The Meaning Of Life (part 8)

Bethlehem Bible Church

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Our Father in heaven What a blessing it is to come before you To have the opportunity to gather in your name

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To come together as a redeemed people to worship you father I pray that our time this morning as we look to your word the impact the

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Influence that being an image bearer ought to have on us and how we think how we view the world

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Father I pray that you would bless each and every one here in Christ's name. We pray. Amen Well, you know

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I began this series That I like to humbly think you know the meaning of life

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Small title small expectations many weeks ago and you know, I read something.

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I mean I read something almost every day But I read something this week and I just thought this is really we live in Bizarro world.

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I don't know if you guys saw this or not, but a judge Now, I think this was like a lower

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Level court, but a judge actually Granted a writ of habeas corpus

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To two individuals this week anybody read about this. What is a writ of habeas corpus? Do you know what that means a right to a hearing and it's a

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Latin term. It means you have the body Okay the person

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Granted writ of habeas corpus. I saw a hand somebody read this case or somebody saw something about it. Who? Two chimpanzees got a writ of habeas corpus.

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They were by a court. They were declared to be Individuals, you know in legal standing to have a right to a writ of habeas corpus a hearing in other words

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They were declared essentially to be Persons, what's that? Don't don't make me go all

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Clint Charlton Heston on you, right? It's a madhouse It's craziness was a judge in Abe somebody asked and I'm like, well, you know,

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I've seen those some of those movies What would say is say, you know

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For those of you who are old enough and nerdy enough to remember those Movies a

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Monkey, I mean that we live in a world where people are granted rights. Here was another case this week

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I'm sure many of you saw this, you know, $135 ,000 judgment against people who?

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Didn't want to do the the gay marriage wedding cake. Therefore, you know, they get fined $135 ,000 and people are like that's fair.

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I think that's fair I've seen a lot of people do a lot of things and not get fined $135 ,000

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I mean my favorite example of all time was the guy who applied for house arrest and I looked at his application

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And you know it you have to put the inmates had to put their charge there and his was I'll use the technical term 664 187 which meant attempted murder and I'm like He got a year county for attempted murder.

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So I'm just trying to I'm trying to say Okay, this guy was bad at trying to kill somebody so he got you know, essentially eight months in jail

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But somebody who refuses to make a wedding cake for a ceremony not for people But for a ceremony that he or she doesn't believe in gets $135 ,000 fine.

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There's something wrong with our system Something very wrong with our system and the what's wrong with it, of course is

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You know God has no part of the Word of God has no part in it and so people are declared monkeys and you get fined if you

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Don't want to do a wedding cake for something. That's not a wedding. How about this from I?

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Just I couldn't let the week pass without saying we were just talking about abortion last week I just had to get this little quote in from somebody who's running for president and She said

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What? Far too many women are still denied critical access to reproductive health care

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I think we've talked about you know what that means reproductive or you know, however, they want to phrase it.

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What does that really mean? Reproductive health care it just sounds so good Doesn't really sound quite the same as murder, which is what it is.

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I Denied critical access to murder Exactly we wouldn't like that but she she goes on to say

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Laws have to be backed up notice that have to be backed up with resources and political will what does that mean?

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Well, it means more than taxpayer money It means more than taxpayer money. Let me read that again have to be backed up with resources and political will

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I'll tell you what that means. That means law enforcement That means if you don't like what she's saying, they're gonna send

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Me former me, you know the goon squad out to get you Laws have to be backed up with resources and political will and deep -seated cultural codes

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Religious beliefs and structural biases have to be changed

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Not have to be discussed not have to be taken to an account not have to be consulted but have to be changed

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So the translation of this would be I mean

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I'll just cut to the chase the political system is going to force people with political or with religious beliefs to bow the knee

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You don't want those children, you know immolated dedicated to Molech burned killed too bad

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Because we'll force you to do it Now she won't be able to do that right away

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It'll take a while. Maybe a few executive orders, but she'll get it done We live in a changing world.

