Should Christians support the death penalty?

[timothyu]

Who does it benefit?

 

[Sketcher]

Let's assume if there were no mistakes. And forget the cost, and if it even has any impact at deterring crime compared to states that have life imprisonment instead.

This will be about how God would want things done. And about giving justice and in what way will there be justice, what is the appropriate punishment?

Should a Christian support the death penalty or not?

Given those conditions:

Romans 13:4 indicates that Christians can support the death penalty. Paul supported it here, and Paul's life change is the best Christian argument against the death penalty.

 

[ZephBonkerer]

This is far more serious than what they do about abortions or gay marriages, because this action cuts off a soul from the possibility of repentance and salvation.

Most offenders who have committed such offended are well past any hope of repentance and salvation anyway. The time they sit in their maximum security cell awaiting execution is basically their last chance to repent and avoid eternal damnation.

 

[RDKirk]

Most offenders who have committed such offended are well past any hope of repentance and salvation anyway.

That is not for you to judge.

To quote Nate Saint, "I am ready to meet my Maker. They are not."

 

[timothyu]

"I am ready to meet my Maker. They are not."

Good quote

 

[lukeh]

By that reasoning, we might as well have no justice system at all.

When the Pharisees brought the accused woman to Jesus, they claimed to have caught her red-handed in a crime that requires more than one person to commit. Most likely the person she was committing adultery with was among them ready to stone her. If that is so, then all of those sleazy bums were just as guilty as she was, probably more so.

As for how this relates to crime and punishment, those words by Jesus should not be intended as some general policy with regard to justice. His words was fitting for that particular time and that particular context.

They were going to stone her to death. That's why it applies here. Because we're talking about execution.

If you don't like it then take it up with Jesus.

 

[YahuShua is The Way]

Thus Says The Lord Regarding Capital Punishment​

"Therefore hear the Word of My mouth and humble yourselves, O sons and daughters of men, that you may see with new eyes and restored vision: If you kill for the sake of justice, though you yourselves remain unjust, have you not transgressed twice in your spirit? Yea three times, you have sinned against The Lord your God. For man knows not the justice of God, nor can he comprehend the judgment of The Most High. YOU SLOTHFUL AND MOST WICKED GENERATION, YOU ARE ALL MURDERERS! Even to murder the murderer is murder! You do always transgress! You know nothing of the power of God, nor of My mercy revealed in The Messiah, whom you call Christ, nor are you able to search the hearts of men!
O foolish and deceived generation, if a man has committed murder and you put him to death, you have placed yourselves in the seat of judgment, making yourselves equal with God! Thus “BLASPHEMY” shall be written upon your heads, and “MURDERER” your new name! Yes punish the man who has committed murder, yet kill him not, lest he turn to Me in sincere repentance, in The Messiah’s name, and be forgiven. Shall you then slaughter the sons of God, piercing the hearts of those made new?!
O peoples of the earth, how long shall you tread the wide path?! How long shall you walk in the way of Cain and run greedily in the error of Balaam, holding fast in your rebellion as Korah?! For your sins are many; behold, they are increased beyond measure!


Shall sin judge sin, and institute
The punishment before the time?!...

Is not My judgment, that of capital punishment,
For all who have sinned, and annihilation
For all who refuse to repent?!...

Yet I sent My Only Begotten Son
To suffer your sentences for you;
Therefore, you do greatly err...

Peoples of the earth, where are your hearts?!
Err on the side of hope and salvation
In Messiah, where one can not err!"

Excerpt from: The Judgment of God Is True and Without Question, Yet the Error of the People Is Great - The Volumes of Truth

 

[ZephBonkerer]

They were going to stone her to death. That's why it applies here. Because we're talking about execution.

If you don't like it then take it up with Jesus.

Are you claiming that Jesus opposed having a criminal justice system in general? If so, are you sure you want to stand by that assertion? I wouldn't if I were you.

His response made perfect sense when confronted by a bunch of wicked slobs who were playing some kind of sick game to protect their image, prestige, and status. It was not a condemnation on capital punishment per se, to hold otherwise is to read way too much into it.

Regarding another point raised earlier, we don't know what became of the man she was supposedly committing adultery with. I believe it is unreasonable to assume they stoned him ahead of time. The Pharisees had no authority to carry out capital punishment without the approval of the Roman authorities. The more reasonable theories were they either let him go, or he was in on this tawdry scheme of theirs. And this depravity was from a group of people who prided themselves on their supposed righteousness!

 

[timothyu]

And this depravity was from a group of people who prided themselves on their supposed righteousness!

