A lot of us have either read or heard of that classic book The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan. But not many people know that John Bunyan wrote dozens of other books apart from the one mentioned above. What made John such a powerful preacher and writer? Actually, John Bunyan as a young christian was once driven to the point of committing suicide after listening to the famous atheist and philosopher Thomas Hobbes, who of course declared their was no God.

God in His mercy saved John from eternal ruin and sent an angel to show him the reality of heavenly things. John was taken to heaven and hell. What follows is part of the things he saw and heard while in the regions of the lost. I feel like sharing this with you, you in particular. I know it won't make front page but I don't care about that. God bless you. - smurfy

John Bunyan speaking...

We had not gone much farther, before we saw a wretched soul lying on a bed of burning steel, almost choked with brimstone. He cried out with such dreadful anguish and desperation, and I heard him speak as follows:

Lost soul's lamentation...

"Ah, miserable wretch! Undone forever, forever! Oh, this killing word, 'forever!' Will not a million years be long enough to bear that pain, which if I could avoid it, I would not endure for even one moment for the sake of being offered one million worlds? No, no! My misery never will have an end; after millions of years it will still be forever! Oh, what a helpless and hopeless condition I am in! It is this 'forever' that is the hell of hell! O cursed wretch! Cursed to all eternity! How willfully have I undone myself! Oh, what stupendous folly am I guilty of—to choose sin’s short and momentary pleasure—at the dear price of everlasting pain! How often I was told that it would be so! How often I was encouraged to leave those paths of sin—which brought me to the chambers of eternal death! But I, like a dumb animal, would not listen to those pleadings. Now it is too late to change it, for my eternal state is fixed forever! Why was I made a person, that I would choose this fate? Why was I made with an immortal soul—and yet should take so little care of it? Oh how my own neglect stings me to death—and yet I cannot die! I live a dying life, worse than ten thousand deaths; and yet I once could have changed all this—but did not! Oh, that is the gnawing worm that never dies!

I might once have been happy, salvation was offered to me and I refused it. Had salvation been offered to me only once, it would have been an unforgivable folly to refuse it! But salvation was offered me a thousand times, and yet (wretch that I was!) I still as often refused it. O cursed sin, that with deluding pleasures, leads mankind to eternal ruin! God often called—but I as often refused; He stretched His hand out—but I would not mind it. How often have I ignored His counsel! How often have I refused His reproof! But now the scene is changed—the case is altered! Now He laughs at my calamity, and mocks at the destruction which is come upon me. He would have helped me once—but I would not accept His help. Therefore those eternal miseries I am condemned to undergo—are but the just reward of my own doing!"

John praises God...

I could not hear this sorrowful lamentation without thinking about the wonderful grace that God had shown to me. Eternal praises to His holy name! For my heart told me that I had deserved eternal judgment as much as that sad wretch—but that God's grace alone had made us different. O how unsearchable are His counsels! Who can fathom His divine decree?

John Bunyan addresses lost soul...

After these thoughts I spoke to the sorrowful complainer, and told him that I had heard his woeful complaints. I saw that his misery was great, and his loss irreparable, and told him I would willingly hear more about it—if this might possibly help lessen his sufferings."

Lost soul speaks...
"No, not at all; my pains cannot be relieved even for one small moment! But by your question I understand that you are a stranger here; and may you ever be a stranger! Ah, had I but the least hope still remaining, how I would kneel and cry and pray forever to be redeemed from this hell! But it is all in vain—I am lost forever! But so that you will be warned about ending up here—I will tell you what the damned suffer."
"Our miseries in this infernal dungeon are of two kinds: what we have lost, and what we suffer. I will first speak about what we have LOST.

1. In this sad dark place of misery and sorrow, we have lost the wondrous presence of the ever blessed God. This is what makes this dungeon—hell. Though we had lost a thousand worlds, it would not be as important as this one greatest loss. Could we but see the least glimpse of His favor here—we might be happy; but have lost it to our everlasting woe.

2. Here we have also lost the company of saints and angels, and instead have nothing but tormenting devils!

3. Here we have lost heaven, too—the center of blessedness. There is a deep gulf between us and heaven, so that we are shut out from it forever! Those everlasting gates that let the redeemed into heaven—are now for ever shut against us.

4. To make our wretchedness far worse, we have lost the hope of ever obtaining a better condition.

This makes us truly hopeless. Well may our hearts now break, since we are both without hope and help. This is what we have lost; and if we think of these things, it is enough to tear and gnaw upon our miserable souls forever. Yet, oh, that this were all that our torments were!
But we are also tormented by suffering and pain, as I will try to explain to you now.

