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Stairway to Hell: Rescuing Teens From Their Well-Planned Destruction
Straight answers for teens.
What REALLY happens when you get high?
What is rock music's hidden danger?
How can sex destroy you?
Do you know the devil's Top Secret plan?
Why are teens ending it all?
Is "Dungeons & Dragons" more than just a game?
Why are teens murdering their friends?
You need to know the answer to these questions. Young people around the world are being wiped out in record numbers. They are dying by suicides, drug overdoses, car wrecks, murders, etc., because they have no idea what's going on behind the scenes. In this book, you will discover the real cause of your problems...and you'll find the solution too.
- GenresNonfiction
206 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1988
12 people are currently reading
283 people want to read
About the author
Rick Jones
6 booksChick Publications
Librarian's note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Librarian's note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
December 27, 2013
Very informative
I really enjoyed reading this because I have two teenagers myself and they are growing up fast. I would hate for them to burn in bell because I didn't have enough courage to stand up for what is right biblically.
I really enjoyed reading this because I have two teenagers myself and they are growing up fast. I would hate for them to burn in bell because I didn't have enough courage to stand up for what is right biblically.
January 18, 2019
I finally read Stairway to Hell, which I had long seen advertised in Chick Pubs catalogues. I was 21 when the first edition came out in 1988, so past my teenage years, a solid Christian, and thus not the target audience. I came upon an inexpensive used copy of the book recently and bought it primarily for the beautiful Fred Carter-painted cover and the 19 full-page Jack Chick illustrations that open each chapter. But I have teenaged kids now and am convinced the book's subtitle--"The Well-Planned Destruction of Teens"--holds as true today as it did 30 years ago, so I read the book cover to cover. It was engagingly written and convicting, especially the closing chapter addressing the moms and dads of teens. Jones has the courage of his convictions, is fearless in calling out sins, and lays out the eternal choice plainly: heaven or hell.
Rick Jones--who shares a name with but alas is not the Hulk's kid sidekick--served six years in a residential home for troubled youth, and he draws upon his experiences there. He flips the Led Zeppelin song "Stairway to Heaven" and uses the "Stairway to Hell" to illustrate the descent teens take to their own destruction. The chapter topics are almost all still relevant, even if the specific references have changed: sex, drugs, and rock n' roll, rebellion, homosexuality, peer pressure, the occult, role-playing games. Jones does an excellent job presenting these subjects through the world's lens--as a teenager would perceive it--and through a biblical lens. The contrast are of course sharp and striking.
The book will be a nostalgia trip for anyone who grew up in the 1980s. I didn't listen to heavy metal music, but my brother did, so I was familiar with most of the singers and bands Jones referenced (Megadeth, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Ozzy, AC/DC et al.). Jones spotlighted heavy metal, and includes a plug for another Chick Pubs book, Dancing with Demons: The Music's Real Master by Jeff Godwin, which presumably will address a wider swath of music, including CCM and "Christian" rock and metal (rap was not yet on the radar screen).
I found refreshing Jones' call to burn one's rock music and paraphernalia. (And I remember Eric Holmberg making a similar call in his too-hot-for-youth-group Hell's Bells VHS tapes around that time, too.) That brand of hard-preaching has fallen out of favor in the world-accommodating church culture of today. And of course that culture existed in 1988, too, and Jones dedicates a chapter to professing Christians who love the world and likely are not even born-again believers. Also refreshing was the Lordship salvation message that a truly regenerated Christian will evidence a changed life. Mumbling a prayer at VBS when one is 10 does not ensure salvation (a hard truth many once-saved-always-saved fundamental Baptist churches have yet to face, to the peril of the falsely assured sitting in their pews!).
Many of the stories Jones recounts are compelling. I just wish more were cited! He references many instances of satanically inspired murder without citation, and those that are cited are often to Christian publications reporting them secondhand. Since a number of these stories could provide evidence of Satanism's reality, I was hoping for solid cites. Sadly, without support, a lot of Jones' accounts could be dismissed as "satanic panic" propaganda.
And sometimes Jones really overreached to make a point. In the chapter on teen suicide, he noted the theme song to the sitcom M*A*S*H is titled "Suicide is Painless." Yeah, but I suspect 95% of teens of the era never knew that tidbit of trivia, and further that 0% of those who did were driven to commit suicide because of it. The chapter on Dungeons & Dragons was also exaggerated, writing as a once-dedicated player in my teen years. For an average D&D player circa 1981, the game was more Conan the Barbarian and John Carter of Mars than a stealth introduction to the occult. Chick's notorious anti-D&D tract, Dark Dungeons, is a funny but wince-worthy misunderstanding of the phenomenon.
Jones mentions gleaning insights from "a lady who spent many years as a witch before finding Christ as her Savior" (69). This unidentified lady could only be Dr. Rebecca Brown, who wrote two infamous books for Chick (He Came to Set the Captives Free and Prepare for War) before her prevarications piled up and she was sent packing to Whitaker House.
