Thanks for documenting your visit to Folsom prison. It is wonderful when people from the outside get a chance to visit the incarcerated and share their stories. It helps remove some of the sensationalism that we are bombarded with by the media about prisoners.

I am a volunteer teacher in the Prison College program at San Quentin and also have help start a job placement and financial literacy course for inmates at the prison. Many of my students are serving life sentences, while others are preparing to leave in two to three years. Even lifers have a chance for parole (especially in this age of overcrowding).

I was wondering if you were aware of similar programs going on at Folsom. I have found that educational programs in CA’s prisons are few and far between, which I think is why our recidivism rate is the highest in the country. It would be wonderful to learn if there were organizations working at Folsom who were trying to help prisoners successfully reenter society.

Like you, I have always been amazed by how much work people in prison are doing to change their lives, both psychologically and spiritually. It sounds like your visit was very uplifting for the inmates (and perhaps you too). Thanks again for sharing your story.

Blessings–

Actually, Folsom Prison has an arrangement whereby inmates can earn a two-year Associate’s degree certified by an accredited college. It’s most encouraging to meet folks in the prison who work hard to make programs like this possible–and that includes you!
Philip

I don’t doubt the man was hostile; but might the hostility be born of actually thinking about the doctrine of Hell?; something most Christians seem to have largely avoided. And why? It is a nightmare that we simply can’t keep in our minds; nor reconcile with the heart of Jesus expressed at Calvary. “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”

Hi Philip; Robert Taylor here. We corresponded back in 2002 regarding the boundaries and safeguards of grace.

Of all the authors out there, you most strike me as someone who has probably really wrestled with the doctrine of eternal torment. To be honest, for decades I held to the traditional view of Hell without ever thoroughly researching it or pondering it for very long. The last couple of years, however, that question has been at the center of my attention.

What if the traditional view of Hell is wrong? Then, I who so love grace would also personally have had a part in arguably the most toxic abuse in the history of the church.

Sadly, on the one hand, I have been part of the greatest ungrace imaginable. Joyfully, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not PERISH but have everlasting life.”

Traditionalism reads John 3:16 as if Jesus said: “should not be eternally tormented in the Lake of Fire.” Likewise, it trades death for torment in Genesis 2:17.

What is amazing is how explicit, repeated, and thoroughly the Bible teaches annihilation. What is just as amazing is how non-existent the case for traditionalism is. Proof-texts are taken out of context; words are redefined; theology is read into Scripture rather than being taken out of it. The reality is exactly the opposite of what one would expect, given the long history of the eternal torment view in the church; and the supposed cult status of annihilation.

I’ve been stunned and profoundly impacted by seeing the true penalty for man’s sin. It has deeply affected my view of God and my fellow man. Life-long conservatives, graduates from places like Multnomah and Emmaus, that have seen the exegesis are having the same experience.

Is Hell a place of perishing or eternal torment? My sense is that the church is finally ready for this question; at least a significant part of it.

I know you have many good things on your plate. But if you’re interested in exploring this topic, just let me know.

Robert
Now living in Napa, CA
2181 Euclid Ave, 94558

After reading your “Amazing Grace” book, my son and I discussed at the length the meditative thought about “places of grace.” He would say to me or I would say to him, “we are in a place of grace.” The most amazing grace came one night when I had to share with him the bad news that his illness was so bad that no nursing home was willing to take him. His body was paralyzed and ravaged by “graft vs. host” disease from a donor bone marrow transplant. He said to me, “Dad, don’t worry, Jesus may come tomorrow.” As we sat in the darkness of his hospital room and prayed together that night, it was truly a “place of grace.” He would never be conscious to share with me again, dying just a few weeks later. He is now in heaven – the ultimate “Place of Grace.” I will be there with him too one day. And I plan to find the inmate brother who spoke words of grace to me, and thank him!

James Earp, Author of “The Governor’s Four Hearts”