A Buddhist monk-turned-Evangelical pastor has opened up about briefly experiencing Hell throughout a close to dying expertise, describing it as a barren wasteland filled with large demons, “agony” and “fear.”
In a latest interview with the Each day Mail, Steve Kang revealed he had a face-to-face expertise with the supernatural after a suicide try left him hovering between life and dying, an ordeal he described as an eight-hour descent right into a darkish, torturous realm he believes was Hell.
“It’s not a place you want to go,” Kang mentioned. “I almost feel like I don’t even want Kim Jong-il or Hitler to go there. I don’t want my worst enemies to go there.”
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In September 1998, whereas battling substance abuse and tormented by what he believed was demonic possession, Kang tried to take his life by slitting his neck and abdomen. As surgeons labored frantically to restore the harm at a hospital in California, Kang mentioned his spirit was plunged into what he may solely describe as Hell.
“There was no light,” he mentioned. “There [were] no plants. I don’t remember seeing even an ounce of grass. It was just like rocky floor. There’s cliffs everywhere, and they look like purplish red, just not a pleasant color. You look up, and it’s just dark. Just imagine a very dark night without the moon.”
The 20-minute expertise, which docs later informed him lasted roughly eight hours in actual time, left an indelible mark on Kang, who described a barren and agonizing panorama full of misplaced souls and monstrous demons.
“There’s no ability to converse with people. It was so much pain, so much accusation, so much fear. It was like anxiety multiplied, fear of condemnation multiplied,” he mentioned.
He recalled large demons, “three, four, five stories tall,” watching over the souls in torment. “I knew they were in charge of this place,” Kang mentioned.
In keeping with Kang, the emotional ache was worse than any bodily torture he may think about. “So much guilt, shame, fear. It was worse than death.”
Though Kang was raised in a Buddhist family and as soon as skilled to be a monk, his mom was turned away when she sought assist from their temple in Korea throughout his hospitalization. As an alternative, she reached out to a Christian buddy, who introduced a prayer group to the hospital.
“They started praying, and the doctor later said that this was a miracle,” Kang mentioned.
In keeping with Kang, his religious expertise abruptly modified when he sensed somebody praying for him. He mentioned he felt an awesome sense of peace wash over him and heard a voice he believed was Jesus.’
“It was at that moment,” he mentioned, “that I instantly left Hell and returned to my body.”
Kang informed the Each day Mail that the physician who handled him later mentioned, “It’s a miracle that I found every vessel at the right time. If I was a few minutes late […] you might not be here.”
Now sober for 25 years, Kang mentioned, “I […] don’t drink, don’t smoke anymore, don’t look [at] anything stupid online. God gave me this inner strength to be so pure.”
Kang serves as pastor of Revive The Nations Ministry and mentioned he remained quiet concerning the expertise for years, uncertain methods to course of what had occurred. However just lately, he mentioned, connecting with others who had related experiences, lots of whom described practically an identical visions of Hell or Heaven, gave him the braveness to talk out.
“I started seeing that this is not just Steve’s story,” Kang mentioned. “This is a story of everybody, every nation across every country, anyone that God decides to have mercy on.”
He now shares his story broadly in hopes of warning others about what he calls “spiritual cancer.”
“Our job, I believe, is to share the story and tell people that there is a cure for spiritual cancer or sin or death,” Kang mentioned.
A 2022 examine printed in Frontiers in Psychology reviewed 465 near-death accounts and located that just about 10% concerned unfavourable experiences, together with hellish landscapes and torment.
In a latest interview with The Christian Publish, Michael Youssef, pastor of the Church of the Apostles in Atlanta, Georgia, mentioned it’s essential to know what Jesus says about Hell all through the New Testomony.
“That is very important,” he mentioned. “Today, nobody wants to talk about Hell. They think that Hell doesn’t exist. Nobody’s going to Hell. And I said, ‘What? Are you saying Jesus is lying? Because everything we know about Hell is from Jesus.’”
“Those who deliberately go against the Word of God, and think that God is just such a big Santa Claus in Heaven who doesn’t care and He winks at sin and doesn’t care how you live, then they are the ones going to be in a big shock on that last day or when they die.”
It is inconceivable to know the fantastic thing about Heaven with out acknowledging the horrors of Hell, Youssef mentioned. The “Hollywood idea” that everybody goes to Heaven once they die is a “lie from the pit of Hell,” he cautioned.
“Everybody thinks they’re good. Whoever says, ‘I’m bad?’ I tell people that in Heaven, there are no good people. There are only bad people in Heaven. The only good person in Heaven is Jesus. But all the others are bad people who have recognized that they are bad, that they are sinners who desperately need the salvation that only Jesus can give them. Redeemed sinners — that’s who’s going to be in Heaven. These are the concepts that we need to constantly hammer away at people to understand. Heaven is something to look forward to, and work toward, and not be afraid of or apprehensive about or being uncertain.”
“Well bless their hearts.”
