A Buddhist monk-turned-Evangelical pastor has opened up about briefly experiencing Hell during a near death experience, describing it as a barren wasteland full of giant demons, “agony” and “fear.”
In a recent interview with the Daily Mail, Steve Kang revealed he had a face-to-face experience with the supernatural after a suicide attempt left him hovering between life and death, an ordeal he described as an eight-hour descent into a dark, torturous realm he believes was Hell.
“It’s not a place you want to go,” Kang said. “I almost feel like I don’t even want Kim Jong-il or Hitler to go there. I don’t want my worst enemies to go there.”
In September 1998, while battling substance abuse and plagued by what he believed was demonic possession, Kang attempted to take his life by slitting his neck and stomach. As surgeons worked frantically to repair the damage at a hospital in California, Kang said his spirit was plunged into what he could only describe as Hell.
“There was no light,” he said. “There [were] no plants. I don’t remember seeing even an ounce of grass. It was just like rocky floor. There’s cliffs everywhere, and they look like purplish red, just not a pleasant color. You look up, and it’s just dark. Just imagine a very dark night without the moon.”
The 20-minute experience, which doctors later told him lasted roughly eight hours in real time, left an indelible mark on Kang, who described a barren and agonizing landscape filled with lost souls and monstrous demons.
“There’s no ability to converse with people. It was so much pain, so much accusation, so much fear. It was like anxiety multiplied, fear of condemnation multiplied,” he said.
He recalled giant demons, “three, four, five stories tall,” watching over the souls in torment. “I knew they were in charge of this place,” Kang said.
According to Kang, the emotional pain was worse than any physical torture he could imagine. “So much guilt, shame, fear. It was worse than death.”
Although Kang was raised in a Buddhist household and once trained to be a monk, his mother was turned away when she sought help from their temple in Korea during his hospitalization. Instead, she reached out to a Christian friend, who brought a prayer group to the hospital.
“They started praying, and the doctor later said that this was a miracle,” Kang said.
According to Kang, his spiritual experience abruptly changed when he sensed someone praying for him. He said he felt an overwhelming sense of peace wash over him and heard a voice he believed was Jesus.’
“It was at that moment,” he said, “that I instantly left Hell and returned to my body.”
Kang told the Daily Mail that the doctor who treated him later said, “It’s a miracle that I found every vessel at the right time. If I was a few minutes late [...] you might not be here.”
Now sober for 25 years, Kang said, “I [...] don’t drink, don’t smoke anymore, don’t look [at] anything stupid online. God gave me this inner strength to be so pure.”
Kang serves as pastor of Revive The Nations Ministry and said he remained quiet about the experience for years, unsure how to process what had happened. But recently, he said, connecting with others who had similar experiences, many of whom described nearly identical visions of Hell or Heaven, gave him the courage to speak out.
“I started seeing that this is not just Steve’s story,” Kang said. “This is a story of everybody, every nation across every country, anyone that God decides to have mercy on.”
He now shares his story widely in hopes of warning others about what he calls “spiritual cancer.”
“Our job, I believe, is to share the story and tell people that there is a cure for spiritual cancer or sin or death,” Kang said.
A 2022 study published in Frontiers in Psychology reviewed 465 near-death accounts and found that nearly 10% involved negative experiences, including hellish landscapes and torment.
In a recent interview with The Christian Post, Michael Youssef, pastor of the Church of the Apostles in Atlanta, Georgia, said it’s important to understand what Jesus says about Hell throughout the New Testament.
“That is very important,” he said. “Today, nobody wants to talk about Hell. They think that Hell doesn't exist. Nobody's going to Hell. And I said, ‘What? Are you saying Jesus is lying? Because everything we know about Hell is from Jesus.’”
“Those who deliberately go against the Word of God, and think that God is just such a big Santa Claus in Heaven who doesn't care and He winks at sin and doesn't care how you live, then they are the ones going to be in a big shock on that last day or when they die.”
It's impossible to understand the beauty of Heaven without acknowledging the horrors of Hell, Youssef said. The “Hollywood idea” that everyone goes to Heaven when they die is a “lie from the pit of Hell,” he cautioned.
“Everybody thinks they're good. Whoever says, ‘I'm bad?’ I tell people that in Heaven, there are no good people. There are only bad people in Heaven. The only good person in Heaven is Jesus. But all the others are bad people who have recognized that they are bad, that they are sinners who desperately need the salvation that only Jesus can give them. Redeemed sinners — that's who's going to be in Heaven. These are the concepts that we need to constantly hammer away at people to understand. Heaven is something to look forward to, and work toward, and not be afraid of or apprehensive about or being uncertain.”
