Eli glancing to where I had gestured and said, "I know some ancient Hebrew and from my study of the inscriptions on the base of the statue the way to the surface isn't open to everyone. One must be of Jewish heritage in order to be translated upward. If you enter the water and you're not Jewish the warning given is that instead of passage upward one will go downward into the pit of hell itself."
Kim's voice broke into the conversation and she said what I had just been prepared to point out, "Who among us does not believe in the risen Savior?"
Of the several thousand people massed around the column of fire and water no one spoke and Kim said, "Once it was otherwise, but all of you have given up the false beliefs that some of you harbored and even such as a body of believers though we be not Jews by blood we are nonetheless grafted into the tree of life by our belief in Jesus Christ and thus we are spiritual Jews and heir to all the promises and provisions of God. This place can be nothing else, but such a provision for those of us who put our trust in God and His son Jesus Christ. Our God has not saved our souls and led us so far only now to trick us into falling to our deaths in hell. Come, I and my children and husband, will show you."
Then leading by example Kim with two wide-eyed toddlers and a husband in tow moved past me and entered the stream of bubbling water that moved upward like a spiraling spring from the purest of sources. Like a high-speed elevator Kim and her family swirled upward and the water was so clear as to show all those gathered below that the family moving upward was under no distress of either drowning or being boiled alive by the interweaving bands of molten rock flowing upward.
Eli shrugged and said, "Well I guess that answers that question."
Keturah playfully shoved him as she said, "And who is it that's always saying, 'walk by faith and not by sight?'"
Smiling good-naturedly Eli took her hand and then the hand of his son and led them toward the gateway to the surface. The son however had no wish to let go of his friend's hand and neither did she in return.
Looking back Sheatera glanced to her father to see if it was okay and he obligingly nodded. With a giggle of delight then the two children jumped into the bubbling stream and swirled away upwards.