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Chapter V: The Judgment of Sinners. Text of the 1926 Macmillan edition, translated from Sundar Singh’s original Urdu by the Rev. T. E. Riddle. Sub-headings such as those below are printed in the original book.
Many have the idea that if they sin in secret then none will ever know about it, but it is altogether impossible that any sin should remain hidden for ever. At some time or other it will certainly be known, and the sinner will receive the punishment he deserves. Also, goodness and truth can never be hidden. In the end they must triumph, though, for a time, they may not be recognised. The following incidents will throw light on the state of the sinner.
A Good Man and a Thief
Once in a vision, one of the saints recounted this story to me: "Late one night a godly man had to go to a distance to do some necessary work. As he went along he came upon a thief breaking into a shop. He said to him, 'You have no right to take other people's property and to cause them loss. It is a great sin to do so.' The thief answered, 'If you want to get out of this safely, then get out quietly. If you don't there will be trouble for you.' The good man persisted in his efforts, and, when the thief would not listen, he began to shout and raised the neighbours. They rushed out to seize the thief, but, as soon as the good man began to accuse him, the thief retaliated and accused the good man. 'Oh yes,' he said, 'you think this fellow is very religious, but I caught him in the very act of stealing.' As there were no witnesses both were arrested, and locked up together in a room, while a police officer and some of his men hid themselves to listen to their conversation. Then the thief began to laugh at his fellow prisoner. 'Look,' he said, 'haven't I caught you nicely? I told you at first to get out or it would be the worse for you. Now we'll see how your religion is going to save you.' As soon as the officer heard this he opened the door and released the good man with honour and a reward, while he gave the thief a severe beating, and locked him in a prison cell. So, even in this world, there is a degree of judgment between good and bad men, but the full punishment and reward will be given only in the world to come."
Secret Sins
The following was also related to me in a vision. A man in the secret of his own room was committing a sinful act, and he thought that his sin was hidden. One of the saints said, "How I wish that the spiritual eyes of this man had been open at the time, then he would never have dared to commit this sin!" For in that room were a number of angels and saints, as well as some spirits of his dear ones, who had come to help him. All of them were grieved to see his shameful conduct, and one of them said, "We came to help him, but now we will have to be witnesses against him at the time of his judgment. He cannot see us, but we all can see him indulging in this sin. Would that this man would repent, and be saved from the punishment to come!"
Wasted Opportunities
Once I saw in the world of spirits a spirit who, with cries of remorse, was rushing about like a madman. An angel said, "In the world this man had many chances of repenting and turning towards God, but whenever his conscience began to trouble him he used to drown its prickings in drink. He wasted all his property, and ruined his family, and in the end committed suicide, and now in the world of spirits he rushes frantically about like a mad dog, and writhes in remorse at the thought of his lost opportunities. We are ready to help him, but his own perverted nature prevents him from repenting, for sin has hardened his heart, though the memory of his sin is always fresh to him. In the world he drank to make himself forget the voice of his conscience, but here there is no possible chance of covering up anything. Now his soul is so naked that he himself, and all the inhabitants of the spiritual world, can see his sinful life. For him, in his sin-hardened state, no other course is possible but that he must hide himself in the darkness with other evil spirits, and so to some extent escape the torture of the light."
A Wicked Man permitted to enter Heaven
Once in my presence a man of evil life entered at death into the world of spirits. When the angels and saints wished to help him he at once began to curse and revile them, and say, "God is altogether unjust. He has prepared heaven for such flattering slaves as you are, and casts the rest of mankind into hell. Yet you call Him Love!" The angels replied, "God certainly is Love. He created men that they might live for ever in happy fellowship with Him, but men by their own obstinacy and by the abuse of their free will have turned their faces away from Him, and have made hell for themselves. God neither casts any one into hell, nor will He ever do so, but man himself, by being entangled in sin, creates hell for himself. God never created any hell."
