Refuting Sunday-Keeping XIII

California is going to have the first execution of a man named Harris, for committing a murder. As it turns out about ten years ago, he committed a double murder. And all of the bleeding hearts are out there carrying around their placards against the death penalty. Why we should not have the death penalty. And ministers get up in the pulpit, like this Catholic minister did down in Salinas at the Good Shepherd Episcopal Church on Sunday morning and said, ‘In just a few weeks you and I are going to kill a man.’ And laid a guilt trip upon all of his parishioners.

Of course, did he tell them what this man had done? He said, ‘Jesus Himself was a victim of capital punishment. Can you imagine Jesus endorsing the idea of sending a man to the gas chamber?’ All the bleeding hearts would go, ‘Oh, I can’t do that.’ Do you think He would choose life for an offender, or death? For many Catholics who hear his homily and agree that capital punishment is wrong, would figure there are just as many or more who rather not think about it at all.

Then I won’t go into this. He says, ‘A great many people have not given it any thought.’ Well, that is true. A great many people have not given it any thought. And there’s something that we need to understand. Let’s ask the question: Should a Christian today agree with the death penalty of criminals? Before I answer that question and get into it, because there are a lot of people who say as Christians we need to be pacifists. We need to go along with everything. Let me tell you what this Harris did, this rather grisly thing.

First of all, he was in prison for murdering a teenager. Did you realize that? Not a word here. Of course, these do-gooders do not care for anything about the life of the individual who is dead, or their family or anyone. He was in prison serving twenty years for killing a teenager, but he is such a charming man that he and his parole officer struck up a relationship and she was instrumental in getting him paroled. So while he was on parole, and he got out and he told his brother, ‘We’re going to go down here and rob a bank.’ Nice wonderful law abiding citizen on parole. ‘However, we need a car.’

So as they came into this Burger King restaurant, I think it was Burger King or Jack in the Box, whatever, not relevant which restaurant, they drove up in his brother’s old car or truck, and they spotted these two teenagers who were not in school that day because it was a day off from school. They were going to go fishing up by one of the local dams. So they had permission from their folks to go fishing. They had their fishing gear in there and they stopped at this Burger King to have a hamburger. So they bought the hamburger, milkshake, and French fried, and so forth, and went out to their car and were there talking and eating. Harris comes up with a gun, points it right in there, and gets into the car and kidnaps these two kids with the car. His brother follows along in a truck. And he takes them up to the dam near where they were going to go fishing. He told them to get out of the car. Got out of the car and went over, made them get out and walk up toward one of the big conduits for letting water out, but there was not water coming out. He pointed the gun at one of them and shot him, so the other kid started running and Harris went and chased him. Finally caught him, and the kid was on his knees and said, ‘Oh, God, have mercy, spare me.’ And he shot him right point blank in the head and then shot him again for running. He went on back to where the first one was that he killed, went into the conduit, and he wanted to know what would it be like if someone were shot in the head at close range. So he took the gun and put it right up close to the boy’s head and shot him again and blew his brains totally out, though he was already dead, just to see what it was like.

Then he went down to the car and since he was hungry after all of this work that he had done, he ate their hamburgers, finished off their milkshakes, and ate their French fries, and he and his brother went and held up a bank. No one has asked, What about the mother and father of those two boys? There is a dilemma in the blameless, milk-toast thinking of people like this that we must by all means preserve people.

So let’s ask the question first of all: What does Jesus say? Let’s go to one where there is an example. Here were people talking about just accidental death, Luke 13:1: “Now at the same time, there were present some who were telling Him about the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Do you suppose that these Galileans were sinners above all Galileans, because they suffered such things? No, I tell you; but if you do not repent, you shall all likewise perish’” (vs 1-3). Now what has God instituted? What does God say the wages of sin is? Death.

Does God believe in the death penalty for sin? Yes! God believes in the death penalty for sin! What are one of the capital crimes that is listed in the Ten Commandments that is counted as worthy of death? Murder! Especially premeditated murder of such a callous thing that this Harris had done. You’ve got to be callous to do that. Even his brother when he saw him killing those boys, and then went up to look at them, had to run out and vomit his guts out because he couldn’t take it. But Harris sits down and eats their hamburgers.

Let’s go to 1-Timothy 1:3 and let’s see what Paul taught of that: “When I was going to Macedonia, I exhorted you to remain in Ephesus, in order that you might solemnly charge some not to teach other doctrines; nor to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies, which lead to empty speculations rather than to education from God, which is in faith. Now the purpose... [the goal, the whole means] ...of the commandment is love out of a pure heart... [What are all the commandments of God based upon? We’re know they’re based upon love, but what is the fulcrum of all that? ‘You shall have no other Gods before Me’—right? Isn’t that the fulcrum of all of it? Yes!] ...From which some, having missed the mark, have turned aside unto vain jangling” (vs 3-6). Now I will have to say that this is vain jangling where a man gets up in the pulpit and says to his congregation, ‘In a few weeks you and I are going to kill a man.’ Not so! We’ll show you here.

