In an entirely different place called Neverland, the Lost Boys were in a constant state of fear and anxiety. Since the final defeat of Captain Hook, several rats had deserted his sinking ship, and had begun to breed. Soon the island was overrun with rats. Peter Pan could fly and wield a small sword with expertise, but he had not the means to combat a plague of rats.
In time a stranger appeared on the island, calling himself The Pied Pipe Eddy. Pipe Eddy offered to rid Neverland of the rodent plague once and for all. Peter Pan had never before in his life been so grateful. As he and the Lost Boys looked on in admiration, the Pied Pipe Eddy began to play his pipe, and all of the rats were somehow hypnotized by the music. They began a suicide dash towards the rocks and drowned in the sea. (Such a thing had not been seen since Jesus sent a legion of demons out of the man they’d possessed and into a herd of pigs, which promptly caused the pigs to charge off the cliffs and drown. The Pied Pipe Eddy’s powers were not in Jesus’ class, but rats are much easier to vanquish than demons.)
“Thank you for ridding us of those rats,” said Peter Pan.
“You’re welcome. Now there’s just the small matter of my fee,” said Pipe Eddy.
“We can’t pay you a fee. We don’t have any money,” said Pan, “We all ran away from home and came here to avoid having to earn it. It was either that or join up with Fagin’s gang.”
Sylvie was beginning to wish that Reverend Charles Dodgson would change the subject and come up with another tale of fictional adventures about herself and Bruno.
“There are four Greek words in the original Bible: Tartarus, Hades, Sheol and Gehenna,” said Dodgson, They’ve all been translated to the word Hell in English, and then incorrectly used interchangeably to misunderstand scripture. Parables and prophecies come in symbolic language. But the one direct reference to hell from Jesus himself says not to fear men who can only harm the body, but to fear God who can DESTROY both body and soul in hell. So there is no possibility of eternal suffering for something that has, by its own choice to reject God now, been destroyed at the end of the world. You can avoid that anyway, by choosing to commit your life to God now, and that will lead you on a voyage back to the perfection with which Adam and Eve were originally created. This time it will last through life eternal, with the Serpent Satan dead and gone and no longer able to bring temptation into the New Earth and ruin it.”
“I don’t know,” said Bruno, “I came here for a story. Your preaching is a bit too heavy handed for my own peace of mind.”
“He’s right though,” said Sylvie, “We’ve tried to deny the existence of God, because we hadn’t understood His nature correctly. I’d like to see God bring about changes in my life starting today.”
“Then you need only to tell Him,” said Dodgson, “That’s what prayer is. I’ll keep your names out of my next sermon, but I’m going to make this discussion the basis of it.”