Hello, this is pastor gary from first baptist church of laplata. Today’s “Throwback Thursday” is from Saturday, January 16, 2021. Two convicts on death row in Indiana may escape the death penalty due to contracting COVID. The one convict oversaw the kidnapping and murder of 3 women in Maryland in 1996; the other convict murdered 7 people in Virginia. Both convicts have contracted COVID, so their lawyers argued that they cannot be put to death until they recover. So they have to feel better in order to be executed? If they are dying anyway, what does it matter if they are not feeling quite up to snuff? The concern is that due to COVID complications, the men may suffer some discomfort while being executed resulting in “cruel and unusual punishment” forbidden by the Constitution. Were these men concerned about the comfort of their 10 victims while they were being murdered? While committed Christians take both sides of the death penalty issue, I take the biblical view that the government has the right and responsibility to take life when life has been taken. Old Testament references are too numerous to list, but Paul puts it this way in Romans 13:4, “…if thou do that which is evil, be afraid, for he beareth not the sword in vain; for he is the minister of God, a revenger, to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.” The sword is not just a symbol of authority, it is a weapon of execution.
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