Doctrinal Teaching Series: Understanding the Truth about 'Hell' and the 'Gift of our Salvation' (Part 2)
INTRODUCTION
The year 2017 marked the turning point in my life and in my understanding of who I am in Christ. Even though I had given my heart to the Lord at the tender age of 16, it took me twenty-eight years to finally see the light and to allow for the Lord to totally change and transform my life. That ‘soul transformation’ happened ironically on the inside of a cold, wet and stinking prison cell.
Since then, it’s been an amazing ride, and I feel like I’m just getting started. The most dominant force for change in my life has been the Holy Spirit imparting “revelation knowledge” and “Godly wisdom” to me through God’s Word. I have no clue where I would be with out it, but I know it wouldn’t be where I am today. God’s Word has radically changed me. ‘Revelation knowledge’ is vastly different than just acquired ‘worldly knowledge’ - also known as ‘head knowledge.’
Revelation knowledge only comes through the Holy Spirit quickening truth in your spirit-man - God’s Truth to you. Acquired (common) head knowledge that we all use in everyday life comes through learning and being influenced by other people’s opinion, ideologies, and narratives, as a result, this worldly knowledge isn’t always honest, truthful or accurate.
It cannot be trusted in the same way as revelation knowledge imparted by the Holy Spirit can. I’ve been reflecting, teaching, and preaching on this a lot during the last few years, months, weeks and even days since I have come onto Substack. This doctrinal teaching also marks the eighth anniversary of the day the Lord miraculously intervened during an attack I was involved in, when 17 gang members (called The Number Gangs in South African prisons) tried to kill me, stabbed me several times and kicking every tooth out of my mouth. Left me for dead basically.
They had stolen all of my personal belongings and left me bleeding from my head to my toe. After being removed from the general population and placed in a single isolation cell, I was able to go on my knees and speak openly and honestly to God about my failures, weaknesses and shortcomings.
By the end of that intimate conversation with God, I knew that I needed to make some serious and drastic changes to my understanding of salvation and that I couldn’t play religious games anymore with God. I needed to get down to the real business of studying the Word of God, not from someone else’s perspective, or biblical interpretation but from a place of intimacy with God. That singular event, where God decided to come searching for me in a prison cell reminds me of the imprisonments of various apostles, including Peter, John, Paul, Silas, James, and Philip. Their incarceration stories are woven into the fabric of the New Testament, illustrating the formidable trials they endured in their mission to propagate the message of Christianity.
Throughout history, the stories of confinement and resilience have echoed in the narratives of countless individuals, but few tales are as profound as those found within the pages of the Bible. Imagine for a moment being thrust into darkness, shackled by chains—not just of iron but also by circumstances that seem insurmountable. Yet, amidst these trials, we discover remarkable figures whose faith shone brightest in their moments of despair.
From Joseph’s unjust imprisonment to Paul and Silas singing hymns in a Philippian jail cell, these Bible characters who were imprisoned offer us powerful lessons about hope, endurance, and divine purpose. In an age where personal freedom often feels like a given, exploring the lives of these biblical prisoners invites us to reflect on our own struggles with confinement—whether emotional, spiritual, or physical.
Ironically, in most of these disciple’s lives, their incarceration or isolation brought them to a place of strength, inspiration and of changing the whole direction of their lives, which was no different to the ‘soul transformation’ that took place in my life while begging God for His mercy and grace in the isolation of my prison cell.
That encounter with God got my attention, but it was really the “revelation knowledge” the Lord imparted to my cognitive thinking, understanding, behaviour and actions that has been the pinnacle of the soul transforming power in my life after surrendering my entire life to Christ. I know that the Lord is no respecter of persons (Rom. 2:11); and what He’s done for me, He is willing and able to do for anyone.
God’s Word is the incorruptible seed that produces this form of Godly lifestyle in us (1 Pet. 1:23), but such knowledge, wisdom and revelation has to be sown (planted) and watered (nurtured) before any growth (fruit of the Spirit) can be uncounted or made visible for the rest of the world to see.
Now, let me say, since coming onto Substack, I have witnessed and read some amazing Christian material, and listened to some truly inspirational Godly teachings, but I have also read some wayward teachings and expressions of ungodly theories, and doctrine that got me concerned. You see, my brothers and siters in Christ, if and when we try to remove and/or add a single word or phrase into or from the Bible then you are in principle saying, God got it wrong! God never gets it wrong. Ever!!
