The Green Door

A Dream of a Polished Hell!

By David Brandt Berg, July 29, 1977

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

It seemed like everything everybody was doing was totally futile and useless and just a waste of time! They were all very, very busy accomplishing nothing! The scientist was conducting endless experiments that never bore any 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 just 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 was mad for his blood! It seemed like they 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.

We were going down all these halls looking in all these rooms where these people were all so busy doing nothing, accomplishing nothing, getting nowhere. I had this terrible apprehensive feeling all the 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 for the wicked?--An extension of life after death for the wicked would be just a hellish extension of the same meaningless, purposeless, fruitless, painful, sorrowful, sad existence that they had on Earth! The longer they live, the more useless they are! 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 of 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 all 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 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. It's not making any progress or getting anywhere.

I never thought of Hell being like this! This 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 the Hell on Earth--only it was Hell hereafter, and seemingly forever, with no escape and no way out!--Not even 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 sewing, you never stopped writing. 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 this is Hell, it sure is some Hell, because it's like the wicked's life on Earth, just an extension of it!" Just like the Bible says, "There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked" (Isaiah 57:21).

It is all just the opposite of the ecstasies of life in Heaven for saved Christians! 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 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 to us! We will carry on the business of the Universe, traveling around from one planet to the other, one star to the other, one galaxy to the other!

It's just as though Heaven, or the life hereafter for us, God's children, saved Christians, is an extension or an amplification, a multiplication 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 like to do, we love to do, & we enjoy doing for the Lord, just like the things 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 was supposed to be a vision of Hell, it sure did the trick for me! I sure don't want to go there!--It was awful! It was as if 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 controlled conditions like a hospital!

The dream reminds of an old song, "The Green Door", that was popular a number of years ago. Did you ever hear it? 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 horrible, terrible 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, beloved, for that "Green Door"! It may lead to a realm where you don't really belong and certainly would never want to be! So be sure you don't register there! 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 Revelation 21:27.) That's the place you'll be happy forever with Jesus! If you love and receive and live for 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!

Jesus said, "He that heareth My Word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath Everlasting Life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life." Receive Jesus' forgiveness from your sins and get your ticket to Heaven (Jesus' free gift of Eternal Life) today, by simply praying the following:

Dear Jesus, I've been bad and deserve Hell, but I accept Your sacrifice on the cross for my sins and receive your Love, forgiveness & 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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