Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”And they [Paul and Silas] said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
Take a bow, Bob. In 2016 when Republicans controlled the Washington state Senate and I was Chair of the Commerce Committee, WA ranked as one of the best places in the country to do business. Thanks to Gov Bob Ferguson and friends, Washington now ranks almost last. 🇺🇸
@BobFergusonGov In all sincerity and kindness: sir, please help your own state before spending your time and efforts elsewhere. The cost of living and state expenditures have gone up exponentially since you entered office. You focus on increasing taxes and partisan politics instead of WA people.
🧵 In 376 AD, Rome let 200,000 Goths cross the Danube as refugees.
Two years later, those same Goths destroyed the Roman army at Adrianople and killed the emperor.
Rome didn't fall because barbarians broke through the walls. Rome opened the gate.
Signal 5: The Border Crisis.
I have long believed that the firing squad is the ideal form of execution. It's actually the most equivalent modern alternative to the Biblically prescribed method of execution, which is stoning.
Think about it. Bullets are like little rocks, but you can propel them much more quickly, and like with stoning, it's a group of people, rather than just an individual.
I've spent some time thinking about why God prescribed stoning for execution.
If you take a moment to get over the natural aversion you might feel for it, due to your modern experience, you can actually see how it makes sense.
For starters, no special equipment, training, or skill is required. Just get a bunch of people, have them pick up rocks, and throw.
Secondly, and more importantly, the group element is important. There may be a judge (or group of judges) responsible for declaring guilt and sentence, but the community is responsible for carrying out justice. The community is responsible. The community experiences the weight of the crime, as well as the weight of the consequences of the crime in an incredibly real and tangible way.
This increases shared, communal responsibility, and sense of justice. Just as the civic duty of serving on a jury can heighten one's understanding of civic responsibility, I'm sure stoning was much the same (if not more impactful).
Firing squads are the same way. True, they may require a smaller subsection of the population (a firing squad only requires about 4 or 5 men), it's still more of a community effort than having just one person (likely an employee of the state) carry it out.
Oh, and if you don't like it, then don't commit a capital offense.