FBCD_FaithEssentials_June_FlipBook

Faith Essentials

they remain isolated from the rest of the prison community without media, interaction with inmates or visits from family members. Obviously, this is viewed as extreme punishment, otherwise, why would it serve to deter bad behavior? Likewise, banishment and separation is part of the extreme sentence that awaits unbelievers. Hell is characterized by unending hopelessness – What more than hope keeps us going on this fallen, sin-soaked planet? As the rain pours down, we anticipate sunny days. As the winter winds blow and trees stand gray and bare, we can anticipate the warmth and green that await. We struggle through the fever and pain of the flu, knowing that recovery is just days away. The loneliness of time spent apart from those we love gets quickly pushed aside by the thought of seeing them soon. We toil away at difficult and demanding jobs day after day, week after week, month after month, eagerly anticipating a much-needed vacation or well-deserved retirement. While still alive on earth, nearly everything can be taken from us but hope. In hell, however, even that gets stripped away. In 1927, the Coast Guard cutter USS Paulding rammed a Navy S- 4 submarine off the coast of Massachusetts. 4 The crew of the vessel became trapped in an underwater prison of death. Great lengths were taken to rescue those on board, but ultimately, they all failed. Near the end of the tragedy, a diver heard tapping on the steel wall of the vessel. He placed his helmet next to the side of the sunken sub and recognized Morse code. One of the doomed sailors repeatedly spelled out the question, “Is . . . there . . . any . . . hope?” 5 For the rich man, there was no hope—and he likely knew it. He asks for water, and even requests that Lazarus be allowed to go warn his brothers; yet we never hear a plea for release or a second chance. He had nothing else to do but remember, agonize, suffer through separation, and drown in hopelessness. Ponder again this unmistakable truth—hell is real.

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