There is such a thing as an offense which it is not right to seek to have someone punished for.  However, when someone wrongs another criminally, including if you yourself have been the victim, it is surely not right to just let it go.  That is not Biblical forgiveness.  We should not take vengeance outside of God-ordained channels of authority, but we can’t pretend that the crime never happened or act like it wasn’t a big deal or say that it’s in the past so we should just forget about it.  Wicked churches which aren’t adequately concerned about truth and righteousness prevailing will sometimes deal with crime and other severe sin that way.  Such churches will often even try to say that letting actions like that go is the forgiveness that Jesus and the inspired men of the Bible preached.  That is a great lie.  The Bible does not teach unconditional forgiveness or anything like that for criminal wrongs and even for other prolonged, calculated malicious behavior which perhaps doesn’t quite fit the definition of a crime according to the laws of the State.  The Bible rather teaches that such behavior must be dealt with by any and every God-ordained means at one’s disposal to deal with it.

I know of a woman who claimed as an adult that she had been sexually abused as a child by a certain distant relative.  If the allegation is true, it is tragic that it was never discovered by an adult and reported to the authorities (if someone knew about it and didn’t report it, they surely sinned greatly).  This woman eventually, after the statute of limitations had passed for initiating legal proceedings about the matter, told told a close relative of the alleged abuser what she claimed happened and how it so greatly harmed her.  She said that she still hoped to confront the alleged abuser face to face and tell him this directly.  That was the right thing to do.  Sadly though, despite talking about doing this, it never happened before the alleged abuser died.  She should not have procrastinated in doing what she talked about doing here.

After the Philippian authorities unlawfully beat Paul and Silas and put them in jail in Acts chapter 16, Paul made them answer for what they had done to them- even after the authorities had decided to let them go.

Acts 16:35-38: “And when it was day, the magistrates sent the serjeants, saying, Let those men go.  And the keeper of the prison told this saying to Paul, The magistrates have sent to let you go: now therefore depart, and go in peace.  But Paul said unto them, They have beaten us openly uncondemned, being Romans, and have cast us into prison; and now do they thrust us out privily (secretly)?  nay verily (no truly); but let them come themselves and fetch us out.  And the serjeants told these words unto the magistrates: and they feared, when they heard that they were Romans.”

I also know of another woman who, according to her own offspring, came to know of criminal abuse which her husband was perpetrating upon their very own children.  She told her husband that if she found out that it happened again she’d report him to the police.  That was the wrong decision.  She should have reported him to the police as soon as she knew about the heinous crime occurring so her husband would be locked up, made an example, and disabled from harming children anymore.  

For an adult to enable criminal behavior like that brings the wrath of God.  

If what your family members or someone else did to you or did to somebody else had been known to the authorities, and it would righteously be a public scandal if they were not then tried and punished by the authorities, then you cannot righteously let it go and sweep it under the rug.  However, that is the very thing which many, including (and perhaps especially) many so-called spiritual leaders would basically say to do.  That is very wicked.

The fact that statutes of limitation might prevent the possibility of punishment by the justice system at this point is unfortunate, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t things that can be done for truth and righteousness to still prevail to a significant degree in the matter.  You can only do what you can do, but you need to do what you can in order to cause truth and righteousness to prevail in the matter as much as possible still. 

You also need to do this for your own freedom in spirit, soul, and body as well.  If you’re chained from standing up for truth and defending yourself or others in the righteous capacity which you are able in relation to criminal behavior that you know of, then you are chained in everything.  

Consider: 1 Corinthians 7:23: “Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men.”

Psalm 119:80: “Let my heart be sound in thy statutes; that I be not ashamed.”

You also need to do this in order to simply not be an idolater and a respecter of persons who values your relationships and/or your comfort over God and His truth.

Matthew 10:37-39: “He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me (this is is Jesus speaking in the flesh).  And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.  He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.”

Luke 14:25-27: “And there went great multitudes with him: and he turned, and said unto them, If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.  And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.”

And you need to do this in order to not be a liar yourself.  The one who acted criminally is denying and/or justifying (and justifying includes minimizing) what they’ve done to you or to another.  Otherwise, they would have turned themselves in to the police already and made every reasonable bit of restitution that they might be able to make in relation to what they did.  You are heeding them in their deceit by not doing what is in your power to hold them accountable.

Proverbs 17:4: “A wicked doer giveth heed to false lips; and a liar giveth ear to a naughty tongue.”

Though no one can know the exact percentages, a great amount of sexual abuse and other abuse is perpetrated by family members.  The tribe of Levi was chosen to minister in God’s worship and teach Israel on the basis that the Levites were the most forward of Israel’s twelve tribes to execute God-ordained justice and vengeance on the obstinate idolaters in their very own families (see Deuteronomy 33:8-11 and Malachi 2:5-6).  

1 Corinthians 5:6-8 says: “Your glorying is not good.  Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?  Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened (Paul is writing this to a Christian church).  For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”

The context of this statement came in relation to a church established by the Apostles not confronting and casting out a church member living in sexual sin.  The Corinthians probably liked this person and were close to him on a human level.  They didn’t want to create a tumult and harm the relationship with this person and/or harm the relationship with others they were close to that were close friends or relatives of the man living in sin.  However, when we avoid the bitterness of keeping the Passover in principle like we’re commanded to in the passage which was just read, then we cannot be partakers of Christ’s resurrection and its sweet benefits.  Remember that God commanded bitter herbs to be eaten along with the Passover Lamb.  