Stairway to Hell is a keeper for much more than the artwork that initially drew me to it. It's a good read and a reminder of what books directed towards youth were before political correctness set everyone to walking on eggshells, especially about homosexuality. I'm placing the book on my shelf next to Doorways To Discipleship by Winkie Pratney and my pile of Fritz Ridenour paperbacks.
Rick Jones--who shares a name with but alas is not the Hulk's kid sidekick--served six years in a residential home for troubled youth, and he draws upon his experiences there. He flips the Led Zeppelin song "Stairway to Heaven" and uses the "Stairway to Hell" to illustrate the descent teens take to their own destruction. The chapter topics are almost all still relevant, even if the specific references have changed: sex, drugs, and rock n' roll, rebellion, homosexuality, peer pressure, the occult, role-playing games. Jones does an excellent job presenting these subjects through the world's lens--as a teenager would perceive it--and through a biblical lens. The contrast are of course sharp and striking.
The book will be a nostalgia trip for anyone who grew up in the 1980s. I didn't listen to heavy metal music, but my brother did, so I was familiar with most of the singers and bands Jones referenced (Megadeth, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Ozzy, AC/DC et al.). Jones spotlighted heavy metal, and includes a plug for another Chick Pubs book, Dancing with Demons: The Music's Real Master by Jeff Godwin, which presumably will address a wider swath of music, including CCM and "Christian" rock and metal (rap was not yet on the radar screen).
I found refreshing Jones' call to burn one's rock music and paraphernalia. (And I remember Eric Holmberg making a similar call in his too-hot-for-youth-group Hell's Bells VHS tapes around that time, too.) That brand of hard-preaching has fallen out of favor in the world-accommodating church culture of today. And of course that culture existed in 1988, too, and Jones dedicates a chapter to professing Christians who love the world and likely are not even born-again believers. Also refreshing was the Lordship salvation message that a truly regenerated Christian will evidence a changed life. Mumbling a prayer at VBS when one is 10 does not ensure salvation (a hard truth many once-saved-always-saved fundamental Baptist churches have yet to face, to the peril of the falsely assured sitting in their pews!).
Many of the stories Jones recounts are compelling. I just wish more were cited! He references many instances of satanically inspired murder without citation, and those that are cited are often to Christian publications reporting them secondhand. Since a number of these stories could provide evidence of Satanism's reality, I was hoping for solid cites. Sadly, without support, a lot of Jones' accounts could be dismissed as "satanic panic" propaganda.
And sometimes Jones really overreached to make a point. In the chapter on teen suicide, he noted the theme song to the sitcom M*A*S*H is titled "Suicide is Painless." Yeah, but I suspect 95% of teens of the era never knew that tidbit of trivia, and further that 0% of those who did were driven to commit suicide because of it. The chapter on Dungeons & Dragons was also exaggerated, writing as a once-dedicated player in my teen years. For an average D&D player circa 1981, the game was more Conan the Barbarian and John Carter of Mars than a stealth introduction to the occult. Chick's notorious anti-D&D tract, Dark Dungeons, is a funny but wince-worthy misunderstanding of the phenomenon.
Jones mentions gleaning insights from "a lady who spent many years as a witch before finding Christ as her Savior" (69). This unidentified lady could only be Dr. Rebecca Brown, who wrote two infamous books for Chick (He Came to Set the Captives Free and Prepare for War) before her prevarications piled up and she was sent packing to Whitaker House.
Stairway to Hell is a keeper for much more than the artwork that initially drew me to it. It's a good read and a reminder of what books directed towards youth were before political correctness set everyone to walking on eggshells, especially about homosexuality. I'm placing the book on my shelf next to Doorways To Discipleship by Winkie Pratney and my pile of Fritz Ridenour paperbacks.
July 16, 2021
Will be rereading it with my teens.
February 25, 2019
Disclaimer: I did not pay for this book but received it from a friend clearing out her bookshelves who had also received it from someone else. Hopefully whoever did actually pay for it didn't pay too much. Actually, I took the book only because I wanted to see just how hilariously inaccurate it was, and unfortunately, I was not disappointed.
Published in 1988, the heyday of the Satanic Panic, this book epitomizes those who denounced sex, drugs, and rock & roll but also takes a step (ha) further by informing the reader that, should he or she partake in any of these activities, demons will actually enter them and take over their body, causing them to venture even further into the Church of Satan and end up in jail, dead, or as a homosexual prostitute. I'm not joking, and I wish I was--homosexual prostitution is somehow the end result of listening to rock music.
This cavalier attitude toward demon possession is not only hideous theology but also DANGEROUS theology. Supernatural forces are a real thing, but they're not chilling in AC/DC albums or in a Dungeons & Dragons expansion pack, waiting for that unsuspecting teen to pick it up. Telling teenagers otherwise is baseless and relies more on fear than love in trying to draw them to Christ.
Speaking of demonic possession, Jones also posits the idea that being sexually abused as a child also results in possession. What? This is the worst type of victim-blaming I've ever seen. He goes on to suggest that the abuse happened in order for the victim to warn others of what can happen when one is abused. I don't even know how to unpack that one.
