(Taken from Dr. Richard Eby's books: Jesus told me to... Tell Them I am Coming, written in 1977. And, Didnt You Read My Book? written in 1991.) Richard Eby and a few others are touring Lazarus's Tomb when all of a sudden, the lights go out... the ladies gave muffled screams and my heart skipped a beat. being two stories underground in pitch-black isolation was disturbing! i assumed a fuse had blown, and i heard myself reflexly reassure the women:"please pray and praise. it's just the fuse." then the miracle! i did not even have time to join them in a prayer. instead, i felt instantly alone in the total darkness. there was not a rustle or a sound of breathing from the ladies. they were gone as far as i could determine. i dropped to the ground and groped for the exit tunnel. i was alone! but only for an instant. suddenly, beside me stood a man! in my kneeling posture i sensed, then saw a person pressing against me on my right side. first, i saw toes protruding from the flowing robe; then as i panned upward, the golden sash, beautifully muscled arms, shoulder-length, light golden hair. the hands were hidden: one on my left shoulder, the other between the gown and the cold stone wall. to see his face, i looked upward; he was six feet tall or more, and looking downward into my face! portions of his beard and mustache were missing.(i was not surprised.) his hair was illuminated. i knew instantly that he was my lord. without a shadow of a doubt, i knew also that in his presence i again had the mind of christ which he had shared with me five years before this, when he spoke with me in heaven. though i had never seen my saviours face, he was telling me directly upon my mind(with which i was now seeing him) that i was truly with him and in him there in the tomb. the royalty of that face! how can i desribe its sovereignty, its compassion, its overwhelming look of righteousness? in it i saw the justice of our intercessor, the joy of our healer, the humility of his father's faithful servant. i saw a display of meekness without weakness, of limitless power with infinite gentleness and those penetrating eyes, emitting a radiance of indescribably limitless love!nothing can be compared with the eyes of our god. they held me spellbound. i actually saw the truth of his claim that "greater love hath no man." i knew he was looking at me and through me with the same forgiveness and love which he showers upon all doubting thomases. then i noted in a fraction of a second, and i saw a slight frown of concern from on his face like a cloud of sadness. he quickly spoke two words in english: "my son!" then he continued with the same lightning-fast language we had used during my time in heaven. "i must show you hell, but just for two minutes! i have already shown you heaven. i want you to tell them, tell them, tell them." how it must have hurt him to send me into hell, even for two short minutes! no wonder he frowned at the thought: he had been there! he had once told his disciples to ask his father to "deliver us from the evil one." if it weren't that he had already had the keys of hell and death in his right hand there in the tomb, he would not have sent me to satan's home to experience the horrors of a lost soul. jesus knew he could bring me back, because he had already broken the power of satan to bind a child of god! My Orders as though in shock, i stood stock-still, wondering what i should "tell them." he already knew my thoughts and was answering me at a million words a second. i will try to summarize his command to me. "you must tell them that i gave them a will when i created them. they must make a choice between me or my adversary, satan. man cannot live without a master; his soul is made to worship someone. tell them i am a gentleman; i will never override their free will. i created them to be free to choose, because i would not create anyone to be a slave. satan offers them the security of slavery, but his wages are death. i offer them freedom and the righteousness of my father in heaven, where our gift of love and life is eternal." in seconds, jesus had transmitted to me volumes of spiritual data, bypassing my ears and brain which would have been far too sluggish to receive his instructions. for emphasis he repeated insistently: "tell them. tell them. tell them. tell them how much i love them! i left heaven to come and die for them. i had to destroy the works of the devil so my children could be freed! i arose to present them blameless before my father in heaven! tell them they can choose life with me-all for free. i paid the price. tell them they will have the unsearchable riches that my father has prepared for them. they can choose to belong to the family of god. they can reign with me as kings and priests through the ages. i will send them my spirit. i will heal their infirmities. i will forgive their sins. tell them i took