Just then the exceedingly sweet voice of one of the high angels was heard from above, saying, "God gives permission that this man may be brought into heaven." Eagerly the man stepped forward accompanied by two angels, but, when they reached the door of heaven and saw the holy and light-enveloped place and the glorious and blessed inhabitants that dwell there, he began to feel uneasy. The angels said to him, "See how beautiful a world is this! Go a little farther, and look at the dear Lord sitting on His throne." From the door he looked, and then as the light of the Sun of Righteousness revealed to him the impurity of his sin-defiled life, he started back in an agony of self-loathing, and fled, with such precipitancy, that he did not even stop in the intermediate state of the world of spirits, but like a stone he passed through it, and cast himself headlong into the bottomless pit.
Then the sweet and ravishing voice of the Lord was heard saying, "Look, My dear children, none is forbidden to come here, and no one forbade this man, nor has any one asked him to leave. It was his own impure life that forced him to flee from this holy place, for, 'Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God'" (John 3:3).
The Spirit of a Murderer
A man, who some years before had killed a Christian preacher, was bitten by a snake in the jungle, and died. When he entered the world of spirits he saw good and bad spirits all around him, and, because the whole aspect of his soul showed that he was a son of darkness, the evil spirits soon had possession of him, and pushed him along with them down towards the darkness. One of the saints remarked, "He killed a man of God by the poison of his anger, and now he is killed by the poison of a snake. The old Serpent the devil, by means of this man, killed an innocent man. Now by means of another snake, which is like him, he has killed this man, for he was a murderer from the beginning!" (John 8:44).
And the Spirit of the Man Murdered
As he was being taken away, one from among the good spirits, who had come to help him, said to him, "I have forgiven you with all my heart. Now can I do anything to help you?" The murderer at once recognised him as the same man whom he had killed some years before. Ashamed and smitten with fear he fell down before him, and at once the evil spirits began to clamour loudly, but the angels who were standing at a distance rebuked and silenced them. Then the murderer said to the man whom he had killed, "How I wish that, in the world, I could have seen your unselfish and loving life as I see it now! I regret that through my blindness, and because your real spiritual life was screened by your body, I could not then see the inner beauty of your life. Also by killing you I deprived many of the blessing and benefit that you would have given them. Now I am forever a sinner in God's sight, and fully deserve my punishment. I don't know what I can now do except hide myself in some dark cave, because I cannot bear this light. In it, not only does my own heart make me miserable, but all can see every detail of my sinful life."
To this the man who had been murdered replied, "You should truly repent, and turn to God, for if you do there is hope that the Lamb of God will wash you in His own blood, and give you new life that you may live with us in heaven, and be saved from the torment of hell."
The murderer said in reply, "There is no need for me to confess my sins, for they are open to all. In the world I could hide them, but not here. I want to live with saints like you in heaven, but when I cannot bear the dimness of the self-revealing light in the world of spirits, then what will be my state in the searching brightness and glory of that light-filled place. My greatest hindrance is that, through my sins, my conscience is so dull and hardened that my nature will not incline towards God and repentance. I seem to have no power to repent left in me. Now there is nothing for it, but that I shall be driven out from here for ever. Alas for my unhappy state!" As he said this, fear-stricken, he fell down, and his fellow evil spirits dragged him away into the darkness. Then one of the angels said, "See! there is no need here for any to pronounce a sentence of doom. Of itself the life of any sinner proves him guilty. There is no need to tell him, or to put forward witnesses against him. To a certain extent punishment begins in the heart of every sinner while in the world, but here they feel the full effect of it. And God's arrangement here is such that goats and sheep, that is, sinners and righteous, separate of their own accord. God created man to live in light, in which his spiritual health and joy are made permanent for ever. Therefore no man can be happy in the darkness of hell, nor, because of his sin-perverted life, can he be happy in the light. So wherever a sinner may go he will find himself in hell. How opposite to this is the state of the righteous, who, freed from sin, is in heaven everywhere!"
