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Vassula Ryden is the Founder of True Life in God and author of, “Heaven is Real, But So is Hell: An Eyewitness Account of What is to Come.” She has experienced “interiorvisions” of heaven and the future. She has spoken to supernatural forces and explains what’s in store for us. She also explains what God, Heaven, and Hell are like.
Some gloomers think these may be the last days. Vassula tells us what we can expect… and how we can prepare for the future.
Ryden has received messages about the future, “The Day of the Lord,” and has even had premonitions about events such as September 11, 2001; the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004; and the fall of Communism in the former Soviet Union. Still it is not a message of doom, which Ryden believes she is to share, but one of redemption, reconciliation and love. Ryden’s specific call from Christ is to help unite the divided branches of the Christian church according to His guidance.
Ryden was born in 1942 to Greek parents and grew up in Egypt until her teen years, when her family moved to Switzerland due to war and unrest. She now resides in Greece with her husband, but has lived throughout the world due to her husband’s consulting work with the government, including countries in Africa and in Southeast Asia. Ryden has two sons.
Find out more about Vassula’s new book at www.Heaven-Is-Real.com. Visit True Life in God at www.tlig.org. See Vassula’s paintings at www.paintedbyvassularyden.com.
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ANNOUNCER: Welcome to the Solomon Success Show, where we explore the timeless wisdom of King Solomon and the Bible, as it relates to business and investing. False prophets and get-rich-quick schemes are everywhere; let’s not be distracted by these. Instead, let’s go to the source: the eternal principles that create a life of peace, power, and prosperity. Here’s our host, Jason Hartman.
JASON HARTMAN: Welcome to the Solomon Success Show. This is your host, Jason Hartman, where we talk about Biblical principles applied to business and investing. Learning from King Solomon, of course. And we will be back with a fantastic guest for you in just a moment here. But be sure to visit our website, www.solomonsuccess.org, or www.solomonsuccess.com. Take advantage of our extensive blog library, and our free content. I think you’ll find some fantastic things there. So, be sure to visit us on the web at www.solomonsuccess.com.
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JASON HARTMAN: It’s my pleasure to welcome Vassula Ryden to the show! Vassula is the author of Heaven Is Real, But So Is Hell, an eyewitness account of what is to come. And obviously this is an age-old topic that humankind has struggled with since the beginning of time, and we’re here to have some interesting discussion on that topic. Vassula, welcome. How are you?
VASSULA RYDEN: I’m fine, thank you. I’m at the airport right now.
JASON HARTMAN: Yes, yes. And I know, I’m a little bit worried about the sound quality, but I think we’ll do okay. It sounded pretty good, for the few minutes that we talked off air in the beginning. But tell us, what inspired the book? My assumption is, you had had maybe what’s called an NDE, a near death experience? Or, no?
VASSULA RYDEN: No. Not at all. The thing is that since 27 years ago, I’ve had an approach from God calling me. And it’s for a mission. It’s 27 years now been invited in 80 countries to witness. It said, you know, this gift that has been given by God, speaking to me, and seeing him in visions, it’s called, the visions are called the intellectual vision. And God speaking is called [unintelligible]. And I have to write down the messages, and then translate it to the people. So that’s why I’ve been invited—why I’m known very much in Asia and in Europe, and I talk about what does God want? Why is he speaking in our times? So, I was also inspired to write this book called Heaven Is Real, But So Is Hell, to share my experiences. Since I was born, there was signs from God, and how He came to me in what year he came to me to start calling me, and saying to me to serve Him.
So, you know, this voice which is called locution, locutions, in the proper sense of theology, theological term is called locutions. So, this is a gift. But not for my benefit only, because you know, I was a person who was far away from God, never kept her faith, never went to church, and I come from the orthodox church. But I never prayed. I was not interested in anything. And it was just like when Jesus say in scriptures I come to you as a thief—it was just almost like that, because I didn’t expect the manifestation of my angels first, and I saw him with the eyes on my soul very clearly, and he told me, God is near you and loves you. But I thought it was just one time experience, because many people can have an experience, and I thought that’s what it is, I had an experience. I saw an angel, and my angel, my guardian angel had told me that. But it wasn’t that. It was the beginning of a big mission. And it isn’t that God decided there and then to give it to me.
