No one likes to think that they or their loved ones are destined for hell. Yet it is a painful truth that most people live out their lives far away from the original standard of God’s love.
The human condition is too often this: we allow our thoughts and desires to be captive to the will of the flesh; our mentality is continually self-seeking; we habitually ignore the promptings of conscience.
We betray those we love and then run away from facing the consequences, as well as the truth about ourselves. Having lived this way for seventy-plus years, is there any hope of fitting into the crystal-clear society of heaven?
What is hell?
Some traditions describe it as a place deep underground, with rivers of fire and sulfur. Some say that hell is but a state of mind, yet as anyone knows who has experienced the pangs of intense loneliness, remorse, shame, guilt, or loss, such states of mind can be excruciatingly vivid.
Furthermore, it is said that in the spirit world, it will not be possible to avoid such feelings, as is usually done while in the body, through such devices as forgetting, rationalization, or losing oneself in sense pleasures or drink.
There is no respite from unpleasant feelings, which remain to torture the unfortunate soul continually. To describe such pain beyond comprehension, scriptures use concrete images: burning fire, boiling water, bitter cold, being crushed, hacked and dismembered, trampled, burned, and eaten alive.
We conclude with several passages that hold out the possibility of rescue from hell. The Eastern religions regard all states of hell as purgatories, designed to mete out punishments for some time, that evil karma might be burned up and the soul have a future opportunity to find the Path.
Father Moon teaches that God did not create hell; indeed, its very existence is an affront to God’s goodness and a nail driven into His loving heart.
If we have sufficient love, we will do whatever it takes to turn others away from hell. We will even, like Jesus who “harrowed hell” during his three days in the tomb or the Hindu hero Vipascit, rescue the people imprisoned in its dungeons.
1. Torments of Hell
Hell, where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched. Mark 9.47-48
As for the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, as for murderers, fornicators, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their lot shall be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death. Revelation 21.8
There is a stream of fire from which emerge poisonous flames. There is none else there except the self. The waves of the ocean of fire are aflame And the sinners are burning in them. Adi Granth, Maru Solahe, M.1, p. 1026 (Sikhism)
Hell is before him, and he is made to drink fes- tering water, which he sips but can hardly swal- low. Death comes to him from every side, yet he cannot die—before him is a harsh doom. Qur’an 14.15-16
Hell will lurk in ambush to receive home the arrogant, who will linger there for ages. They will taste nothing cool in it nor any drink except hot bathwater and slops, a fitting compensation since they have never expected any reckoning and have wittingly rejected Our signs. Everything We have calculated in writing. “So taste! Yet We shall only increase torment for you!” Qur’an 78.21-30
Some of the sinful are cut with saws, like firewood, and others, thrown flat on the ground, are chopped into pieces with axes. Some, their bodies half buried in a pit, are pierced in the head with arrows. Others, fixed in the middle of a press, are squeezed like sugarcane.
Some are surrounded close with blazing charcoal, enwrapped with torches, and smelted like a lump of ore. Some are plunged into heated butter, and others into heated oil, and like a cake thrown into the frying pan they are turned about.
Some are thrown in the path of huge maddened elephants, and some with hands and feet bound are placed head downwards. Some are thrown into wells; some are hurled from heights; others, plunged into pits full of worms, are eaten away by them… Having experienced in due order the torments below, he comes here again, purified.21 Garuda Purana 3.49-71 (Hinduism)
Then the man of unwholesome deeds boils in water infested with worms. He cannot stay still—the boiling pots, round and smooth like bowls, have no surfaces which he can get hold of. Then he is in the jungle of sword blades, limbs mangled and hacked, the tongue hauled by hooks, the body beaten and slashed.