The Spirit of a Liar
In the world there was a man so addicted to lying that it had become second nature to him. When he died and entered the world of spirits, he tried to lie as usual, but was greatly ashamed because, even before he could speak, his thoughts were known to all. No one can be a hypocrite there, because the thought of no heart can remain hidden. The soul as it leaves the body bears on it the imprint of all its sin, and when it stands in all its nakedness in the light of heaven, then all can see its sin, and its very members become witnesses against it. Nothing can blot out that stain of sin except the blood of Christ. When this man was in the world he regularly tried to distort right into wrong, and wrong into right, but, after his bodily death, he learned that there never is, and never can be, a possibility of twisting truth into untruth. He who lies injures and deceives no one but himself, so this man by lying had killed the inner perception to truth which he had once possessed. I watched him as, inextricably tangled in his own deceit, he turned his face away from the light from above, and hurried away far down into the darkness, where none could see his filthy love of lying, except those spirits who were like in nature to himself. For Truth always is Truth, and it alone gave this man the sentence on his falseness, and condemned him as a liar.
The Spirit of an Adulterer
I saw an adulterer, who had shortly before arrived in the world of spirits. His tongue was hanging out like a man consumed by thirst, his nostrils were distended, and he beat his arms about as if a kind of fire burned within him. His appearance was so evil and loathsome that I revolted at looking at him. All the accompaniments of luxury and sensuousness had been left behind in the world, and now, like a mad dog, he ran frantically around, and cried, "Curse on this life! There is no death here to put an end to all this pain. And here the spirit cannot die, otherwise, I should again kill myself, as I did with a pistol in the world in order to escape from my troubles there. But this pain is far greater than the pain of the world. What shall I do?" Saying this he ran towards the darkness, where were many other like-minded spirits, and there disappeared. One of the saints said, "Not only is an evil act sin, but an evil thought, and an evil look is also sin. This sin is not confined only to trafficking with strange women, but excess and animalism in relation to one's wife is also sin. A man and his wife are truly joined together not for sensualism but for mutual help and support, that they with their children may spend their lives in the service of mankind and for the glory of God. But he who departs from this aim in life is guilty of the adulterer's sin."
The Soul of a Robber
A robber died and entered the world of spirits. At first he took no interest in his state or in the spirits about him, but, as his habit was, he at once set about helping himself to the valuables of the place. But he was amazed that in the spirit world the very things seemed to be speaking and accusing him of his unworthy action. His nature was so perverted that he neither knew the true use of these things, nor was he fit to use them rightly. In the world his passions had been so unbridled, that, for the most trifling cause, he, in his anger, had killed or wounded any who had offended him. Now, in the world of spirits, he began to act in the same way. He turned on the spirits who came to instruct him, as if he would have torn them to pieces, as a savage dog will do even in the presence of its master. On this one of the angels said, "If spirits of this kind were not kept down in the darkness of the bottomless pit, then they would cause immense harm wherever they might go. This man's conscience is so dead that, even after he has reached the world of spirits, he fails to recognise that, by murdering and robbing in the world, he has wasted his own spiritual wealth, and destroyed his own spiritual discernment and life. He killed and destroyed others, but in reality he has destroyed himself. God alone knows if this man, and those who are like him, will remain in torment for ages or for ever."
After this the angels appointed to the duty took him, and shut him down in the darkness from which he is not permitted to come out. The state of evildoers in that place is so terrible, and so inexpressibly fierce is their torment, that those who see them tremble at the sight. Because of the limitations of our worldly speech we can only say this, that wherever the soul of a sinner is, always and in every way, there is nothing but pain that ceases not for a moment. A kind of lightless fire burns for ever and torments these souls, but neither are they altogether consumed, nor does the fire die out. A spirit who was watching what had just happened said, "Who knows but that in the end this may not be a cleansing flame?" In the dark part of the world of spirits, which is called Hell, there are many grades and planes, and the particular one in which any spirit lives in suffering is dependent on the quantity and character of his sins. It is a fact that God made them all in His own, that is in His Son's image, Who is the image of the Unseen God (Gen. 1:26-27; Col. i. 15), yet by their connection with sin they have disfigured this image, and have made it unbeautiful and evil. They have, indeed, a kind of spiritual body, but it is exceedingly loathsome and frightful, and if they are not restored by true repentance and the grace of God, then in this fearful form they must remain in torment for ever.