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I Saw, you know if you ever wanted evidence that the United States really is not a Christian nation Pull out this week 61 % of Americans approve of same -sex marriage 61 % you know, but those same polls will tell you that you know, 88 % of Americans are

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Christians. I Don't know. There's something that doesn't match up. Maybe you know, maybe some of those 88 % aren't too familiar with the

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Bible Maybe they should have listened to Eric sermon this morning Okay Let's open the

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Bible here. I just want to kind of Close our thoughts about abortion before we move on to another light topic 2nd

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Timothy chapter 3 2nd Timothy chapter 3 and I just think this is a an excellent passage to just think okay.

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This is the world in which we live 2nd

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Timothy chapter 3 verses 1 to 4 And if somebody want to read that please 2nd

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Timothy chapter 3 verses 1 to 4 Bruce lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God Without I think some

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Translations will say without natural affection We're really at a time in our country where and you know,

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I mean Europe's been there for Many years where You know, the focus really is on whom?

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focuses on you So many of you may or may not know this.

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Yeah, anybody know right off the top of their head with the The reproductive rates the the number of the birth rate of children in Italy is

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How many children the average woman in Italy is having just off the top of your head?

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What is that? You guys are really too good because you're really shooting a little low.

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It's about 1 .1 now the Replacement rate in other words the number of children have to be born to a woman for the population to stay the same is about double that So, what does that tell you?

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Italy's population is in decline now before you go sending, you know Candy or chocolates or something to Italy Italy's is not alone

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All over Europe. This is going on just a different at different rates. And that's one of the reasons why they have so much so many people moving from different parts of the world specifically

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Turkey and other places into Into other parts of Europe. Why is that because they need workers?

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Well, why is that? It's because women aren't having any kids Well, why is that it's because? this idea of what comes first my pleasure and If you think about it, what could be more pleasurable than having a life of no kids to incomes being able to take, you know

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In Paris, it's it's rough work. If you work, you know, 30 hours a week and you have to take what is it?

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Six eight ten twelve weeks of vacation Whatever it is And then if you get fired you get five six eight years of I mean of unemployment

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I think the goal in a structure like that would be what? Get fired. I Mean awesome.

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Oh, you retire. What do you retire from? Well my last job. Let me think what what was my last job, honey?

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I Don't remember, you know I probably worked 15 weeks out of my adult life and that was enough to carry me through to retirement age, which is 52

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This that's how life is over there because of the system of government and and everything that they've done over there

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It's just kind of structure life so that children are an afterthought Children are not a primary focus and we're heading in that direction as a country now, and we're seeing that really ultimately

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The The pleasure the How quite well just just the the self absorption of our society is increasing increasing

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And we see it even in our schools and that just continues on and on and on You know the most important thing that people learn in school now is to feel good about themselves, which is good.

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Sure Yeah, it's important that you feel good about yourself because we feel good enough about yourself Go to hell with a smile on your face,

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I guess that would be the ultimate truth But they we live in a society that is anti God pro pleasure

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You know, they they want to say it's pro freedom, but it's really spiritual slavery that they're after Well, I wanted to talk about Capital punishment this morning.

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Like I said, these are easy things and again if we just think about image bearers we talked about abortion why because our society says

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That's a fetus. It's a it's a lump of tissue It's a parasite. They have all sorts of Names for it.

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Some of them are nicer than others, but the ultimate objective is to dehumanize that person

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Why because it makes it easier to justify in fact, I even talked about how you know one politician

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Who happens to be the leader of a political party? You know was trying to justify the idea of a woman having the right to choose an abortion to kill her child right up till the time of birth that's fairly stunning and again, it's because people don't have our society is getting away from the idea of God and the idea of each person having an individual spirit from the time of birth that image of God Now capital punishment is an interesting one because the same people who champion abortion, what do they say about capital punishment?

