Gratefully, God's love fills many religions and many houses of worship. The example of Christ in loving and helping one another is followed in countless congregations and lived in millions of lives. This young woman's family never went to church until the kindness of a local congregation changed all that:

The summer after I graduated, our air conditioner overheated, and our house burned to the ground. The little Baptist church in this very small community did everything they could for us. They took up a love offering, donated clothes and other items, volunteered their time to help clean up the mess, and opened their homes when we needed a place to stay. We then became members of this loving church family. We were faithfully there every time the doors opened.

This loving congregation taught the Lord's message by practicing it, and there is no greater way to teach it. God always provides the means for us to approach him. Whether through a person, a church, or a stranger, he will seek to bring us closer to him. A religion therefore can become a life jacket, holding a person's head above roiling waters. We must never deprecate this life jacket by ridiculing or attacking another's faith. This offends the same Spirit that seeks to lift others to new truths. Love, meekness, and patience are the tools of the Spirit—and are the Spirit's messengers.
But what of those who turn from the Spirit in their lives? Do they consign themselves to hell? Our preachers who teach hell so eloquently don't preach without reference; the Bible itself refers often to hell. Jesus said, "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. . . . Ye, serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?" (Matthew 23:15, 33). Jesus did not mince words with the misguided spiritual leaders of his time. In calling them the children of hell, he knew far better than they what this means.
Hell is a translation of the Hebrew word Sheol, or the Greek word Hades, meaning underworld. The term hellfire most likely comes from atrocities committed in the valley of Hinnom, near Jerusalem where a sect of idolatrous Jews burned children as religious offerings. The children's suffering left indelible impressions on those who watched. Afterwards the site became a garbage dump which burned, seemingly, without ceasing. The terms "eternal fire" and "hellfire" may come from this. But in speaking of hell, Christ did not refer to an actual pit of fire on the other side of death, but rather to a state of being. Hell is the absence of God, a void of light and truth. Spirits who find themselves in this void have placed themselves there by choosing separation from God. Most of us experience periods in life when we feel as though God has abandoned us. During such times our thoughts become dark and confused, and we feel spiritual and even physical pain. But these feelings result from our own thoughts, imaginations and misunderstandings. God does not abandon us. When we feel this way, we must take responsibility ourselves. Our hell ends when we return to God.
Many people have experienced a portion of hell after death and have returned to describe it. Interestingly, no two experiences seem to be alike. In one letter, a woman writes about her turbulent and fear-filled life and then describes her death. Upon dying, she entered into the initial black void where peace and love filled her and convinced her that heaven actually existed. As the beauty and power of heaven became certain, she suddenly feared it, feeling unworthy of its pureness and incredible light. Within moments she plummeted into a dark and bottomless pit—a place which matched her own feelings of self-worth. Then her sufferings began.

My whole body felt the pain of burning. There was no flame, no light, just the horrible pain of burning! I heard the anguished screams of others combined with my own. I couldn't see anything in the darkness . . . just falling, burning and screaming in torment. I was in hell!

I felt that even God didn't enter into this damned place, and that he didn't even know I was there. I had a lifetime to prepare for this day—God had already given me every opportunity to believe—but I had chosen the way of unbelief. Mostly I had relied on myself in life and done things my way, making myself god over my life. I knew that God had not sent me to hell, but that I had sent myself. Terror consumed me as I realized there was no way out, no way to stop the anguish, pain, and horror of hell. This was for eternity. I couldn't even commit suicide. No one could help me. I would fall and burn forever and ever and ever!

Then my thoughts went to God, and I realized that I did believe in him and that I was terribly sorry, not just for the torment of hell, but because I no longer was able to be close to him. The peace, the love, the joy I had experienced just moments before would never be there again. At this point I wanted nothing but to be with God.

Then it stopped. I felt the peace of God again. And then, shortly after that, I felt life returning.

