23 Minutes in Hell

[Swordman53]

I would like to get people's opinion of this book.

The pastor of our church read it and wants to have the congregation read it.

I have not had time to dive into it since I am back in my teaching mode, but watched the author discuss it a bit on UTube. I found his presentation a bit disturbing.

As of now, I will probably need to take a stand against using this book, since I do not find it to be biblical. This will place me in a position of being at odds with the pastor, who, while being a nice guy, does not have a lot of theologically depth.

But I am curious if anyone here has read it or knows anything about the author, and what issues you have seen with this.

Thanks.

[Tallen]

I pick it up once and looked at the cover and read a few pages of the book. Wasn't to impressed and thought that I does nothing for my faith or understanding of scripture.

Put it down and felt good about doing that, I guess. Time spent in scripture would do better, IMO.

[Swordman53]

I pick it up once and looked at the cover and read a few pages of the book. Wasn't to impressed and thought that I does nothing for my faith or understanding of scripture.

Put it down and felt good about doing that, I guess. Time spent in scripture would do better, IMO.
I suppose I am going to have to be the bad guy (once again) in this situation and tell him that I cannot recommend this and that if people ask my opinion, I am going to tell them that it is patently unbiblical. And people always ask my opinion. So he will probably see this as an affront to himself. He tends to take everything personally.

Based on what I have seen so far, I think Bill Wiese was either dillusional, or he is intentionally fabricating this to see the book. Out of the kindness of my heart, I would like to think the first.

As you know, I am a fan of Dante's Divine Comedy, which has a medieval portrayal of hell, which this guy seems to adopt. But my facination with Dante is as a study in sin and righteousness, and how each operates with the characters portrayed. This guy seems to be obsessed with torture and I do not see that in my God in scripture.

The only reasonable view of hell - and I do believe in hell - that I have encountered is the Eastern Orthodox viewpoint, that the flames are God himself, and the same fire that brings comfort and peace to the righteous is the fire that torments the wicked. Eternal sin, confronted and exposed by eternal righteousness - the infinite righteousness of God - is torment indeed.

[tking]

I went to a webpage about this and read an interview, sorta, with this fella and his wife. My first question is why would God send such an experience to a Christian? It seems out of character to me. I will say that I've read of one other experience somewhat similar to this, although not nearly as in depth, but the smell, the feeling, that kind of thing, but the man who experienced it was an atheist with a Cardiologist who was a Christian. He "died" while doing a treadmill exercise and experienced this phenomenon, and immediately upon consciousness wanted his Cardiologist to tell him all about Jesus and later became a Christian driven to spread the good news of the Gospel. I'm not sure what these experiences are, but it doesn't ring true to me that a Christian would experience hell...what would be the purpose of that?

BTW, I tend to agree with your theory of what the flames in hell are and how that is torment to an unbeliever, but I'll qualify that by saying none of us has been to hell and returned so we're all making deductions from what we know of God's character. Which also rings true of our concept of heaven and eternity with God. And I could even see the logic of the sulphur smell in that because that's what it smells like when impurities are being burned away from metal (my dad was a blacksmith).

Maybe the guy had a bad dream, but I definitely don't think I'd want it as a study series or anything like that. I'm a little skeptical of that kind of studying anyway. I think scripture is full enough if we really want to dig in. If we need to be "purpose driven" or have "time in hell" then maybe we should be wondering why that is. (off soapbox..lol)

[Tallen]

I suppose I am going to have to be the bad guy (once again) in this situation and tell him that I cannot recommend this and that if people ask my opinion, I am going to tell them that it is patently unbiblical. And people always ask my opinion. So he will probably see this as an affront to himself. He tends to take everything personally.


I know that feeling and remember when a pastor of a church, we were going to, had the congregation read Nostradamus. He wanted to talk about his prophesies. And, of coarse, I was the bad guy..., again. I sympathize with your position, but think it is better to speak up than let it go.

Blessings.

[Yodas_Prodigy]

I'm with Ted (And Terri). I saw things in my old Word Faith Church that caused me to speak up. I eventually left for various related issues.