Dan Big Questions, Bigger Answers, Part 1

When 33 hospital patients died in just one day, Dan just about cracked. As a registered nurse in the mid-80s caring for people with AIDS, his belief in an eternally burning hell left him asking, “Where is God in all of this?”

Dan, an entrepreneur and medical training expert is not only a registered nurse, but he also has three master’s degrees. He didn’t just treat patients at the beginning of the global AIDS epidemic, but he helped establish the nation’s first hospital devoted to research on immunological disorders.

All that initiative, however, took a toll on his health: Until recently, he weighed in at 252 pounds and took thirteen medications daily. Dan knew that neither his weight nor the number of prescriptions he carried signaled good things for his future.

One night, Dan was looking for some inspiration on his satellite television service. An observant member of the Mormon church for 26 years, he didn’t know about churches that observed the Bible Sabbath—and, to be honest, he had no interest in learning about one.

That was soon to change. When Dan “accidentally” tuned in to a Christian satellite network, he didn’t half-respond to the spiritual and health messages that were broadcast there. He dived in, and in less than a year he was baptized into a Sabbath-keeping congregation, something he credits largely to Amazing Facts. There were tremendous health benefits, too, as Dan was to find out.

The first thing he saw on television was a presentation on the state of the dead. Dan was stunned to learn that the Bible’s teaching about what happens after death was in no way similar to what he’d been taught growing up. The afterlife had long weighed on his mind. In his early years of treating AIDS patients, most of who succumbed shortly after arriving at the hospital, he became disillusioned with his childhood Pentecostal teachings about the dead either going to heaven or hell—the latter for eternal torment. This sent Dan to the Mormon faith, but even after decades of practice, he remained unsettled.

“Something about what was said rang true in my mind,” Dan recalled about his reaction to the message. But he admits that he knew nothing about the Sabbath-keeping faith.

Reflect: Do you know someone who believes in an eternally burning hellfire? You can show them truth that will bring them peace straight from the Bible.

Key Bible Texts

The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up. (Matthew 4:16 KJV)