Then he is in Vetarani, a watery state difficult to get through, with its two streams that cut like razors. The poor beings fall into it, living out their unwholesome deeds of the past. Gnawed by hungry jackals, ravens and black dogs, and speckled vultures and crows, the sufferers groan. Such a state is experienced by the man of unwholesome deeds. It is a state of absolute suffering. So a sensible person in this world is as energetic and mindful as he can be. Sutta Nipata 672-76 (Buddhism)
There men were dismembering one another, cutting off each of their limbs, saying, “This to you, this to me!” When asked about it, they replied, “In this way they have treated us in the other world, and in the same way we now treat them in return.” Satapatha Brahmana 11.6.3 (Hinduism)
There are divers regions in the hollows on the face of the globe everywhere, some of them deeper and also wider than that which we inhabit, others deeper and with a narrower opening than ours, and some are shallower and wider; all have numerous perforations, and passages broad and narrow in the interior of the earth, connecting them with one another; and there flows into and out of them, as into basins, a vast tide of water, and huge subterranean streams of perennial rivers, and springs hot and cold, and a great fire, and great rivers of fire, and streams of liquid mud, thin or thick… pour into a vast region of fire, and form a lake larger than the Mediterranean Sea, boiling with water and mud; and proceeding muddy and turbid, and… after making many coils about the earth plunge into Tartarus…
And when the dead arrive at the place to which the genius of each severally conveys them, first of all they have sentence passed upon them, as they have lived well and piously or not… Those who appear to be incurable by reason of the greatness of their crimes—who have committed many and terrible deeds of sacrilege, murders foul and violent, or the like—they are hurled into Tartarus, which is their suitable destiny, and they never come out.
Those again who have committed crimes, which, although great, are not unpardonable—who in a moment of anger, for example, have done violence to a father or mother, and have repented for the remainder of their lives, or who have taken the life of another under like extenuating circumstances—these are plunged into Tartarus, the pains of which they are compelled to undergo for a year, but at the end of the year the wave casts them forth… and they are borne to the Acherusian Lake, and there they lift up their voices and call upon the victims whom they have slain or wronged, to have pity on them, and to receive them, and to let them come out of the river into the lake.
And if they prevail, then they come forth and cease from their troubles; but if not, they are carried back again into Tartarus and from thence into the rivers unceasingly, until they obtain mercy from those whom they have wronged: for that is the sentence inflicted upon them by their judges. Plato, Phaedo (Hellenism)
Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
Hell is a place where everyone is totally self-centered, each insisting that he or she is the best and highest. With that attitude, they argue and fight continually. (360:185, November 16, 2001)
Hell is the realm of Satan’s love. Satan adores only hatred, jealousy, division and destruction. That is why only these things fill Satan’s realm. These characteristics of Satan manifest as wars. (214:282, February 3, 1991)
Hell is full of people who are proud of their power, their money and themselves. A person’s original mind desires to love and be loved, and to pursue goodness. The people living in hell do just the opposite, and face continual conflict. Yet being in hell does not remove the human desire to be loved. Actually, the yearning for love is felt even more strongly. (102:160, December 17, 1978)
What, then, will you do in the afterlife? Will you eat?
Yes, you will eat. But it should be centered on love. Those who do not have love cannot open their mouths, no matter how much they try. That is the law.
If you love only yourself and not the whole, you may try to eat, but your mouth will not open. If you try to eat with chopsticks, the chopsticks will swerve sharply to the right or the left. It is a miserable existence. In the spirit world, anything is possible with love, but only with love. Otherwise, nothing is possible. (207:94-95, November 1, 1990)
In the spirit world, most people dwell in various levels of hell. How did they end up living there? Some failed to practice filial piety as befits good sons and daughters.
Some had the mission of patriots yet did not fulfill their mission and live for the sake of their country.
Some were chosen to become saints and live for the sake of the world, but they did not attune themselves to that rhythm and hence failed to reach that level. (147:183-84, September 21, 1986)
The accusations we could face in the spirit world are far more fearful than the severest persecution on earth. Because I know that earthly persecution, no matter how heavy, is easier to endure than the accusations in the spirit world, I am clear about the path I should go. (189:247, April 9, 1989)
Heaven is a world of light, and hell is a world of darkness. You may have enjoyed your earthly life, but once you arrive in hell the darkness will quickly overcome you. It is like drinking: for awhile you are in high spirits, but later you feel regret as your conscience tells you it was the wrong thing to do.
It will also ask, “Where are you going?”
People who suffer continually from pangs of conscience belong to the world of darkness. If only their conscience were pleased with them; then they would display the original nature within themselves to relate to the world of light. (400:104, December 28, 2002)
This world is in chaos. How about the spirit world? The same confused people live there; therefore, the spirit world must likewise be in chaos. It is logical. A thief with a criminal record cannot just drop his bad habits when he crosses over to the spirit world.
There too he would be a thief, wanting to own things without making effort to earn them. People like him are unable to fit in with heaven, so they went off and formed the realms of hell. God did not create hell.
