An Amazing Fact: A Fresno family
vacationing in Lahaina, Hawaii, escaped the island’s largest wildfire ever. It
was like a scene from a Hollywood movie. The father, mother, and five children
were trapped in traffic. When flames began to overtake their car, they got out
and ran into the sea, clinging to debris for hours. The August 2023 wildfires
killed 102 people and caused $6 billion in damages.
Joe held his screaming five-year-old son close. His own
heart raced when he thought about the horrific teachings of his church about
hellfire. The distorted doctrine that sinners will burn forever in the
fires of hell frightens many sincere souls. It’s a cruel theory—and a flat-out
lie straight from the devil!
But you can extinguish this twisted teaching when you are
part of Amazing Facts’ TV evangelism. Do you have terrified friends and family
who are running for their lives away from God? Do they believe
He is a sadist who delights in torturing sinners in an ever-burning fire? Many
people have never read this Bible verse: “‘As I live,’ says the
Lord God, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked’” (Ezekiel
33:11).
When you work together with heaven’s agencies, you can bring
peace to troubled souls around the world. Through evangelistic broadcasts, you
can calm hearts by sharing the plain truth about hell. Let me tell you how you
did this for Joe …
The Awful Fear of Hell
As his little boy yelled in terror, Joe cradled him in his
arms. “Daddy’s here. You’ll be okay.” But while the soothing words slipped off
Joe’s tongue, his heart felt like it was ripping open. He knew all about his
son’s terror. The thought of burning in hell forever for his sins often
made him panic too.
Joe had no idea how to help his boy. He himself was the son
of a long line of Baptist ministers. None of the explanations about death and
hellfire they gave him made sense. How could a God of love torture
people forever in hell for a short lifetime of sin?
You can bring freedom to worried hearts by sharing the
simple Bible truth. You can help people understand that “the wages of
sin is death” (Romans 6:23). It’s not eternal life roasting in fire
and brimstone. The Scriptures make God’s character clear!
A 60-Second Turning Point
Over the years, Joe had learned to manage his fears of
hellfire, but the terror never went away. He and his wife, Wendy, regularly
attended a Baptist church with their four children.
Joe says that when his church screened a film about the
flames of hell, “It reopened all my fears. I began praying that God would
answer my questions so that I could help my kids. We were at the point of
leaving the church if we couldn’t find answers.”
Not long after, Joe fell into bed one night after working
for 20 hours straight at his two jobs. He instantly fell asleep. But an hour
later, he woke up to a television preacher he had never heard before. The bald
preacher was offering a free booklet on the truth about hellfire!
Sixty seconds later, the program ended, but Joe couldn’t go
back to sleep. Just watching the last 60 seconds of our Amazing Facts
with Doug Batchelor program, Joe realized there was urgent truth about
this subject that he needed to know. He mulled over the hint of the biblical
explanation he had seen—a hint you brought to him by broadcasting life-changing
truth about God on TV.
A Treasure Trove of Answers
Joe soon realized that Amazing Facts was just down the
street from his father’s workplace. He had often driven past it and wondered
about the ministry inside. Eager to know the truth about hell, he decided to go
in person and picked up the booklet.
He shares, “At first, I couldn’t finish reading it because I
was crying so hard. It was such a relief to finally get the answers.”
Joe quickly returned to our office and bought $300 worth of
books and DVDs about many Bible topics. He devoted every spare moment to
studying those materials. Wendy eagerly listened as he shared what he had
learned, and her life changed too.
Planting Seeds of Truth
It didn’t take long for Joe to start sharing those same
truths with his Sunday school class. That caught the attention of the pastors
in his family. Joe’s new convictions about the Sabbath especially disturbed his
father. “They called a family meeting with my Baptist theologian uncle,” Joe
recalls. “The first thing he said was, ‘Joe is absolutely right about the
Sabbath.’ I explained that I wasn’t following the Sabbath to leave the family,
but I also needed to be honest with what I was learning in God’s Word.”
Today, Joe says, “Our lives are blessed because of that
first minute of explanation I saw about hellfire. Our kids are all following
the Lord. The clarity of God’s Word calmed their fears.” Joe and his family are
also faithful partners in Amazing Facts’ evangelism work.
More TV Stations, More Truth
Friend, our media team at Amazing Facts is always looking
for more TV stations to broadcast the truth on. Your generous support this
month will help secure popular time slots on new stations—including WTOK in
Mississippi, KSWO in Oklahoma, and WXIN in Indianapolis. And, Lord willing, God
will open doors for us to air on KCOP in Los Angeles.
Will you join me in spreading the lifesaving Bible truth
through TV evangelism? Your gift of $200 will provide 174 Bible resources to TV
viewers calling in for answers. Your generous gift of $100 will help 1,667
seekers watch life-changing sermons on TV. And a tranquility-producing gift of
$1,000 will broadcast calming truth to 8,333 anxious hearts.
Whatever size gift you send this month, I’m grateful that
you trust Amazing Facts to make a difference through television and all our
other evangelism programs.
Joe is grateful to you and is helping others know Bible
truth through Amazing Facts programs and other resources. His family now
experiences peace knowing the truth about hell. Will you help many more fearful
hearts find the same rest in Christ? Will you help save others from the horrors
of twisted truths?
Preaching peace to the perishing,
Pastor Doug Batchelor
President, Amazing Facts International