The Ethics of Capital Punishment

Believe

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The issue of capital punishment has set Christian against Christian, church against church, conservative against conservative, and liberal against liberal. The problem is complex, touching the deeper question of the value, dignity, and sanctity of human life. Personally believe spending the rest of your life in the prison cell the size of a household bathroom with another criminal enclosed proximity is worse than the death penalty.

But if you want to dig deep into studying capital punishment it must begin with an understanding of the primary function of government as originally ordained by God. Romans 13:1–7 is the classic text concerning God’s ordination of government. This text is the most comprehensive and emphatic statement that the Scriptures give us regarding the notion that the power of government is rooted in the ordination of God. It is important to note that the apostle is not speaking here of a theocratic state but of secular government. The text of Romans reads as follows:

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore he who resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of him who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain; he is the servant of God to execute his wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be subject, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. For the same reason you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. Pay all of them their dues, taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due.

The “governing authorities” are understood to be ordained by God. We are not privileged to obey only those authorities that we consider to be legitimate. I don't believe God endorse everything civil magistrates do, but he does give them certain rights and requires our obedience to them. No government rules autonomously.

All civil authorities must, and ultimately will, answer to God. We have the responsibility of obeying even corrupt governments except under certain conditions. Civil obedience is required repeatedly by the Word of God. The principle that governs our right and responsibility to disobey civil authority is this: we must obey those in authority over us unless they command us to do what God forbids or forbid us to do what God commands.

The only ultimate alternative to government is anarchy, in which each man lives for himself. Thus, government was instituted as an act of God’s grace to protect the weak and the righteous from the wicked. I believe our government most certainly could be doing a better job.

Releasing people that are charged with a very serious crime with no bail Is an extremely bad idea. So is having open borders.
 
If you murder somebody, then the government is Biblically justified in taking your life (Lev 24:17)

Simple as that.
The bad news is our government doesn't go with what's biblically correct. Just recently and accused murderer waiting for trial was let loose with no bill. Never believe what happened. He killed somebody else within a week of being let out of jail.

I'm all for hanging convicted murders in the town square. That might be deterrent. It might even put the fear of God into you.
 
Stoning is a method of execution during which a group of people, usually peers of the guilty party, throws stones at the condemned person until he or she dies. Death by stoning was prescribed in the Old Testament Law as a punishment for various sins. Both animals and people could be the subjects of stoning (Exodus 21:28), and stoning seems to have been associated with sins that caused irreparable damage to the spiritual or ceremonial purity of a person or an animal.

Some sins that resulted in stoning in the Old Testament were murder (Leviticus 24:17), idolatry (Deuteronomy 17:2–5), approaching near to Mount Sinai while the presence of God was there (Exodus 19:12–13), practicing necromancy or the occult (Leviticus 20:27), and blaspheming the name of the Lord (Leviticus 24:16). Stoning was probably the punishment for various types of sexual sin, as well (Deuteronomy 22:24); the related passages in Leviticus 20 do not specify the method of execution, only that the guilty party was to be “put to death.”

The Mosaic Law specified that, before anyone could be put to death by stoning, there had to be a trial, and at least two witnesses had to testify: “On the testimony of two or three witnesses a person is to be put to death, but no one is to be put to death on the testimony of only one witness” (Deuteronomy 17:6). Those witnesses “must be the first in putting that person to death, and then the hands of all the people” (verse 7). In other words, those who testified against the condemned person in court had to cast the first stone. Examples of stonings in the Old Testament are the deaths of Achan and his family (Joshua 7:25) and Naboth, who was condemned by false witnesses (1 Kings 21).

Stoning was the method of execution chosen by the unbelieving Jews who persecuted the early Christians. Stephen, the church’s first martyr, was stoned to death outside of Jerusalem by the Sanhedrin. On that occasion, a young man named Saul, who later became the apostle Paul, held the coats of those who cast the stones (Acts 7:54–60).

In another famous passage of Scripture, the Pharisees tried to entrap Jesus into granting approval for the stoning of a woman caught in the act of adultery. Significantly, the adulterous man was absent—the Law prescribed death for both the guilty parties. Jesus’ response is interesting. The woman was clearly guilty, but Jesus understood the duplicity of His enemies. Instead of giving them a direct answer, Jesus turned to those who had dragged the woman before Him and said, “Whichever of you is free from sin, throw the first stone” (John 8:1–11). By this, Jesus is asking for the witnesses to step forward—the witnesses, bound by an oath, were the ones to cast the first stones. He also shows the compassionate heart of God toward the sinner and silences the mob’s hypocritical allegations.

