A CNN article on the death penalty opens as follows:

When Gary Gilmore was choosing between the firing squad and the electric chair in 1977, Dr. Jay Chapman remembers discussing the inhumanity of each option with his colleagues at the Oklahoma state medical examiner's office.

"We said this is really ridiculous. We kill animals more humanely than we kill people," said Chapman.

But Chapman, then the chief medical examiner in Oklahoma, supported the death penalty. So when state legislators asked him to come up with a more humane alternative, he went to work.

For three weeks Dr. Chapman contemplated the best way to kill someone, the best combination of drugs that when injected, would take life swiftly and painlessly.

He came up with a lethal three-drug cocktail, and to his great surprise, over the past 25 years, 37 states adopted it nearly to the letter. But now, after concerns that instead of causing an instant death it sometimes provides a slow, painful, one, Chapman has rethought whether his formula is optimal.

So, what is Chapman thinking may now be the most simplest way to execute people? The title of this commentary answers the question: The guillotine.

In the article, Chapman is quoted as saying, "The simplest thing I know of is the guillotine. And I'm not at all opposed to bringing it back. The person's head is cut off and that's the end of it."

In Bible prophecy we see the very real possibility exists that the guillotine is going to be reintroduced as a means to put people to death in the Tribulation Period in Revelation 20:4:

And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

I wonder how many people, as they read commentaries written by me, find themselves reflecting on opinions they had long ago on a number of topics such as this. I wonder how many, concerning the possibility the guillotine, for example, would emerge to potentially play a role in our lifetime thought, "That'll never happen in MY lifetime."

What do I think now concerning the possible return of the guillotine as a means of execution? I wouldn't bet against it making a comeback any more than I would bet against the Rapture of the Church taking place!

At this point I can't even imagine that Jesus Christ isn't coming soon! If you're not ready for that, it's time to get ready! How does one get ready? It's one of the easiest things you'll ever do, as long as it's something you truly want to do with all your heart.