“Desiring to be teachers of the law, neither understanding what they are saying, nor what they are strongly affirming” (v 7). Isn’t that the root of every stinking rotten heresy that comes along, people trying to be teachers and don’t know what they are saying or what they are affirming. Sure true! I’ve got a whole stack of stuff at home. You can’t believe it. I don’t want to burden you down with it. I’m still getting the ‘truth plain’ from our mixed up shofar-blowing friend from down south. I could tell him don’t send me anymore, but I want to see it to just to see how ridiculous things get, goes from bad to worse.

“Now we know that the law is good, if anyone uses it lawfully, Understanding this: that law is not enacted for a righteous man... [says in the King James, ‘is not made for a righteous man.’ Really means is not enacted upon a righteous man. It’s not! If you’re not breaking the law, it’s not enacted upon you—correct?] ...but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinful, for the unholy and profane, for slayers of fathers and slayers of mothers, for murderers, for fornicators, for homosexuals, for kidnappers... [We will have the problem, don’t we today, mankind, womankind, read Rom. 1.] ...for liars, for perjurers, and for any other thing that is opposed to sound doctrine” (vs 8-10). In other words he’s telling us here that the law is enacted upon sinners.

Now who is to enact that law? Let’s see some very important things concerning that, Romans 13:1: “Let everyone be subject to the high authorities, because there is no authority except from God… [The powers that be are ordained of God.] …and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God. So then, the one who sets himself against the authority is resisting the ordinance of God; and those who resist shall receive judgment to themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil works.... [And that’s what they should be.] ...Do you desire not to be afraid of the authority? Then practice good, and you will have praise from it; for he a servant of God to you for good. But if are practicing evil, have fear! For he does not wear the sword in vain because he is a servant of God, an avenger for wrath to the one who is practicing evil” (vs 1-4). Now I wonder why he didn’t read this? You’d be surprised how many are in those stinky pews that don’t believe in God. They are there to undermine Christ.

So let’s look at some of these things. Let’s answer some other questions here. Let’s go to Revelation 21. Let’s ask the question: Does God believe in the death penalty for sinners? Yes! Does He also believe in repentance for sinners who repent? Yes, He does! Absolutely He does! So we’ll try and answer the question: what happens if someone who has committed a murder in prison repents? Should we then give him life instead of death? You’re dealing with two different laws. You’re dealing with two different things.

If he’s a murderer and the sentence is death, is it possible for him to repent of that and we could say be baptized and be in the resurrection, though he is executed for his present crime? Yes, it’s possible! But if they don’t repent, and there are people who won’t repent—you think of someone like this Harris who is as calloused in his mind as he is, do you think he’s going to repent? I can’t judge his heart. I’ll tell you a little later about some people I think that have committed the unpardonable sin. You can almost tell by looking at them.

Revelation 21:8: “But the cowardly, and unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, and fornicators, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone; which is the second death.” God believes in the death penalty!

We will see here in Matthew 5, let’s go back here and let’s see in Matthew 5. Does God believe in the death penalty because it’s really what He wants to do, or is it because God is righteous and that is what He must do to sinners? The answer is the second! God would rather not have the death penalty. That’s why when we go clear back to the Garden of Eden we had what? The tree of life—correct? Then there was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And the day they ate thereof, because they sinned, they would surely die.

Now let’s go here to Matthew 5:21. Let’s see what Jesus says and this has to do with murder. “You have heard that it was said to those in ancient times, ‘You shall not commit murder; but whoever commits murder shall be subject to judgment.’ But I say to you, everyone who is angry with his brother without cause shall be subject to judgment.... [Whose judgment? God’s judgment!] ...Now you have heard it said, ‘Whoever shall say to his brother, “Raca,” shall be subject to the judgment of the council.’ But I say to you, whoever shall say, ‘You fool,” shall be subject to the fire of Gehenna’” (vs 21-22). And you can go all the way through and you can show that God believes in the death penalty, Who also believes in law and order. Now not the way that Gorbachav has it. Everybody’s so excited about what Gorbachav is doing. He’s rolling troops into Lithuania right now. Once a communist, always a communist.

Let’s go to the book of Ecclesiastes. Let’s see what’s wrong with our judicial system today, a very basic one. Why do we have hardened criminals today? And why is it that when someone perpetrates a crime of the magnitude that has been done, why is it that something happens to them? Why did they let Harris out the first time? Those two boys could still be alive today if we didn’t have a bunch of muddle and mush heads running the system concerning criminals who have perpetrated violent crimes. And rape is a violent crime.

I heard something interesting the other day and we’ll see this, too, that never has it been recorded that there is a rehabilitated sex pervert—period! They always end up doing something again, either raping or child molestation or what have you. The reason is something has happened to the mind. So there’s a reason why God gives the death penalty, because you can’t have people like that running around in the society and doing things like that to other innocent people. They have misplaced compassion. What it is really is satanic compassion, if I could use the terminology. It’s satanic compassion to entrap other people to let sin continue in the land.