It is only our misinterpretation of God’s Word that gets it wrong. This is mostly attributed to the fact that we try to understand the Word on our terms and through our own mortal minds, but if we were to approach the Word of God from the place of spirit calling unto Spirit, our understanding and revelation of God’s Word would be different.
As I have indicated, I spent many years of my life as a - what I like to call, a ‘freelance Christian.’ That means, I did all the right things in my own eyes - believing that all my worldly actions seemed okay but not necessarily being right to God - attention church, going the Bible College, being appointed to leadership roles in the church, acquiring all the necessary qualifications, being part of a huge worship team, being a counselor, mentor, and whatever else made me feel recognized and better under a compromised lifestyle of sin and ungodly behaviour.
During that time, I might add, I attended 100’s of churches from all around the world during my travels as a senior corporate executive. I was completely brainwashed in believing in all of this New Age charismatic ideologies and culture norms - teachings by these so called “happy clappy” pastors, that led me to believe that everything is forgiven and forgotten under the banner of Grace and that we should not worry our sins and of going to ‘Hell’ because these are just figures of our imagination, once we come under the saving grace of Christ. That somehow, miraculously hell will just disappear and we will all be taken up into heaven without any form of sanctification or purification before entering the glorious sanctuary of heaven.
Of course, this is not true! It’s a lie from the pit of hell itself. And the devil is using that lie to make people (both believer and non-believer) less and less afraid of the ‘ ‘consequence of sin’ and the reality of a real place called Hell. The devil also does not want us to fear God, he will tell us that fearing God is only something that happened in the Old Testament and that today we have the saving grace of Jesus that ignores and removes all of our earthly sin and gives us the opportunity to reconcile with our heavenly Father irrespective of our sinful state or condition. As much as this (or should I say some of this teachings) might and is true, we should never, ever ignore or reject the facts of the Word of God and of biblical principle of the ‘gift of our salvation.’
That truth clearly teaches us that there is a place such as ‘heaven’ and of ‘hell' and that we need to repent daily for our sins and that if we decide to ignore our responsibility to walk away from our wicked ways and “follow” Christ there will be consequences. Just like there are consequences for breaking the laws of the land, irrespective of whether you are maybe a good person on the inside.
If we care to ignore Hell, then in principle we are degrading the work of the Cross and of the sacrifice Jesus Christ made for us and as a result makes the purpose and call to salvation null-in-void. If you believe in Jesus Christ then you must accept by faith that there is a place called Hell and that Satan and his fallen angels reside there unto eternity. But unfortunately it is also the place unbelievers will be going to after Judgment Day, where they will be bound in bondage and suffering for eternity. Not a place I would want my worst enemy to go too.
That been said, I feel so strongly about the call to duty to highlight the truth of hell and of our salvation, as well as the many other doctrines we really need to know about, that I have decided to list twenty revelations the Holy Spirit has given me so far in chronological order that will bring clarity and understanding to these topics—starting with the events that led to my first encounter with my salvation experience in 1979 and then again when Jesus Christ granting me a second change in 2017 to restore what was broken in my life, and when I recommitted my life to Christ and took on the mantle of being a shepherd, teacher, pastor, evangelist and ultimately disciple for Christ.
Let me start by saying, without my salvation, nothing else matters. I have decided to start with the first two principles of biblical truth and doctrine in this series on Hell and on the ‘Gift of our Salvation.’ I strongly believe that many need to really understand this aspect of truth before truly embracing the gift of their salvation in Christ. Please note that this article only briefly touches on these subjects, so I really encourage you to go study the additional teachings of hell and salvation by reading more and more of the Word of God. These truths will change your life.
First Doctrinal Principle of Doctrine on: ‘Hell.’ Does hell exist?’
The first real revelation that changed my life was about hell. That is actually a great place to start. Not enough people today think about hell, and even fewer pastors and spiritual leaders teach on the subject. Psalm 36:1 says the reason the ungodly do what they do is because there is no fear of God before their eyes. People need to know that hell is a real place, and there is only one way to avoid it.
