It was 12:30 AM, April 29, 2015. The eight prisoners were brought out and tied to a cross-like figure. Blindfolds were rejected because they wanted to see their executioners. Each prisoner had 12 soldiers assigned to them. Nine soldiers ’ guns were loaded with blanks while only 3 had live ammunition, so that no soldier knew who fired the fatal shot. The prisoners sang Amazing Grace. At the signal, shots rang out, and all went silent. Within 3 minutes, the prisoner was dead. Among the prisoners were two Australians, Andrew Chan 31 and Myuran Sukumaran 34. They were part of the ‘ Bali Nine ’ arrested in 2005 and were executed for drug trafficking in Indonesia. The foreign execution of the two Australians, the first in nearly a decade, brought back to the fore the issue of capital punishment, also known as the death penalty. The term comes from the Latin term capitalis, a reference to the head and beheading. A state exercises capital punishment when they take the life of the...
'The Road Ahead' looks at some of the world trends issues and future forecasts from a Biblical worldview.