1. First, we undergo a variety of torments. We are tormented here a thousand, no, ten thousand different ways! Those who suffer upon the earth, seldom have more than one affliction at a time. But if they had ulcers, gallstones, headaches, and fever all at the same time—would they not be very miserable? Yet all those together are but like the biting of a flea—compared to those intolerable, sharp pains which we endure. Here we have all the sufferings of hell. Here is an unquenchable fire which burns us; a lake of burning brimstone which ever chokes us; and eternal chains which bind us. Here there is utter darkness to frighten us, and a worm of conscience which gnaws upon us everlastingly. Any one of these is worse to bear—than all the torments that mankind ever felt on earth!

2. But our torments here are not only various—but are also universal. They afflict every part of the body, and torment all the powers of the soul. This makes what we suffer—the worst of tortures. In those sicknesses which men have on earth, though some members of their bodies will suffer—yet other parts will have no pain. Here it is different; every member of the soul and body suffers at the same time!

“Our eyes are tormented here with the sight of devils who appear in all the horrible shapes and black appearances which sin can give them. Our ears are continually tormented with the loud continual yellings of the damned. Our nostrils are smothered with sulfurous flames; our tongues with burning blisters; and the whole body is rolled in flames of liquid fire! All the powers and faculties of our souls are also tormented here. The imagination suffers with the thoughts of our present pain, and the memory of the heaven we have lost. Our minds are tormented as we remember how foolishly we spent our precious time on earth. Our understanding is tormented with the thoughts of our past pleasures, present pains, and future sorrows, which are to last forever. And our consciences are tormented with a continual gnawing worm!

3. Another thing that makes our misery so dreadful—is the sharpness of our torments. The fire which burns us is so violent that all the water in the sea can never quench it. The pains we suffer here are so extreme, that it is impossible for anyone to know them except the damned.

4. Another part of our misery is the ceaselessness of our torments. As various, as universal, and as extremely violent as they are, they are also continual. We have no rest from them. If there were any relaxation, it might be some relief. But there is no easing of our torments, and what we suffer now—we must suffer forever!

5. The company we have here, is another part of our misery. Tormenting devils and tormented souls—are all our company. Dreadful shrieks, howlings, and fearful cursings—are our continual conversation because of the fierceness of our pain.

6. The place we are in also increases our sufferings. It is the epitome of all misery—a prison, a dungeon, a bottomless pit, a lake of brimstone, a furnace of fire which burns to eternity, the blackness of darkness forever; and lastly, hell itself. Such a wretched place as this, can only increase our wretchedness.

7. The cruelty of our tormentors is another thing which adds to our sufferings. Our tormentors are devils in whom there is no pity. While they are tormented themselves, they still take pleasure in tormenting us!

8. All those sufferings that I have recounted are very grievous. But that which makes them the most grievous—is that they shall all be forever! All of our intolerable sufferings shall last to all eternity! "Depart from Me, you who are cursed—into everlasting fire!" is continually sounding in my ears. Oh, that I could reverse that fatal sentence! Oh, if there was but a bare possibility of salvation!

This is the miserable situation we are in—and shall be in forever!

Discourse between the lost and a tormenting devil...

This wretched soul had scarcely finished what he was saying when he was tormented again by a hellish demon, who told him to stop complaining. The demon said, "Don’t you know you have deserved it all? How often were you told of this before—but would not believe it? You laughed at those who warned you about hell. You were even so presumptuous as to dare Almighty justice to destroy you! How often you called on God to damn you. Do you complain that you are answered according to your wishes? What an unreasonable thing! You know that you had salvation offered you, and you refused it. How can you now complain of being damned? I have more reason to complain, for you had a long
time in which repentance was offered you; but I was cast into hell as soon as I had sinned. If I had been offered salvation, I would never have rejected it as you did. Who do you think should pity you now, with all that heaven had offered to you?"

This made the wretch cry out, "Oh, do not continue to torment me; I know that I chose destruction. Oh, that I could forget it! These thoughts are my greatest torture. I chose to be damned—and therefore justly am so."
Then turning to the demon that tortured him he said, "But I also came here through your temptations, you cursed devil!
You were the one who had tempted me to do all of my sins; and now you would reproach me? You say you never had a Saviour offered to you; but you should also remember that you never had a tempter such as you have always been to me!"
To this the devil scornfully replied, "It was my business to lead you here! You had often been warned of this by your preacher. You were plainly told that we sought your ruin, and go about continually like roaring lions, seeking whom we could devour. I was often afraid that you would believe them, as several other souls did, to our great disappointment.
But you were willing to do what we wanted; and since you have done our work—it is but reasonable that we should pay you wages." Then the fiend tormented him again and caused him to roar out so horribly that I could no longer stay to hear him, so I passed on.

Culled from Visions of Heaven and Hell by John Bunyan
www.spiritlessons.com

“Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn
from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?” (Ezek 33:11).
“For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:17-18).

Help me o God! This is terrible!