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You can't do that You can't take somebody's life. And of course, they'll come after Christians and they'll say you guys are inconsistent.

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We're inconsistent And the truth is we're very consistent we'll talk about that but I would say, you know physician heal thyself

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You want to say that a person isn't a person? Until you know, they've done something terrible then they have every right under the

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Sun Listen to this Roman Catholic writer said this euthanasia

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Abortion war and capital punishment differ in moral weight Amen, but they all threaten human dignity and we must work to end them.

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Hmm So a question is capital punishment on par with abortion

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Can you make an argument that we should view them the same do they threaten human dignity in the same way

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Abortion and capital punishment. Can you think of a difference? Yeah, John Okay, John says we're protecting people right it with capital punishment

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Some people would dispute that I don't but some people would dispute that other thoughts

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Charlie Wait, I mean that's pretty succinct, right?

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We murder innocence and preserve guilt John That's an excellent point.

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You know, he said that capital punishment is a response to someone who has taken a life

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What is a little baby done nothing nothing except exist

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Any other comments? Yes Capital punishment is a punishment exactly, right, you know, and you don't get a punishment theoretically

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Unless you've done something. I mean I can think of times. It's not really important I used to get my brother punishment when he hadn't done anything wrong, but that's that's a whole nother story

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In fact, I wrote down here. This is this was my profound thought for the morning. So that was a good point No capital punishment is punishment.

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Thank you. Thank you very much. Very good. Listen to RC Sproul He says the institution of capital punishment was not given as a deterrent

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Because you'll hear that argument a lot, right? It doesn't deter anybody but as an act of justice

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What is the biblical rationale? Capital punishment is instituted very early in the Old Testament before Moses before Sinai before the

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Ten Commandments back in the day of Noah of Noah Genesis 9 chapter 6 where God says if by man man's blood is shed by man shall his blood be shed

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He says that's not a prediction the structure of the language. There is an imperative.

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It is a command The reason is given because man is made in the image of God In other words, the

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Bible says that human life is so sacred so precious so holy Human life has so much dignity that if with malice aforethought you wantonly

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Destroy another human being you thereby forfeit your own right to life

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God does not merely allow the execution of murderers. He commands it so different perspective there and You know,

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I mean we can make all kinds of Arguments against it saying, you know, what if things aren't clear and all this?

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Here's all I would say is if someone is clearly guilty of murder than they ought to receive the ultimate

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Punishment and there are plenty of cases where that doesn't happen. I mean, I I mentioned Charles Manson a few weeks ago

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There's no doubt what he did and yet he's still alive and still gets mail and you know wasn't so long ago this woman wanted to marry him and preserve his life and Preserve his body after he dies and then use him as some kind of Exhibit, you know people would line up and pay to see the body of Charles Manson I think probably half the people who went through that exhibit could probably be arrested or you know sedated immediately afterwards

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Yeah, I don't know what would cause you to want to do that Let's see

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New York Times March 27th 2015 And this is about four

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Catholic publications and just this little debate they had so let me just kind of skim through it here

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Catholic publications call for an end to capital punishments ran the ran on the websites of the reporter the register our

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Sunday visitor and the Jesuit magazine America and So four different publications one of them very conservative

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One of them very liberal and two of them very middle -of -the -road so The editorial was written by a mr.