Because this woman had removed herself from God during her life, in death she judged herself undeserving of heaven's love and beauty. She determined that God's love did not extend to her, and she plunged into the hell she felt worthy of. But God's love did extend to her, even in that dark pit, and the moment she realized she needed him, he rescued her from agony.
Jesus taught that "with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again" (Matthew 7:2). This is frightening to consider. How many of us offer the same compassion to others as we might one day, or one eternity, wish for ourselves? During a television interview I had, a woman in the audience became angry with me because my version of hell did not go far enough to suit her tastes. She demanded that a hell of fire and eternal suffering exist to consume all who fall short of God's grace. Perhaps she should be careful what she wishes for—and how she judges those who fall short, in her eyes, of God's grace.
Here's another letter indicating the negativity we can create for ourselves on the other side.

In my life, much of the teaching I received about the Lord was done through fear, such as "If you don't go to church you'll go to hell."

I got involved with drugs in my teens, and at seventeen ended up getting in a near-fatal auto accident. My body lay in a field for some time before I was found, and it was then that I had my experience.

I found myself above the earth, suspended in the universe. I sensed a oneness with all Creation, and during this sense of awe, a kind voice spoke to me calling me by name and said, "Are you willing to receive me?" I asked who he was, and he said, "This is Jesus who is speaking to you." Then thoughts rushed through my mind of what my friends thought. They thought that anyone who believed in Jesus or God were Jesus-freaks. After just thinking these thoughts, though not saying a word, I found I was slammed into this tunnel.

It began with marvelous lights shooting around me and then I was literally dumped, like falling out of a laundry shoot, into a cavern that was very ancient. It wasn't very long before I realized where I was. There were all forms of ghoulish creatures there, demonic. I couldn't stand still, for there were worms and snakes everywhere. Then the torturers began to chase me, screaming my name as I ran from them. I pleaded for the Lord, Jesus, to deliver me, and he heard me.

"And he heard me." What glorious words. Our thoughts and words and actions may place us in hell, but Christ is always aware of us, extending his arms, waiting for us to call upon him, to be converted to him and his truths. In every negative near-death experience I know about, it is the person's own fear and guilt that defined and created the suffering. Hell is a tool. It is real. In God's hand, it can provide a crucial, if painful, learning experience. The length and intensity of the experience is determined by us—by our accepting God's love or rejecting it. In my opinion, the sooner the better!
Let us not judge others or wish punishment upon them. If we follow Christ's example—as it says in Matthew 5:44—we will love our enemies, bless them that curse us, do good to them that hate us, and pray for them which despitefully use us and persecute us. In my experience I saw that God allows his children to bathe in a realm of loving darkness for as long as they want to before returning to him. I bathed in this love until a beam of light reached me, and when I went toward that light, I went because I wanted to. I saw that some could not or would not move toward the light. Perhaps murderers, rapists, and others who refuse to accept God's truth and love are among the lost sheep that Christ will yet rescue and hold close until they heal. A transformation of soul must occur before they will feel comfortable among beings of light. God's tenacious love can cause this transformation, but the person must be willing to accept it. And only when he truly accepts it will his desire naturally draw him toward the light.
The truth will set us free when we are ready to accept it.
We hold the keys to prison's door and heaven's gate. When will we choose to learn within the perfect love and light of God? As soon as we do, we throw off our shackles of fear and guilt. By turning the key to heaven, by desiring to enter therein, we allow our Savior to reach us, to save us, to teach us how to become more like him.
I am grateful for his love and understanding, for his tolerance and patience. His perfection is no longer the source of my despair, but of my hopes—because he knows me and loves me just as I am. As I feel his invitation to draw near him, I recognize that all the love and joy I once felt in his presence can be mine again. I don't need to be perfect to be helped—I only need to want the help. He is ready to claim me from any trouble, from any despair, from any hell if I will turn and move toward his light.
This is my religion: that Jesus Christ lives, that he died to open the way for us all to live with God again, and that doing his will in mortality will bring us closer to him both here and in eternity. I willingly open my heart to accept his love, and I expect to receive it, in all its fullness, when I meet him again.