At sixteen years of age, I had heard of hell and believed it existed, but I thought that only bad people went to hell. I didn’t consider myself to be a bad person, so it just wasn’t a concern to me. Then at a Youth Camp one Sunday morning, our Pastor preached a message titled, “Hell is Real.” He completely disproved that good people went to heaven and bad people went to hell. He made it clear that only forgiven people go to heaven, and only those who don’t accept the forgiveness that comes through faith in Jesus go to hell.
He even named famous people I had heard of who had died; and he was bold enough to proclaim that they split hell wide open. That shocked me. I responded immediately during the service with the invitation to accept Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Saviour. I couldn’t wait to tell people about this newly found friend called Jesus and how much He loved me that He took all of my sins away. For the first time in my life, I realized I was a sinner, and the only way to heaven was through Jesus’ sacrifice (John 14:6). It was the revelation of hell’s existence and my desire not to go there that got my attention and turned me towards the Lord.
Salvation Is a Gift
Although the wages of sin were death, Pastor Walter Snyman that day shared with me that the gift of God was eternal life (Rom. 6:23). All I had to do to escape hell was receive what Jesus provided for me through His death and resurrection. I knelt and prayed with my Pastor right there, infront of all my friends, teachers and scholars. I didn’t have a “Damascus Road experience,” where a light shone or an audible voice spoke, but I knew I was saved.
Before I prayed with my Pastor that day, I had no peace. I was under the conviction of the Holy Spirit and knew I needed God in my life. After prayer, all the turmoil was gone, and I had perfect peace. The Holy Spirit bore witness with my spirit that I was a child of God (Rom. 8:16). I went out of that recreational hall that day knowing that with total faith in the promise of God, that as I had just confessed with my mouth that Jesus Christ was my Lord, I was therefore by faith saved (Rom. 10:9).
The very next day at school, my friends could tell a difference. They were calling me all kinds of names and making fun of me, plotting things that sixteen-year-olds do, but I wouldn’t participate. They asked me, “What happened to you?” I told them I got saved, and they laughed and made fun of me. But I wasn’t ashamed of what happened. I knew I had changed.
Praise God for the faith of a child! Although I had accepted my salvation by faith in what Jesus did for me, I was soon misinformed through church that God’s continued love for me was conditional upon my performance. I swallowed that lie, “hook, line, and sinker.” That led to me trying to do everything they said, so I could earn God’s favor and blessings. By the time I was eighteen, I had just finished high school and was called up for compulsory military service. We were at war at the time with Angola, and by the late 70’s and early 80’s the Russians and Cubans had joined forces with the Angolans. These harsh experiences of war, killing and death had negatively influences my cognitive thinking, behaviour and actions, even belief to think that my salvation didn’t even matter.
I won’t lie, there were numerous occasions where I had dug myself a hole in the ground to avoid detection from the enemies reconnaissance teams (called ‘small teams’) been sent out at night to scan the terrain for possible soft targets or areas where they could set up an ambush on our advancing patrols the next day, and you would find me praying, asking God to please protect me through the dangers of the night. But several times I would be silenced by guilt and shame for living in sin but still believing that God would save me.
I didn’t get any miraculous revelation right then in the dead of night, but I’m convinced my experiences and those silent discussions and prayers with the Lord would, years later while on the cold, cement floor of my prison cell, come back to remind me of God’s unfailing love, His faithfulness and His unconditional love. These were all direct answer to those prayers in the middle of the bush deep within enemy territory.
By the time I was twenty-five years old, I was a religious Pharisee. I didn’t plan on that; it just happened through the performance-based teachings I was getting. Ironically, I never said a word of profanity, never drank liquor, or took drugs and never smoked a single cigarette in my life. And I still never have! But I became a lover of beautiful women, gambling, fornication, fortune and fame. As a result, I had lost all of my confidence in my relationship with the Lord because I was so aware of my failures, weaknesses and shortcomings.
Once you start down that “performance road,” it’s hard to find an exit ramp. I will stop here for now and continue this discussion on the Gift of our Salvation and of Living Sacrifice in my next part of this series.
If you enjoyed reading this teaching, may I respectfully ask of you to send me a message or email even, telling me your thoughts and if you wish for me to pray for you, I would deem it an honor and a privilege to do so.
Thank you for taking the time to understand the deeper meaning to the doctrines of ‘Hell’ and of our salvation in Christ. I pray God would reveal even greater truths to you through these teachings.
In God’s divine love and service,
Pastor Mike
