Akwụkwọ mpịakọta 117

          Ọrụ ebube Life Revivals inc. | Onye nkwusa ozioma Neal Frisby

(continued from scroll 116)

Marietta descends to the realms of darkness – At this point Marietta was informed that she would be given a solemn objective lesson. Suddenly all the brightness departed and she descended into regions of darkness. In great fear she found herself plummeting down into a deep abyss. There were sulphurous flashes, and then in the semi-darkness she saw floating about her “grim specters enveloped in the fires of unhallowed passions.” She turned to seek refuge in the embrace of her guide and lo, she found herself alone! She tried to pray but couldn’t express herself. Remembering her unconsecrated life before leaving the world she exclaimed, “O for one short hour on earth! for space however brief, for preparation of soul, and to secure fitness for the world of spirits.” In her despair she plunged farther into the nether darkness. Soon she discovered she was in the abode of the wicked dead. Here Marietta heard sounds of mingled import. There were bursts of laughter, utterances of revelry, of witty ridicule, polished sarcasm, obscene allusions and terrible curses. There was no water “to allay fierce and intolerable thirst.” The fountains and rivulets that appeared were only mirages. Fruitage that appeared on the trees burned the hand that plucked it. The very atmosphere carried the elements of wretchedness and disappointment.

Tupu anyị aga n'ihu – “Let’s insert some Scriptural insight. Can people actually feel, see, hear and talk in the hereafter? Yes! Here is evidence.” – “Man is not only body, he is spirit also. Just as the body has ‘five senses’ so the spirit has corresponding senses! Concerning the rich man in Hades. He was quite conscious!” (Luke 16:23) – “He was able to see. In hell (Hades) he lift up his eyes being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off. He could hear! (Verses 25-31) – He could talk. He could actually taste. He definitely could feel! (It says he was tormented) – And he had memory. And alas, he had remorse. For a moment he was roused to evangelism, but he was too late!” (Verses 28-31) – And Dives (rich man) “said, if one went unto them from the dead, they would repent. And Abraham said, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead! So we see the rich man had keen senses! And so did Abraham and Lazarus who were standing in Paradise! – It reveals that one must seek salvation in this lifetime, for it is too late in the hereafter!”

Ugbu a na-aga n'ihu na ọhụụ ahụ – While Marietta contemplated this fearful scene she was approached by a spirit whom she had known on earth. Accosting her the spirit said: “Marietta, we are again met. You see me a disembodied spirit in that abode where those who inwardly deny the Saviour find their habitation when their mortal day has ended. “My life on earth was suddenly brought to a close and as I departed from the world, I moved rapidly in the direction prompted by my ruling desires. I desired to be courted, honored, admired – to be free to follow the perverted inclinations of my proud, rebellious and pleasure loving heart – a state of existence where all should be without restraint –and where every indulgence should be permitted to the soul – where religious instruction should find no place – “With these desires I entered the spirit world, passed into the condition adapted to my inward state, rushed in haste to the enjoyment of the glittering scene which you now behold. I was welcomed as you have not been, for at once I was recognized as a fit associate of those who here abide. They do not welcome you for they discern in you a desire adverse to the passions which here prevail. “I found myself endued with the power of strange and restless motion. I became conscious of a strange perversion of the brain and the cerebral organs became subject to a foreign power, which seemed to operate by absolute possession (a vulgar mist, gases, of satanic influences). I abandoned myself to the attractive influences that were around me, and sought to satisfy my cravings for pleasure. I reveled, I banqueted, I mingled in the wild and voluptuous dance. I plucked the shining fruit, I surfeited my nature with that which externally appeared delicious and inviting to sight and sense. But when tasted all was loathsome and a source of increasing pain. And so unnatural are the desires perpetuated here that what I crave I loathe, and that which delights tortures. Every object about me appears to have a controlling power and to domineer with cruel enchantment over my bewildered mind.