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Kode and the other four or the other three editorial boards concurred and it was an unusual show of unity among publications that often are antagonistic toward each other in terms of Catholic public thoughts

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The editors of the publications agreed in interviews this week just less than a month ago

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That such a joint effort would be unlikely on other topics like same -sex marriage or abortion

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So Catholics can't agree on Same -sex marriage or abortion, but they can all come together on the death penalty

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We the editors of the four Catholic journals the editorial begins urged the reader of our diverse publications

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Readers of our diverse publications and the whole u .s Catholic community and all people of faith to stand with us and say capital punishment must end

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The Catholic Church in this country has fought against the death penalty for decades. It says

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Pope st. John Paul the second Amended the universal catechism of the

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Catholic Church to include a de facto prohibition against capital punishment Last year

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Pope Francis called on all Catholics to fight for the abolition of the death penalty the practice at is abhorrent and unnecessary

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Church now teaches that the death penalty could be justified only for self -defense in the narrow sense of preventing a killer from committing a future killing so protection

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Protection Anyway, they have a contrary view here. Not everybody agrees the Reverend John McCloskey a Conservative priest wrote this month that the

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Catholic Church's magisterium that is to say their church teaching official church teaching does not and has never

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Advocated unqualified abolition of the death penalty. But anyway that the the church Catholic Church is moving more and more towards that direction

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I find it interesting that In the

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Roman Catholic Church that that would be so prevalent I Have a theory about why that is

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Anybody want to give me their theory? Why do you think that so many Roman Catholics would be against the death penalty?

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John okay, the church is centered in Europe.

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So they have more of a European mindset. Okay But I mean these are even these are

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American Catholics But I think there's certainly influence there yeah

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Larry because the scripture isn't their authority

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I have to agree with that Yes Let me think let me think about that one

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Bruce said because they feel better with what they did to John Knox I Mean there is a lot of irony in this right

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Roman Catholics they are dead set against the the death penalty and they were just the ones who were lighting people on fire and you know burning up because They taught the actual gospel or they had the temerity to print the

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Bible or something like that I you know, then they just dig up your ashes and or your remains and burn them after you're dead

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That's a you know, but yeah, I mean if we talk about the Roman Catholic Church They have a few different sources of information.

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They will say that they believe in the Bible, but they'll never tell you They believe in the Bible alone

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Why because they have church teaching and church Tradition and what you'll find if you study

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Roman Catholicism is when teaching or tradition conflict with Scripture Guess which one loses?

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Scripture So that's why I say gulp Roman Catholicism is occult

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That is to say, you know, I and I don't mean it in the the Scientology sense

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Okay, but when you have when you say that something comes before Scripture Then what you're really saying is

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God doesn't get the last say we do and that's what defines occult Let's look at Romans chapter 13

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Romans chapter 13 verses 1 to 5 and with somebody besides Bruce Reed Go ahead mark for those of you don't know.

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I was a deputy sheriff in Los Angeles County I worked in the jail for a number of years I worked patrol too, but I worked in the jail for a number of years and one of the things

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I did was you know When an inmate violated the rules we would call that getting rolled up It just meant you had to roll up all your property and you would get transferred from your nice cushy jail cell

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Into a less cushy jail cell and you eventually get some punishment and So it was my job as a supervisor of the building to go to the inmates and get their side of the story and put it the report

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So, you know, sometimes they would have a Bible in their property And a lot of times they were going for you know, arguing with the deputy or whatever

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And so I'd kind of look at the charge and then if they had a Bible I'd look at that I'd say I Said I see you have a

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Bible there Yes, I said, are you a Christian a? Lot of times I'd hear yes, and I'd say well, you know what when you get down there

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I wonder if you'd do me a favor and just kind of review Romans chapter 13 Might it might help you, you know

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Okay, senior, you know, whatever But I just look at verse 2 therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what

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God has appointed And sometimes I would get a little more direct and I'd say, you know, if you're arguing with a deputy guess what the

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Bible says that you're Resisting God's appointed authority. Hey, you weren't yelling it

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Just a deputy that was God's appointed deputy That's pretty heavy

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Listen to what Hendrickson says about this. He says the wrongdoer better be afraid

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Better be afraid And I'll tell you I'm gonna stop right there and I'll finish reading

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Hendrickson for a minute But just think about it now if you commit a murder in many states of the Union and including I would dare say

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This one we'll see. I has Sarnaev. Has he been sentenced yet? I Mean I'm kind of wondering whether he'll get the death penalty or not

