QUOTE: While the
thief on the cross found pardon in the sight of God - ‘Today you will be
with Me in Paradise’ - that pardon did not extend to eliminating the
consequences of his crime - ‘We are being justly punished, for we are
receiving what we deserve for our deeds.’ (Luke 23:39-43)". Neither God
nor Jesus nor the Holy Spirit nor the prophets nor the apostles ever spoke out
against the civil authorities’ use of executions in deserving cases - not even
at the very time of Jesus’ own execution when He pardoned the sins of the
thief, who was being crucified alongside Him. Indeed, quite the opposite. Their
biblical support for capital punishment is consistent and overwhelming.
Furthermore, Jesus never confuses the requirements of civil justice with those
of either eternal justice or personal relations.
AUTHOR: Charles "Chuck" Wendell Colson (October 16, 1931 – April 21, 2012) was a Special Counsel to President
Richard Nixon from 1969 to 1973, and later a noted Evangelical Christian leader
and cultural commentator.
Once known as President Nixon's "hatchet man," Colson gained
notoriety at the height of the Watergate scandal, for being named as one of the
Watergate Seven, and pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice for attempting to
defame Pentagon Papers defendant Daniel Ellsberg. In 1974, he served seven
months in the federal Maxwell Prison in Alabama as the first member of the
Nixon administration to be incarcerated for Watergate-related charges.
Colson became a Christian in 1973. His mid-life conversion to
Christianity sparked a radical life change that led to the founding of his
non-profit ministry Prison Fellowship and to a focus on Christian worldview
teaching and training. Colson was also a public speaker and the author of more
than 30 books. He was the founder and chairman of The Chuck Colson Center for
Christian Worldview, which is "a research, study, and networking center
for growing in a Christian worldview", and while he was alive included
Colson's daily radio commentary, BreakPoint, which was heard in its original
format on more than 1,400 outlets across the United States.
Colson received 15 honorary doctorates, and in 1993 was awarded the
Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion, the world's largest annual award
(over US$1 million) in the field of religion, given to a person who
"has made an exceptional contribution to affirming life's spiritual
dimension". He donated this prize to further the work of Prison
Fellowship, as he did all his speaking fees and royalties. In 2008, he was
awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal by President George W. Bush.
Please go
to this previous blog post to read an
article by Chuck Colson.
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