their place on the cross!" at this he shuddered. "tell them," he continued, "my grace is sufficient for them. it is my gift of love. they cannot earn it by their works. i finished all the work and waiting on the cross. all they must do is receive me into their hearts and accept me as their way of life! then we will be one!" he suddenly paused, and i noted a tone of sorrow (perhaps horror) as he spoke again: "tell them if they ignore or reject my love, if they turn away from my father, if they refuse to listen to urgings of the spirit, there is nothing more we can do for them. they remain under the control of satan, that liar and deceiver, for whom i had to create hell when he defied the almighty god. because jehovah is righteous, we had to punish satan's wickedness and rebellion. i never intended a human soul to go to hell; in fact i came down from heaven and died for mankind to redeem him from that deceiver. i even went to hell and took the keys. i sealed satan's fate, and secured victory over hell and death. tell them, my name is above all names, but they must choose whom they will serve!" then his voice changed. like a trumpet it echoed about the tomb: "THERE IS YET A LITTLE WHILE BUT VERY LITTLE!" instantly a near-blinding golden light appeared behind me. instinctively i turned my head. on the tomb wall, being written without hand or brush, were appearing the same words in beautiful english script. from each letter, drops of glittering gold "paint" were falling to the floor and exploding into a transparent gold cloud that filled the tomb! i gasped as i looked back into jesus' face. "fear not, my son, "he quickly reassured me, "i want you to have a visual memory of my promise to return soon. i understood! i would scarecly have enough time, before his return, to go and tell them! i was being commanded to disclose whatever i would see that day. he is preparing to return for his earthly rule at jerusalem, his headquarters. he as much as said, "i cant wait much longer; world events can no longer be postponed! these are the last days of which i spoke in the upper room." The Pit of Hell suddenly, i was in hell! i knew i was trapped in the bowels of the earth. instantly, i was in a stone, coffinlike cell, four feet wide and six and a half feet high. the terror was instantaneous and indescribable. with a sickening thud i felt my feet hit the rock floor.my lightning-fast mind added to the horror of this total isolation in stone by telling me all the answers to my sudden questions. cast as an unsaved sinner, i was on death row in solitary confinement by my own choice. satan had invited me, and i had not refused. i alone was to blame. i had died without accepting the love of jesus about which i heard so many times. this is the pit of the first death, the holding tank of horror. satan's stronghold for sinners. i tried to scream, i pounded the walls and the ceiling.total blackness. total silence. total stench. it had to be from demons. sure enough. i looked down and saw clearly with the mind's eye of my fallen spirit-body many little, spiderlike demons about my feet. among them were several deformed catlike and doglike creatures with black matted fur. despite their constant movement, each one fastened its gaze upon me as the smaller ones swarmed up the walls beside my face. Behind each eye were flames. the stench was nauseating. my mind told me that they were the "chained demons" of satan, and they agreed, saying "we are the chained demons, here to haunt and taunt you in hell! and, buddy we'll do it!" (their actual language was so foul, it cannot be repeated.)"you could have accepted god as your father and jesus as saviour. we read the book. you're trapped with us now, and buddy, we'll make this your hell. aha. aha. you fool!" as if signaled by an unseen conductor, this legion of filthy fallen angels suddenly dropped to the rock floor and ringed around my feet again. deafening decibels of heavy-metal voodoo sounds filled the place competing for loudness with the thousand voices of frenzied rock-&-roll bodies in epileptoid seizures! mimicking every imaginable obscene gesture until they were coupled in a mass of hysterical arachnoids, the demons taunted me. wild gestures of invitation urged me to join their screaming "fun." "our pit" echoed with every debasing word and phrase known to satan's crowd. i screamed back at them: you filthy demons. you! who taught you this musical garbage and obscene writhings? stop it! right now!" in unison the motions ceased. in momentary silence they fixed their hateful fiery eyes upon me, then sneered "aha's." "you'll get used to it you fool! you'll never get out of here. our boss, satan bound us here just to keep you here and make it hell for you. he taught us rock-sex-music to use around the world to destroy the kids. it works. we have deceived the minds of almost all children already.they