Before I was born, God had that in his plans. And people ask me, why did he choose you? You were far away from God and all that. So I write in the book how God is so merciful, and why God chose me. He said—these are his words. Did you not know that wretchedness attracts me? Through your wretchedness I should show the world my mercifulness. And when I said, but I know nothing, I never studied any catechism, I know nothing about whatever, he said, remain nothing, and through your nothingness, I shall show my power and my authority. So I never knew in the beginning, and I say this in the book, how God approached how he formed me, how he taught me the scripture. Every single day appearing and teaching me the scriptures, and how God is approachable. That’s what I want to translate to people through this book that I wrote—how God is approachable, and he’s character. He’s character, because I lived it. How he is so paternal, the father.
So much paternal that you say, well, he is my father before my father here on earth. So, this was the amazing experience, and the amazing visions that he has given me of hell, of heaven, and the ones that Catholics call Purgatory; the orthodox will call it Hades, and the in between as we call it. So all these I described in the visions that I had in that book. But also, the prophecies that he has given us for our times—the prophecy of the tsunami, the first one that happened, that was in detail described, when it happened in Indonesia. So, everything he described in detail, even that the earth would come out of its axis—it did, according to scientists. He said it. And he also predicted 10 years by the date, the towers that fell in New York. Now, one will say, why does God send us all these—
JASON HARTMAN: Vassula, can you give us some references for those predictions? Are you saying they’re in the Bible? I mean, I didn’t know there was anything about the World Trade Center in the Bible.
VASSULA RYDEN: No. No, no, no, no, no. They are not in the Bible. But God can speak any time to warn us. Because our times, as you can tell from only watching the TV news, you can tell how bad they are. But so, the terrorists is demanding more, people falling away from God, blaming God when things don’t go right, you know. There is a great apostasy in Europe, especially. Churches are being sold, cathedrals are being sold, people don’t go to church. You talk about God, they really kill you. At least here in the United States, you can talk about God, you know, and they won’t laugh in your face. But in Europe, they would. So the great apostasy and it has been predicted, this in scriptures, [unintelligible], and that will be the signs it will be the end of time. And so, we are right now living these times which are awful times, I would say. But what is to come? That is the thing that I told. What is to come?
JASON HARTMAN: Okay. So, I want to ask you, Vassula. Slow down a moment here. Just for the record, everybody should understand that you’re a member of the Greek Orthodox Church, is that correct?
VASSULA RYDEN: That’s correct.
JASON HARTMAN: Okay. Because—I think people just would like to have a little context as to where you’re coming from. Now, I’d be remiss if I didn’t ask somewhat skeptical, and ask a question in the place of a skeptic. And that is, how does someone know, or why should they believe that you’ve had these, as you call them, interior visions? Versus other people who haven’t had them, who are believers? What’s the distinction there, and why should people believe your credibility?
VASSULA RYDEN: You’re right. But then, there are the truths, to start with. The truths that are the instant conversions of the heart, when they read the messages and the way—I mean, I told the readers of all this. And people who have been falling away from God totally, and they go back to their own church, these are the biggest miracle, the Lord said, is conversion of the heart. It’s not just a blind man that will see suddenly. That’s good, but even the devil can do this kind of miracles, like the blind man can see for a while. But he can never, ever, change the heart of somebody to convert him to change totally, and turn to God all his life, and become like an unceasing prayer all his life towards God. So, this is one.
