Mountain Streams -- Vol

Mountain Streams -- Vol. 1, No. 26.

The Green Door!

-- A Dream of a Polished Hell!

By David Brandt Berg

I had a very meaningful dream that reminded me a little bit of Alice in Wonderland! I still don't know how I got down there in that awful place! It was almost as if I'd wandered into Hell by accident and wasn't supposed to be there. I think maybe I was out walking and found a passageway and I wanted to explore it. It was completely underground with brightly lit hallways. It was almost like a hospital, as it had very nice polished floors. I was wandering along, looking at things, trying to peek in the rooms to see what was in them. In each room there were people doing different things, all very busy.

But it seemed like everything everybody was doing was totally futile and useless and just a waste of time. They were all very, very busy doing nothing, accomplishing nothing, getting nowhere! The scientist was conducting endless experiments that never bore any useful results. They were shooting rockets into space that either never got off the ground or never went anywhere. The soldier was on the battlefield, while bombers were zooming overhead. With shells screaming and landing all around him, he seemed to be going through the endless hell of war just like he had been on Earth.

A fugitive politician was running from a screaming crowd that wanted to lynch him, and he was running and running, trying to hide. He finally found an empty room, and he was so exhausted that he couldn't run any more, so he just curled up on a bench like a little baby with his thumb in his mouth and tried to go to sleep.

As I looked in all those rooms, I had this terrible apprehensive feeling the whole time: "How horrible! How terrifying!" The whole place had an awful, foreboding spirit -- terrible!

I thought to myself, "Wow! This must be Hell!" What could be worse than that? -- An extension of the same meaningless, purposeless, fruitless, painful, sorrowful, sad existence that so many people had on Earth! They keep doing the same things, and getting nowhere and accomplishing nothing, except going through all that agony and suffering and pain. So their life was just the same as it had been on Earth, but now without any end, without any hope of being able to die! It was terrible! They were still at it, working, but not really progressing -- endless, endless labor, but all to no avail -- fruitless, hopeless, useless!

Each one was continuing in the private hell of his former existence without any relief or surcease, no hope of it ever ending, and yet absolutely useless! It's so similar to how so many people live today. They get up and go to work, and do the same things every day, then come home and go to bed. What do they ever accomplish? The world's getting worse, people are getting worse, and very few people are really making any progress. What they're doing is not profitable. They're not getting anywhere.

I never thought of Hell being like that! That is about the worst possible thing I can imagine! Not just burning up with literal flames, but constantly burning with that fruitless fire of endless, useless endeavor, ceaseless struggle, pointless pain, and seemingly endless sorrow and suffering! It was just like a continuation of their previous Hell on Earth -- only it was Hell hereafter, and seemingly forever, with no escape and no way out! -- Not even through death!

Everything kept moving at a very slow pace, but there was no stopping. You never stopped work, you never stopped fighting on the battlefield, you never stopped experimenting, you never stopped working. Whatever you were doing, you just never stopped! You were doing it all the time, continuously, and yet never seeming to accomplish anything or get anywhere. I thought, "Wow! If that is Hell, it sure is some Hell, because it's like the miserable life some people lived while on Earth, but just an extension of it!" Just like the Bible says, "There is no peace to the wicked" (Isaiah 57:21).

****

All this is just the opposite of the ecstasies of life in Heaven for those of us who know Jesus and are saved! Heaven will be an extension of the present happy life we now have! Those of us who are serving the Lord in this life are happy now in our work. And though we'll still have work to do there, we'll be even happier then, with lots of mobility, accomplishment, achievement, progress, variety, travel and freedom! We'll have all kinds of work to do, but it will be thrilling, interesting and fascinating for us! We will carry on the business of ruling the universe, traveling around from one planet to the other, one star to the other, one galaxy to the other!

It's as though Heaven, or the life hereafter for those who know the Lord is an extension or an amplification of the joy and the thrilling, exciting lives we now lead! It will be just like our present happiness multiplied many times over! Heaven will be busy, but we'll be doing things we enjoy doing for the Lord, just like we do now! Heaven will be a continuation of our present kind of life, only much much better, happier, and with manifold blessings, achievements and even more thrilling and exciting work than now!

***

If that dream was supposed to be a vision of Hell, it sure did the trick for me! I sure wouldn't want to go there! -- It was awful! It was as though everybody there was being rewarded with exactly what they deserved -- the same useless, fruitless, hopeless, monotonous routine in Hell that they're living right now on Earth, only under more controlled conditions, like a hospital!

In the dream I exited that polished Hell through a stairwell that led up to a dark green, weed-covered, grave-like hole in the ground. It reminded me of an old song, "The Green Door," that was popular a number of years ago. It was about this fellow who was wondering what was on the other side of the "Green Door," and he thought he could hear music and so on. -- And it turns out the "Green Door" was the grave! The only way to the next life was through the grave! How true! -- "The Green Door"!

What a terribly accurate conception of Hell! It was a very neat, well-organized place, but it was really Hell! There was no end, no peace, no rest, and you didn't know what was the truth!

***

So watch out for that "Green Door"! It may lead to a realm where you don't really belong and certainly would never want to be! Have your name put in the Lamb's Book of Life in Heaven so you'll be sure you've got your reservation confirmed for one of those mansions in God's golden Heavenly City instead! (See John 14:2 and Revelation 21:27.) That's the place where you'll be happy forever with Jesus! If you receive Him now, you can enjoy Him and Heaven forever!

Then you don't have to be afraid when it comes your time to die. You'll know which direction you're going. -- Not down to a polished Hell, but up to a happy Heaven! God bless you! See you there!

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Jesus said, "He who hears My Word and believes on Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment; but is passed from death unto life" (John 5:24). Receive Jesus' forgiveness for your sins and get your free pass to Heaven (Jesus' gift of eternal life) today, by simply praying the following:

Dear Jesus, I've done wrong and don't deserve Heaven, but I accept Your sacrifice on the cross for my sins and receive Your Love, forgiveness and salvation now by asking You to please come into my heart and give me Your free gift of eternal life. Amen.

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