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But if you commit a murder no matter how heinous it is no matter what your motivation in many states of the

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Union you will not Suffer the ultimate penalty, you know your penalty will be

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You know three hots and a cot Cable TV. I mean you'll have some gnarly roommates but It's really not a bad life

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If you're into that kind of thing and I'll tell you what you'd be surprised because some people are so Maybe you've heard the term institutionalized

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They really don't know how to handle life on the outside They don't if somebody's not telling them what to do

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They're gonna get in trouble they need kind of parenting all the time and they just wind up coming back to jail So Henderson the wrongdoer better be afraid first of all, he should have been afraid to do wrong

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Right. I mean what what happens to you the first time? I mean everybody's done something in their lives that they're you know, they anticipated doing beforehand.

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They knew it was wrong. And what happens? You get like a little maybe nobody ever has you get a little kind of afraid the first time you lied to your parents the

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First time you stole something whatever it was you get that little inside you get this little fear That fear is what of being caught

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You don't want to be caught But if the punishment doesn't fit the crime then the fear is lessened

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He goes on to say Having done wrong. He better be afraid for punishment will not stay away

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He should realize that the magistrate does not bear the sword in vain. That is to no purpose for nothing or in colloquial

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Language just for fun. He doesn't carry the sword just for fun the ruler bears the sword in order to instill fear of doing wrong and In order to inflict punishment when wrong has been done

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The opinion according to which Paul simply means that the Emperor and those who represent and wield military power

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Merely to enable them to quell the forces of rebellion Hardly does justice to the present context which refers to wrongdoers in general and not to rebels

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In other words, this isn't just to put down some kind of riots By means of the sword wrongdoing is punished.

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In fact, the vicious dangerous criminal may even be put to death And he says the fact that in the

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New Testament the use of the sword is often connected With the idea of putting to death is clear from passages and he lists of several passages in Luke Acts Revelation and Hebrews Hebrews 1134 he says were

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Escaped the edge of the sword means escaped death So when they bear the sword, the idea is that they bear the power to kill

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He says the fact that the authority is God's servant is repeated here verses 1 and 2 in the verse for an

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Avenger to bring God's wrath and Again, the idea is God is angry with these people.

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Well, why would God be mad if somebody committed a murder? why would that bear

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God's wrath because an image bearer was wrongfully slain

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This is a very heinous crime and it should be punished. MacArthur says this says murder is a crime against God in Whose image man has made it defiles

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God so capital punishment is required If you read through the Old Testament law, you'll find that there was capital punishment required for many sins

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For example some sexual sins required capital punishment and of course my favorite one when

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I had teenage kids was what Rebellious kids should be taken outside the town and stoned to death.

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I was like, you're lucky you don't live around the Old Testament You know, we we'd be taking outside this the gates of the city that you know this morning and it'd be all over for you

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Yeah, there's one way to win every argument Let's see MacArthur goes on and he says

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In Exodus 21 you have kidnapping and he says, you know something interesting in those periods of time in the

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Mosaic era do you know where or do you know who the executioner was when there was a sex crime or when there was a murder or when there was a dishonor to the parents or when there was a

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Kidnapping or any of these crimes that were capital of that were capital offenses the agent of vengeance who carried out the death penalty was

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The family of the victim and in fact, it would be the nearest male relative to the victim So let's say your sister is murdered.

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Your sister is raped something like that who is the one charged with killing the

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Criminal the brother of the sister Go out there or the father

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You know, how many times have you have you read something and you just thought you know

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Something happens to a little child or something like that. You just go Justice would be what?

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Leaving the father alone with that guy for a few minutes, right? Well that that was justice

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Here here's the sword go take care of it. MacArthur goes on.

