The next helper had been to Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay which is a national park.
This island has a fascinating history! During the Civil War, the island was a Union army military post to defend the city of San Francisco from attack by the Confederate army. They captured a Confederate ship and imprisoned the sailors on the island, these were the first prisoners kept on this island.
The island was a good place to keep prisoners and it became a military prison from the civil war until 1933. In 1934 it was transformed into a federal maximum-security prison, and it was believed that it was impossible to escape from Alcatraz. It remained a prison until it was closed in 1963.
In 1969 Native Americans seized the island to protest the violation of their civil rights. They occupied the island for 19 months, until 1971.
Alcatraz is best remembered for the 29 years (1934-1963) when it was the federal maximum-security prison and considered to be escape-proof. During those 29 years there were only 14 attempts to escape and during 13 of those escapes the prisoners were either captured or they were killed during the attempt or drowned in the bay. The last escape attempt in 1962 was different; three men spent 18 months preparing for the escape. They chiseled through stone walls with spoons and other kitchen utensils, they made realistic dummy heads (with real hair) that they put in their beds so that their escape would not be noticed immediately, and they made an inflatable raft out of 50 raincoats that were issued by the prison.
It was assumed that the three men drowned in San Francisco Bay, but no bodies were ever found. However, a raft was found on a nearby island, and a car was stolen nearby and driven to the central valley of California. Did the three men really escape? No one knows for sure.
Application for you and me:
The helper said that the God-Connection that he had found was the escape-proof prison. The Federal Authorities in this country did everything they could to make escape from Alcatraz impossible. Maybe it was escape-proof, or maybe those three men did escape.
God tells us of a prison that truly is escape-proof! This prison is called hell and is described in the Bible as a lake of fire! Anyone who gets sent to this prison will be there forever, there is no escape!
In the Bible in Matthew 25:41 Jesus is talking about the time of judgement of the wicked and evil people, and He says:
Away with you, you cursed ones, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his demons.
We do not like to talk about the lake of fire and eternal punishment because it is uncomfortable, but it is true, and we cannot ignore the fact the lake of fire exists, and most people of this world are going to be punished there forever!
In fact, all of us deserve to be punished in the lake of fire forever because we are all sinners, and we deserve that punishment!
In the Bible in Romans 3:23-25 it says:
We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, in His grace, freely makes us right in His sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when He freed us from the penalty of our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed His life, shedding His blood.
The greatest news in all of history is that Jesus died to pay for our sins, so that we could be forgiven and avoid the prison of hell and spend eternity with God! When a person believes that Jesus died to pay for their sins, and prays and asks for forgiveness, then God completely forgives that person and writes their name in the Book of Life.
In the Bible in Revelation 20:12 it says:
I saw the dead, both great and small, standing before God’s throne. And the books were opened, including the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to what they had done, as recorded in the books…And anyone whose name was not found recorded in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire.
Heaven and hell are real places! Your eternal destination is determined by whether you choose to accept Jesus as your Savior and ask for forgiveness because He died for your sins! If you have not chosen Jesus, please make that choice today before it is too late!