The Death Penalty
I believe the Scriptures teach that the government has the right to execute justice including the death penalty. However, I am against the death penalty here because it is heavily weighted in favor of the more wealthy, and there is much partiality in the judicial system. Florida, where I live, has executed its share of people. On Wednesday they executed another man who from all reports was guilty of a triple murder.
But as I read the news account, I noticed something quite astonishing. The man whose wife and two daughters were murdered while on vacation, traveled all the way down from Ohio to sit and watch the man be executed. He took a front row seat and watched a man die.
Wow. I cannot imagine where such energy comes from in order to travel a thousand miles just to witness a 15 minute execution. It changes nothing. I would hope that as a believer I would travel one thousand miles in order to share Jesus Christ with a man who murdered my family rather than take in such a ghastly event regardless of the man’s guilt.
A word to us all: Think redemption. Always.
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9 comments:
The death penalty. I was never so surprised how so many Americans, who claim they are forgiven, saved, redeemed by the love and grace of Jesus, support the death penalty. It boggles the mind.
Yes, Paul in the epistles does ask believers to be obedient to the laws that govern. But just because one lives in a nation that executes it's criminals does not mean that we "forgiven" sinners must agree to it. What kind of example to the world does this show? Telling others they should abandon their sins and at the same time agreeing with the mammon system that we don't have a problem with executing another human being?
Jesus did ask us to treat others as we would treat Him. A christian should be against the death penalty altogether, not just because it heavily weighs in favor of the more wealthy. If one criminal's life is taken away from him before his appointed time, then man, not God, has removed his chance of turning around, repenting, seeking Christ, seeking a new heart before he dies.
And finally, any one of us with children - what if one of our children happened to become a breaker of the law, steal, accidentally kill, or pre-meditatively kill, or do any horrible deed - would we be so quick to accept the death penalty? We would be praying to God to spare our child; to at least give him life in prison, as bad as that is, but at least to give him a chance to find redemption.
And last but not least, killing another individual is taking the blood of another. Do we want the blood of others on our hands because the laws say it's OK? Jesus asks us to choose. If we live by the sword, we die by the sword. I suppose this could mean, if we live by a vengeful attitude, we will reap that vengeful attitude from another at some point in our lives.
If we show compassion, mercy to other sinners as Jesus first showed to us, then we will continue to be shown more mercies from above, and we will won't result in others to say they like Jesus, but don't like his followers.
Thanks for letting me share my views.
Well said.
kelli - God hates the shedding of innocent blood. And some innocent men are put to death, so how can that be God's will? Romans is clear, the government can and does execute capital punishment, but we as believers are called to bring redemption.
The time of every man's death is known by God alone, however if God incorperates or directs that time is a matter of perspective. And if God directs everything then it never matters if a system is corrupt or not, or even if an innocent man is put to death.
And if God directs an innocent man to be put to death, then He has abrogated His own Word which would make Him a liar. And if the death penalty is always approved by God, then Hitler, Stalin, and Mao were only exercising their divine right.
Paul warned that the government would use the sword, but for us believers we must be redemptive and repairers of the breach through the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Rick,
Let me clarify what I was questioning. The question I was raising as far as someone being put to death before he or she heard the gospel and received the Lord Jesus and that man can put to death a man before this happens and then therefore, this person ended up hell because man killed this person before he or she received the Lord?
John 3:19-20 "This is the judgement, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. "But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds maybe be manifested as having been wrought in God."
Matthew 10:28
And fear not them who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
Yes, I understand and I appreciate your interaction. In a case like this it comes down to the old free will vs. God's sovereignty argument. I think we as believers should always err on the side of life.
But as I said, the government will do what it seems right.
Hebrews 9:27 And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment...
God Himself has set the appointment time for our death. Whether one dies in car accident or by electric chair or however, it is God who has allowed this. This was the "appointed" time for that individual.
He has appointed the "once", not necessarily the time. But of course He knows when we will die. I do not believe He sets the time in all cases.
Brother Rick, are you saying that "man" can determine when someone's life ends here on earth? Does this not give "man" more authority than God Himself? He is the One who holds the sun in place and the moon and the stars! Jeremiah 31:35,Thus says the LORD, Who gives the sun for light by day And the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, Who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar; The LORD of hosts is His name...
Yes, that is what I am saying. I am Arminian and I believe God sovereignly gave men that right. Murder and suicide etc. are not God's way of ending someone's life, at least in the New Covenant.
Man is more than just a divine puppet show, and God does not have the rape of children as part of His plan. That is man's doing. It does not take away any of God's power or sovereignty. We will see this mystery clearly one day.
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