I see on here a split of opinion with Christians on Austin Metcalf's dad, here and elsewhere.
I think both are incorrect in their own way.
One side says you don't forgive the unrepentant. Wrong, extremely wrong. Were the ones stoning Stephen to death repentant when he cried out for God to forgive them? No. The Bible puts no qualifications on who to forgive, only that you do.
The other side says he's being a Christian by forgiving the killer, and didn't do anything wrong and what I'd say is it's not wrong to forgive the killer, but I'd say that going on national TV and trying to make sure everyone complies with the cultures values on race has little or nothing to do with forgiveness, and so this side misses the mark.
You see, here's the biggest problem with what Austin Metcalf's dad did.
The black ghetto community needs to repent. They are like, in a way, a seperate nation like Ninevah who is told by all parties, including the church that they're not destined to hell.
Calling to repentance is an act of mercy in the Bible. Jonah didn't want to tell the Ninevites to repent because he didn't want them to experience God's mercy. When John the baptist comes on the scene preaching a message of repentance, it's repeated over and over that God's mercy has come. You want to love black people? Call the violence glorifying culture to repentance and warn them that huge swaths of their culture is akin to something like the Ninevites.
Essentially the dad is saying without realizing it "make sure you don't have any conversations that could be difficult for the inner city to hear, lest they realize their sins and turn and be saved".
Many black people will be going to hell unfortunately because even the church tickles their ear and never calls out their behavior even though the church is more than happy to call out their mostly white congregants behavior (which the church should).
Anyone who objectively looks at the black community can see that they fit the definition of a fool found in proverbs and yet no one wants to touch that subject, including Christians.
So, the dad should forgive the killer, even if it takes time to do, and it's odd that he would be so lacking in paternal instinct that he'd unemotionally virtue signal, which seems less like Biblical forgiveness and more like this modern day utter capitulation and celebration of black culture, and the next thing the father could do, which would be the loving thing and also an extremely dangerous and scary thing, which would be to absolutely address the racial issue. Look, it's not about race. Jesus said go preach to all the nations. By all accounts, the black culture is a foreign nation. They share no values, and their values that are taught from birth are completely leading people to hell. They qualify as a nation that needs repentance.
And as we see in the Bible, in order for people to accept Jesus, they first need to be told what they're violating, where they're astray, and what the consequences of sin are.
I don't see the church doing this with the black community. The exact opposite.
So the "don't forgive the unrepentant" Christians are wrong, as are the Christians who are failing to realize that the black, inner city, thug culture needs to face some extremely harsh facts for their eternal good.
Not the argument being made, and this is a mistake I see frequently.
The point is that the unrepentant CANNOT be forgiven, and by definition that is completely correct. God alone can forgive those who are not sorry for their actions. Man cannot. Saying "you are forgiven" is not something that Jeff Metcalf has the power to do. Because the animal who killed his son did not merely trespass against him, but against the dead innocent and the laws of God as well. Jeff Metcalf has no authority over two of those things, and the pretense towards that is blasphemy.
Man can offer forgiveness for a trespass against us specifically, but if it is thrown back in our faces(and hoo boy it sure has been), well that is the end of it.
forgiveness is what you do on your end. It's internally forgiving them instead of holding on to bitterness, hatred, unforgiveness.
You can forgive someone and want them to face legal justice. They're not mutually exclusive.
You can and should forgive people who have been dead for 20 years. You can forgive people who are in hell right now and you should. The forgiveness we do is a separate thing from the forgiveness that Jesus offers because we don't have the spiritual merit to wipe away anyone's sins including our own unlike Jesus. Christians' forgiving is about us having a heart that recognizes our own spiritual depravity and the mercy we've received, and so we let go of the unforgiveness we have towards others.
Your forgiveness is not the same as God's forgiveness. You're forgiving their trespasses, as Jesus forgave you, but it doesn't mean their sins are forgiven to God unless they put their trust and faith in Jesus.
If Jeff Metcalf said "you are forgiven" in that prescriptive way, that would be blasphemous, but he didn't say that. He said, I forgive the killer. It's a different meaning.
As an example, I had to forgive people who were cruel to me in high school, as I was holding on to that bitterness.
I haven't seen them in nearly 20 years. I don't know if they're repentant. I know nothing about them. Most of them I can barely recall anything specific, but I had to come to a point where I forgave them and let it go.
It has nothing to do with them. Christian forgiveness is about your heart towards them.
Whether anyone is actually forgiven of their sins in the eyes of God is 100% down to what they do with Jesus, and is separate from the forgiveness that Christians give.
You're right. it helps to have the scripture to back it up, it's all there, but well said anyway
I should have used scripture, you're right.
It can help, but many Christians (and most non-Christians discussing Christian matters) think that we (as Christians) can only make definitive statements and judgments if it's supported by a Biblical passage. The Bible isn't the sum total of all knowledge and wisdom, with a commandment on how to act perfectly in every scenario, that tells us how to do calculus, or physics, or interpret the tax code, etc. If it was, it would be infinitely long. That's not the purpose of the Bible, either.
Christians, especially since the enlightenment and the growth of "science!", have forgotten that creation is also a work of God, and it's His greatest work. When God points to His divinity and power, He doesn't point to scripture. He points to creation (Job 38).
Don't ever forget that God's will is inlaid into creation itself. All of truth, rules of logic, mathematical laws, scientific laws, they're all of God and from God. This is why, when we act in accordance with truth, with God, we're rewarded with success, abundance, safety, joy, community, justice, inward peace, health, and fecundity, the very things God promises us, in scripture, when we act in accordance with Him. When we act in discordance to God, to truth, we are "rewarded" with the opposite.
To learn, to know the rules of truth and logic via what creation tells us, is to learn of God, to learn God's will. We can use that wisdom to shape our own ideas, philosophies, judgments, actions, and behaviors, and be just as Christian when we do so, as when we quote scripture. We don't need to rely on scripture for absolutely everything, because scripture doesn't answer everything. If scripture and creation seem to contradict, it means we don't understand it fully. Some things will be a mystery to us, and will remain a mystery until we're educated by God at our time of judgment. We are finite, imperfect, and mortal, after all.
But, truth is often quite clear and easy to decipher, it's just that it's so obvious it's easy for people to miss. Most of the profound things I've learned over the years have been obvious, but overlooked, things usually taken for granted. We often get in our own way, and get lost in the minutiae and weeds, or get hung up on this or that, thinking in false dichotomies, and our ego gets in the way, when the foundations, the obvious, are unconsidered and ignored, while people foolishly build houses upon their personal stretch of sand, because of their ego.
Do not ignore or reject creation when espousing truth and God's will, or you become apostate as a Christian, as to do so is to reject God and His greatest work.