Hell Discovered in Siberia

[Gregory Matthews]

The following reports actual facts that happened and on a hoax that was perpetuated by Aage Rendalen, a SDA, retired language teacher now living in Richmond, Virginia.  He has graduate degrees from Southern Adventist University, Andrews University and from the University of Oslo, in Norway.  To help distinguish between the truthful and the false, I will label the sections.

Truth:  In late 1989, Paul Crouch, of Trinity Broadcasting Company (TBN) reported on a story published in Ammennusastiaa, a newspaper published by a Pentecostal group in Western Finland.  That article reported that Russia had drilled a nine mile deep hole in the Earth in Siberia.  At that depth, they had reached a large cavity which contained the voices of thousands/millions of humans screaming in agony.

Truth:  The world’s deepest drill-hole began to be drilled in 1979.  This occurred in the Kola Peninsula which was in Russia, but not anywhere near Siberia. This hole was drilled some 40,230 feet, or about 8 miles deep.  This was a scientific project intended to study the geology of the crust of the Earth.  Drilling stopped in 1989 due to the fact that the temperature of the deep Earth was in excess of what the drill bit could stand.  In 2006,. The study of the data from this research project ended.

Truth:   In 1989. Aage Rendalen decided to see if he make up a story that  could not be believed but would be published as truth by the media.  So, the story that Aage invented follows next:

False:  Aage Rendalen appointed himself as  the “Special Counsellor to the Minister of Justice of Norway.”  He took a Norwegian newspaper article about a retired building inspector who complained abut local building matters.  Aage then produced a false English translation of that article that claimed to report the discovery of Hell in a Siberian drilling.  In that translation, it was claimed that at night a brilliant being with bat wings had appeared from the bore hole.  Emblazoned against the dark sky was a Norwegian word which translated into English meant “I have conquered.”  This story also contained information as to how the Soviets had attempted to erase the memory of the people involved in this incident.  In addition, the story contained names and telephone numbers of people to call to verify the truth of this story.  It had been agreed that if any of those people were contacted, they  would tell the truth, that the story was false.

TBN called and was told that the story was false.  But, TBN broadcast the story and attributed it to a R. W. Shambach from Texas.  In those broadcasts, Aage Rendalen, as the Special Counselor to the Norwegian Minister of Justice was stated to have verified the story.  Rich Buhler, of a radio station in Los Angeles, called Aage in Norway.  He was told the truth.  He wrote an article, that truthfully described the caper and was published in the July 16, 1990 edition of Christianity Today.

This did not stop the story.  Religious and other organizations continued to publish the story.  (See the AT Article for more details on this.)  It was suggested that this story proved the truth of Revelation 9: 1 & 2 as to the “bottomless pit” being a great cavity in the center of the Earth.  Some 149,000 Google hits have been associated with this story.   Agee had published his name and address for contact verification.  Only some 20 to 30 people contacted him, who were all told the truth. 

This story has been mentioned in Der Spiegel, Wikipedia (Well to Hell hoax)  books written on the subject and in the 2009 movie, Nine Miles Down

Lessons Learned:  Writing in the book The Authoritarians, Robert Altemeyer tells us that “True Believers” are inclined to believe authority figures regardless of how absurd it is.  In the AT article Agee goes on to tell us how SDA history is full of such. 

NOTE:  The above information has been abstracted from:

Aage Rendalen, “Hell IN Siberia,” Adventist Today, Summer, 2017, pages 6 – 9.

This is a shortened version.  I encourage all to read the article in AT for more information.

 

 

[Gregory Matthews]

I have done some searching on the  Internet for stories about this hoax.  I do not have the time to list all that I have found.  However, here is one:

http://www.wow.com/wiki/Well_to_Hell_hoax

If you are interested, you can find much more.