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The Gate
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THEGATE.txt
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2014-12-11
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THE GATE
I lay there restlessly in my bed,
tossing and turning; trying to sleep.
The preacher had seemed to be talking to me,
and I didn't feel so well.
Finally, wakefulness was erased
from that blackboard of my mind.
And as I slept, I began to dream
that I stood at the gate of Hell.
Before me stood an angel who said,
"You must come with me."
I watched as the gate was opened,
and we were bidden to enter in.
I said, "I don't want to be here."
"It matters not," the angel replied.
"He has decreed that you must see
firsthand the results of Christians' sin.
Before me was a darkness
and a fire that did not consume.
And as we walked, I felt despair
of souls consigned to this place.
Overwhelming was the weight
of the pain of countless billions.
Young and old, they were here,
the doomed of every race.
Walking along, we saw a girl
surrounded by aborted children.
Eternally, she would look at them
and dream of what might have been.
Farther still, an addict lay
with needle tracks up his arm.
He'd been at it a long, long time.
He looked so gaunt and thin.
And there was a man who had died of aids.
His lifestyle, no doubt, did him in.
I looked down my nose at the godless creature and said,
"It served him right."
The angel said nothing as we walked
along the path of the suffering and hopeless.
And yet farther we traveled still
into the depths of this eternal night.
Into the bowels of Hell we went,
and we saw faces of every nation.
And I was thinking as I looked,
with distaste, "These people belong in Hell.
The angel looked at me once more,
then said only one word, "Come."
"This is the last place," he finally said.
"And after that, I have something to tell."
There was a chamber, and we went in,
and as we did, my heart ripped apart.
I fell to my knees and began to sob
for the multitude who stood before me.
Standing there were hundreds;
every lost person I had ever known.
The angel beside me said softly, "Look."
Then added, "This is something you must see."
Finally I stood and managed a gaze
through tear stained eyes into theirs.
And as I did, I felt a blow
and my knees began to fail.
The angel caught me as I collapsed,
and I felt a burden I couldn't bear.
All their pain flowed in with the knowledge
that I had driven in the coffin nails.
Finally, it was over. The scene vanished,
and we stood at the gate once again.
And as the pain of my once friends faded
I thanked God that I never had to go in.
I looked at the gate, then at my angel
and asked, "Why did we do this thing?"
With hurt, then compassion he looked at me,
then, softly, told me of my sin.
"When Jesus walked the earth," he said,
"He was here to show the way.
He said, 'I don't condemn you.'
yet you throw stones everyday.
To the homosexual, you sneer and say,
'You are an abomination.'
To the abortion case, you cry, 'Murder!'
Then say, 'You'll go to Hell one day.'"
"You quote Bible to the heathen
from a book they don't even know.
You seemed to think it proved something
that you told, though they never heard.
You call them names, you list their sins.
You preach, yet you drive them away.
Then you pat yourself on the back and say.
'Great! I've spread the word!'"
"When Jesus visited man back then,
He never kicked the sinner.
He had compassion. He showed God's love.
He said, 'You are forgiven.'
He healed the body. He healed the soul.
He gave hope in exchange for pain.
He said, 'To all who believe in me,
you are welcome to enter in.'"
"To the Pharisees, the religious elite,
to those who called themselves 'chosen',
to the ones who prayed in the streets and said,
'We're glad that we're not sinners.'
To 'God's Frozen' he cried, 'Hypocrites!
You want God for yourselves!
You burden the sinner! You keep him down!
You're nothing but a nest of vipers!'"
Then, the angel smiled tenderly
and asked, "Which will you be?
Will you be Christ-like, and show His love?
Will you show some real compassion?
Or perhaps, like the religious of old,
you'd rather point and push back?"
I looked at the gate, then at him and shuddered,
then said, "No. I've learned my lesson.
(C) Poet Hades/his alter ego. July 1997