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He says we say today capital punishment isn't a deterrent It doesn't stop people from committing crimes

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And he says of course not but he's talking about today's system he says why he says nobody's involved in it

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It happens somewhere in the corner somewhere in a private little deal with nobody there When nobody knows and we don't understand the agony of it, you know

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That's all we hear about if we hear about anything, right? Is either the guys been put to death or we hear that, you know

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He suffered for two hours while they you know, we're trying to kill him He says but then it was very public it was a family matter

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It was right out there and people lived with the consequences of facing what sin brought and what crime brought

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And he says and believe me it became or it came a as a deterrent

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Then he says God has four purposes. I believe in punishment in the Old Testament for purposes

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Number one retribution make him pay an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth This taught people

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God's way. He requires payment. There must be if there's a sin there must be a payment for it

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The second thing was not only retribution but deterrence. I believe that God had these punishments

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These severe punishments in order to determine from committing crimes If you thought if I do this

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I am going to be put to death That'll slow you down, I mean we would understand, you know, sometimes it happens

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I don't know for some reason always seems to happen in Texas Somebody breaks into somebody's house and they get shot to death and you just think well

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Here's a here's a crazy solution. Don't break into people's houses Right, that's what that's a deterrent

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Yeah, well, you know, Texas is Texas But I mean, you know, it's always like Well, you know this happened to that guy or whatever and the answer is don't do that Right.

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I mean, I mean for most of us we will not be shot by police officers Well, why is that because the police officer stops us and we say yes, sir.

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No, sir, you know You know, would you like me to clean the car or anything else? You know,

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I mean whatever you want, right? I Don't run from police officers. I don't challenge them

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I don't get out of the vehicle and wrestle around with them and I haven't been shot yet It's wonderful how that happens

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MacArthur goes on he says thirdly, I think these punishments were for protection Retribution deterrence and protection because if you would isolate or remove an offender you protected the community if you get him out

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He won't do it again That's why we have prisons to lock up people that can't live in a society without hurting other people of course, then we let them out so they can't hurt again and And fourthly says

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I think God's purpose in these kinds of punishment was purification He wanted to keep Israel pure.

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So he wanted to remove the evil people the people who couldn't restrain themselves. I Mean imagine if you knew that something was gonna bring about your death and you did it.

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Anyway, what does that say about you? You must be More than depraved you have to be really just consumed with evil

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See so MacArthur concludes this way he says Does the

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Bible teach? capital punishment Yes, and I believe that if it was done in a biblical fashion today, we'd have a lot less crime

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Than we have now Now that's a little bit controversial

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Charlie Yeah would certainly slow people down right if they if it was done in a swift manner now,

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I I mean Obviously, I've dealt with some pretty You know dangerous people in my lifetime.

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I was just reading the other day. Well, let me just put it this way I don't know how many of you have had the opportunity to talk to a real a

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Real gang member a real Criminal somebody who really is just they don't care about anything or anyone except for their own little

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Cadre of people their own little circle of people and themselves, of course Have you ever done that?

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What you'll find is that? There are a variety of things that they would kill somebody for and none of them to me that none of them seem that Important, you know, here's an example.

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This isn't death but people would get Beaten almost to the point of death for being a snitch in the jail or believed to being a snitch

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They would Mean my least favorite this would happen. I remember the first time

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I heard this and I just thought this is just nuts people would get beaten almost to death because They played chess with the wrong race

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You just go What? He was doing what he played chess with a white guy he played chess with a black guy

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He played chess with a Mexican what? He was using the Mexican phone.

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What? really and For and for that he's in the hospital

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Fighting for his life. Yep. Those are the rules in here.

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There is a real lack of Fear of any punishment.

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I mean what happens to the guys who do that's almost nothing Almost nothing. They're already in jail.

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What's gonna happen to him now, you know the most dangerous people in the world are the ones who are on death row and So we're gonna leave them there for 15 20 25 30 years

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You can imagine that dealing with those people on a daily basis would not be very easy They have absolutely nothing to lose and if they commit another crime then guess what?