Let’s pick it up here in Ecclesiastes 8:6: “Because to every purpose there is time and judgment, therefore the misery of man is great.” We bring a lot of things on ourselves. Oh, yes, and our wonderful Secretary of State James Baker went down and he went into one of these apartheid villages to see how bad things were. I tell you what, it doesn’t matter how poor you are, you don’t have to throw your garbage and your excrement out your window. I don’t care how poor you are, you don’t have to have trash and stuff everywhere. I don’t care how poor you are, that’s no excuse for murder. That’s no excuse for any of these things. Apartheid did not cause what is going on in some of those little shanty towns down there. Apartheid is the result of what was going on. Apartheid did not cause it, those conditions existed before apartheid came into existence and it was the minority people down there trying to protect themselves from this hellish uncivilized debauchery that these people live in.

You go from country to country to country—wherever there are uncivilized people, and I’m not talking about a race or skin, I’m talking about uncivilized people—you can find the same thing. The problem is not apartheid, the problem is that they live in an uncivilized manner. That’s what the problem is. They should have taught the people what to do. But most are saying now that after colonialism has left and gone, the people who are supposed to be the poor, beaten down abjects under their rule are worse off: they are poorer; they are less educated than before. So it’s just like it says here.

“Because to every purpose there is a time and judgment, therefore the misery of man is great” (v 6). That’s what’s happening in our society today. Just take this one verse and think about it. You can apply the same verse to AIDS, because we didn’t quarantine it—oh, you can go back one step further—because we allowed and tolerated homosexuality. I read a new report on possibly the source of AIDS and it’s not necessarily the HIV virus. The HIV virus may be a super-bred combination syphilis, gonorrhea, herpes, and cancer, especially when you have the AIDS that causes dementia of mind. And that’s why you don’t want to be working with people who have AIDS, because you don’t know when they’re going to lose their ‘cookies’ and they’re going to ‘go bananas’ around you, just to use a few adjectives, and start biting and killing and destroying.

Did you hear what one of the defenses was for one of the murderers? He had AIDS and the dementia hit him, so he killed these people. Good reason to quarantine him—right? Yes! But they missed the whole point.

So you can take this, “Because to every purpose there is time and judgment, therefore the misery of man is great…. [Isn’t that true? That’s what’s happening in society, everywhere you look and you turn.] …For he does not know what shall be...” (vs 6-7). Remember when Timothy O’Leary came out and said the greatest most wonderful thing is acid? Where is he? Same way with drug taking, same way with a lot of these things.

There is a man I was doing business with and all of a sudden he just withdrew from business and left his wife, for some quirk of reason he just didn’t want to be married any more. His wife is hanging there—terrible mess.

“...for who can tell him when it shall be?…. [Living Scriptures—right? Can’t believe it.] …There is no man who has power over the wind to restrain the wind... [In other words there’s no one that has power over life, to retain that life. And it’s always true, the most hideous plea for mercy when someone is pointing a gun at them to arrest them. That’s why there’s such things as vigilante cops and vigilante judges and then they get tried for being vigilantes when what they’re trying to do is restore what should have been in the first place.] ...nor power over the day of death; and there is no discharge from war... [There is no casting of weapons. In other words, you aren’t going to solve the problems by war.] ...nor shall wickedness deliver those who are given to it” (vs 7-8).

I’m going to put in my margin right here: rock music. How many here saw that latest report on the rap group? Most dirty raunchy wretched stuff you could ever imagine. You see, freedom of speech does not entitle people to invade your mind to demoralize you. If they in their own privacy of their own homes want to become depraved, the first act out of their own mind toward someone else needs to be taken care of. Once you take freedom of speech to its ultimate, then you have no control. What always wins out? Because you’ve got new kids coming along. And don’t we now have a society where they’re not taught anything about God? But it’s going to devour them.

Speaking of wickedness, v 9: “All this I have seen, and I gave my heart to every work that is done under the sun. There is a time in which one man rules over another to his own hurt.... [Living words, within the Church, without the Church, because you get too much power and you take it to yourself and you abuse it, you beat other people up with it.] ...And so I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone from the Holy place. And they were forgotten in the city where they had so done. This is also vanity” (vs 9-10).

When you drive by a cemetery and you look out there, it’s always a sobering thought, you see all these crosses or tombstones. Some of them even make mansions to themselves. We’re so much more sophisticated than the Egyptians who built houses for the dead to live in, but some people still do that today. Every one of those individuals had life and breath and an independent mind and thought at one time, and felt and acted and thought very much like you, maybe a little differently because you didn’t know what their education was, but needless to say, there they were. And so you drive by, you don’t know who they are or where they are. What is he saying? “This is also vanity.”

Now v 11: “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily... [That’s what’s the matter with the death penalty today.] ...therefore, the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.” That’s exactly what we have today. Not executed speedily. It really bothers me: Where do these death-row inmates get all this money for all these expensive appeals? I’m not talking about social security. I’m talking about where do they get the money to pay the attorneys to do all these things. Those are costly things. The ACLU is one, yeah I know that—they are run by what? The internationalists, those who say they are Jews, but are not, but of are of the synagogue of Satan set out to destroy this nation. That’s one source.