think smut is the best fun. they think that lust and sex are signs of growing wise. we have them believing that anything goes as long as it defies the notion of a living god. they prefer devil-worship; they think it is more exciting. we deceived them, and they dont know it yet. just wait!" they were rollicking with raucous laughter at the mere thought. "why do you unclean spirits remain in this stinking hole when you could spend time in the sunshine and fresh air?" i demanded. a cloud of hatred seemed to chill their reply. "you idiot! dont you know? you could read! we are the first creatures in the universe to be deceived by satan! he fooled us angels. he said he was the real god. we followed him instead of jehovah. now we are chained, as it were, in this hell-hole. we are not allowed to leave because we are assigned to get you here, and we must keep you here. we hate satan but we cannot be saved because satan cannot save anybody. you human beings have a choice of a leader on earth, either jesus christ of nazareth or satan the deceiver. you fool: you could be in heaven right now if you hadnt refused jesus' offer of life! suddenly their invisible "conductor" seemingly tapped his baton. the deafening heavy-rock beat began as the spider-chorus resumed it eipleptoid convulsions of sexual writhings to obscene demonic language and laughter. My Judge in total despair i started to slide to the floor. already there was no hope. but worse yet, i was suddenly snatched away and found myself standing before a gorgeous throne on which sat god, an indescribable personage. i knew him by his radiance! he was rapidly thumbing through a large book in his right hand. i could see through its pages to the title on the cover: THE BOOK OF LIFE. i felt naked-physically, emotionally, spiritually, i knew i was being judged, and i had no lawyer to plead my case. i heard my voice stammer:"what are you looking for, god? my name must be there!" "i am looking for your name in our family album, but i do not find it here," he replied with a shake of his head. "but it must be there, god! i lived a good life. i was never arrested or imprisoned. i obeyed the rules. i did good works. look some more! what do you mean, im not in your family?" "you rejected my son's offer to be born again, to be washed clean in his blood. remember? you were told many times! there is nothing more i can do. you are not one of my children. you belong to satan's family." he stretched forth his arm and pointed to a distant lake of fire. i shall never forget what i saw: the second death. he explained, "it was prepared for satan and his angels. depart from me into everlasting punishment with your father, the devil." in a split second i was back in the pit, and i slid like ooze among the little demons on the floor. then i was snatched upward and found myself standing in lazarus's tomb with the light on! my two minutes in hell without jesus had ended! the guard was shouting to the three of us to come forth. "no the fuse did not blow," he answered me. "perhaps something else? who knows? the light failed here." the children voices filtered down: get your postcards fo' a dollah." i remember nothing of the other events of that day. for months i could not overcome the horror of hell enough to report its terror without sobbing. the message of those two minutes was so clear: jesus loves us so much that he voluntarily died to insulate us from satan and save us from hell! on the other hand, satan hates us so much he wants us in hell where he can destroy us. We're Given the Choice how can jesus say it any more clearly than he did to me? "tell them. tell them. tell them. they have a choice. "there is yet a little time, but very little." jesus says, "come forth. shed your graveclothes. join god's family." jesus loves you, whatever your condition. he says, "come as you are." jesus has made it utterly clear through his word that god sees two kinds of people-rebellious souls and penitent souls. rebellious souls are those who choose satan. they work for him and are paid in "wages," redeemable in death at the time of their judgement. "and as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgement" (hebrews 9:27). penitent souls are those who choose jesus, the christ. they can work with him and are given "gifts" redeemable in eternal life at the moment they are received. "...but the gift of god is eternal life through jesus christ our lord" (romans 6:23) how exciting to know that today is the day the lord has made for us to make our choice! we will rejoice and be glad therein if we choose Him.
Excellent Post!!:TU: That really sums it up! The Gift of Salvation is Free for the taking....all anyone has to do is accept Jesus!!:Smarty: Rejecting Jesus is the same as choosing Satan and Eternity with him in Hell.ou: Single biggest choice any of us will ever make!! Where will YOU spend Eternity!?!
