Posted on 01/06/2017 10:59:30 AM PST by Gamecock
Consulting a Bible app on his smartphone, Norng Chhay pulled up his favorite passage from the book of Matthew.
“‘Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. For you will be treated as you treat others,’” the former Khmer Rouge soldier read aloud. Matthew 7 particularly resonates with him, he said, given his past as a member of one of the most notorious armies of modern times.
Recruited by the Khmer Rouge as a 15-year-old, Norng engaged daily in jungle warfare against Vietnam. More crucially, he had a role in the genocide carried out by Pol Pot’s short-lived Communist regime from 1975 to 1979, which left roughly 2 million Cambodians dead from starvation, overwork and mass executions.
fore the eight people were beaten to death, the black-clad cadres asked the crowd if they should be executed or allowed to live. “If we agreed that they should live, we should raise our hands. But nobody raised their hands because we were all afraid,” Morm recounted. “Even though it was my own blood relative, I did not raise my hand.”
Today, the Christian pastor — who runs a small church in her modest home, surrounded by fruit and vegetable crops — said she believes in practicing forgiveness toward Duch and the other leaders on trial at the tribunal.
“The Bible taught me that I need to learn to forgive, and that is also why God has forgiven me for my sins,” Morm said. “I don’t think I am a perfect person in my past, but I believe that one day, I could be with God when I pass away.”
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Well, this sure looks like what Jesus wants. The evil and hatred will not stop any other way. This, if real (and it could well be) won’t just be giving them a pass. They’ll have become turncoats, but turned against the devil. They’ll start fighting for the establishment of a believing society in which future Pol Pots will not be able to get even a toehold.
I do not care their remorse or any of this. If they were Khmer Rouge killers, they should be tried and executed. Never free, never rehabilitated. Christianity cannot be a path for such murderers to walk free. Heck, anyone can kill anyone, claim forgiveness, and move on. Seriously?
They should be forgiven. So should SS men who murdered rows ok naked women in eastern Europe. They should go to the gallows happy in the knowledge that they are forgiven by us, and by Jesus.
Or by “forgiven”, do they mean “face no consequences”?
At least when japs make a mistake and kill themselves in remorse, you know it was sincere.
Otherwise, they are just angling to avoid punishment.
Christians constantly confuse the behavior they need to personally engage in vs. the behavior the society should engage in.
On a personal level - I must suffer for the gospel and I must suffer if it is only myself at stake, i.e., I need to turn the other cheek. However, on a personal level I have a moral responsibility to defend the innocent from an aggressor - including using deadly force. I don’t get to hide behind pacifism when it comes to others.
On a societal level - governments are supposed to be a ‘terror unto good works’. Governments need to dissuade evil behavior. Turning the other cheek does NOT apply.
We need to stop mixing our Christian responsibilities in regards to turning the other cheek with what God wants for justice systems.
And on a side note: Thou shalt not kill actually reads thou shalt not murder in Aramaic. Huge difference.
But there is also a temporal requirement for justice.
If these people are guilty of murder and genocide, and if they are truly penitent, then they should do the right thing and hand themselves over to due process of law, own up to their crimes, and accept the consequences.
Bear in mind the difference—which appears subtle but is in fact radical—between counterfeit change of heart and real change of heart.
This can be looked at in several ways based on your feelings.
Myself in the position of a Christian pastor I would say:Thank God you became a Christian, because you have a way to salvation.
We will pray to Almighty God with you, asking God to forgive you.
Then we are going to execute you, and hope you are forgiven and will soon be in heaven sitting at the right hand of God living happily ever after.
Good bye. - BANG!!.....Next case. - Tom
This story is not surprising. FWIW, several months ago, a member of ‘Empower Ministries’ spoke at our church. This ministry works with local churches, to assist them in spreading the Gospel. He spoke of a number of countries where the Word is growing like a wildfire. Among the countries is Cambodia.
Apparently, thousands of Buddhist priests are coming to the Lord. They are finding that the ‘peace’ they find in the Bible at all times, they only found fleetingly, only while a trance, meditating.
They may receive forgiveness from God; but as Pat Robertson said about some other situation this reminds me of, there is still “temporal punishment”;
Temporal - relating to worldly as opposed to spiritual affairs; secular.