The law of evil attraction – “I experience the law of evil attraction. I am the slave of deceptive and discordant elements and their presiding vice. Every object in turn attracts me. The thought of mental freedom dies with the dying will, while the idea that I am a part and an element of the revolving fantasy takes possession of my spirit. By the strength of evil I am bound, and in it I exist.

The result of the violated law – “Marietta I feel ’tis vain to attempt to express our deplorable state. I often inquire, is there no hope? And my sense replies, ‘How can harmony exist in the very midst of discord?’ We were advised of the consequences of our course while in the body; but we loved our way better than those that exalted the soul. We have fallen into this fearful abode. We have originated our sorrow. God is just. Chukwu di nma. We know that it is not from the vindictive law of the Creator that we suffer. Marietta, it is our condition from which we receive the misery that we endure. The violation of the moral law, by which our moral natures should have been preserved in harmony and in health, is the prime cause of our state. “Do you startle at these scenes? Know then that all that moves around you is but the outer degree of deeper woe. Marietta, no good and happy beings abide with us. All within is dark. We sometimes dare to hope for redemption, still remembering the story of redeeming love, and inquire, can that love penetrate this abode of gloom and death? May we ever hope to be made free from those desires and inclinations which bind us like chains, and passions which burn like consuming fires in the unhallowed elements of this world of wretchedness?” Marietta was quite overcome by this scene – and the realization of human recognition in Hades. Of this she wrote: “One hideous expression closed the scene; and being overcome -for I knew what I witnessed was real -I was immediately removed. Those spirits I had known on earth, and when I saw them there I knew them still. Oh, how changed! They were the very embodiment of sorrow and remorse.” The angel then explained the law which determines where a soul goes at death: that God does not willingly send men to Hades, but at death their spirit is attracted to the region of those with whom they are in harmony. The pure naturally ascend to the realms of the righteous while the wicked in obedience to the law of sin gravitate to the region where evil prevails. “Those unsettled in religious truth thou hast represented when attracted to Paradise, thence to regions where Chaos and Night rule chief monarchs; and thence to scenes of wretchedness where characters have been formed by wrong indulged, and where at last the elements of evil operate uncontrolled. By their indulgence in sin they embitter their mortal existence, and too often enter the world of spirits prepondering to evil, and thence become united to those existing where like elements prevail. At this point Marietta was allowed an intimacy into the pure harmony of heaven, beyond that she had been permitted before. The angel escort reassured her and explained to her that it was a benevolent Creator that did not permit the wicked to enter heaven. In Paradise their suffering would become infinite. The unregenerate souls could not harmonize with the purity of heaven and their sufferings would be vastly aggravated beyond what they would endure in Hades: “In this also thou art in a measure enabled to discover the wisdom of a benevolent Creator in the bestowment of that providence which causes the spirits of like nature and tendencies, whose habits are established, to incline to like conditions and abodes, so that the opposite elements of absolute good and evil being separate, shall not enhance the misery or mar the bliss of any class.” Likewise the angel declared that God would never permit a child of any sanctified soul to come under the deadly magnetism of evil: “Marietta, behold the goodness of God in the law of being. How palpable would appear the injustice of a Righteous Creator, should he doom to the pales of night, or permit any law to operate so that one of these little ones should perish by being attracted into the deadly magnetism of the abode of guilt, the regions of woe. Their tender and pure natures would writhe beneath the touch of inflamed passions of those who are abandoned to the madness of insatiable desires. In very deed might God be considered unjust should His law thus expose the innocent. Likewise there would be a manifest lack of mercy, should any sanctified and discordant spirit be impelled, while in this state, into the element of harmony and holiness, since their suffering must increase in proportion to the degree of light and supreme good that pervades the abode of the pure. Herein is displayed the wisdom and goodness of God. No absolutely discordant element in the world of spirits mingles with the pure and harmonious.” If you have not yet accepted Christ, do so now. Jesus is our Saviour and resting place! (Paradise) … and the Lamb is the light thereof! (Mkpu. 21:23 – I Tim.

Pịgharịa #117©