Isaiah 5:20 says: “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”

And if embracing the bitterness of keeping the Passover in principle in order to properly respond to Jesus Christ (as the Ultimate Authority that He is)involves turning in family members and/or friends who have criminally harmed you or whom you know have done criminally towards others, then that is what you must do.  And if statutes of limitation prevent the justice system from getting involved, then you should at least confront the perpetrator of evil in the wisest way possible (without putting your own safety unnecessarily at risk), tell them that their heinous deeds are not okay, and insist that they apologize and do anything else that is in their power to attempt to make restitution and to prove that they are truly sorry.  And if they are deceased already, at least acknowledge the truth about what happened and tell yourself, or whoever you know that they victimized, that what happened was criminal and not okay.  Don’t let what happened remain swept under the rug and live in denial of it (the very thing which many actually mean when they talk about forgiveness).  And if they deny or justify their guilt in a manner in which you know for sure that they are guilty, then the right thing to do is to cut them out of your life or at least cut them off in every way you can without forsaking your duties towards God in other ways.

We see in the New Testament, in Romans chapter 13:1-7, that God has still ordained human governments (inevitably composed of mortal men, by the way) to carry out His principles of justice on earth. You cannot even be a faithful Christian if you do not agree with this nor if you obstruct such justice knowingly in any way.  And this is all consistent with, and even obviously a necessary component of, our duty of love towards all people, as is evidenced by reading on through the end of Romans chapter 13.  

This is all no less true if the ones at risk of being punished are your own relatives or friends.  There is no other way to avoid partiality in God’s Law and being a respecter of persons.  

Note the principle in the following passage, even though we are not to do this specific thing since we don’t live in a Theocracy like the ancient Israelites lived in.

Deuteronomy 13:6-11: “If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers; Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth; Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him: But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people.  And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die; because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.  And all Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall do no more any such wickedness as this is among you.”

Consider also: Micah 6:8: “He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?”

Proverbs 28:4: “They that forsake the law praise the wicked: but such as keep the law contend with them.”

Psalm 15: “Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle?  who shall dwell in thy holy hill?  He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart.  He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbor, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbor.  In whose eyes a vile person is condemned (including those of one’s family or race or whatever camp one identifies with) but he honoreth them that fear the Lord.  He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not (he that keeps his word even when doing so hurts him).  He that putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent.  He that doeth these things shall never be moved.”

Consider the implications of passages like Psalm 82.  Since God rebukes the mighty ones of the earth for their corruption and perverting of justice, then such rebuke obviously also applies to all who promote corruption and pervert justice by in any way enabling criminal behavior and opposing justice being carried out towards anyone who is guilty.  Never did the holy men who wrote Scripture consider that anarchy and abandoning the justice system the solution for earth’s problems.  They rather longed for actual justice to prevail and appealed to God to intervene when bribery and other forms of corruption in the justice system were causing criminal action to prevail on earth.

Every criminal deed which goes unpunished enables others to act criminally- especially when the criminal deed is never even confronted and is rather swept under the rug.

Psalm 12:8: “The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are exalted.”

Future criminal action is potentially deterred whenever a criminal is punished consistent with their deeds.

Criminal action is enabled when that is not the case- especially when the criminal isn’t punished with any severity at all.

Ecclesiastes 8:11: “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.”

There are indeed bad consequences in relation to a criminal never getting convicted and sentenced for the crime they did besides the criminal escaping punishment in this life and living in freedom for however long they end up living in freedom when they should not have been doing so.

These principles don’t just apply to the State punishing criminal action which properly falls under the State’s jurisdiction.  These principles also apply to homes and churches in relation to bad behavior which falls under their jurisdiction (consider that the father of the Prodigal Son didn’t tolerate sin being practiced in his home; the son knew that he had to put his sin away to come back home).  We saw earlier this principle applied to churches in 1 Corinthians chapter 5.

Mankind’s overall miserable condition on earth reflects the truth that our fall in sin is very deep, very serious, and needs to be dealt with in severe ways in order to actually be properly remedied.  We tend to want to believe that our prognosis is not so bad, but choosing to believe in a lying prognosis of fallen mankind’s sin is in itself fighting God and kicking against the verdicts which He has laid down in Scripture.  This is a key reason why places like Disney World are so evil (not even considering the occult and perverted stuff which they also promote).  The essence of the Disney spirit is the concept that “we’re in paradise now and all is happy” when that is simply not so.  

Not doing what is reasonably in your power to work for God-ordained confrontation and consequences of criminal behavior on earth is to enable a lying prognosis of fallen mankind and thereby serve the devil’s ends.  This is not the forgiveness which Jesus and the holy men of Scripture spoke of and commanded of us.  Those who promote this omission in any way rather promote a form of tyranny.  Those then who comply with any criminal, including criminal abusers, being let off the hook for what they did comply with and enable tyranny.  It will not end well for those involved in such promotion and compliance.  This is walking in darkness and not in truth.

Aaron’s email is: [email protected]

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