They have lawyers hovering around these people looking for the least little excuse to get them off. But then you take someone like this captain—the Exxon ship that had the big oil spill up there. Boy, they stamped him—if they could have they would have killed him a thousand times over again. At least they had a jury that could see through. Man, if any man drank that much according to these witnesses—were there false witnesses? Can people take you to court on a whim just because they’re on a fishing trip? Yes, sure they can! Can they bleed you of all of your money so they can their stupid attorneys? Yes, they can! So they’ve got all these witnesses up there and the jury was at least smart enough to say, ‘Man, if he had drunk all that, he couldn’t even walk on the ship, let alone give the three orders to get the ship going, and so forth. This is absurd.’ But I do agree that he should do a thousand hours community service and go out and help clean, I agree with that a hundred percent and the fine that he has to pay, I agree with that a hundred percent. Yes, it should be.

But I still can’t figure out for the life of me two things: Why, when something like that happens, they can’t abandon ship and blow it up and burn it, just burn it. Then it wouldn’t be polluting everywhere—right? If you burn it up, it’s gone—right? or Bring all these ships in, as I said before, make them put in a two or three inch neoprene lining inside those tanking compartments and line it with steel belted. They would be virtually impregnable. You could smash that against rocks and it would bend and give. Make the top of the ship so if that happened it could come up and wouldn’t break the ship apart.

But even those compartments filled with oil, do you realize that they would float in the water if they were towed by a tug boat? Sure they would! This is my day against the civil government today, forgive me. Remember I don’t bring sermons like this, but after that thing when I heard the story about that Harris and then I saw this thing in the paper, I said, ‘That’s it, that’s it.’

Verse 12: “Though a sinner does evil a hundred times, and his days are prolonged..” Now we’re finding out that old Forbes, the great billionaire, he’s a homosexual. And here’s another thing with homosexuals where now they are exposing all the homosexuals that are in office. Have you ever wondered why no one can do anything with the homosexual population and problems and practices, because too many in government secretly are. They all know who they are. So if they don’t go along with that, then they’ll expose them and they’ll lose power. So they’re not concerned with ruling or citizens or people, they’re concerned with power. That’s all they’re concerned with whether they keep it. They don’t care what’s right.

“Though a sinner does evil a hundred times, and his days are prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with those who fear God, who fear before Him. But it shall not be well with the wicked, nor shall he prolong his days, which are as a shadow; because he does not fear before God. There is a vanity which is done upon the earth: There are just men to whom it happens according to the work of the wicked...” (vs 12-14). In other words, innocent people are involved in things which are not true. Isn’t that right? Just like I mentioned I think it was some time ago, that there was this young couple who refused to rent out their apartment to this homosexual couple back in Minneapolis, Milwaukee. So they made them go down, have a lecture how good homosexuality was, said, ‘Oh, by the way you can settle this, so we won’t take you to court for $1500. You can pay our bureaucratic regime over here.’

I’m not a pacifist, brethren, believe me. I would feel like, give them a wad of money with a piece of dynamite in it and let them put it in there and blow the thing up, because that’s extortion and a extraction to me. Again: “...there are wicked ones to whom it happens according to the work of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity. Then I commended pleasure, because a man has no better thing under the sun than to eat and to drink and to be merry; for that shall go with him in his labor through the days of his life which God gives him under the sun. When I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done upon the earth, for neither day nor night do men give sleep to their eyes. Then I looked at all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun; because though a man labors to seek it out, yet he shall not find it. Yea, further, though a wise man thinks to know it, yet he shall not be able to find it” (vs 15-17). That’s getting into scientific endeavors. Isn’t it true today they are absolutely astounded; they don’t know what to think about the universe now with all the things they have found out there.

Let’s go back to this thing of capital punishment and while we’re at it, let’s touch a little bit on insurance, because there’s someone out there writing and saying that if you have insurance you are serving the devil—did you know that? Any kind of insurance, because you’re not trusting in God. Do you know that? Nonsense! It’s not a matter of my lack of trust in God that I have insurance, it’s because I don’t I don’t trust the other guy out there who doesn’t believe in God—right? Got to have it for him—right? Sure!

Let’s go to Genesis 9. Here’s the basis for capital punishment this side of the Flood. There has to be in any society that does not have capital punishment to execute the wicked, sooner or later they’re going to be overwhelmed. Especially in a country like America where you bring every nationality in the world here. You know why they’re bringing them into in America, and especially into California? Can you believe it, the United States said we are going to take half of the Vietnamese refugees that are coming out of Hong Kong because we’re so good and kind and loving that we don’t want to see them go back to Vietnam.

There’s a program on, brethren, to pack the United States with so many people that when it comes time for us to submit to the United Nations, they will do it willingly. That’s what it’s for. There are so many things going on, it is incredible. Makes me want to go my cave in the Sawtooth Mountains. But you can’t get away from them, because there may be an earthquake and then I’d be squished flesh between the stones in a cave. So can’t have that.

