A Texas pastor with a popular TikTok account has gone viral after claiming he went to hell in 2016 and heard Rihanna's music being used to punish sinners.
Gerald Johnson—leader of the Gerald A. Johnson Ministries in the Lone Star State—confirmed in an interview clip he thought he was suffering a heart attack when his spirit left his physical body and headed to the underworld.
He explained:
"I thought I was going upward because I had done so much good in this lifetime and made so many godly decisions."
But apparently, fate had other plans for him as he found himself inside the Devil's Kingdom.
Johnson continued to claim the location of the fiery pits of hell was a geological site.
He said:
"I literally went to the center of the earth."
"That's where Hell is. Jesus even said it in his scriptures."
The things he said he witnessed there were indescribable and made him "emotional" every time he thought about it, but he soldiered on for the sake of his curious followers.
An example of something he said he saw was a demon who had a charred man on all fours with "bulging eyes" on a chain leash–a "tormented dog slave" he called it.
But what apparently blew him away and still baffled him to this day was a "section in hell where music was playing."
He continued:
"It was the same music that we hear on the Earth, but as opposed to entertainers singing it, the music, demons were singing it."
"It was some of the same lyrics we hear here."
"I knew that on earth, a lot of the lyrics, the music and the songs are inspired by demons."
Johnson went on to claim musicians on Earth get high so they can "access to the spirit realm" to allow demons to telepathically transmit lyrics to them so they can ultimately submit themselves to Satan.
He referenced artists like Bobby McFerrin, Jazmine Sullivan and Rihanna as examples of songs demons used in hell to punish the damned souls who previously didn't believe in God while on Earth.
"Here, music is to get over a breakup. 'Don't worry, be happy,' 'I bust the windows out your car,' or, 'under my umbrella,' whatever."
The latter example of course was the chart-topping hit Rihanna won the Grammy Award for in 2008 along with Jay-Z for the category of Best Rap/Sung Collaboration.
Johnson continued:
"Every lyric to every song is to torment you as to the fact that you didn't worship God through music when you were on the Earth."
"You had a chance to worship him in church and at home and through music, but you chose to worship Satan by repeating the lyrics that he inspired to come into the earth."
The TikTok comments descended further into madness.
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Either some of his adherents endeavored to cleanse themselves of their music-admiring ways or there was major sarcasm here.
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Rihanna recently came back into the limelight after a six-year hiatus with "Lift Me Up" for the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack.
The ballad's release was the Barbadian singer's first solo music output since her 2016 studio album Anti.
It hit number 2 on the US charts and earned the 34-year-old an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song.
Rihanna is scheduled to raise some hell at the 2023 Super Bowl in Arizona on Sunday, February 12.
McFerrin–who was also listed as part of the playlist Johnson heard at the Earth's hellish core–will receive a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy at the Special Merit Awards on February 4.
Rihanna, McFerrin and Jazmine Sullivan–all of whom are Grammy Award winners–have not responded to the comments made from the pastor who went to hell and back.
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