The cherry on top of this mess is just how often Jones cites the thousands and millions of teenagers (or people in general) who have fallen prey to Satan through whatever topic currently in discussion--with absolutely no sources to back up his claims. No wonder nobody took Christians seriously when it came to this kind of stuff.
Overall, this book is just a hot (double ha) mess. Jones' tone is condescending and tries more than anything to incite fear within his readers--not a good look for the love of Jesus. Really, the only positive thing I can say is that, contrary to many of his contemporaries, Jones speaks frankly about sex instead of skipping over it or couching it within shadowy terms. Unfortunately, he speaks a little too frankly and freely about everything else without any sort of backup.
Published in 1988, the heyday of the Satanic Panic, this book epitomizes those who denounced sex, drugs, and rock & roll but also takes a step (ha) further by informing the reader that, should he or she partake in any of these activities, demons will actually enter them and take over their body, causing them to venture even further into the Church of Satan and end up in jail, dead, or as a homosexual prostitute. I'm not joking, and I wish I was--homosexual prostitution is somehow the end result of listening to rock music.
This cavalier attitude toward demon possession is not only hideous theology but also DANGEROUS theology. Supernatural forces are a real thing, but they're not chilling in AC/DC albums or in a Dungeons & Dragons expansion pack, waiting for that unsuspecting teen to pick it up. Telling teenagers otherwise is baseless and relies more on fear than love in trying to draw them to Christ.
Speaking of demonic possession, Jones also posits the idea that being sexually abused as a child also results in possession. What? This is the worst type of victim-blaming I've ever seen. He goes on to suggest that the abuse happened in order for the victim to warn others of what can happen when one is abused. I don't even know how to unpack that one.
The cherry on top of this mess is just how often Jones cites the thousands and millions of teenagers (or people in general) who have fallen prey to Satan through whatever topic currently in discussion--with absolutely no sources to back up his claims. No wonder nobody took Christians seriously when it came to this kind of stuff.
Overall, this book is just a hot (double ha) mess. Jones' tone is condescending and tries more than anything to incite fear within his readers--not a good look for the love of Jesus. Really, the only positive thing I can say is that, contrary to many of his contemporaries, Jones speaks frankly about sex instead of skipping over it or couching it within shadowy terms. Unfortunately, he speaks a little too frankly and freely about everything else without any sort of backup.
February 24, 2009
I wish I read it as a teen, although I guess that name would have put me right off! :/
January 17, 2024
Prefiero no opinar sobre este libro.
No se lo recomiendo a nadie realmente.
No se lo recomiendo a nadie realmente.
Read
February 1, 2019I WANT TO READ THE BOOK
November 13, 2020
Muy bueno, recomendable.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Read
April 3, 2022found this on my grandmas shelf... lol
July 13, 2020
If I could do 0 stars, I would. This book is terrible. It's grounded on a theology of "scaring people into heaven." Things that will end in your demonic possession, according to this book, include:
- Sex before marriage (obviously)
- Drug use
- Rock music
- "Christian" music (because apparently Christian music isn't really Christian 90% of the time, according to this "expert")
- Being the victim of abuse (even though, later, he says victims aren't at fault and Jesus is able to work through their lives...so an editor missed something)
- Dungeons and Dragons
I want to believe that the intention in this book was pure, and that Rick Jones really does care about the salvation of the American teenager. But this is a sorry excuse for the Gospel message that is based on fear tactics, a laughably weak amount of research, and not much else.
On a larger scale, I worry about the deeper messaging. If demons take you over every time you sin, then are you really responsible for your own actions after that? That's not addressed in the book but would've been a more interesting idea. Just a terrible, terrible book that probably did more harm than good.
- Sex before marriage (obviously)
- Drug use
- Rock music
- "Christian" music (because apparently Christian music isn't really Christian 90% of the time, according to this "expert")
- Being the victim of abuse (even though, later, he says victims aren't at fault and Jesus is able to work through their lives...so an editor missed something)
- Dungeons and Dragons
I want to believe that the intention in this book was pure, and that Rick Jones really does care about the salvation of the American teenager. But this is a sorry excuse for the Gospel message that is based on fear tactics, a laughably weak amount of research, and not much else.
On a larger scale, I worry about the deeper messaging. If demons take you over every time you sin, then are you really responsible for your own actions after that? That's not addressed in the book but would've been a more interesting idea. Just a terrible, terrible book that probably did more harm than good.
October 18, 2019
Cómo puedo hacer para conseguir este libro?
September 29, 2021
Excelente libro para despertar a la juventud. Con testimonios reales de gente que cayó hasta abajo de la escalera. Y para los padres de adolescentes, para que estén más atentos a sus hijos.
January 13, 2022
Interesamente Real, Testimonios sorprendentes... De cómo el enemigo trabaja hasta llevar a nuestros Jóvenes a la perdición...
Lo RECOMIENDO!!!!
Lo RECOMIENDO!!!!
May 1, 2024
Este libro fue una herramienta que Dios usó en mi adolescencia para rescatarme de los engaños de Satanás. Después de esto fue claro para mí entender los propósitos de salvación de Jesús para mí.
February 16, 2025
This is actually my first Christian book I’ve ever read, I was 11 - 13 at the time.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews