Given those conditions: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?
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.
They were going to stone her to death. That's why it applies here. Because we're talking about execution.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.
Or he fought his way to escape.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.
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.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.
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?
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.
What innocents have been executed?I don't support the death penalty as we are finding out that we have executed innocent people that were exonerated later on.
Untrue.I personally do not and neither did Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
Blessings
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