Genesis 9:5: “And surely the blood of your lives will I require.... [Now you might want to put in your margin there Rom. 13, the powers to be.] ...At the hand of every animal will I require it, and at the hand of man. At the hand of every man’s brother will I require the life of man. Whoever sheds man’s blood, his blood shall be shed by man…” (vs 5-6). There you go. Who was Jesus before He became Jesus? He was the God of the Old Testament!

By the way, do you know I got a letter the other day, which I’ll have to bring a sermon on, someone writing these things cycle around in kind of cycles, that the first creation of God was Jesus and Jesus was not God. So I’ll bring a sermon on that one of these days.

This is not for Israel. This is not for the Jews, this was for all nations, because through Noah and his sons the whole earth was overspread—correct? Here’s the first instruction given that God gives and he says, “Whoever sheds man’s blood, his blood shall be shed by man—for He made man in the image of God” (v 6). That’s why! Because some human being had the audacity to murder someone who was made in the image of God, that’s why their life is required. We’ve kicked that out, so all we have is evolution—right? So maybe he’ll evolve to be a better person while he’s in jail. We’re all waiting for the evolution of Charlie Manson—right? I’m not going to hold one breath for him.

So there it is right there. That’s what He commanded everyone to do. Why? God was interested in the welfare of human beings, and you don’t have murderers running around. This was given to Israel. We’re going to see some things in here. We’ll cover some of these judgments. We covered them several years ago, going over some of these things.

Exodus 21:12: “He that strikes a man, so that he dies, shall be surely put to death.” Why? Because he’s made in the image of God, that’s why. In other words, that is God’s sentence. How dare anyone take someone’s life by premeditated murder that God has brought into existence into this world. So therefore God says, ‘Your life is going to be taken.’ That’s it.

• Could a Christian then accept the death penalty in the community that he is in? Yes, he could!
• Could you sit on a jury and deem someone worthy of death for a murder? Yes, you could!

Now he makes it clear that this premeditated murder where you lie in wait for him or you think about it or whatever and then you go and seek out and murder this person.

(go to the next track)

Verse 13: “And if a man does not lie in wait, but God delivers him into his hand... [Now what does this mean? Have you ever thought about that?] ...then I will appoint you a place where he shall flee.”

Do you remember the case of this father in Texas whose son was kidnapped and raped and killed by this pervert? I’m sure you remember a little bit about it. They even showed it on television where this man knew that he was coming into the airport. He was captured and being brought into the airport, handcuffed by the police, and he stood there and when he came by he shot him dead. I would say God delivered him into his hands. I think the jury in Texas agreed and did not put any penalty upon him. At least there are some people down there who agree a little bit with the Bible.

God does allow, in the Old Testament. vengeance by a relative—not in the New Testament, but in the Old Testament—if you knew who did it, you could go get him. “...then I will appoint you a place where he shall flee.... [So they had to flee to these special safety cities and there they had the hearing. There is where the trial was to be conducted to determine the facts of the case.] ...But if a man comes presumptuously upon his neighbor to slay him with guile, you shall take him from My altar so that he may die” (vs 13-14). Don’t come to God, in the name of God and say, ‘Oh, let’s have compassion upon these poor criminals.’ God says even if they are holding onto My altar, you’re going to rip their hands off of that altar and take them out and execute them. That doesn’t give you much leeway—does it? To me, cruel and unusual punishment is to be in one of these cells and live your whole life in one of those cells.

Verse 15: “And he that strikes his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.... [That would sure change a lot of things today—wouldn’t it?] ...And he that steals a man [person] and sells him, or if he is found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death” (vs 15-16). That’s what you do with these kidnappers, and how many kids have been taken? We still have them. There’s this Michelle right around here near Danville, she’s still missing. A lot of these children end up being sacrifices for satanic services. Of course, the officials deny it because many of them are in on it.

How many saw that report that Geraldo Rivera did on the satanists? Did any of you watch that? Remember that? Oh, that was something, that was absolutely something. Where they have women who have testified that they gave birth to babies to be sacrificed on Satan’s altar in these homes, and that they would go out and kidnap little kids and they would be sacrificed and eaten and then burned. And it’s happening today, that is happening! Where have all the children gone? You separate out all of those that are in divorce problems and one of the parents take them and they’re well taken care of by one of the other parent someplace else, but those are easy enough to find. That’s the exception, that’s not the rule. That’s what they’re doing. That’s why God says put them to death so they don’t do these things.

“And he that curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death... [Boy, you could say, a lot of rebellious societies—couldn’t you, if that were the case.] ...And if men strive together, and one strikes another with a stone, or with his fist, and he does not die, but is confined to his bed; If he rises again and walks abroad upon his staff, then he that struck him shall be set free.... [That is from the death penalty, because he lived.] ...Only he shall pay for the loss of his time and shall cause him to be completely healed” (vs 17-19). Now that’s what it should be. There should be prisons only for holding tanks for those who are awaiting trial. Then they should go to someplace where they could work and repair the damage that they have done by their work and their labor and their pay to make restitution to the victim. That’s the whole basis of God’s law: restitution to the victim! And if you had that, you wouldn’t have any need for prisons. All those who had premeditated murder, who did things worthy of death, would be executed. That would be it.