Another mode of execution that was also considered stoning involved throwing the guilty party headlong down a steep place and then rolling a large stone onto the body. This is exactly what a mob in Nazareth tried to do to Jesus after His speech in their synagogue. Hearing His claim to be the Messiah, “they got up, drove [Jesus] out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff” (Luke 4:29). Jesus’ deliverance from this angry mob was miraculous: “He walked right through the crowd and went on his way” (verse 30). It was not the Lord’s time to die (see John 10:18), and He could never have died by stoning because the prophecy said none of His bones would be broken (John 19:36).

Stoning is a horrible way to die. That particular manner of execution must have been a strong deterrent against committing the sins deemed offensive enough to merit stoning. God cares very much about the purity of His people. The strict punishment for sin during the time of the Law helped deter people from adopting the impure practices of their pagan neighbors and rebelling against God. The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23), and Israel was given a stern commandment to stay pure: “You must purge the evil from among you” (Deuteronomy 17:7).

 
Most states have abolished capital punishment and even the ones that do have it on the books rarely follow through with an execution. The convicted murder just sits on death row till they die of natural causes.

What's interesting is the states that do not have a death penalty and give you a life sentence for murder is the fact that after 10 years you're eligible for parole. So if you keep your nose clean in prison and follow the rules and come before a liberal parole board you are set free to kill again.
 
Most states have abolished capital punishment and even the ones that do have it on the books rarely follow through with an execution. The convicted murder just sits on death row till they die of naturalGosh causes.

What's interesting is the states that do not have a death penalty and give you a life sentence for murder is the fact that after 10 years you're eligible for parole. So if you keep your nose clean in prison and follow the rules and come before a liberal parole board you are set free to kill again.
Gosh, the last time I looked Texas has an express lane for executions. Oklahoma, Alabama and Florida are not far behind. I believe most of the 'red' states have capital punishment.
Shalom
 
Thanks for letting me know I didn't know that.
I used to live in Texas and Florida. Those 2 states are the top execution states with the most. Texas executions are done in Huntsville and Florida executions are done at Stark.
 
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What's the bible say? An eye for an eye. It's found in the Old Testament, specifically in Exodus 21:24 and Leviticus 24:20. It is a principle of retaliation, where the punishment for a crime is equal to the crime itself. In other words, if someone injures another person, they should be punished in the same way.

So in our modern society if you commit premeditated murder no matter how gruesome, You're put to sleep chemically in most States. Public hanging might be more of a deterrent.
 
I favor capital punishment, at least in principle, but only in extreme cases when no other punishment can satisfy the demands of justice.

The reason is quite simple. Justice in God’s eyes requires that the response to an offense—whether against God or against humanity—be proportionate. The lex talionis (“law of the talion”) served as a restraint, a limitation, to ensure the punishment would be no greater than the crime. Yet implied therein is a standard—that the punishment should be at least as great as the crime. One frequently finds among Christians the belief that Jesus’s so-called “love-ethic” sets aside the “law of the talion.” To the contrary, Jesus affirms the divine basis of Old Testament ethics. Nowhere does he set aside all requirements of civil law.
 
'And surely your blood of your lives will I require;
at the hand of every beast will I require it,
and at the hand of man;
at the hand of every man's brother
will I require the life of man.'
Whoso sheddeth man's blood,
by man shall his blood be shed:
for in the image of God made He man.'

(Gen 9:5-6)

'At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses,
shall he that is worthy of death be put to death;
but at the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death.

The hands of the witnesses shall be first upon him to put him to death,
and afterward the hands of all the people.
So thou shalt put the evil away from among you.'

(Deu 17:5-7)

I live in the UK, where the death penalty is no longer carried out. When discussing it with others the fact that there have been miscarriages of justice, where the death penalty has been carried out upon the innocent has been raised: as has the detrimental psychological effect upon the person actually performing the act of administering it. Yet for the act of premeditated murder I believe there should be a death penalty: for murder does not only end the life of the victim, but in the case of those of child bearing age, or younger, denies the possibility of life for the unborn, and therefore a posterity for the victim and to those who gave them birth.​

Just thoughts
 
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