MURDER AND CAP ITAL PUNISHMENT
TIM E OF TH E TR IBULATION Q. Just when will the “Great Tribu lation” take place? Will it begin as soon as the believers are raptured? A. The “Great Tribulation” actually refers to the last 3^ years of the week of seven years as described in Daniel, often called “Daniel’s 70th week.” When the church is translated and the restraining influence of the Holy Spirit — the hinderer — work ing in the church is removed, then shall “that wicked one be revealed” — the antichrist (2 Thess. 2:7-10). The antichrist will appear to be a great lover of peace, a benefactor of all mankind, and he will present him self to the unbelieving Jews as’ their Messiah. He will confirm a covenant with them and receive allegiance from them until he sets up his image in “the holy place” of the restored Jewish temple, demanding worship. Daniel describes this as ‘the abomina tion of desolation” and the Lord Jesus quoted Daniel, using this very ex pression. (See Dan. 9:27 and Mat thew 24:15.) To a Jew idolatry is “abomination” and the remnant (now seeing the falseness of antichrist’s claims) will spurn his pretensions. Then the antichrist and all the hosts of Satan will turn upon Israel and there will take place “the great tribu lation,” “the time of Jacob’s trouble,” which Jesus describes as “tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake [the Jewish remnant which will repent and be saved] there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened” (Matt. 24: 21-22). When one remembers the “blood baths” of this world — the French Revolution, World War I and World War II, and other awful con flicts—it is hard to imagine anything worse, but the Lord says that these 3 1/2 years will eclipse anything that has ever happened on the earth. The great tribulation will end with the return of the Lord Jesus Christ.
BAPTISM FOR TH E DEAD? Q. I have some friends in the Mor mon church who believe that people now living can be baptized for those who have died. They teach that one cannot be saved without baptism so they tell their followers that someone can be baptized for those who are clead and thus 1 suppose assure their salvation after death. This seems gruesome to me and when l talked to this friend she showed me I Corin thians 15:29. 1 am sure it does not mean what she thinks it does so will you please explain it? A. It certainly does not mean that a living person can be baptized for a dead one at all. There is no Scrip tural authority for this practice. It is simply the piling up of evidence on the part of Paul in that great chapter on the resurrection that because Christ rose from the dead, we who believe upon Him may also be as sured of our resurrection. The resurrection of Christ is the foundation of our faith. Without it, our faith would be in vain. In it God demonstrated the sufficiency and efficacy of the redemption price paid on Calvary. Baptism is a picture of our associ ation — or identification — with Christ in His death and resurrection. Romans 6 makes this very clear. Evi dently in Paul’s day, as now, there were those disputing the fact that Christ had risen from the dead. So Paul reasonably asks, “What shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized for the dead?” (I Cor. 15:29). In other words, if Christ be not risen from the dead, then we have been baptized unto a dead man, and of what value or signi ficance could that have? Baptism speaks of resurrection as well as of death and it loses all its significance if Christ did not rise. Paul’s argument on the resurrection reaches its climax in his conclusion: “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept” (v. 20).
Q. Do you believe capital punish ment is taught in the Bible? Where? And could a murderer ever be saved? A . Yes, to both questions. (1) “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God made he man” (Gen. 9:6). This principle was laid down by the Lord at the beginning of the post-Noahic period and has never in any way been abrogated by the Lord. It is the only real deterrent to murder there is. I deplore all the sickly sentimentality that is now being expressed on this subject. God made man and so He has the highest regard of all for hu man life — so great that if a man kills another, in justice he must for feit his life for it. Any other dealing with proven murderers is lacking in true justice. (2) Of course a murderer who will repent of his sin and accept Christ as his Saviour can have his sins forgiven. The thief on the cross was a murderer and when he acknowledged Christ by calling him “Lord” and asking for His salvation, Jesus assured him: “Today thou shalt be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). David was a murderer and so was Paul. Psalm 51 shows the repentant heart of David, and all through Paul’s writings we find ref erences to his being “the chiefest of sinners” “because he persecuted the church of God.” Of course both David and Paul killed “legally” as king and officer of the persecutors of the Chris tians so their own lives were spared. I have known cases of men who were saved on their way to the electric chair, and who went to their deaths with assurance of salvation and peace in their hearts. People who deal sentimentally with this matter do not distinguish be tween murder which is a crime of hate, passion or revenge, and capital punishment which is a carrying out of the law dispassionately without hate or any desire for revenge. One is personal; the other impersonal and legal.
THE KING'S BUSINESS
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