Edward Wiggins, who identifies himself as a reverend, spent decades addicted to cocaine, marijuana, and alcohol while still attempting to serve in ministry. In his account, Jesus appeared to him while he was about to use drugs and warned him that if he put another substance into his body, his soul would be condemned to hell with no possibility of reversal. When Wiggins asked if he could finish the drugs already on the table, Jesus took him by the arm and transported him to the pit of hell.

Wiggins describes a vast cave with no light from the outside world, a lake of fire hidden by dark smoke, and millions of people burning like torches on the walls. Jesus told him to look at one of the flames and said, “There you are, right over there, and you’ve been here two hundred years.” Wiggins then entered that body and experienced supernatural pain, hopelessness, and the awareness that he had thrown his life away for drugs and sin. He returned to his body changed and determined to warn others.

First, the danger of presumption in ministry. Wiggins was a reverend who assumed God would not send a minister to hell. His account attacks the idea that title, activity, or knowledge substitutes for obedience. Second, the sealing of destiny by continued sin. Jesus told him the decision would be sealed on earth and in heaven. This reflects Hebrews’s warnings about persistence in sin after receiving the truth. Third, the personal nature of regret. In hell, Wiggins remembered every warning he had ignored. Fourth, the sufficiency of grace to deliver. The account ends with Wiggins leaving drugs and ministry-as-performance behind.

Wiggins’s account resonates with Hebrews 10:26-31, which warns that willful sin after receiving the knowledge of the truth leaves no sacrifice for sins but only fearful judgment. It resonates with 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, which lists those who will not inherit the kingdom and then reminds the Corinthians that some of them were washed, sanctified, and justified. It resonates with Jesus’ statement that not everyone who says “Lord, Lord” will enter the kingdom Matthew 7:21-23.

The claim that Jesus would “seal” a believer’s condemnation after one more act of drug use is theologically difficult. The Bible teaches that persistence in unrepentant sin, not a single isolated failure, reveals whether faith is real. A true believer may fall; an unrepentant person lives in the fall. Wiggins’s experience should be read as a dramatic warning against a pattern of rebellion, not as a mechanical count of sins.

Wiggins’s testimony is powerful for people trapped in addiction, especially those who hide behind ministry or religious identity. It asks: Am I using God as a cover for sin? It is also useful for showing that grace does not permit continued rebellion. The pastoral caution is to present the account as a warning about the trajectory of unrepentant sin, not as a threat that one relapse sends a Christian to hell.

Common student mistake: Taking Wiggins’s warning as evidence that a single sin can cause a true believer to lose salvation, rather than understanding it as a warning against a settled pattern of rebellion.

Practice assignment: Read Hebrews 10:26-31 and 1 John 1:8-2:2. Write a paragraph explaining the difference between a believer who stumbles and a person who persists in unrepentant sin.

Worksheet idea: "Am I Presuming?" — self-assessment on religious identity, hidden sin, and true repentance.

Completion requirement: Student can explain the difference between stumbling and presuming, using Wiggins’s account and Scripture.

• What was Wiggins’s drug of choice, and what role did he hold?

ANSWER: Cocaine, marijuana, and alcohol; he was a reverend.

• What did Jesus warn would happen if Wiggins used drugs again?

ANSWER: That his soul would be condemned to eternal hell and the decision would be sealed.

• What is the pastoral way to use this testimony without creating despair in struggling believers?

ANSWER: Present it as a warning against a settled pattern of rebellion, not as a claim that one failure damns a true believer.