Hebrews 12:15

If a serial killer wanted to kill you, what would u rather do: kill him or put him behind bars?

This was actually a question a friend of mine asked me. I looked at her, admittedly a little confused, and answered, "In my own opinion, I'd rather put him behind bars."

My friend asked, "Aren't you afraid there's a serial killer out there that could come and kill you?"

Yes I am afraid of a serial killer out there to kill me.

But at the same time, I feel that by killing a serial killer, you may be disposing of one person, but ten more may rise up and you wouldn't even know. What good does it do to kill him? What good does it do to yourself (murder is a sin), to him (he will experience eternal death) and to the rest of the world (who are mostly oblivious of his existence)?

I've heard stories where people have gone to jail, become changed men and come out living new lives! I've heard stories where people in jail have come to find God, repented of their ways and turned to walk with God! And in some places, prisoners actually have honest jobs, which can build them up as well as the community!

I'm not saying all prisoners will turn out as such. Some never change, some become worse, etc. But by being in prison, there is that slim chance they will be changed, whereas people can't "die and change" as someone just mentioned to me.

When I gave my answer, here's what my friend said, "You know, out of 20 people that I asked... you're the only one who said you'd put him in jail."

Wow. If that were true statistics, that 1 out of 20 will send a serial killer to jail, and 19 others will kill him, then how much better are we than the serial killers? If there were 1 billion people in the world, and 19 out of 20 would kill serial killers, then we'd have 950 000 000 000 killers on our hands. That's 950 million.

Even if only 1 out of every 20 people said they'd kill, then out of a billion, we'd have 50 million killers.
Obviously, this is just a hypothetical calculation. But what say if?...

What is your mindset like? When you answer this question, whether you prefer to kill or put the killer behind bars, what were you thinking? Do you know why you answered that? Do you have a reason?

Maybe your reason is not as lengthy and "complicated" as mine. Maybe it's more of so. But the only explanation for my reasoning is because of the wonders I have heard/seen God do in lives of even prisoners - dead or alive! It's really amazing - God can truly do things beyond our imaginations!

Hebrews 12:15 - See to it that no one misses the grace of God (NIV).