The second one is that I was—I had never any lesson of catechism, therefore I knew nothing about scriptures, and all about my own faith. Nothing. And yet, when the Lord is giving us messages describing the gifts of the holy spirit, and we have about—I have about like 1,000 pages of what is the—who is the holy spirit, and what are his actions with us here on earth? The scriptures, which are so deep mystical theology, that Greek theologians, we know [unintelligible] is one, Father Michael Otagal from Ireland is another one. Greek theologians have studied all what I had received, and they had even asked me to take passages from these writings to put them in their own books. So, how could I, a person who was not interested at all, blank mind, you know, obtain all this theology and change my life and my family and my friends and other people who I don’t know? So, there are three sources. Either it is from the devil, and it could be for 27 years that he’s been converting people, then he’s mad, you know. The second one, it could be from my mind, which was blank, and it cannot come up from my self conscious, because I knew nothing.
And the third one from God. So, this case has been studied by [unintelligible], who was pope, even, Benedict XVI, because there was so much noise around the Vatican about how many cardinals, and how many bishops, and arch bishops, and Catholics, were even following this, and believing it, that he said oh no, I have to make a study. He was very skeptical in the beginning, but when he made the study, for two and a half years, he said, if it’s going to be positive, then I will meet this woman. And then it was positive, because he made the study, he studied with great theologians, he was a top theologian. Then he met me. We met each other in 2004, and he even said, you know, the church sometimes can make mistakes, but we ask God to forgive us, because there was persecution, of course. And I’m not surprised, because the Lord told me, this is the gift of prophecy. Do you know of any prophecy that was not prosecuted and misjudged? So, that’s why.
JASON HARTMAN: And, what else would you like people to know about this? I mean, you know what I’d like to know is, the vision of heaven and hell—what are they like? That’s of great interest to everybody, of course.
VASSULA RYDEN: Well, this is all detailed in the book. But I have seen the glory of God, and he said to me one day, come and walk in my glory. And then he takes me to his vision, and then I walk in the glory of God, which was the paradise. And he made me see a glow at the horizon. Very, very bright. And that glow was surrounded by myriads and myriads of angels. All sorts of angels from archangels to cherubims, and all sorts of angels were all surrounding it. But then I don’t want to go into detail, because you know, that is the thing that is in the book. And by the way, the book, I don’t take any money from it. All the royalties go to the poor houses that I have. 25 houses called Beth Miriam, and they all go for charity. So I am not taking any profits for the book. And then, of course I saw, also he showed me hell. Because he said, you know, people do not believe in hell anymore. They don’t believe in Satan. They say, hell is when you make hell on earth. And you know, Satan is just like a myth, it not exists. He’s not existing. And yet he does! He does! I saw him, in the vision. And what struck more, I can tell you Jason, what struck me more, was the hatred he’s got for us. It’s so much hatred, that I had goose—you know what you say, I had like, on my spine—
JASON HARTMAN: Goose bumps.
VASSULA RYDEN: Yes, goose bumps. And then, that was terrible. The hatred. Because he’s jealous of God. He wants everyone if possible to be gone down like him in hell, and suffer for eternity, we’re talking. So we are right now in the middle of a battalion. You know, it is a spiritual battle we are in. But what I want you—I’m coming to your question. What I want to pass on to people. I want to pass on the sweetness of God. That you know, he’s approachable. Which I experienced. And that many people have intellectualized God. Like, they read God about Him like on a printed matter only. They have not had—their love is like, yes, we love God, but it is not as much as God wants us to love him, because they don’t know him so much. There’s my descriptions of God is in there, and how I felt him as a father, and his sweetness. It’s just like David in the Psalms who talks about the sweetness of God, that’s sweeter than honey. But also, we must not provoke his justice, because things are not going right if we provoke his justice. And I want—but I want them to know that God says, do not wait to become saints to become to me. Come as you are, and I will turn you into a saint. That is what I want to pass on. The reality of God, the love of God, the mercy of God. But also to be aware that Satan exists, because also, there are other things that are in front of us, that are waiting. And some are good, and some are not good, and that’s what I’m talking in that book.
JASON HARTMAN: And tell us what heaven and hell is like, though.
