I have a theory about Christ’s second coming—it goes like this. Everything anyone needs to know about the last things can be found in 1 & 2 Thessalonians. The reason I believe this is because these two New Testament letters were written by St. Paul to help confused Christians get unconfused about Christ’s coming. Additionally, I think that any so-called system of eschatology (the study of end times) that doesn’t match-up with 1 & 2 Thessalonians is mistaken. I am pretty leery of any end times system that has to have some expert and a lot of charts to explain it. I just don’t think it is that complicated. If 1st century, mostly illiterate Christians, could grasp 1 & 2 Thessalonians without the need of seminars, charts, graphs and experts, then so can the average contemporary Christian.

I am in the process of writing a blog-post on the “second coming made easy.” However, I am interested in your thinking. Do you want to venture a thought or two about when and how Christ will return? Don’t be afraid, at Theology for dummies we tolerate differences.

I think I’ve done it again. I was on another person’s blog and I kinda’ got into a battle of wits with another blogger making comments over a semi-political issue. I apologize to the poor blogger—Dazey, because I’m sure I was “driving her” crazy. And normally I avoid political issues; buuuuut, this one has theological implications.

The issue is poverty and inner city blight. I believe that ultimately the solution to inner city devastation is primarily a moral/spiritual matter and not a political issue. My main thought is that the majority of people on public assistance and living in poverty are single female-headed households. The consequence of this is that as high as 70-80% of children in our inner cities are raised without fathers living in the home. It just so happens that the overwhelming majority of criminals come from fatherless homes. Nearly everyone who studies this issue recognizes the relationship between out-of-wedlock births and crime. High crime rates lead to middle-class flight from inner cities. Note I state “middle-class flight” and not “white-flight.” The reason I state the issue this way is because upwardly mobile African-Americans are moving at a higher rate (per capita) out of inner cities than are whites. People are basically the same, they all want the best and most secure environment for raising their children.

Now here is the moral/spiritual component, if you haven’t guessed it already. A moral revival that returns men to sexual fidelity and family life is the answer. Without committed fathers in the home we will not have safe streets. It is as simple as that. Certainly there are other issues involved, but that’s the core factor.

As Barbara Dafoe Whitehead noted in her seminal article for The Atlantic Monthly:

The relationship [between single-parent families and crime] is so strong that controlling for family configuration erases the relationship between race and crime and between low income and crime. This conclusion shows up time and again in the literature. The nation's mayors, as well as police officers, social workers, probation officers, and court officials, consistently point to family break up as the most important source of rising rates of crime. Barbara Dafoe Whitehead, "Dan Quayle Was Right," Atlantic Monthly, April 1993.

My wife is a Christian Marriage/Family Therapist. Obviously, she hears lots of “interesting” things from people. She’s told me that on a number of occasions she has had people say something like this: “I’m going to get a divorce and marry so-and-so because God would never want me to be unhappy.” In the original Biblical-Greek the word for this is “baloney!” Hopefully, we all know that God isn’t into passing out happy pills. In fact, what do you think about this idea; at times God actually wants us to experience deep sorrow? I don’t mean that He just allows us to experience sorrow; I mean that He actually wants us to be sorrowful on occasion.

Why? Well, one of the great things about sorrow is that it can make us evaluate our lives and, hopefully, correct our misbehavior. Paul was actually happy that he made Christians sorrowful (2 Corinthians 7:9-10). Imagine a modern pastor telling his congregation I’m happy I made you sad. If you make a modern audience unhappy, you’re likely to be preaching to the sound of chirping crickets the next Sunday. Here is a little thought from Aquinas:

“Moreover, this (sorrow) proves useful for avoiding evil: since, just as good is more readily sought for the sake of pleasure, so is evil more undauntedly shunned on account of sorrow…” [Summa I-II, 59, 4]

I’m not saying I want to go to church to feel bad, but maybe there is a time and place for godly sorrow.

I was raised a Christian pacifist and went to a Mennonite seminary; however, I have changed my thinking about both war and capital punishment. While I, obviously, realize that there are many thoughtful Christians who oppose the death penalty, I have come to see why it should be instituted in society.

Historically

Catholic scholar Steven A. Long says in "Evangelium Vitae, St. Thomas Aquinas, and the Death Penalty" (The Thomist, 1999, pp. 511-52), "It is nearly the unanimous opinion of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church that the death penalty is morally licit.”

St. Augustine taught in City of God: "The same divine law which forbids the killing of a human being allows certain exceptions.... Since the agent of authority is but a sword in the hand, and is not responsible for the killing, it is in no way contrary to the commandment, 'Thou shall not kill,' … for the representatives of the State's authority to put criminals to death, according to law or the rule of rational justice."

St. Thomas Aquinas wrote in regard to convicted murderers: “[B]oth divine and human laws command such like sinners be put to death. Nevertheless, the judge puts this into effect, not out of hatred for the sinners, but out of the love of charity, by reason of which he prefers the public good to the life of the individual.”

Scripturally

The seminal text for capital punishment is found in Romans 13 where the St. Paul admonishes Christians to be submissive to governing authorities. The key verse is 13:4 “For he is God's servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God's servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.”

Additionally, the reasoning behind the sacrificial and innocent death of Christ upon the cross looses its meaning if capital punishment is wrong per se. Remember the words of one of the criminals who was crucified with Jesus: (Luke 23:40-41) “But the other criminal rebuked him.”Don't you fear God," he said, "since you are under the same sentence? [41] We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong." The key is that the criminals were punished justly but Jesus was unjustly punished for our sins. If capital punishment was wrong per se, then the concept of Jesus serving as our atoning sacrifice makes no sense—(2 Cor. 5:21) “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Personally

Unfortunately, I had to officiate for the funeral of a beautiful young college coed who was brutally tortured, raped and killed. She, along with another young coed, were slaughtered and then buried in the killer’s backyard. The book “Dead and Buried” by Corey Mitchell is about this horrendous crime. The killer had been released after only serving 10 years of a 25 year sentence for brutally raping two other women. Shortly after his parole, he killed these two wonderful and promising young women. The point that I want to make is that up until then the family of the young woman was fairly blasé about capital punishment. They were not particularly conservative. The murder changed all of that. Suddenly, everyone who knew the young woman, even if they could not form a cogent argument, intuitively believed that justice could only be served through capital punishment. The family has worked tirelessly to assure that the convicted killer will one day be executed. It will, of course, take many more years before the killer will ever have to face his death sentence. The point is--the issue of capital punishment becomes crystal clear when it is YOUR daughter that has been savagely tortured and killed.

Final Thoughts

Though my mind has changed about capital punishment, I still have great respect for those who thoughtfully disagree with me on the issue. It is not an “easy” issue nor is it a pleasant one to consider in REAL life.

O.K. friends, time for another “hot” topic.

A person recently emailed me regarding my opinion about Christianity and capital punishment. What do you think? Certainly there are strong differences of opinion across the denominational spectrum about this difficult issue. Is it un-Christian to take a murderer’s life if he/she has been lawfully and appropriately convicted? On the other hand, is it unjust to the victim’s family to fail to execute a convicted killer? What do you think? What's your Scriptural support?