Human beings formed hell. Do people design their new house to be a garbage dump? No! They build a nice house, but after living in it for a while it becomes like a garbage dump. Hell is like that. (148:28, October 4, 1986)
Many people on Earth think that there are only two different places: heaven and hell. But in reality, there are many different levels, from very evil places to very good places.
Heaven is a place of comfort, but life in any of the levels below heaven is difficult and uncomfortable because the people fight each other continually, everyone insisting on their own opinion.
Each region is filled with people who are of the same type, so after awhile living there becomes tedious. For example, people who on earth were accustomed to stealing things dwell in a region of the spirit world where people are always suspicious, thinking that everyone around them is looking to steal from them. Their lives are forever filled with distrust and anxiety.
Likewise, people who on earth were accustomed to fighting live in a region where fighting goes on continually… If you descend further into the lower regions, you come to regions of hell that are suffocating, dark and scary. They smell horribly, worse than the smell of rotten meat or fish.
Deformed figures appear in front of you, biting each other, yelling at each other with hate-filled voices. There is a region filled with burning holes, and in each one a wrathful person is held fast. The worst regions are reserved for those who were sexually corrupt or who committed suicide.
They seem to be filled with snakes, but on close examination each snake is an ugly deformed human being slithering about. People living on the earth do not realize how frightening the regions of hell really are. They would not be able to stand it even for a minute…
From the Kingdom of Heaven to hell, the various regions of the spirit world have colors of differing hues. The Kingdom of Heaven is a bright realm, transparent and white. It is without any stain, clean like flawless white jade. But as we descend the colors become darker and darker and dirtier—first beige, then darker shades of purple.
Descending to still lower regions the color becomes brown, then gray, dark gray, black, and pitch black. The more sins committed, the darker the color.
Also, spirits who committed many sins with a certain part of their body show dirtier and darker colors on that part. (Heung Jin Moon, Message from the Spirit World, January 1, 2002)
People who denied God on earth are more pitiful than people who starve to death.
Those who died of hunger may, depending on their merit, be granted a certain standing in the other world. But atheists have no standing because they deny the spirit world exists.
They become wandering spirits, wandering about the spirit world like clouds. Just as clouds gather and produce rain, they gather and create evil influence. They dwell in hell and inflict pains there. (205:355, October 2, 1990)
2. Warnings about Hell
Rivalry in worldly increase distracts you until you visit the graves. Nay, but you will come to know! Again, you will come to know! Would that you knew now with certainty of mind!
For you will behold hell-fire; Indeed, you will behold it with sure vision. Then, on that day, you will be asked concerning pleasure. Qur’an 102
There was a rich man, who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, full of sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table; moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.
The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried; and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes, and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus in his bosom.
And he called out, “Father Abraham, have mercy upon me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in anguish in this flame.”
But Abraham said, “Son, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish.
And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.”
And he said, “Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.” But Abraham said, “They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.”
And he said, “No, father Abraham; but if some one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.” He said to him, “If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.”
Luke 16.19-31
In the garden of the city of Sieu-Shui-Siuen, there once lived a man by the name of Fan Ki, who led a wicked life. He induced men to stir up quarrels and lawsuits with each other, to seize by violence what did not belong to them, and to dishonor other men’s wives and daughters.
When he could not succeed easily in carrying out his evil purposes, he made use of the most odious stratagems. One day he died suddenly, but came back to life twenty-four hours afterward and bade his wife gather together their relatives and neighbors.
When all were assembled he told them that he had seen the king of the dark realm who said to him, “Here the dead receive punishment for their deeds of evil. The living know not the lot that is reserved for them.
They must be thrown into a bed of coals whose heat is in proportion to the extent of their crimes and to the harm they have done their fellows.” The assembled company listened to this report as to the words of a feverish patient; they were incredulous and refused to believe the story.
But Fan Ki had filled the measure of crime, and Yama, the king of hell, had decided to make an example of him so as to frighten men from their evil ways. At Yama’s command Fan Ki took a knife and mutilated himself, saying, “This is my punishment for inciting men to dissolute lives.”
He put out both his eyes, saying, “This is my punishment for having looked with anger at my parents, and at the wives and daughters of other men with lust in my heart.” He cut off his right hand, saying, “This is my punishment for having killed a great number of animals.” He cut open his body and plucked out his heart, saying, “This is my punishment for causing others to die under tortures.”
And last of all he cut out his tongue to punish himself for lying and slandering. The rumor of these occurrences spread afar, and people came from every direction to see the mangled body of the unhappy man.