I believe that the Lord drops hints to people who are following non-Christian religious systems. He sure did it with the magi or wise men. Sometimes those hints lead right to Him.
I believe (since I don’t get a lot of feedback I am not 100% sure, but the persons are certainly not complaining at my evangelistic encouragement messages) that I have witnessed a Hindu and his household come to Christ simply by focusing upon Him as the deity he and his family worships, in the wake of some very robust witnessing that was easy because the Lord was pouring blessings out upon it. It sure wasn’t a dry “believe this or go to hell.” I consider that mongo cool. Yes, there is the question of what “church” will be like in the wake of this, but if it catches on to others this family knows in India, that will be a kind of church. This is the very evangelical model — that the gospel itself will put people into the church by making them believers, no matter what they may actually think about other local or denominational churches.
And even yet, this (as any politically driven thing) can be discretionary in how it is applied, and the Lord does not necessarily frown upon this.
This isn’t a new idea; it’s as old as King David.
Be sure this is the Lord’s will. “Governments are instituted among men.” They still have choices to make, and if they do not make them based on hatred, they are more likely to prosper.
The Jewish effort to wipe out every Nazi has ended up rubbing more wounds sore than it allowed to heal, just as a cautionary tale.
If a miracle of heart was worked that turns the murderers into the exact opposite — life savers — would you STILL disdain the gift of the Lord?
These people were soldiers, and don't forget that the one mentioned in the article started out at the age of 15. Can you even imagine the amount of brainwashing and propaganda he must have been subjected to in order to engage in the murderous "duties" he performed as a soldier?
In any event, such atrocities are known as "war crimes" in the modern parlance, and there is a system of due process, national and/or international, that these former Communist soldiers were/are subject to.
One thing that is certain is that in the wake of WWII, there were literally thousands of German officers, as well as rank-and-file, who engaged in atrocities ("war crimes") against countless civilians and enemy soldiers.
It's also a fact that, in general, thousands (millions?) of non-commissioned and private soldiers were collectively "forgiven" for those acts, even in some cases where their individual names and atrocities were known (or could be readily determined).
My experience is that the notion of holding every single private soldier accountable for every single atrocity ordered by a superior is rather alien in warfare and in subsequent "war crime" proceedings.
Those who are held responsible are, in general, those who were giving the orders, and then on down the chain, with the greatest responsibility accruing at the highest ranks, and the greatest clemency shown to those who were "just following" the orders.
So in the context of the "average" soldier, I certainly believe that forgiveness can encompass clemency or pardoning of "war crimes", both formally and informally.
Having said that, I'd imagine that if there are specific people who want to bring evidence of a crime committed by this child soldier during the course of his service, there are probably venues where "due process" can occur.
Barring such formal proceedings, this man's experience of "forgiveness" does indeed include not being held accountable for the crime of murder during his time as a "soldier". This sort of thing happens every day in the aftermath of War...
Sure glad they killed that evil man Saul after he converted. He had killed so many Christians it's not even funny.
Glad Rome cut his head off....albeit 30 years too late...
And just in case I need this..../sarcasm
One limitation that governments among men frequently encounter is that they cannot see the futures of past evildoers.
God occasionally broke this mold even in the Old Testament. King David did not get put to death — though he was chastised — for the murderous scheme he unleashed upon Uriah to cover up his own sexual shenanigans, an evil twofer if there ever was one.
And no it wasn’t the blood of the child who died — this is not what the law said.
The blood that was shed on David’s behalf had been given to David as a gift — in advance from the foundation of the world — by Jesus in His infallible foresight. So the letter of the law had been met.
Yes, this makes Christianity look like cheating. But it is only cheating by the world’s law, which at best can only be a crude, flawed picture of heaven’s law.
Allowing Jesus’ blood to apply where it is obvious that it has, is the very BEST move that even an otherwise worldly government can recognize.
They should not be executed or imprisoned. They should be sentenced for life to toil in service towards the betterment of the lives of Cambodians. They should be fed and given mediacal care but everything else should be toil. If their repentance is sincere they will accept it gladly and fully until their dying day.
We all know what power governments have over the lives and thoughts of ordinary citizens, these repentance should be given the chance to prove their rejection of sins before they meet their maker.
Let them live the life of the penitent monk toiling for others until their dying day.
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