VASSULA RYDEN: Well, I just said a little bit of heaven, but I’m not going to go more than that, because also I want to describe about hell. You know what is hell? When they say about fire, because I saw that, I was like drawn down in that certain kind of cave. Dark and sticky ground. I remembered the ground very much. You know, the soil was like sticky, and dark, like a volcanic kind of material. And I, you know, Satan can take any shape. He can take the shape of a dog. He can take the shape of an angel. Of Christ himself, he can take the shape. He can take the shape of a goat. You know, anything he can take. But I saw him, when I saw him in hell, I saw him as a person. As a man, you know. Like, a normal looking person. And, as he heard my footsteps, I was behind him, he turned—that was in the vision, okay—he turned around, and when he saw me with disgust, he spat on the ground. And he said, look at this. Today we have even worms coming here. He called me worm. And then he had some kind of fire. But this is symbolic. I want to describe fire, what is the fire of hell. It is not a material fire. It’s an immaterial fire. Because the soul, when it is a damned soul, and in damnation, has so much hatred, it must [unintelligible] it’s hatred inside him, and also, there is so much despair, so much agony, hopelessness. There’s so much hopelessness, that it is incredible. It’s that it’s big hopelessness, despair, agony, hatred. All this comes together, and it is, as we call, like a fire, burning the soul. But it’s not really fire. It is the fire of the soul that is knowing that it will never, ever see God. Although they hate him. That is hell. That is the hell.
JASON HARTMAN: So, it’s something like the portrayals that we sometimes see in movies, and such? I mean, it does sound a little bit like that, from what you described.
VASSULA RYDEN: You know, we can imagine—
JASON HARTMAN: Hollywood hasn’t done that bad a job, maybe.
VASSULA RYDEN: Yes. I would say even for the [unintelligible]. I’ve seen the latest movies are very good, like The Rite, with Anthony Hopkins, or the other one that was called, um, the possession, or The Exorcism of Emily Rose. It was very close to reality. I mean, perfect. I would say even perfect. But I’ve seen these people. They’re not—we can’t say a wicked person is possessed, because we might—you know, some people say yeah, she has the devil inside. Possessed. Possession is very rare. There is—there are other steps just before that. I mean, there is the temptation, #1, then comes the infestation, obsession, and then it comes possession. To be possessed, also, one has to give a foothold to Satan. An opportunity to enter. Because Satan is a legalist. You know? He say okay, I have not the right. This is my domain, you know. I have, you know, complete legalist, and he says, I have the right, and he can possess. But we have to be really falling away from the grace of God in continuous mortal sin. And these are, you know, openings for Satan to step in. That is why we have to be careful. And I’m saying in this book how to be careful, and how to discern the spirit, if it is a temptation, or if—and what is the difference between natural—preternatural and supernatural? So I’m giving these, because I have experienced these three things, of course. And it is interesting for people to learn, also.
JASON HARTMAN: Let’s talk for just a moment, before you go, about the End Time Prophecies. I remember when I was a little kid my grandmother was teaching me about the parallels between today’s world and the end times. But that was decades ago. If we are in the end times, and I think there’s a lot of evidence that points to that, so I agree with you, but how long can they go on? I mean, beyond our earthly lifetime? Maybe many lifetimes more. I don’t know.
VASSULA RYDEN: Yeah. But God has no time to start with. Whenever Jesus was telling me for some events soon—he uses the word soon so much. So one day I asked him, which soon? Unity, about the unity of the church as well, which is so important, you know, in the messages as well—unity of the church. Because the division, that not comes from God. Any division comes from Satan. So, I asked him, is it you soon, or my soon? And he said, your soon. So I know that it is going to be in our time, Jason. You know, especially end of times, we’re right in it! We’re right in it! These end of times, as I described, you know, the apostasy, and the spirit of rebellion, but then, at the same time, there is an outpouring of the spirit on all mankind like never before in history. And I see it, because I travel so much around the world, I see that people are turning to God, and they are seeking. They are thirsty to know more about God, and they’re creating prayer groups even at home. This never happened before 30 years ago. So the holy spirit is like a tide coming in slowly. Doesn’t come in banging like one big wave; it comes slowly, and it’s going to be augmenting, and slowly, the whole creation is going to be renewed. That is for the future. In the near future—it’s very near, the future. Also for the unity of the church is just around the corner. Just around the corner. He speaks about it, you know, like first when you find the dates of Easter and we just separated, this year it’s 5 weeks in between. Imagine.