His wife and children were overcome with grief and shame, and closed the door to keep out the curious crowd. But Fan Ki, still living by the ordeal of Yama, said in inarticulate sounds, “I have but executed the commands of the king of hell, who wants my punishment to serve as a warning to others.
What right have you to prevent them from seeing me?” For six days the wicked man rolled upon the ground in the most horrible agonies, and at the end of that time he died. Treatise on Response and Retribution (Taoism)
Teachings of Sun Myung Moon People can never escape from hell; [without help] they are trapped there forever. Yet, do you realize that your own mother, father and relatives will likely end up going to hell? You vaguely think that things will somehow work out.
However, the reality is that your beloved parents and relatives are headed for hell. In this life, if they should go to prison, wouldn’t you cry out desperately and do whatever it takes to free them? Yet truly, your own children, parents, siblings and kinfolk are bound for an eternal prison from which there is no escape.
If you really knew that, wouldn’t you feel desperate to save them? This means you are not certain whether or not hell truly exists. You might think that it probably exists, but you really do not know what it is like.
Now you may be uncertain, but once you die you will know for sure. Then it will be too late. (34:267, September 13, 1970)
What would happen if God were to bring all believers to heaven, even though they were ignorant of heaven’s laws and [had not prepared themselves to fit with] the structure of the ideal realm? They would face difficulties living there. (390:260, August 13, 2002)
God’s mind has room to accommodate everyone; He wants to welcome every human being to live within His mind. But should He open the door to wicked people and permit them to enter His domain? Or should He close the door and keep them out? This is God’s problem.
God abides at the highest place, where everyone wants to enter. However, the mind of God has many levels, with walls or mountains separating them.
This is the reality of the spirit world: there are many different levels, each walled off from the next. On one side of the wall is hell; on the other side is heaven. Should the spirit world have walls? Or shouldn’t they exist? What do you think?
In the spirit world, groups of people with the same mindset live together; this creates a wall. It is very difficult to go up to the next higher level, and nearly as hard to go down.
Most people cannot even dream of leaving their limited domain. Only the most highly developed spirits can freely travel down to the hells and back. They have the mind of God, who wants to embrace all people.
Yet God’s situation is difficult. The people on His right are good, while the people on His left are bad. Although He wants to embrace good and bad alike, He has no other choice but to separate them.
God declares, “Anyone who is greedy and selfish will be placed upside-down.”
Don’t you think this will happen to you if you are self-centered and insist on your own way? Self-centered people think nothing of trampling and beating up others as they scramble to reach the top.
They would push away the good people and leave them in misery. Therefore, God sets up walls between the different regions of the spirit world, to keep the evil spirits from breaking through.
These walls are absolutely necessary. Were evil spirits given freedom and equality with good spirits, they would cause such havoc in heaven that even God would have to escape. The only way to avoid being blocked by walls in the spirit world is to train yourself during your earthly life. Once you get to the spirit world, it will take tens of thousands of years to climb up each step. (November 4, 1990)
The perfection of man and woman is for the two to abide in love with God as the third—the unity of a man, a woman and God. Yet ever since the Human Fall, not one human being could reach that exalted state of love.
Having fallen into a world of darkness, don’t people nevertheless aspire to regain the heights?
The goal of true love is extremely high, but in reality the standard of human life is extremely low.
Knowing the ideal but recognizing that they live very far from it, people feel heartbreak, emptiness and misery. That is truly hell. (92:197, April 10, 1977)
3. Rescuing Souls from Hell
For Christ also died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death but made alive in the spirit; in which went and preached to the spirits in prison 22 1 Peter 3.18-19
As for those who will be wretched, they will be in the Fire, sighing and wailing will be their portion; they will abide there as long as the heavens and the earth endure, save for that which your Lord wills. Lord! Your Lord is the Doer of what He will.
And as for those who will be glad, they will be in the Garden; they will abide there as long as the heavens and the earth endure, save for that which your Lord wills—a gift unfailing. 23 Qur’an 11.106-08
When Allah has finished His Judgments among the people, He will take whomever He will out of Hell through His Mercy… They will come out of the Fire, completely burnt and then the water of life will be poured over them and they will grow under it as does a seed that comes in the mud of the torrent…
Those people will come out like pearls, and they will have (golden) necklaces, and then they will enter Paradise, whereupon the people of Paradise will say, “These are the people emancipated by the Beneficent. He has admitted them into Paradise without them having done any good deeds and without sending forth any good (for themselves).” Hadith of Bukhari 9.93.532 (Islam)
“Ho! servant of Yama! Say, what sin have I committed, for which I have incurred this deepest hell, frightful for its torments? Known as King Vipascit, I protected the earth with upright- ness; I let no fighting rage; no guest departed with averted countenance; nor did I offend the spirits of the ancestors, the gods, ascetics, or my servants; nor did I covet other men’s wives, or wealth, or aught else belonging to them.