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Just guarantees that they're gonna live longer I mean, it's bizarre and like Charlie said if we if they did something and they were convicted and we executed them quickly

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That would have a deterrent effect and there are situations, you know where people are found innocent later

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I'll grant you that but I mean there are situations to where they're caught I'll just say red -handed where there's absolutely no doubt about who did it

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I mean, I think about I've mentioned this case before really I mean it because it was just kind of seared into my mind this four -year -old girl in Orange County Her name was

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Samantha Runyon taken out of her backyard. This man took her took her down the beach

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Did all kinds of horrible things to her and then he just cut her into pieces Four years old and They caught the man and I mean all the evidence was there and everything and somebody said to me, you know

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Cuz I was in seminary at the time. They said, you know, do you think he should be executed? I said, yes, he should And I said, you know what?

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This is the kind of case where they should have a trial on Friday You know a sentencing on Saturday and this and a hanging on Sunday.

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I mean this should just be boom. Boom. Boom There should I mean there's what's the issue? But I guarantee if I look it up that guy's still alive because California doesn't do that and Even if you get sentenced to death it, you know death by what death by cable

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TV death by you know Hardening of the arteries or whatever from all the high -fat high cholesterol meals

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They're feeding you but it's not gonna be death as any kind of punishment There is no deterrent and really it stems from this not because we have too high a view of the

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Constitution But because we have too low of you of human life we have too low a reverence for the people that have died

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Everybody's like oh this poor guy, you know that there are whole societies Organizations that go to bat to protect the lives of murderers

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If you're found guilty and there's I mean again, there are cases where?

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You could argue the evidence is circumstantial. It's this it's that it's the other thing But you know with the proverbial

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Bloody knife kind of thing all you know, all the evidence is all clear

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I mean they've got you on videotape committing the murder and it still takes 20 to 25 years of the best

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Circumstances to put somebody to death. No shouldn't and Getting back to the point

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Charlie made John MacArthur made if you want deterrent it has to be swift Justice delayed is not

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Justice at all and Really? It's just indicative of the sinful state of our society and how we view life other comments

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Go ahead phone. Well, you would think so But I mean and and you know what I I would say this that somebody should have a right to appeal the question is though You know some of the some of the appeals are pretty

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That they're based on very tenuous grounds very flimsy grounds and here's the thing too that any kind of appeal should be undertaken with the utmost urgency rather than You know, they'll often change legal teams.

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So the new legal team has to come up to speed etc, etc, etc. I'm like Where I just have this just me my opinion when

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I just have panels of Judges or jurists who just examine these things that just expedite everything.

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I mean, it should just be you know, you're guilty and Here's your execution dates and you know, there will be an automatic appeals process

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But that's it but a lot of times they just they will appeal anything and they'll go all the way up to the

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Supreme Court's and they'll try to say that it's I mean the real irony is right somebody can appeal on the basis of its cruel and unusual punishment to be

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Gassed to death to have all these things and then you look read what they did in their crime and you just go

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Cruel and unusual punishment. I don't know but what you did might fit that Definitely actually it does.

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Anyway, we need a closing prayer Father we thank you that you are

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Just that you do what is right Lord. We thank you for your word what it says about these issues

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How there really can be no? doubt That your word demands justice for victims of crime

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Father we would pray for Greater justice better justice in all cases in this country

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Father that the innocent would be found innocent that the guilty would be found guilty and that they would be brought to swift justice

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Or we pray that you would grant Salvation to many of our judges and our leaders

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That they might have a more biblical view of the inherent dignity and worth of people

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Father we're thankful for animals but even It would it would make us laugh if it wasn't so sad and such a denial of your word to read something like chimpanzees being granted

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Standing in a court of law Father we know you are sovereign Lord, we know that your son the

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Lord Jesus Christ is coming back to set things right and father we Anxiously await that day in Jesus name.