JASON HARTMAN: That’s a big difference, yeah.
VASSULA RYDEN: The Lord doesn’t want to be crucified twice, that’s what he says. And this is a scandal to the world. Us Christians, we should be united, and have one date, and celebrate this big feast in one time, not twice. And this shows the, you know, petty things about human beings, being, you know, I’m right, and you’re wrong, and all that. Jesus doesn’t want to hear this anymore. He says, I’m really sick of hearing these things. I do not want administrators in my church. You have turned my church—you have industrialized my church, he says in one of the messages. So, you know, Jesus is quite upset. But he doesn’t let go. He loves us so much, [unintelligible]. So he says, you are destroying yourselves with all the wickedness and the selfishness. You bring all this disasters on yourself. You’re destroying yourselves. It’s not I who want to punish you, like all these natural catastrophes, or the powers that fell, the tsunami, and everything. In the future he’s telling us about the fire, but it’s even in the scriptures! And it’s very near. Very near. He even talked about the meteorite that came by and passed by here in—
JASON HARTMAN: In Russia?
VASSULA RYDEN: In Russia—exactly. And he give a prayer! And I said, five days before it falls in Russia, we have to tell all our people, because we have a website to pray again without knowing that this thing was coming. Five days before, to pray the prayer that Jesus gave us about the asteroid, about the star, and we have to pray, and then five days later we find out this is happening, but this is just like a prelude! There is going to be a fire! But when, I don’t know, and how, I don’t know.
JASON HARTMAN: Right, right. Last question for you, Vassula. Can dreams or premonitions tell us the future? I mean, you talked about that earlier in our interview today. But I just want to kind of ask that question more directly.
VASSULA RYDEN: Yes. Sometimes. Not always. We have to be very careful not to claim everything, that this comes from God, the premonition. But sometimes they do. And I believe that many people have the gift of having premonition dreams. Yes, they do. And, you know, we have to take them sometimes seriously. But the person will see in their heart if it is really from God, the premonition or not, or if it is just because they ate too much for supper.
JASON HARTMAN: Right, right. It might be their dinner that’s giving them a premonition.
VASSULA RYDEN: Right. We have to discern.
JASON HARTMAN: Sure, sure.
VASSULA RYDEN: We have to discern.
JASON HARTMAN: The book, Heaven Is Real But So Is Hell, is on Amazon, of course, it’s got great reviews. 81 reviews—a lot of interactions, a lot of interest, and four stars. Give out your website, or any other resources where people can learn more.
VASSULA RYDEN: Alright. We have a website called HeavenIsRealBook.com. We also, it’s Amazon, and also Barnes and Noble, you can buy it from the Internet. So the bookstores are Barnes and Noble, and Books a Million as well. Yesterday I was signing in the shop, Books a Million. The bookstore.
JASON HARTMAN: Fantastic. Well, Vassula, thank you so much for joining us today!
VASSULA RYDEN: Well, God bless you, and all the people who are hearing. Goodbye.
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ANNOUNCER: What’s great about the shows you’ll find on www.jasonhartman.com is that if you want to learn about some cool new investor software, there’s a show for that! If you want to learn why Rome fell, Hitler rose, and Enron failed, there’s a show for that! If you want to know about property evaluation technology on the iPhone, there’s a show for that. And if you’d like to know how to make millions with mobile homes, there’s even a show for that. Yep! There’s a show for just about anything. Only from www.jasonhartman.com. Or type in Jason Hartman in the iTunes store.
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ANNOUNCER: This show is produced by the Hartman Media Company. All rights reserved. For distribution or publication rights and media interviews, please visit www.HartmanMedia.com, or email [email protected]. Nothing on this show should be considered specific personal or professional advice. Please consult an appropriate tax, legal, real estate, or business professional for any individualized advice. Opinions of guests are their own, and the host is acting on behalf of Empowered Investor Network, Inc. exclusively.
Transcribed by David
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