A day of reckoning is coming

  • Approved ~ Lord Løki

Day of Reckoning

Jer 50:31 “Listen! I am opposed to you, you proud city,” says the Lord God who rules over all. “Indeed, your day of reckoning has come, the time when I will punish you.

Some claim that God cannot be good if he punishes us for our sins. Yet if someone shots your spouse and steals your car you would demand justice and restitution.

We live in a moral universe at its most rudimentary expression we have cause-and-effect but in our society, we have crime and punishment. This idea is found in most cultures, all religions, and social systems.

Karma is one expression of this.

kar·ma  /ˈkärmə/  noun

  1. (in Hinduism and Buddhism) the sum of a person’s actions in this and previous states of existence viewed as deciding their fate in future existences.
    • INFORMAL

destiny or fate, following as effect from cause.

An expression of this reality is if you do the crime you do the time– It means that, if you break the rules, you deserve the punishment and have no right to complain and whine.

Newton’s third law is: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Cause and effect is the relationship between two things when one thing makes something else happen. For example, if we eat too much food and do not exercise, we gain weight.

The primary functions of the judicial branch are to interpret federal laws, resolve legal disputes, punish those who violate the law, make decisions in civil cases, and assess the innocence or guilt of a person based on criminal laws.

What causes a criminal mind? The causes are unknown but research finds that both genes and the environment contribute; factors include, for example, child abuse and/or having an antisocial or alcoholic parent. In addition, considerably more men than women have the disorder, and it is common among prisoners.

Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment” was originally published in 1866. The story focuses on Rodion Raskolnikov’s moral dilemmas and mental suffering after he formulates and successfully plots to kill a pawnbroker to take her money, arguing that with the money he takes from her he can do good that would offset the crime he committed in murdering her.

Like Frederich Nietzsche’s Ubermensch theory, Dostoevsky argues through his character that some people even have the right to perform such vigilante actions as murdering an unscrupulous pawnbroker for the greater good, arguing multiple times that murder is okay if done in the pursuit of the greater good.​

As we all know we can justify our actions, yet programmed within us is an idea of right and wrong.

1 Pet 4:5 They will face a reckoning before Jesus Christ who stands ready to judge the living and the dead.

Gen 9:5 For your lifeblood I will most certainly require an accounting; from every animal [that kills a person] I will require it. And from man, from every man’s brother [that is, anyone who murders] I will require the life of man.

In a balanced life, one should be their own judge so they are not judged by others. We are given a gift of conscience and we can refine that gift by submitting to the laws of our Creator. There seems to be an inborn nature of rebellion which in some cases can have a good outcome. Sometimes the constraints on us are arbitrary and capricious dictates of man. Unfortunately, when men rise to the level of authority their own nature allows that authority to corrupt them. Sadly they can be the last ones to see that. As people who value truth, honesty, and fairness rebelling against those arbitrary and capricious dictates can be a noble thing depending on how you go about it. But you can still face a reckoning by men who are lost in their own self-importance.

If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. We need not wait to see what others do. Gandhi

 The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is an attribute of the strong. Gandhi

Amplified Bible
1 John 1:9 If we [freely] admit that we have sinned and confess our sins, He is faithful and just [true to His own nature and promises], and will forgive our sins and cleanse us continually from all unrighteousness [our wrongdoing, everything not in conformity with His will and purpose].

Hate the sin, love the sinner. Gandhi

Punishment and cooperation in nature

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016953471200002X

Humans use punishment to promote cooperation in laboratory experiments but the evidence that punishment plays a similar role in non-human animals is comparatively rare. In this article, we examine why this may be the case by reviewing evidence from both laboratory experiments on humans and ecologically relevant studies on non-human animals.

Even in animals, there’s a sense of fairness and a place for punishment.

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Can the lawbreaker really blame the judge for his punishment?

And what judicial system can ignorance of the law be a defense?

John Keefe