To broaden it a bit more,, How can someone who has been convinced and convicted of sin by the Holy Spirit,, and accepted the offer of salvation turn around and condemn someone else to torture? or support the suffering inflicted?
I do not believe it to be likely.
They can't do it
rightly, but they may do it
wrongly.
First, maybe they think torture is not really torture. Second, maybe they think the people being tortured are not really people. Third, maybe they think the state is god.
This comes back to idolatry of the state though, and if someone is a statolater, then are they really a Christian at all? See, if the state is god, after all, then the state can do whatever it darn well pleases. Torture or otherwise.
Support for torture seems to me to be an effect of statolatry, so maybe the root question is, can someone be a statolater and still be a Christian?
At first blush my first instinct is to say, "no," but then I look at Israel worshipping the golden calf, and see that those who did were not expunged, they were eventually redeemed. So maybe my first instinct is off. We know that a Christian can be in error and still be a Christian. The error requires repentance, of course, but the condition of error does not automatically reduce salvation.
Also problematic for my first instinct of "statolatry = not Christian" is that the vast majority of Christian statolaters are completely unaware that they are idolizing the state. If someone is committing an error/sin and they are totally unaware that they are committing said error/sin, while it may be held against them for reward, can it be held against them for salvation?
And to reverse direction AGAIN, we do know that there will be souls who were completely unaware of their position outside of Christ, who WILL have it held against them for salvation. At the Bema Seat of Christ, souls that totally believed they were preaching/prophesying/doing miracles in the Name of God will be told "Go away from Me, I never knew you."
