~ Gen. Jim, POW
Prison! – a nasty place to persevere. Many find Eternal Life in Christ as they live behind bars in jails, state prisons and federal penitentiaries. For those of us who have already found Jesus’ salvation, prison is a place to endure to the end of our sentence.
Genesis 39:20 is the first place we find the word “prison”: Hebrew, bayith, aka, “dungeon.” There is another Hebrew word, beyth, meaning, “house of vanity”; and the Hebrew word beyth-el signifies “house of God.” (There are other Hebrew words for “prison” and their usage depends on the context, literal or figurative.)
Paradidomi = Greek for “to deliver one up to custody, to be judged, condemned, punished, scourged, tormented, put to death, to be put into prison (Thayers Greek Lexicon). This word is found in Matthew 4:12, where Jesus heard that John had been “thrown into prison.” There are other Greek words for “prison” in the New Testament (look them up in a Greek concordance).
After this world has run its course, and all is said and done, then what? Turn to the last book of the Bible: Revelation. Revelation 2:10 says, “Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation … Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.”
Here the Greek word for “prison” is phulake, meaning, “a guarding” (lit. or fig.), cage, ward.” This word is taken from phulasso, having the idea of “isolation” (been there, done that!).
That is the “Bad News,” if one sees it that way. The “Good News” is taken from Revelation 20:1-3, where satan is cast into the bottomless pit for 1,000 years. “But” – notice this word! – “after these things he must be released” (20:3,7). In verse 7 we read, “Now when a 1,000 years have expired, satan will be released from his PRISON” – same Greek word as found in 2:10.
This is not the END! Revelation 20:10 reads, “The devil, who deceived them, was [finally!] cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be TORMENTED day and night forever and ever.” That is the BEST GOOD NEWS!!!
Yet this is not the END of the full account: “Then Death and Hades (Hell) were cast into the Lake of Fire … and anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the Lake of Fire” (Revelation 20:14-15).
While men and women suffer Hell-on-Earth, this is NOT THE HELL that Revelation 20:14 speaks about. Hell-on-Earth is NOT the “second death,” aka, the “eternal death,” the spiritual death opposite “Eternal Life,” which Life is given to believers forever and forever. You don’t want to go to the SECOND DEATH. Neither do I! (Read also Revelation 20:6, 14, 15; 21:8).
Even if an inmate receives a life sentence with no probation, THE “ETERNAL PRISON” will be worse, a trillion times over. The state and the feds may not forgive us in this life, but if we are not eternally saved we will spend eternity without God’s forgiveness, love, and grace.
Even if we are bound physically, we can be FREE on the inside.
Terms like “life without parole” or “death penalty” cannot, will not keep us from the forgiveness of God if we repent and live the Christian life. I see and hear guys in here, claiming to be “Christian,” living like HELL and have a pact with the devil. That’s their choice. One can feel the despair, the emptiness, the devilish loneliness in “Hell’s Hotel” located within Razorwire Estates. One Hell of a place to be! I see guys eating themselves to death – literally! I’ve seen several just drop DEAD! Others have given up entirely on life. Some have been in here a long time: one inmate just got released after 36 years! 36 YEARS!
Thank God He accepts all who repent. Our souls may feel totally empty at times but He is here. Acts 4:12 says, “There is no salvation in any other name under Heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
When Peter spoke this, in the Roman world of his day, salvation was often attributed to the emperor who was hailed as “savior” and “god.” Peter also said, “Who Himself (Jesus) bore our sins on His own body on the cross, that we, having died to sins (by repenting), might live for righteousness” (1 Peter 2:24).
Jesus IS the ONLY WAY to God. Jesus gave us the ULTIMATE SACRIFICE of LOVE!
Jesus died so we could LIVE. John 3:16 tells us that God gave His Son so that we as lost sons and daughters might become redeemed sons and daughters … that we would not PERISH – Greek, apollumi = “be destroyed (fig), die” – as in the “second death,” but have “eternal life” (John 3:16).
As one inmate wrote:
“I sit here is prison, but yet
I feel free,
Cause now the drugs no longer have control over me.
I sit here in prison, and yes,
I am free.
Cause the Lord is My Savior,
And He has forgiven me.”
– Female inmate at Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women, AL