Then it talks about here: “If a man strikes his servant or his maidservant with a rod and he dies under his hand, he shall surely be punished. But if he continues a day or two, he shall not be punished, for he is his money. If men strive and strike a pregnant woman... [And we could get into this concerning abortion. And why is it that these maudlin people, who do not believe in killing the criminals, believe in killing the unborn that have not even had a chance to live a life whether good or bad? And because of their own inherent selfishness destroy them. I’m so glad that Idaho passed that law here, good for them. Hooray for Idaho.] ...If men strive and strike a pregnant woman, so that there is miscarriage, and no harm follows... [That is, the baby lives and the woman lives.] ...he shall surely be punished, according as the woman’s husband will lay upon him.... [So the victims have a right in the judgment. Lo and behold—right? Yes, indeed! So we have victim’s rights.] ...And he shall pay as the judges determine” (vs 20-22).

There should be payment for those things, but today we have it all backwards. It’s not you and I against the murder of our children, it is the state vs so-and-so and you don’t have a say so in it. The state has taken over your right. The state gets the fine. The state gets the penalty—right? Not you! Today women get raped, have to go on the stand and testify, nothing is made to make their life right again, but they have to go through all this nonsense with this rapist. A lot of them out there taking drugs and different things so they have essential power beyond belief. I don’t know how these guys can go out and rape these women. It’s just beyond me. Any man that has that kind of activity while he’s hurting someone else, there’s something wrong up here [in the mind] with him. That’s why God says they need to be executed.

Verse 23: “And if any. injury occurs, then you shall give life for life... [It’s based upon life.] ...Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe” (vs 23-25). As the judge determines, you shall pay. If you lost a limb, you don’t want someone else to lose a limb, but you want it to be made right because now you can’t use your limb. That’s why we have auto insurance, that’s why we have insurance. And you read it: so much for the loss of an arm, so much for the loss of a hand, for two legs, for two arms.

However, insurance is not ungodly. Insurance a Godly thing to do so that you not only protect yourself from other people, but that you have a means to protect others in case you do something. What if your car goes out here and something just goes haywire with it, you can’t control it and you can’t stop it, and you run someone over? Aren’t you glad you have some insurance to pay, to make restitution for that person? Generally, it goes to the victim. The insurance company has the right means and it generally goes to the victim, unless you get it all tied up in litigation and courts, and things like this, and then it goes to the attorney. Then some goes to the victim.

Then it talks about ox goring, it talks about many other things here that should be done. It talks about theft and it talks about the repayment of that. Exodus 22:2—if you steal you restore. “If a thief is found breaking in, and is struck so that he dies, no blood shall be shed for him. If the sun is risen upon him, and he lives, there shall be blood shed for him. He shall make full restitution.... [Isn’t that interesting? Full restitution!] ...If he has nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft” (vs 2-3).

Believe it or not, brethren, God is for indentured servitude to make it right for your victim. God is for that. I’m for that. I think that would a great system. Get these people out of these stupid prisons where they stay at these bars and guards, and if they’ve done nothing unto death, make them out and work. Make them make full restitution. That would work good, not turn it into the mean gang, of some of these things like you’ve seen with these prison gang movies where they go out and work on the railroad and they’re beaten and they’re abused. No, I’m not talking about that. Let them work, let them learn. I think they did one thing over here, Santa Rita. They’re having some of those who are in for lesser crimes get their diploma. I think that’s a good thing, teach them some skills. I think that is good, absolutely. Let them work. Let them make full restitution. Let them work for the government for ten years and let the government make payments out of their salary toward these people’s injury or whatever it may be.

“If the theft is certainly found in his hand alive, whether it is an ox, or a donkey, or a sheep, he shall restore double. If a man causes a field or vineyard to be eaten, and shall put in his animal, and shall feed in another man’s field; he shall make full restitution from the best of his own field, and the best of his own vineyard” (vs 4-5). Now that’s a good law. You have some jerk over here, doesn’t take care of his farm. Looks over here and here’s a guy working real hard and he’s got good fodder, he’s got good hay, he’s got good crops. So he opens the gate and let’s his sheep run in there and his cattle run in there and they get fat on his grass. Well, God says you’re not going to get fat on someone else’s grass. Then you go get the best of your grass and you go make it right. Good law!

Speaking of grass: I think they should do one thing, now this is one of my own little pet peeves to save the environment and that is, instead of going around spraying for weeds and trying to put out all these forest fires—there are a few places where they have it—that you have either sheep or goats. You have a temporary fence that you move along with it, but you let them eat everything down where all this high grass grows. They have cheap meat—right? But then you stop all these forest fires. Then you could have some of these criminals make their money, go on out and pick up the dead wood and the dead branches, and all the stuff that falls to the forest floor, keep the forest clean.

