Dec 4
"The Penalty Is Death"
The death penalty debate has been in the news this week. In the U.S. there
was a good deal of hubbub over the execution of the 1,000th person since the
Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976. In Singapore, a
25-year-old Australian national was hanged for drug trafficking. A firestorm of complaints failed to prevent Nguyen Tuong Van from going to the gallows.
I find it most displeasing that the liberal media is always trying to find new trivial ways to attack the death penalty. The press needs to figure that as long as the dregs of society continue to commit reprehensible acts, there is going to be an ongoing number count. If the Lord tarries, the justice system will eventually execute the 2,000th or 3,000th person.
Since just 1999, we've had 100,000 innocent people murdered in America. If
liberals want to establish a limit on murder, I think they should focus on
that sad number. I'm sure the criminal elements in society would gladly
respect a moratorium on murder.
The individuals being permanently removed from planet earth are not petty
criminals. Here is a brief description of the two runners up and the one with
the dubious honor of achieving the 1,000 milestone.
Mr. 998, Eric Nance, was executed in Arkansas for killing teenager Julie
Heath of Malvern in 1993. She was found in the woods with her throat slashed
from a utility knife. Nance offered no last words. Family members of Heath
took note that Nance did not say he was sorry.
John Hicks was 999 on the list. He was put to death for strangling his
56-year-old mother-in-law Maxine Armstrong and his 5-year-old stepdaughter
Brandy Green. Hicks killed his mother-in-law to get money to buy drugs.
Apparently while he was high on cocaine, Hicks returned to her apartment at
the Alms to kill Brandy, the only witness to see him in the apartment before
the first murder.
Convicted killer Kenneth Lee Boyd became the 1000th prisoner executed in the
United States since reinstatement. He was sentenced in 1994 for killing his
wife, Julie Curry Boyd, and father-in-law, Thomas Dillard Curry, on March 4,
1988 in Stoneville, N.C. At the time, Boyd was separated from his wife, who
was living with her mother and father.
I've received several emails from spammers who wanted to save the Australian
from the hangman. His fate was tragic, but I failed to see the injustice.
Nguyen received a mandatory death sentence after he was caught in 2002 at
Singapore's airport on his way home to Melbourne carrying about 14 ounces of
heroin.
When it comes to grievous crime, the Singapore government does not play around.
While in Europe to meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Singapore's
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong ruled out a reprieve. He was very frank with
the media, saying, "We have stated our position clearly -- The penalty is
death."
The big problem with the death penalty is people's failure to see how sin
has deadly consequences. I would guess that the vast majority of people
who face execution never turn to the One who can grant them an eternal pardon.
Even when facing a hopeless situation like capital punishment, people fail
to realize the gravity of their fate.
The first person to die after the ban was lifted was Gary Gilmore. While
incarcerated, Gilmore developed a deep dislike for two of his fellow
inmates, convicted murderers and rapists Dale Selby Pierre and William
Andrews. Gilmore had to pass the men's cells on his way to the firing squad,
and as he was led past he laughed at the men and uttered his final words to
his fellow inmates, "I'll see you in Hell, Andrews and Pierre!"
In the afterlife, there is no escape from judgment. All who are not found in
the Lamb's book of life will be cast into the lake of fire.
"For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through
Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:23).
Intergalactic War!
H.G. Wells’ story, “War of the Worlds,” set in motion a panic among many Americans. When Orson Welles, who produced and directed the radio play by the same name, broadcast the program in 1938, thousands of U.S. citizens prepared for war against the invading Martians. They brought out shotguns, hunting rifles, axes, pitchforks –anything with which they could fend off the ghastly creatures Welles and the actors were describing.
It was soon learned that it was all a fictional account of an extraterrestrial invasion, Orson Welles made his excuses and apologies, and things settled. But, not for long.
By the early 1940s, the newly developing technology called “radar” was reflecting images that appeared to be unexplainable phenomena flying through earth’s atmosphere. “Unidentified Flying Objects” became a designation that was becoming ever more familiar to the public. UFO became the acronynm for the pacronym.
The 1947 Roswell, New Mexico incident again snatched at the psyche of the American public. Reports of aliens among us took off faster than the shimmering discs that were given their names by the UFO observers who reported that they looked like “flying saucers.”
Rather than the reports of UFOs and flying saucers subsiding with the advances in radar technology, and in sophistication of a more educated, informed public, the reports of feared alien insinuation into Planet Earth’s doings continue to proliferate.
And this brings us to a recent action by some prominent Canadians.
A number of groups have joined forces with former Canadian Defence Minister Paul Hellyer in urging Parliament to hold public hearings on "exopolitics" - or elations with extraterrerelations(ETs).
Three non-governmental organizations (NGOs) were reacting to a speech made by Hellyer in September in Toronto in which he warned that "UFOs are as real
as the airplanes that fly over your head."…
The former Canadian defense minister is concerned that the United States is intimidating extraterrestrials, thus bringing about the possibility of “intergalactic war.”
According to the former official, this intimidation is in the form of America’s desire to return to the Moon, upon which no American has set foot in decades. The U.S., according to Hellyer, intends to set up a base from which to fire upon the extraterrestrials, as a defensive measure against invasion.
The Canadian government has stated that its senate would not be entertaining debate “on ET issues” in the foreseeable future. One spokesman for the group seeking to open debate said about the Canadian Senate’s refusal to allow it: "That does not deter us…We are going ahead with [plans to bring it up again in early 2006.]”
The spokesman said further, "Time is on the side of open disclosure that there are ethical extraterrestrial civilizations visiting Earth” (Former Canadian Minister Of Defence Asks Canadian Parliament To Hold Hearings On Relations With Alien, "ET" Civilizations, Thu Nov 24, 7:00 AM ET, (PRWEB) - OTTAWA, CANADA (PRWEB) November 24, 2005).
The term “ethical extraterrestrial” is the operative phrase. America should not be intimidating or provoking “ethical” aliens.
This, of course, should be great fodder for those who view anyone who looks to the skies with thoughts of flying saucers–or any other UFO--as a kook. But, because it is those with humanistic credentials raising the worries of “intergalactic war,” it seems there is no reason to point fingers and laugh in their direction.
Most people, even the humanist governors of Planet Earth these days, don’t flinch when ET is mentioned, as was once the common practice. Enough evidence has accumulated, and continues to accumulate, to dampen too much guffawing over possible encounters of the first, second, third, or even fourth kind.
Here is what God’s Word, the Bible, has to say about the only ETs that exist –so far as anyone is able to ascertain. That is, the only that exist with the exception of God’s heavenly forces. Those ETs are anything but “ethical.”
“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Eph. 6:12).
We are in a stupendous battle. It isn’t an “intergalactic war,” but an “interdimensional war” of immense ferocity. There is nothing “ethical” about the extradimensionals. They are dedicated to wreaking as much carnage and destruction upon Planet Earth as they can manage. God will let them have their way, to some extent, during the period called “Daniel’s seventieth week” –the Tribulation era, which will last seven years.
People of this fallen sphere are likely to see these extradimensionals manifest themselves more and more while human history draws near Christ’s second coming.
The UFOs, it is discerning to consider, are very possibly part of the delusion of 2 Thessalonians, chapter 2, now being constructed for the period following the evacuation of Christ’s church from earth’s deadly surface.
“When you see all these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your head, for your redemption draws near” (Luke 21:28).
--Terry
