Sir, I'm sorry, but I must dispute with you on the idea that there are people truly so fallen. The Scriptures teach that the Holy Spirit are given to ALL, and that there are chances for everyone to be saved and come into redemption and faith. There are certainly those who, by their crimes, deserve death, but to say that there are those who have become so depraved that the Holy Spirit is forever inaccessible to them, even by the most drastic of conversions, well, I just can't agree with that.
And again I don't think that executions without trial are particularly sanctioned by the Scriptures.
RC, I won't dispute that hearts cant be changed; look at the apostle Paul, after all. HOWEVER, you are speaking in the spiritual realm, whereas I am not.
We can pray for such people, we can hope for their redemption, and we can evangelize ourselves, but that doesnt lessen our mandate to perform our worldly duties.
I dont proclaim Pinochet to be a great spiritual leader, but he served the Chilean people by protecting them from a grave, sweeping, and worldly threat. Would the communists have succeeded in Chile, would the Chilean people even have maintained their right to even be Christians? It is doubtful.
In a world where we are labled infidels and marked for death for our faith, I see my duty to protect my family and neighbors as intervening to my spiritual duty to try to convert those who would kill us.
Dont get me wrong, I will try to be both, but if it comes down to where I am forced to just pick one... I am always going to shoot first AND THEN hope that somewhere down the line somebody had a "come to Jesus meeting" with them before they showed up on your doorstep w/ a bomb and evil intentions.