“If a man shall deliver to his neighbor silver or stuff to keep, and it is stolen out of the man’s house; if the thief is found, let him pay double. If the thief is not found, then the master of the house shall be brought to the judges, whether he has put his hand to his neighbor’s goods” (vs 7-8). Nothing like a little S & L scandal—huh? Now they’re trying to come back and stop all the thievery that’s been going on by declaring that the appointment of the new director to save the S&Ls was not constitutionally appointed correctly, so therefore now we’re going to give all of these back to them and all these thieves are going to be let go.

“...whether he has put his hand to his neighbor’s goods; For every case of trespass, whether it is for ox, for donkey, for sheep, for clothing, for any kind of lost thing, which another claims to be his, the cause of both parties shall come before the judges. Whom the judges shall condemn, he shall pay double to his neighbor” (vs 8-9). You’d have a nice neighborhood watch—wouldn’t you? Don’t have to worry about thieves coming. Everybody would be watching out for everybody else—wouldn’t you? Yes, indeed! Don’t you think the parents would take care of their dirty thieving kids? Yes, they would! And don’t you think that every lawn mower that has been borrowed would be brought back? Yes, it should.

I had pity on a man, he came over, it was a man I knew long years ago, he came over and he was a poor man, and he said, ‘Do you still have your rotor tiller?’ I said, ‘Yes, I have my rotor tiller.’ He said, ‘Well, could I borrow it? I want to work up my garden.’ I said, ‘Yeah, you can borrow my rotor tiller, just take care of it,’ and so forth. So he brought it back and everything. I didn’t use it all that year, because he did it in the fall. But next spring guess what? He blew out the head gasket. The motor was gone. I didn’t know where he lived. And guess what? My wife said, ‘I told you, I told you.’ It cost me $240. I should have two brand new rotor tillers—right? According to this.

“If a man delivers to his neighbor a donkey, or an ox, or a sheep, or any animal to keep, and it dies, or is hurt, or driven away, no one seeing, An oath of the LORD shall be between them both, that he has not put his hand to his neighbor’s goods. And the owner of it shall accept it, and he shall not make it good. And if it is stolen from him, he shall make full restitution to the owner of it. If it is torn in pieces, let him bring it for witness, and he shall not make good that which was torn…. [In other words, if it’s not his fault.] …And if a man borrows it from his neighbor, and it is hurt, or dies, and the owner of it is not with it, he shall surely make full restitution. If the owner of it is with it, he shall not make restitution... [Because he was there and could witness how the animal was being treated.] ...If the owner of it is with it, he shall not make restitution... [So my rotor tiller should have been made good, because I was not with it and it was brought back injured.] ...If it was hired, it came for its hire” (vs 10-15). The cost of the hire takes care of it. If it breaks down then, it’s okay. If you hired out an ox and you plow and it drops dead in its tracks, come and pick it up, I hired him.

But if he loans it to you and he’s not there with it and he drops dead in his tracks, then you’re going to make it good. How many have seen these huge oxen? How many have seen these tall, tall oxen, just about two feet below this ceiling right here? That’s where the shoulder is, huge! Boy, can they work. There was a pair of them when we lived up in Poulsbo, Washington. There was one guy, he did everything with oxen, and we heard stories about how big these things were. So as kids we went up there one day to watch them, and those things are gigantic. They could go up and they’d just toil right along and do everything with the oxen. I was scared to death. I was nine years old and I looked up and here’s this great huge oxen. You get up on a fence and you look in there and this big old head comes up to you, breathing on you. I used to use horses to plow, so I was used to animals, but that thing was huge. Can you imagine repaying that? Can you imagine if you had one of those and it dropped over dead in your field, repaying that? Wow!

“And if a man lures a virgin who is not promised, and lies with her, he shall surely endow her to be his wife... [You could stop all this welfare stuff. There was one man who went around and bragged that he brought 47 children into this world. ‘Where are they, are you married?’ No, they’re all on welfare, man! And you and I pay for it. So if there’s hanky panky, marry him. Stop a lot of hanky panky—wouldn’t it?] ...If her father utterly refuses to give her to him, he shall pay money according to the dowry of virgins” (vs 16-17). So the father has some say so here.

“You shall not allow a sorceress [witch] to live... [That’s another whole topic there and you can see why. If you don’t know why, I’ll bring a sermon on it sometime.] ...Anyone lying with an animal shall surely be put to death... [Why? Because he’s got a perverted mind! You can’t have perverted minds running around in the society.] ...Anyone sacrificing to a god, except it is unto the LORD only, he shall be utterly destroyed. You shall neither vex a stranger nor oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. You shall not afflict any widow or fatherless child” (vs 18-22).

I saw a thing on child labor. How many of you saw that? It was on the Discovery Channel. Don’t think I’m sitting watching TV all the time, I’m not, but when I do watch it a lot of it I remember because it’s noteworthy of remembering. Was it a documentary or was it on CBS News? I forget. Showing the child labor in this world that they talked to one poor kid down there in Columbia. He had never gone to school, he was twelve years old, and had been working in his family brick factory for six years and that’s all he knows. Making bricks, carrying bricks, lifting bricks. And other kids working in different places in the world that they don’t know anything but that one little thing that they’re taught and they’re brought into it right away. That really got to me. Those poor kids, they don’t even have a chance to do anything.