How, then, have I incurred this very terrible hell?” Yama’s officer: “Come then, we go elsewhere. You have now seen everything, for you have seen hell. Come then, let us go elsewhere.” Thereupon the king prepared to follow him; but a cry went up from all the men that abode in torment: “Be gracious, O king!
Stay but a moment, for the air that clings to thy body gladdens our mind and entirely dispels the burning and the sufferings and pains from our bodies, O tiger-like man! Be gracious, O king!” Vipascit: “Neither in heaven nor in Brahma’s world do men experience such joy as arises from conferring bliss on suffering creatures. If, while I am present, torment does not hurt these men, here then will I remain, firm as a mountain.” Yama’s officer: “Come, O king; we proceed. Enjoy the delights won by your own merit; leave here the evildoers to their torments.” Vipascit, “As long as these beings are in sore suffering, I will not go.
From my presence the denizens of hell grow happy. Fie on the sickly protection-begging life of that man who shows no favor to one distressed, even though he be a resolute foe! Sacrifices, gifts, austerities do not work for the welfare of him who has no thought for the succor of the distressed…
To grant deliverance to these men excels, I consider, the joy of heaven. If many sufferers shall obtain happiness while only I undergo pain, shall I not in truth embrace it?” Dharma [the Law]: “These evil-doers have come to hell in consequence of their own deeds; you also, O king, must go to heaven in consequence of your meritorious deeds. I lead you to heaven; mount this heavenly chariot and linger not; let us go.” Vipascit: “Men in thousands, O Dharma, suffer pain here in hell; and being in affliction they cry to me to save them; hence I will not depart.” Dharma: “O king! Your merit is truly beyond reckoning. In evincing now this compassion here in the hells, your merit has amounted even higher. Come, enjoy the abode of the immortals; let these unfortunates consume away in hell the sin arising from their own actions!” Vipascit: “Whatever good deeds I possess, O Lord of the Thirty Gods, by means thereof let the sinners who are undergoing torment be delivered from hell!” Indra: “So be it, O king! You have gained an even more exalted station: see too these sinners delivered from hell!” Markandeya Purana 13-15 (Hinduism)
Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
God is a God of love. When God looks down from His throne and sees spirits in hell crying out to Him in their misery, “Please, God, save me!” what would He say?
Would He say, “You deserve a lot worse”? Or does He have mercy on them? Surely, God will do everything possible to liberate hell. (98:116, May 7, 1978)
Only through love can we transform hell into heaven. We can renovate hell only if we possess love. (90:314, January 15, 1977)
Since people do not live longer than 100 years, out of the five billion people on earth, fifty million go to the spirit world each year, even to hell. What shall we do about this? God wants to harvest to His side what Satan has sown, but how many of them have gone to hell during the past forty years?
Perhaps two billion?
This is serious. When I go to the spirit world, they may say, “Reverend Moon, when you were alive on earth, why didn’t you fulfill your responsibility for us?”
How am I supposed to reply to them? At least I should determine in my heart to take responsibility to save them, if not now, then through my followers who come after me. (205:356, October 2, 1990)
From Judas Iscariot and Emperor Nero down to today’s communist party, countless people have betrayed Heaven.
Although we are destined for victory in relating with the entire cosmos, at this time for the complete dissolution of grief, we recognize that when the divine judgment befalls them we cannot just sweep them up and throw them away.
Mayest Thou, through Thy name, and with the solemn authority of Thy universal victory, enable us to form relationships even with them, as is also our destiny… Although they were hated enemies who pierced
Thy heart with nails, who killed Thy son Jesus, and killed many of Thy beloved people, let this be a place where we can love them.
Open the gates of heaven and earth and reach out to them with Thy heart, Thy mind of magnanimous love. We know that by liberating them, the doors of hell will be opened, and the way will gradually be paved to abolish hell.
(78:18-19, May 1, 1975)
Sun Myung Moon