But other times, we wake up and find our way to the bathroom—although we can’t really remember how we got there. We are in a state when we can’t draw the line between consciousness and unconsciousness, when we’re asleep but not quite. You still feel the cold contact between your feet and the floor and still hear those sounds but it’s as if they are not loud enough to awake your quiet and dull brain.

You are, in a sense, like a modern plane in the autopilot mode—you know what you have to do, when you have to do it, where you have to go and the way you have to move while going there.

That day, I spent the night in a less fancy house. What I mean is that the room was dark and instead of a regular toilet (I’m really sorry for bringing this up) they had a pit, which is perfectly normal on that side of the country—my African friends understand.

It’s literally a [very deep] pit with few pieces of wood on top of it for the user to stand on—you can imply by this the absence of flushing system. They are usually safe except when you’re sleep walking; like I did, that night. Luckily for me, my consciousness came back to me just before I make the fatal step into the… I had just a second to open my eyes and realize where I was heading.

Friends, this was a dream. None of this was really happening and I think you can understand the palpitations I had when I woke up because of the ghastly time I just had—it can also be funny when you’re hearing this narrative but, trust me, not when you’re experiencing it.

Normally, after such a nightmare, life goes on, and I forget it. But this dream was peculiar because it did remind me of Jonathan Edwards’ sermon: “Sinners in the hands of an angry God” from Deut32:35 “…their foot shall slide in due time”. In that sermon, what he did is to paint as best as he could his impression of hell from the scriptures.

It is terrifying.

He describes the sinner as being “always ready for destruction; as one that stands or walks in slippery places is always exposed to fall” and the only thing left for them to fall is for “God’s appointed time” to come.

I insist that the state of slumber is upon all those who do not know God for they don’t realize where they’re heading and that God, out of his supreme patience, holds them up on the edge of a bottomless pit, “much in the same way as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect, over the fire” —this might be the reason why the Bible says that when we believe, a veil is removed and light shines in our hearts (2cor3:16).

These aren’t just meditations of religious fanatics who are out of touch with reality. Besides, you might argue, a loving God cannot do that. This post won’t deal with proving the coherence in the divine justice with the divine love, but suffice to tell you that it is true that hell is real.

Dwell on the fact that, in the Bible, Jesus preached about hell more than everybody else…combined. Be careful of his choice of words to portray hell—which do not, by any means, soften the horror—: “weeping and gnashing of teeth”(Luke13:28), “their worm does not die”(Mark9:48), “outer darkness”(Mat25:30), “unquenchable fire”(Mark9:43), “eternal punishment” (Mat25:46), … My purpose in this post is not to demonstrate (or argue on) the reality of hell but to let you dwell on Christ’s teaching—the truth, i.e. the one who never lied— and ponder for a moment on how Jesus thought we should think about hell.

There is still time to wake up from the comforts of the world, which blind and hypnotize the most of us to the reality. “What if it’s not real?” you might ask. I suggest you don’t risk your life in eternal torments by waiting to find out…