Then on the other hand, we take kids away from our parents and throw them into these state schools and make them brainless nincompoops worth nothing. So it’s happening in the society today. They don’t believe in God, they don’t believe in what is right. When they hit about that junior year in high school, look out, you’ve got your hands full. That’s just the way it is. I’ve had mine full, so I’m not telling anything new. I hope you understand that.

“If you afflict them in any way, and they cry at all to Me, I will surely hear their cry. And My wrath shall burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall be widows, and your sons fatherless. If you lend money to one of My people who is poor among you, you shall not be to him as a money-lender...” (vs 23-25).

I just had one experience with that. These people have to come in and they have a note that they have to pay off by the thirteenth of April. I said, ‘Well, bring me a copy of the note, because I have to have it so we can put it in with the application to show,’ and everything like that. So they brought this note down and it was for $11,000, zero interest for one year unrecorded. Now whenever you have an unrecorded note that’s against a piece of property and it’s zero percent, you ought to have your antenna up. And I did, so I nicely asked them, ‘Well, oh, this was something, he didn’t charge any interest for one year.’ But he also had him sign all kinds of disclaimers. They know that in signing this note that they could lose their home, that they could have their salary garnished and everything. They had to initial about ten different things like that accompanying the note.

So he said, ‘Well, we were in trouble a year ago. It was a one-year note for no interest and they loaned us $5,000 and we signed the note for $11,000.’ That is usury! These poor people are having a hard time. I hope I can rescue them and get them out from underneath it. I hope they have enough income, but their credit is really pretty lousy. Today you ask people, ‘How’s your credit?’ ‘Oh, it’s good.’ To them that means maybe the last six months. It’s all relative. Lenders want to know has it been good for two years or more. So I hope I can help them, but I really felt sorry for those people. Here they have this note with zero percent and you look at that, ‘Boy, that was nice of that person to lend you $11,000 at no interest for one year.’ No, we got $5,000. That would be a 120% interest.

“If you lend money to one of My people who is poor among you, you shall not be to him as a money-lender, neither shall you lay upon him interest. If you at all take your neighbor’s clothing as a pledge, you shall deliver it to him by the time the sun goes down; For that is his covering only, it is his clothing for his skin. In what shall he sleep?.... [In other words, you’re not going to take the clothes off a man’s back. That’s where the saying comes.] ...In what shall he sleep? And it will be, when he cries to Me, I will hear, for I am gracious. You shall not revile God’s judges nor curse the ruler of your people. You shall not delay to offer the first of your ripe fruits...” (vs 25-29). And so forth, so forth.

Then he gets into other things concerning day-to-day things. Exodus 23:1: “You shall not raise a false report. Do not put your hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness…. [And if you know anything about Masonry at all, you’ll see how that violates that tremendously.] …You shall not follow a multitude to do evil. Neither shall you testify in a cause in order to side with many so as to pervert judgment” (vs 1-2). God is telling you the majority are not right.

When you stop and think of it, why was the Constitution of the United States given? Why was it originally conceived the way it was conceived? Ever thought of that? Keep control on things! On whom? Toward whom? It was to control the government to keep it from doing the rottenness against us that they are doing. But it has been changed around so badly and you hear the word democracy. The Constitution was not for democracy, because as it says here the mob is always wrong. It was to protect you against the majority! That’s what it was designed for and God’s Word is designed to protect you against the majority, to protect the individual.

“If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey going astray, you shall surely bring it back to him again.... [Even if you don’t like that old neighbor down the road there, you better take care of his stuff. That doesn’t give you the right to steal it or take it.] ...If you see the donkey of him who hates you laying under his burden, and would hold back from helping him, you shall surely help him.... [You’re not going to say, ‘Oh, he deserves it.’] ...You shall not pervert the judgment due to the poor in his cause. Keep far from a false matter, and do not kill the innocent and righteous; for I will not justify the wicked’” (vs 4-7).

Let’s see what else do we have here. I will just summarize it and review it. That is go to Leviticus 18 and 22 and you find the commands for the different sex sins. With that I will just say that, those people in charge of the government, those people in charge of movies, those people in charge of the courts, those people in charge of everyone are doing what Balaam did to the children of Israel to seduce them through fornication and bring upon the society the punishments that those evil perpetrators know will come because of it.

Scriptures from The Holy Bible In Its Original Order by Fred R. Coulter

Scriptural References:

1. Luke 13:1-3
2. 1-Timothy 1:3-10
3. Romans 13:1-4
4. Revelation 21:8
5. Matthew 5:21-22
6. Ecclesiastes 8:6-17
7. Genesis 9:5-6
8. Exodus 21:12-25
9. Exodus 22:2-29
10. Exodus 23:1-2, 4-7

Scriptures referenced, not quoted:

• Romans 1
• Leviticus 18, 22