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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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