Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The other day I was watching the news and some young man was accused of breaking and entering, the judge gave him 15 years, the young man looked stunned and even fainted, I have to admit I laughed but then quickly sobered up and asked myself, is 15 years justice or over justice? is it even biblical to incarcerate people like white collar criminals? Are Christians really looking honestly at how the bible dictates or doesn't dictate every aspect of our lives and even our decisions or for that matter giving the same attention to these issues as we do to homosexuality or abortion?
Please give scripture to support your answers, this is not philosophy 101
Luke 12:58 As you are going with your adversary to the magistrate, try hard to be reconciled to him on the way, or he may drag you off to the judge, and the judge turn you over to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison.
59 I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.
Luke 12:58 As you are going with your adversary to the magistrate, try hard to be reconciled to him on the way, or he may drag you off to the judge, and the judge turn you over to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison.
59 I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.
This is part of a parable I believe.
That passage is about forgiveness. If you cannot work out your problems with your enemies, without a judge, the sentence will be much more harsh when you are actually in front of a judge.
It has nothing to do with prisons in general. It was a parable on forgiveness.
If someone raped your daughter, it's better to forgive the evil doer and help them understand and learn to love, than it is for them to go in front of a judge. Once the judge is involved, it's anything goes because we still use our material mind instead of the spiritual mind. That was Jesus' message. In the spirit world, the rapist could have a lighter sentence than in the material world because the material world looks at the surface whereas the spiritual world looks at the soul.
I don't believe that prison is the heart of the Father, but rather the freedom of Jubilee. No one stays in bondage forever.
Quote:
Count off seven sabbaths of years -- seven times seven years -- so that the seven sabbaths of years amount to a period of forty-nine years. Then have the trumpet sounded everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement sound the trumpet throughout your land. Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each one of you is to return to his family property and each to his own clan. (Lev 25)
The Bible says that the State has the sword for a reason, and that it acts in the name of god to hold evil men to account.
So prisons as being just another type of sword of the State are very much the will of God and are here to protect us.
I agree with Alan: that the state "bears the sword" for a reason. I work in a max-security prison, and am VERY dissappointed that there is so very little emphasis on the work of prison chaplains, teaching the Bible, salvation, etc. Most prisoners serve their time, then leave, with no true change in their attitude...no born-again experience. Many leave with more evil within them, than when they entered. It's a sad story, but the United States has the highest incarceration rate (per capita) in the entire world. What we are doing is not working, or at least it is not working well...
Click here for an eye-opener: more in prison in usa than any other country? - Google Search
I agree with Alan: that the state "bears the sword" for a reason. I work in a max-security prison, and am VERY dissappointed that there is so very little emphasis on the work of prison chaplains, teaching the Bible, salvation, etc. Most prisoners serve their time, then leave, with no true change in their attitude...no born-again experience. Many leave with more evil within them, than when they entered. It's a sad story, but the United States has the highest incarceration rate (per capita) in the entire world. What we are doing is not working, or at least it is not working well...
Click here for an eye-opener: more in prison in usa than any other country? - Google Search
Bud
The thing is, when our people are imprisoned, we don't do anything to help them. We see them as their crime in which they are not. They did an act, it's not who they are. When they go to the prisons, the guards, some ministers, etc, still see the act and not the person. If we would all learn the importance of forgiveness as Jesus taught, there wouldn't be as many people in the prison. From what I have seen and heard from my own brother, the ministers in the prisons preach, they don't teach. Teaching is more important. We have to learn what brought them to that point that they had to do the act and then correct that. But we don't. We see the crime and our system holds it against them for the rest of their life.
An example, my brother served his time from what the judge had given him. He was released and got a good job (he has a college education, BTW) and was trying very hard to live a good life. About 3-4 months after his release, he started getting harrassed by the county police. He didn't do anything wrong. One time he got a ticket for not using a turn signal. It's not a law to use them but it is respectful. He then got pullled over again for another stupid thing that ordinary everyday people get away with. He is still being harassed and he's been out for 3 years now.
Our Father in Heaven has forgiven him but our society has not. That is why our prisons get so overpopulated. We need to learn true forgiveness so that our brothers and sisters can truely learn to live and function in society without being labeled for an act.
I work with prisoners and almost all of them have come out better than when they went in. It's about the love we show them and our own willingness to how far we want to teach them to forgive and love themselves. My brother calls me his guardian angel because of what I taught him while he was in prison. He knows what he did and why and once he faced that, he became a better person to himself.
actually it sounds like the cops are keeping a close watch on your brother...thats good.
It should help him fly right ...
Here is a little lesson learned in New York city.
back in the 1980s they had a huge problem with the subways being turned into a gang hang out.
What the mayor did was start a program where they would really go after the people that jumped over the tolls.
Now at first you might think it was foolish to go after such a minor offense, but it turns out to have worked like a charm!
By watching the small little things you get rid of the bigger issues.
The same is true for our friends and family that have constant little problems with the cops after getting out of jail.
If the cops keep the person from doing even small things wrong, they have the effect of keeping the big things from going wrong too!
Yes Jesus said``When you go with your adversary to the magistrate, as you are in the way, give deligence, that you may be delivered from him, lest he hale you to the judge, and the judge deliver you to the officer, and the officer caste you into prision, I tell you thou shall not depart thence, until you have paid the very last cent. Luke12: 58,59 But when a healing of the land occur by the Lord God though the obedience of the People of God, than jail can close, judges, lawyer, peace officers, can lose their jobs or move away, which has happened isolated areas in Central America about ten years ago. Never under estimate the cleansing of the Lord God
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
