based on the fact of His love for us. The following humble illustration will point this out. Here is a man who is at one and the same time a skilled surgeon and a loving husband. He learns to his great sorrow that his beloved wife’s right arm is filled with cancer. Arrangements are quickly made, and she is placed under the surgeon’s knife. He executes swift and severe judgment against the offending member of his beloved wife’s body. Her right arm is amputated. It is in deep love that he has executed judgment upon one member of the body in order to save the rest. Even so, God in His love for society as a whole has pronounced severe judgment upon offending members in particular. The prime illustration of this principle is seen at Calvary. It is on Calvary’s hill that God’s infinite love provides what His unchanging righteousness demands— capital punishment. Christ has given the death penalty not as the result of the wrath of some misled Pharisees, but His death was the predetermined judgment of the loving heavenly Father. Because He was made sin for us, He had to suffer the death penalty. Had there been any way of showing mercy or of granting a stay of execution for His Son, God would have used it, but love at the expense of righteousness is not love. Though it is obvious that various religious ceremonies, as well as means and methods of civil administration, are not the same today as they were in the Old Testament, yet it is obvious that the moral character of God and hence the moral principles laid down by Him have not changed in the New Testament. This does not mean that we are not to pray for and to work toward the conversion of criminals and lawbreakers. Nor, however, does it mean that the conversion of a particular criminal should release him from the responsibility of paying the full judgment or penalty of the law. It has been well-said, “There is a good reason for saying that opposition to capital punishment is not for the common good, but sides with evil; shows more regard for the criminal than the victim of the crime; weakens justice and encourages murder; is not based on Scripture but on a vague philosophical system that makes a fetish of the idea that the taking of life is wrong, under every circumstance, and fails to distinguish adequately between killing and murder, between punishment and crime.” (Jacob J. Vellenga), The death-cell abolitionist (and there are many in California today—including the Governor) argues that capital punishment does not deter crime. If he will but follow his argument to its logical conclusion, he will discover that there is no place left for any kind of punish ment. If severe punishment does not deter vicious crime, then who is there to say that lesser punishments will deter lesser crimes. In other words, if the death cell is to be done away with on the basis that it is ineffective, then every prison cell might well be done away with on the same basis. This is obviously a don’t-punish-the-child- when-he-is-naughty psychology. This psychology has pro duced the largest crop of juvenile delinquents that the world has ever known. It will be a sad day when we start petting criminals instead of punishing them. From the Christian view, the unchanging moral prin ciples of God are as applicable today in the administra tion of governments as they were in the Old Testament days. These broad principles do not always cover the details of administration, but they do give to us unerring laws of judgment. “Righteousness exalteth a nation,” and apart from strictly enforced law there can be no right eousness. Spare the rod and you will spoil the child'— spare the sword and you will spoil the nation. END
A Christian View of the Chessman Case (cont.) fact that any man, even a governor, can trample under his feet the verdicts of the highest courts in the land, including his own State Supreme Court. This seems to be evidence that law has lost its meaning and that lawmakers have become highly salaried officials who are only to be taken seriously if and when it is convenient. It is difficult to understand why impeachment should not follow hard on the heels of that man who swears to uphold the law, only to flagrantly cast it aside when sentiment, political pressure, or religious pressure dictate. It is inter esting to note that the governor, a Catholic, received a telegram of commendation from official Vatican sources following his granting Chessman an eleventh-hour reprieve. The Christian also views with concern the fact that Mr. Chessman was allowed to write several books, aS well as to have interviews with sensation-hungry newshounds. This is certainly not done in the interest of better law enforcement. Is the day upon us when each criminal will have the opportunity to hang his filthy laundry in the public eye through the press, radio, T.V., and the movies? Does society have to be subjected to such treatment? In the interest of the law and of public morals, why cannot the degraded lives of criminals be kept where they belong —in the courts and prisons? The Death Cell Out of the debacle of eight reprieves there has arisen a hue and cry against capital punishment in the State of California. Not a few Christians have blended their voices in this unholy hysteria which could do away with the death penalty. There is abundant reference to the subject of capital punishment in the Old Testament. Menstealers (kidnap pers), fornicators (rapers), and murderers were some of those who were to be given the death penalty. Note such passages as Leviticus 20 and Deuteronomy 23. These were not simply the pronouncements of Moses or of any other man. On the contrary, these statements represent the revealed will of a sovereign God. These pronounce ments are unchanging moral principles which grow out of the very nature of God. Capital punishment as revealed in the Old Testament not only represents God’s just and holy wrath against sin and crime, but also presents to man a basis for proper administration of judgment against crime. Nor does the New Testament do away with this. Christ did not come to annul the law, He came to fulfill it. The moral principles revealing the character of God given to us in the Old Testament were not abrogated in the New Testament. The Apostle Paul in his great treatise on the subject of civil government as found in Romans 13, says the ruler “beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.” This clearly indicates that the sword is to play a part in the administration of law on earth. In I Timothy 1:9 and 10 we read:“Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and mur derers of mothers, for manslayers, for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for men stealers (kidnappers), for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine j . .” The spiritually untaught person may bring up the question as to whether Christ did not teach that God is our loving Heavenly Father. Yes, He certainly did. Furthermore, the Father’s judgments against sin are
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THE KING'S BUSINESS
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