DEATH PENALTY vs THE GRACE OF GOD

Last year I excanged some e-mails with this stubborn old killer David Trosch, and  wasted some time in an effort to drag him out of his medieval evil. Here I present a part of a text he referred to in one of his e-mails (illustration aswell as yellow markups are mine):
TO ARGUE AGAINST THE DEATH PENALTY is to contend with constituted reality. Ever since Adam and Eve committed the Original Sin, every living creature is subject to it. Every one of us is born on Death Row and lives out his allotted lifespan in its shadow without hope of reprieve. God made that clear when He told Adam that "in what day soever" he preferred his own will above his Creator's, "thou shalt die the death," condemning him sooner or later to "return to the earth out of which thou wast taken: for dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt return" (Gen. 3:19). In other words, there has always been a death penalty. God instituted it, and He was the first to impose it, embedding it in the very fabric of natural law.
Chopp_op_op
   
My answer:

Dear Fr. Trosch
I cannot comment on everything. It would, as you say, be a wast of your time and my time. I'll just point out where I see the origin off your "derailment". God never condemned us! You can't blame him. We condemned ourself as we preferred our own will above our Creator's. God is our salvation, not our doom!

From Gen 3 we read " From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.'"

First scenario:

If I had told my little children not to touch poisonous fruit, and warned them about the consequenses i.e. death, but they are deceived to disobey. Would there death then be my penalty over them? No, that would be insane! I would have sacrificed my own life if there were any chance to save them. So would any loving father have done and our Father did! In this temporary life we were toast but he gave us all a chanse to get back the eternal life we had lost.

Second scenario:

I grow a beautiful garden. I'm espesially keen on a fruit-tree in the middle of it. I threaten my goddamn kids and say: "If you touch it you will die".  They are deceived to disobey. I kill them. Am I then a father at all or rather a diabolical beast? Satan is the only beneficiary if we assign diabolical properties to God our Father!

I serve in a Christian ministry team in a Swedish state-prison. The convicts are murderers, rapists and other grave criminals. Some repent and are saved in the blood of Jesus Christ. Most of them don't. We never know what time it takes for a convict to open up for the Holy Spirit. Usually it take several years, in some cases dekades. If I understand you right you want us to "chop there heads off" as soon as they repent and have been redressed and forgiven in the blood of Christ. We don't (i.e. we don't interfer and cross Gods plans) and we have seen several examples where God uses converted convicts and former convicts to witness far more efficiant to others than we do, just as St Paul. He organized and helpt in the killing of innocent martyrs before he was converted. What if he had been stoned to death by the Christians of Damaskus?

No man can fully understand the eternal counsels of God and his (for us) surprising ability to turn total misary into succes. He alone can make good come out of evil. Who are we than to anticipate and interrupt him in his efforts to save all mankind?

God bless you and take care

Anders Bronsek


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