If We Walk

February 5, 2023

Catholics pay to get out of (Purgatory) and Protestants for the most part ignore the story in

(Luke 16:19), or confuse it with hell. Some make it synonymous with paradise and still others

equate Tartarus with Gehenna. Because of Satan’s lies; confusion reigns, Satan is pleased, and I

am here wondering what happened. Am I being tormented for what I did not believe or what I

did not do? I was told that I could not do anything to save myself, that works did not matter,

that faith saves and nothing more or nothing less was expected. Now I am here and Abraham

(the father of the faithful) is telling me there is no help coming, only the final passing of

sentence and I am off to Gehenna, Hell bound. Because I listened to the authorities, the

scholars, and the authors who wrote commentaries on the Bible. You are telling me now that

my five brothers should listen to Moses, the messenger of God, and obey his commands. What

is this business of obeying? I thought it was all about believing, having faith! So did Israel, but

now they are my companions here and Abraham is on the other side of the gulf in Paradise. I

knew Satan lied to Adam and Eve, but I did not know or realize that he was also sponsoring all

of these religious ‘know it all’ professors. I believed but I believed the lie that all that was

necessary was to live above the common people. I was never told to feed beggars all covered in

sores who were degrading themselves by allowing dogs to lick their sores. Why should I help

them when they would not help themselves? All they did was take advantage of those foolish

enough to encourage their scheme. I had forgotten about how father Abraham ‘entertained

strangers feeding them his very best’. Had I followed his example things might be different, but

I did not. Who knew torment was going to last until judgement day and Hell was going to be

eternal just like heaven? I didn’t! I really did not believe a loving God could have designed such

a place for Satan and his minions. The argument about separating the good from the bad, the

sheep from the goats, and rotten apples from good ones never seemed to have any spiritual

application for me. Most of my religious friends were Sadducees who did not believe in the

‘afterlife’. The rest were Pharisees who preached about the spirit of man living eternally but

behaved as though money was proof of godliness. I was somewhere in the middle and now am

in this flame, tormented and wondering why. I certainly do not want company not even my five

brothers who are still alive. If you can hear me, father Abraham, God, Lazarus, anyone. Let

them know they are not welcome here. I don’t want them here any more than I wanted Lazarus

at my gate begging. Send someone back from the dead to warn them. This flame is everywhere

inside, outside, tormenting always. It engulfs every aspect of me and is never quenched. Tell

them – avoid my example at all cost. Listen to Moses and the prophets, and especially that one

that is “first born from the dead”. He will be coming back from paradise (Sheol – Acts 26:23)

the world of the dead, where Abraham, Lazarus, the “thief on the cross”, and Jesus went. My

guess is that he will be rejected as a doer of God’s will and not just a believer. Perhaps rejection

will come because his is an active faith, obedience, faithfulness, and not just “trembling

believer” (Jas 2:19) like everyone here. We all believe in God now that we are here!

Kenneth E. Morrison