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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | Should Christians practice nonresistance | Lev 26:6 | Reformer Joe | 15840 | ||
You wrote: "I believe that it is wrong to kill a human to set an example, or based on what they might do in the future, or even to get the fair revenge for what they have done in the past." I do not view the death penalty as revenge or deterrant so much as I view it as justice. When the society establishes a death penalty for heinous crimes, what it in effect is saying is that the values that the crime violates are so cherished that the violator should be completely eliminated from the society. This has Biblical precedent. Even though we are not ancient Israel, obviously it is not always wrong for a society to execute those who violate the highest mores of that society. --Joe! |
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2 | Should Christians practice nonresistance | Lev 26:6 | Sir Pent | 15841 | ||
Death penalty in OT is good, death penalty in NT is bad. I agree with you that in ancient Israel, it was right to kill people for certain reasons. For instance God specifically commanded stoning to death for certain sins, and specifically commanded killing certain kings and enemy nations. However, I think that a fundamental change occurred, which causes killing for any reason to no longer be an appropriate action. This fundamental change happended between Christ's death and resurrection. During that time, Jesus preached to all the people who had died before that time. Therefore, it seems that although the people in the OT were killed in the body, they still had a chance to later hear Christ's message to them. However, from that time on, people have had the opportunity to hear the message of salvation during this lifetime, so that when they die, their eternity is set. This is why I think that killing people now is so terrible. It not only kills their body, but also takes away any chance that they would later come to know Christ and be saved. I think that it is interesting and somewhat supportive that never in the NT is it presented as good for a human to kill someone. In fact the only times when death is seen as a good thing, it is done by God Himself (Annanias and his wife Saphira, King Herrod). P.S. Joe, I know that you come from the reformed perspective and therefore probably believe that giving someone more time to choose whether to follow God is irrelevant, because they are predestined one way or the other. This has of course been thoroughly discussed in other threads. But, I want to give everyone as much of an opportunity as possible to come to relationship with God. |
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3 | Should Christians practice nonresistance | Lev 26:6 | Reformer Joe | 15856 | ||
More later, but I just wanted to note the perspective you cited as "reformed" is held by others outside of that tradition. Anyone who holds that God is sovereign will agree that no one dies unless it is ordained (or at least permitted) by God. I would suppose that even under a view in which God merely "foresees" the choices we will make, that a just God would not let someone be killed who otherwise would in his life trust Christ for the forgiveness of his sins. Therefore, I don't see how "we" as human beings are giving people any more of a chance by prolonging their lives. Otherwise, we enter into the dangerous territory of claiming that deaths are "accidental" or "untimely" from God's perspective. "Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father." --Matthew 10:29 "And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment," --Hebrews 9:27 Thanks! --Joe! |
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