They should have just asked if He followed their creeds

 

[RDKirk]

Regarding another point raised earlier, we don't know what became of the man she was supposedly committing adultery with. I believe it is unreasonable to assume they stoned him ahead of time. The Pharisees had no authority to carry out capital punishment without the approval of the Roman authorities. The more reasonable theories were they either let him go, or he was in on this tawdry scheme of theirs. And this depravity was from a group of people who prided themselves on their supposed righteousness!

Or he fought his way to escape.

 

[timothyu]

Religions seem to have always seen the female as the sole temptress lol

 

[ZephBonkerer]

Or he fought his way to escape.

He would have been greatly outnumbered if the Pharisees' account of what happened were true.

 

[RDKirk]

He would have been greatly outnumbered if the Pharisees' account of what happened were true.

They don't say how many people caught the pair "in the act." It might have been no more than the woman's husband. Or it might have been a scenario like that which was proposed in the apocryphal "Daniel and Susanna," and the pair were observed in a private garden from a short distance over the wall or through a window.

My point is: We don't know. It could be a myriad of situations. There is zero information given about that, thus nothing can be speculated from the silence on that point, certainly nothing that establishes a doctrinal platform.

 

[ZephBonkerer]

They don't say how many people caught the pair "in the act." It might have been no more than the woman's husband. Or it might have been a scenario like that which was proposed in the apocryphal "Daniel and Susanna," and the pair were observed in a private garden from a short distance over the wall or through a window.

My point is: We don't know. It could be a myriad of situations. There is zero information given about that, thus nothing can be speculated from the silence on that point, certainly nothing that establishes a doctrinal platform.

Which is fair. Many details were left out, and that was likely intentional. What we do know is that the Pharisees were going to great lengths to discredit Jesus, even to the point of disregarding common decency.

As for the story of Susanna, I thought it read a bit much like a tale from Arabian Nights. The two elders were exposed when they were questioned separately and their testimony was inconsistent. While I could be wrong about this, wouldn't questioning witnesses separately have already been standard practice even then?

 

[RDKirk]

Which is fair. Many details were left out, and that was likely intentional. What we do know is that the Pharisees were going to great lengths to discredit Jesus, even to the point of disregarding common decency.

As for the story of Susanna, I thought it read a bit much like a tale from Arabian Nights. The two elders were exposed when they were questioned separately and their testimony was inconsistent. While I could be wrong about this, wouldn't questioning witnesses separately have already been standard practice even then?

The implication is that Daniel was the first person to do so, which, along with the other aphocryphal stories about him, makes him the first "amateur sleuth" in literature.

But the details of the story were realistic enough to be acceptable to that audience of its own day. The man and woman might have been observed merely embracing in the courtyard of the woman's (husband's) home, and events transpired as detailed in the story of Daniel and Susanna. The Jewish Christians originally hearing the story probably thought about the Daniel and Susanna story.

What I get out of the story John gives us is not that the Pharisees are missing some detail of the physical circumstances, but that Jesus is pouncing again on the failure of the Pharisees to grasp and practice "...the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith," (Matthew 23) and He immediately gives them the proper interpretation.

 

[ZephBonkerer]

What I get out of the story John gives us is not that the Pharisees are missing some detail of the physical circumstances, but that Jesus is pouncing again on the failure of the Pharisees to grasp and practice "...the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith," (Matthew 23) and He immediately gives them the proper interpretation.

A cleaner way to make my point: whatever the unknown details surrounding the woman caught in adultery, it is reasonable to suspect this was another scheme concocted by the Pharisees to set Jesus up. They've done this before, but were never successful.

The coyote never got the roadrunner. Skeletor never captured Castle Greyskull. And the Pharisees never discredited Jesus.

 

[timothyu]

She might have simply been divorced by her husband and married another.

 

[dudleysharp]

Yes.

This is a thorough reply:

Religion and The Death Penalty
Religion & The Death Penalty

 

[dudleysharp]

I don't support the death penalty as we are finding out that we have executed innocent people that were exonerated later on.

The Innocent and the Death Penalty - Innocence Project

innocenceproject.org

What innocents have been executed?

Innocents are better protected by the death penalty/execution, in three ways, better than with life without parole.

The Death Penalty: Saving More Innocent Lives
DEATH PENALTY: SAVING MORE INNOCENT LIVES

 

[dudleysharp]

I personally do not and neither did Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
Blessings

Untrue.

Jesus and the Death Penalty
Jesus and the death penalty

The Death Penalty: Mercy, Expiation, Redemption & Salvation
The Death Penalty: Mercy, Expiation, Redemption & Salvation