’t true.

Bunyan thought about the way people strove to get domination and promotion on the little dark spot, and he realized they were throwing their lives away, including their eternal lives, for something of no value at all.

That’s consistent with what Jesus preached. He said, “He who loves his life will lose it.” Bunyan quoted Jesus: “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” Jesus meant what he said very literally.

Bunyan also learned something that conflicts with Catholicism: the dead in Christ don’t know what’s going on down here. They have general information about developments in the church, but Mary, your mom, and your dad don’t know you have cancer or that you need an A on your Spanish exam. Praying to them is pointless, because they don’t hear you.

How could heaven be heaven if people there were constantly assaulted with knowledge of the bad things that were happening to their living friends and relatives? One of the purposes of death is to give us finality and peace. How could that purpose be served if there was worry in heaven? It’s not possible. We are concerned about living individuals while we are here, but once we’re free, we’re really free, and they are on their own.

He confirmed something which continually amazes me: the symmetry of the supernatural. I’ll provide some examples of things I have noticed. Christians and Jews who are saved have Yahweh; everyone else has Satan. God has righteous angels; Satan has fallen angels. Christians are inhabited by the Holy Spirit; everyone else is inhabited by demons. God takes us to be with him in a place of eternal joy; Satan draws us down to a place of eternal torture. God lowers heavenly virtues to people on earth; Satan raises the iniquities of hell into them. Christians pray in tongues; others chant or meditate on Satanic mantras.

Lately, I’ve been asking God to help me to have treasure in heaven. I believe most people think “treasure in heaven” means some kind of wealth, like piles of rubies and diamonds. It actually means people who are saved. If you help someone receive salvation, you will have that person with you in heaven, and he or she will be a treasure to you.

I’ve also been asking God to minimize my garbage in hell. Hell is a garbage dump, which is why Jesus compared it to Gehenna, Jerusalem’s dump. It’s why Judas fell into Gehenna. People who die unsaved turn themselves into God’s garbage. If I lead someone to hell, then I’ll have garbage in hell.

Bunyan’s experience confirms what I believe. He said people in hell desperately want people they know to be saved. The reason isn’t that they care about them; it’s that the people they corrupt will be their enemies, or at least reason for more torment, in hell. They will make their influencers suffer. No one in hell loves anyone else. They just want to minimize their own suffering.

If you have treasure in heaven, you are surrounded by people you love very intensely, and they bring you great pleasure. If you help someone fall into hell, that person will be with you forever, hating you and accusing you. It’s a symmetrical arrangement.

Imagine the throngs of enemies damned rock stars and actors have.

I believe Satan will be the most tormented person in the lake of fire, because every damned spirit there will hold him responsible for what has happened to him or her.

Bunyan and the angel had a number of conversations with residents of hell, and they discussed things between themselves, too. A damned spirit who fell from heaven argued that man did not deserve more pity than he did. The angel refuted him.

The premise is that if you sin without being tempted, you don’t deserve pity, but if you are subject to temptation, you should be able to get mercy. The fallen angel said he had been tempted by Satan, like man, yet he had been damned as soon as he sinned, with no hope of recovery. He implied that men were no better than he was, and that they deserved no sympathy.

The angel who escorted Bunyan called the fallen spirit a liar and said he had been damned because of pride.

“O you apostate, wicked, lying spirit! Can you say those things and see me here? You know it was your proud heart that made you rebel with Lucifer against the blessed God who had created you with glory! But since you proudly exalted yourself above your blessed Creator, and joined with Lucifer, you are justly cast down to hell. Your former beauty has been changed to your present horrible form as the just punishment of your rebellious pride.”

This makes sense, because the Bible says Lucifer was damned for the iniquity of pride, not the sin of rebellion. God will not permit anything evil to enter heaven, and when a person has an iniquity, he is imperfect and therefore evil.

Scripture says Lucifer was damned for a thought, not an act.

Look:

For you have said in your heart:
“I will ascend into heaven,
I will exalt my throne above the stars of God;
I will also sit on the mount of the congregation
On the farthest sides of the north;
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds,
I will be like the Most High.”
Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol,
To the lowest depths of the Pit.

The damned spirit who argued with the angel brought pride into heaven, so he had to go.

Satan wants to bring the iniquities of the flesh into heaven, and God wants to bring the perfection of heaven into the earth while we are still flesh. Symmetry.

Bunyan wrote about the presence of God. In his book, Elijah says that in heaven, we can be in God’s presence continually, whereas here on earth, there have to be interruptions. He also says that on earth, “love is mixed with fear, and fear has torment, but here love is perfect, and perfect love casts out fear.”

Elijah also said there was no temptation in heaven. He said, “Not only are the saints here free from sin, but also from any temptation to sin.” He said, “In the earth below, the best and holiest of souls groan under the burden of corruption. Sin tries to cling to all that they do, and often leads them captive against their will.”

I have often wondered how I’ll avoid sinning in heaven. Satan hovered over God’s throne as his pampered servant, yet he still sinned. It’s a comfort to read that I will not have to worry about falling.

For a long time, I’ve been calling God an ocean when I praise him. For example, I’ve said he was my only infinite sea of perfect peace. This comes from my memory of what I felt when Jesus visited me. Limitless peace, love, and joy shone through me and surrounded me. In the book, Elijah uses the same metaphor.

The ever blessed God is an unbounded ocean of light and life, and joy and happiness, still filling every vessel that is put therein, till it can hold no more.

To me, this is evidence that Bunyan really visited heaven, because I know God is like an ocean from personal experience. No one told me. I didn’t hear it in a Benny Hinn sermon. It sounds like Elijah and other people in heaven experience what I did, on a bigger scale.

Speaking of things shining through people, Bunyan’s book says that in heaven, everything is transparent, and the presence of God shines through all of it. Another person who says he visited heaven has said there were no shadows there. It’s common to hear people say things in heaven are transparent, and I doubt they’ve all read Bunyan’s book.

The earth is a place of corruption and secrecy, so it makes sense that we have shadows and darkness here. They would serve no purpose in heaven. You would expect the light of God’s presence to be everywhere.

People who have visited hell say it’s extremely dark.

I could go on all day. I guess I have.

I enjoyed the book a great deal, and I plan to read it again in the future.