RThibeault said:
It happens all the time. God himself made provision for this in the Old Testament. God made certain sins punishable by death. God provided man with the authority to judge another's guilt.
How do we pick and choose what laws of the OT we are to follow, and those we ignore? Where did God make provisions for the DP in the New Testament? In fact, God said, "It has been written, an eye for an eye..." Most of us are familiar with that statement by God. Clearly, God changed the law. To "Pray for our enemies" does not mean we allow people to commit murder and then sit down and have an ice cream cone with them. It means we prevent them from access to the means of doing it again until we can heal them, or maybe they spend the rest of their natural lives in prison.
Did Jesus, before he was crucified make any statements against the death penalty he received. NO.
This question always greatly confounds me. Why even ask if Jesus said anything against it? It was his PURPOSE by his choice through his obedience.
Did he make any political statement against those who put the thieves on those crosses next to him? NO. So to say, the death penalty is unChristian is wrong.
What was he supposed to say? "Hey, this is my purpose, but get these two down because the DP is wrong?" They would have mocked him even MORE. Furthermore, he had already addressed the DP in at least two different ways to the disciples and a crowd of people. The death penalty goes against everything Christ taught/teaches us because it is murder. Just because we have made it legal doesn't mean it isn't murder.
Before you bring up the argument of the woman caught in adultery. Remember to look at the context. The leaders brought the woman to be stoned. What did he write in the sand? And where was the man she was caught in adultery with?
What did he write in the sand? Is that recorded in scripture?
I'm actually glad you brought up the adulterous woman because once we play the argument through, we will see how this is another time that Jesus recanted the DP. I don't know what he wrote in the sand, but I do know he said "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." On that point, he is saying that whoever is perfect may be the person(s) who execute the woman. Are any of us perfect?
The missing man is the second thrust of Jesus' message. If God wanted to keep the DP, why didn't God have the man fetched? Surely, Jesus being God would not need a Pharisaic Commission Investigation to find this mysterious man. Jesus knew who the man was, and if we argue he didn't, then by implication we are saying Jesus was not God.
This, at least to me, is so obvious. If God wanted to make sure the DP was still ordered by God, why wouldn't God have the woman held until the man could be brought to stand next to her? Since Jesus is God, God did not follow God's Law, right? The only logical answer is that Jesus was obeying God because the DP had been removed. There is a direct correlation between this and our Salvation. Since God decided to Grace us all by sparing our eternal deaths, why is it so far fetched to believe God wants us to show the same love to each other by not committing murder in the name of Justice?