“If they did, then according to Christian doctrine, they must be forgiven.”
God forgives sins, he never said don’t hold killers to account on Earth.
God forgives sins, he never said don’t hold killers to account on Earth.
Sounds like you guys have some serious confusion over the relative roles of forgiveness and executing justice. If justice has to be thrown out in order to forgive, then no Christian could ever serve in the army, the police force, work as a judge, be a jailer, or even be a lawyer (ok, well, maybe you got me on the last one :-)
There is nothing mutually exclusive about executing justice and offering my personal forgiveness. Indeed, in Christian England, criminals sentenced to the gallows had assigned preachers whose jobs it was to preach the gospel to men condemned to death, so that they might be forgiven. It is not the job of the individual to administer justice, that is the job of the state. As free republic shows, individuals are too hot headed and emotionally driven to be entrusted with dispensing justice. Contrarywise, it is not the job of the state to extend forgiveness. Its job is to blindly administer justice. Individuals are citizens of the state, and the state is composed of individuals, so the two worlds can touch, but they should not be meshed.