Death penalty

[Annad]

Jesus teaches us about forgiveness. So how biblical is the death penalty

[JCISGD]

Hi Annad, You trying to start a fight ? Ok i`ll go first and take the beating.

I dont know where it is but in OT " If a theif breaks into a house and he gets killed in a struggle, its not to be called murder"

So i suppose forgiveness pertains to feelings of revenge, but the death penalty pertains to justice being upheld.

[Shiloh62]

Jesus teaches us about forgiveness. So how biblical is the death penalty

That would probably be more eye-for-an eye old testament justice.

[Johnsean]

Jesus teaches us about forgiveness. So how biblical is the death penalty

That would probably be more eye-for-an eye old testament justice.

I guess there is limit to everything including forgiveness. take this for example; when God warned people to repent over a long period and they could not do so. He asked Noah to construct the Ark and those who didnt obey were washed off the earth.

John

[ParanoidAndroid]

I am theoretically for the death penalty. However, this is contingent on finding a Judge with infinite wisdom, knowledge, and who can see into the very depths of a person's heart to see what lies in there.

Practically speaking, only God can fulfil that role. No other Judge can sufficiently carry out the Death Penalty. Even when the situation is an "open and shut case", there is no one who can carry out a Death Sentence except God. Allow me for a moment to share the tragedy of Timothy Evans. In 1950, he turned himself into the police and confessed to murdering his wife. He first claimed to have given her some abortion pills, after which she died. Then he claimed his neighbour, John Christie, had offered to help give an abortion, after which his wife died. The body (and his baby daughter's body) was found after a search - they had both been strangled. The story changed again, and he claimed he strangled them both after arguing over some debts. Though only officially ever charged with the murder of his daughter, during the trial, he again reverted to the original story that Christie was the killer.

His story changes repeatedly, he first confesses and then blames someone else, then confesses again..... He sounds guilty. Except that three years later, a new tenant living in the same house as Evans, finds threee bodies, and after a police search reveals three more bodies, including Christie's (Evans' neighbour) wife. During interrogation, Christie admits to the murder that Evans was convicted of.

Check out the full story HERE

If this case shows anything, it's that there is no such thing as an open and shut case. A posthumous pardon won't bring a dead person back to life. And the nature of life is that we don't get everything right all of the time.

I agree with death sentences when God is the presiding Judge. Nowhere else can I sanction it - innocent people will die if left to the hands of flawed humanity!

Just a few thoughts.

[Shiloh62]

Jesus teaches us about forgiveness. So how biblical is the death penalty

That would probably be more eye-for-an eye old testament justice.

I guess there is limit to everything including forgiveness. take this for example; when God warned people to repent over a long period and they could not do so. He asked Noah to construct the Ark and those who didnt obey were washed off the earth.

John

The people in the old testament NEVER asked for forgiveness-thats why God finally gave up on them-and they surely were never repentant.Its probably more of a question of would doing so,rather than could doing so. They always possessed the ability to confess their sins, John, they simply chose not to.

[nebula]

When David sinned and Nathan confronted him and David repented, notice that punishment was still enacted. But the Lord chose to spare David's life; however, it was the life of his son that the Lord took for penalty.

In other words, the death penalty was still enacted, but it was his child born out of wedlock that paid that price.

Now, as far as Jesus' teachings on forgiveness, He was referring to how everyday people are to deal with everyday situations, not dictating legislation. In the case of the woman caught in adultery, the ones who brought her to Jesus for judgment broke the Torah in the process. For one, both man and woman were to be brought forward for judgment - yet they brought only the woman (how can a woman be "caught" in adultery without the man likewise being caught?). For another, they were to be taken to the Priest. So, Jesus never changed the Torah, He just wasn't letting the Pharisees and all get away with breaking it.

