Empirical means, "by experience." The following is one example of an experience that many have had.

In his book, "Why I Believe," D. James Kennedy records his interview with one who has been there:

I have heard the testimony of a man who went to hell. He is a living man, and his testimony is on tape. He has given me his permission to use it in any way that I wish. He described himself as an atheist. He believed neither in soul nor spirit nor angel nor God. "When you are dead," he said, "you are dead like a dog." One day he planned to crawl into a hole and pull the top in over him. He did not believe in heaven or hell or God. But then he did, in a very enlightening way--he died!

Not long ago he had a cardiac arrest, and the doctors pronounced him clinically dead. (In the last year or so numerous scientists have reported on more than five hundred people who have been pronounced clinically dead and have been resuscitated. Whatever that means, we may not wholly know, but the reports that they bring back have convinced scientists that there is life beyond death.) Later he was resuscitated, but he told me that during his "death" he experienced the following:

He sank into a realm of darkness, a place of dark shadows--yet still he had a body. He found himself in great agony pushing a huge stone into a pit. (The Bible speaks of a pit.) He was in great pain, and there was nothing he could do to diminish it. "If you got shot in the arm," he said, "you could at least grab your arm and get some slight lessening of the pain, but not so with this."

I asked, "Where was it? Was it localized?" His answer was, "No, it was everywhere. I am quite certain that if I had cut my throat I would not have lessened that pain at all. When I questioned how severe the pain was, he said, "It was worse than anything I have ever experienced in this world." I thought perhaps he had never known much pain. I asked, "Have you ever really suffered any pain in this world?" He said, "Well, when I was nine years old, a freight train ran over my leg and left it hanging by a tendon. Somehow I picked it up, dragged myself to a crossing, and was finally picked up by a man in a car. I never passed out but my blood squirted all over his windshield as he drove me to a hospital. I was never unconscious." "How did that pain compare to the time when the doctor said you were dead?" I asked. "It was insignificant," he answered. "I wouldn't even compare it."

I told him, "I once burned my hand rather severely and experienced a pain unlike anything I have ever known before or since. Did you ever burn yourself?" He said, "Yes, I knocked a can of gasoline off a shelf over a candle onto my leg and set my remaining leg on fire. As a result I spent several weeks in the hospital." He raised his pants leg and showed me the scars. I said, "I know of nothing in this world that compares to the pain of burning. How did the pain you experienced when you were dead compare with that?" He answered, "It was one thousand times worse than when my leg was on fire!

I tried every way I knew to explain that away, but everything dissolved before my attempts to do it. I did not believe in hell before, and I did not want to believe in it then. On the face of this earth, no matter what you did to me, I don't think you could experience the pain that I experienced in that hospital. I asked, "What do you think that was?" "Why, I feel that it definitely had to be something other than on this earth, so the only place I can think of is that there must be a hell, and I was in it." He told me that when he thought about that after he got out of the hospital, he began to tremble with an uncontrollable trembling.

Hell is real!

What will your verdict be on judgment day?

Here is a test that is adapted from a tract by Ray Comfort)

With a tender conscience, rate yourself by the Ten Commandments:
    
___ YES ___NO   Have you ever failed to acknowledge or to love your God and Creator with all your innermost mind, reasoning mind, and strength?
___ YES ___NO   Have ever imagined a god in your own image for your own purposes?
___ YES ___NO   Have you ever used God's name in vain?
___ YES ___NO   Have you ever failed to keep the Sabbath holy?
___ YES ___NO   Have you ever failed to fully honor your parents?
___ YES ___NO   Have you ever murdered (God considers hatred or hurting or harming as murder)?
___ YES ___NO   Have you committed adultery (God considers premarital sex or any lust as adultery.)?
___ YES ___NO   Have you ever stolen anything (the value is irrelevant)
___ YES ___NO   Have you ever lied (including fibs, little white lies, and these questions)?
___ YES ___NO   Have you ever coveted (wanted what someone else has: a house, job, car, spouse, friend, or anything else.)?

This is just part of God's Law. God's Law can be summed up in one word, Love. God is Love. When you violate the Law, you violate Love, and by violating Love you violate God. If you violate even one part of the Law, you violate Love, you violate all of the Law. Sin is the lack of Love. It is actually stepping off of the very narrow path that leads to the absolute and genuine life of the Kingdom of God and stepping onto the very wide path that leads to death, destruction, and Hell.

You must understand a few things about God. The Law is the nature of God. God is what He is. He cannot be something else that is made up according to human imagination. God is absolutely Holy and absolutely Love. Your sins distance you from God so He can't hear your prayers. (Isaiah 59:2) God is absolutely just. (2 Thessalonians 1:6-10) God won't force you into His presence. He won't force you to Love Him or to Love those around you, that is, He won't force you to obey His Law. That would do no good. You must love Him by your own choice.

All this brings up a problem. God tells us that if you have broken even one Command of God, your sin is directly against God so you will "surely die," since the "wages of sin is death."

Based on the test you took, will God pronounce you innocent or guilty on your judgment day?

There is not one person who does good and doesn't sin. If you listen, just for a moment, to your conscience now, you will be reminded of some of your past sins. The reason you know these things are wrong is that God created your conscience as a guide. But God commanded you to be perfect. (Matthew 5:48) God commands you to have an absolutely pure heart. God knows about every thought, word, and deed. He must be just. Justice requires judgment, and He is the only perfect, all-knowing Judge.

God is a God of justice, but God is also Love. God's justice requires punishment, but His Love requires forgiveness. Forgiveness literally means to send away. It means both pardon and a removal of sin. God's Love required that He send His only unique Son, Jesus, to take the form of a human being, live a perfect life without sin, suffer and die in your place, overcome death as the firstborn from the dead, and ascend back into Heaven. God then sent His Holy Spirit to speak to every person's conscience about Jesus and what He did.

In effect, God, your Judge, paid your fine for you. He took your jail sentence so both His Justice and His Love were followed. Simply acknowleging Him, confessing your sins, and receiving His forgiveness will instantly make you clean in God's sight as if you had never sinned at all.

God doesn't want you or anyone else in Hell. Every argument against God is based on made-up stories that are based on arbitrary assumptions and irrational statements. Though these arguments are presented as if they were valid reason or even science, there is not one that can stand up to analysis. They fall apart when you examine them closely. Jesus, on the other hand, is a real Person you can experience. All who come to Him find Him. If you will trust in Jesus, you will be saved from God's wrath. Make Psalm 51 your prayer, then read your Bible daily and always obey what you read; God will never let you down.

Pray this prayer from Psalm 51

Wash me thoroughly from my immorality and purify me from my sin. For I acknowledge my rebellious acts, and my sin is ever before me. Against You, and You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight so that You are justified when You speak and are pure when You judge. I was twisted in iniquity and was in sin when my mother conceived me.

You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part You shall make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be pure. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me hear joy and gladness so that the bones that You have broken may rejoice. Hide Your Face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. Create a pure mind in me, oh God, and renew a right spirit within me. Don't throw me away from Your Presence. And don't take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore the joy of Your Salvation to me, and hold me up with Your Free Spirit.

Then will I teach transgressors your ways, and sinners shall be converted to You. Deliver me from blood guiltiness, oh God, You God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of your righteousness. Oh Lord, open my lips and my mouth shall show forth Your praise. For You don't desire sacrifice or else would I give it. You don't delight in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a crushed mind, Oh God, You will not despise.

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