[Celt]

Lot of disinformation about this. There are those of God's enemies that would love nothing better than to let all murderers lose on our streets to create chaos. It's they that would like us to feel guilty about giving a murderer the death penalty. It's those that like to try to say our judges are going beyond the authority God gave them when assigning the death penalty. It's they that like to twist the 'judge not lest ye be judged' words of our Lord into pascifist a dogma (read Luke 22 where our Lord Jesus told His disciples to go buy a sword if they didn't have one).

God gave us judges. And He gave us and them His Law to help govern our society. There's a lot of disinformation among the Churches about today's existence of His Law among His people too. It's His enemies that are trying to take His laws away from His people, and put chaos in its place. Until God's people realize those kind of enemies exist among us today, they won't understand what the death penalty is for.

When a judge passes the death sentence upon a murderer, it is not the judge that is condemning the murderer to eternal punishment. Only God can do that. At this time today, no one except Satan and his angels have already been judged and sentenced by God to the lake of fire to perish forever. In the mean time, while God's people have been entrusted responsibility on earth, we are not to allow chaos to reign in the streets with murderers on the lose. And a murderer who will not change, does not deserve to live amongst us. I'm not just talking about accidental manslaughter cases; I'm talking about some really serious workers of evil, like the Iceman (HBO special about a mafia hitman years ago, who is being kept in prison only because criminologists think he may help them solve something like 100 murders).

[Believer1997]

I used to be a die-hard proponent of death penalty "justice".... our daughter was a junior in college when she was kidnapped, raped and taken to another state and suffered futher abuse. I can clearly tell you that I wanted to ... kill. AND I was a Christian when this happened. She was recovered from this nightmare and the man responsible was punished. My husband, also a Christian, has never been in favor of the death penalty. He believes that the person should have every chance at salvation and that it's not up to us to decide who lives and who dies.... I pray each night over this 'dilemma' in my heart. I have, with God's help, determined that He commanded "Thou Shall Not Kill"... and He has further outlined that He IS the ultimate Judge. Who am I to go against such a clear command? He watched His Son murdered.... and He Gave Us the Grace & Salvation even though we did not deserve it. So... I have every belief in my heart that one day... at some time... God will exact His punishment. Many blessings!!!

[Believer1997]

I used to be a die-hard proponent of death penalty "justice".... our daughter was a junior in college when she was kidnapped, raped and taken to another state and suffered futher abuse. I can clearly tell you that I wanted to ... kill. AND I was a Christian when this happened. She was recovered from this nightmare and the man responsible was punished. My husband, also a Christian, has never been in favor of the death penalty. He believes that the person should have every chance at salvation and that it's not up to us to decide who lives and who dies.... I pray each night over this 'dilemma' in my heart. I have, with God's help, determined that He commanded "Thou Shall Not Kill"... and He has further outlined that He IS the ultimate Judge. Who am I to go against such a clear command? He watched His Son murdered.... and He Gave Us the Grace & Salvation even though we did not deserve it. So... I have every belief in my heart that one day... at some time... God will exact His punishment. Many blessings!!!

(((Believer)))

i am SO sorry about your daughter. what an awful thing to have to go through--for her and you both!

i, too, used to be a strong proponent of the death penalty. now, i just don't know. i will contend, though, that the commandment to not kill meant murder. otherwise, God would have been telling His people to break that command whenever someone did something with a God-given death penalty consequence (of which there were quite a few).

i guess i'm not for it and i'm not against it. how's that for wishy-washy!

as to the original OP...as Gator said, forgiveness does not negate the consequences of our sin. so the two are not related, IMO.

Thank you for your sentiments. I think when we take it upon ourselves to deal out life and death, we make mistakes. God does not make mistakes. There have been a number of instances when innocent people have been put to death - their cases proven innocent after the fact. I would not want that on my conscience. I know how you feel... there are plenty of times I can hear a particular Southern "lady" of my acquaintance say "He needed killin' ".... and perhaps he did... but I'm not sure as fallable human beings we are capable of determining that. I've read the OT references to punishment and retribution and the older I get and the more I learn - I think we need to let God deal with these people.... and He Will.