13 - Capital Punishment, Condone or Condemn?

The following entry was written partially in response to Elizabeth who commented on my entry, Keiser on Life and Politics:


Elizabeth said...
Taken from your website:"Capital punishment - Because humans are created in the image of God, He has declared that those who take a life should also lose their lives."

This I understand. Eye for an Eye. That would change the crime rate, I'm sure.

Where my confusion sets in are the posts I'm reading all over the internet that state that you actually said all homosexuals should be put to death. How can you claim that you are a man of faith, quote the Bible and then in the very next sentance say you want all homosexuals to die? "Thou shalt not kill." Death without justice is murder.

If you want to kill all homosexuals that would make you a muderer and subject you to the same law that murders should be put to death, does it not?


Dear Elizabeth:

ANCIENT EXAMPLE

There was once a time when men lived nearly 1,000 years. Adam lived 930 years; Noah lived 950 years, as did other early men. During this time the earth was originally surrounded by a canopy of water out in space, which filtered out the ultraviolet rays of the sun.

Morally, all of mankind got to the place where every thought they had was only evil continually, except for one person, Noah. At that time God said that 120 years was all that mankind would have. This can be viewed in two ways: (1) 120 years from now God will destroy all life, or (2) 120 years is all the longer that God will allow man to live. I believe that both are possibly correct.

God said that the earth was filled with violence. . . Noah and his sons built an Ark, . . . and God brought a worldwide flood. From creation to the flood was a little over 1,600 years. After Noah was again back on dry land following the receding of the flood waters, God told Noah: “Whoever sheds man's blood, his blood will be shed by man, for God made man in His image.” (HCSB) This is not an “eye for an eye” and a “tooth for a tooth”. It is because human life is sacred, having been made in the image of God. It stops violence.

Abraham was called by God to go the land of Canaan. God made an agreement with Abraham in which He promised that Abraham’s descendents would be greatly troubled in a foreign land for four hundred years and then would be released. The reason that God gave for this captivity is because the “iniquity of the Amorites was not yet full”. A nation, through its evil actions, stores up the “wrath of God”. The wrath of God refers to His fury, vengeance or violent anger. This means that God waited for repentance until what the scriptures describes as the “cup of wrath” was full or complete. The full cup is the point at which God will act. God brought Israel out of Egypt when the “cup of wrath” was full or complete. He then instructed Israel to kill every man, woman, and child and in some cases all the livestock of the peoples of Canaan.

Consider for a moment what some of the things that these nations did which offened and upset God the most:

· Having a sexual relationship with a woman and her daughter [sounds like promiscuity]
· Adultery with one’s neighbor’s wife. [sounds like prime time TV]
· Sacrificing you children to idols [sounds like abortion]
· Homosexuality [sounds like the “gay” agenda]
· Bestiality [sounds like anything goes]

God instructs Israel not to corrupt herself by allowing any of the above behaviors, because in doing so and/or in condoning these things a nation is defiled. As a result He destroyed the nations because of their sin and replaced them with Israel. The land was defiled therefore God brought punishment in proportion to their sin. The land itself vomited out its inhabitants.

God said that He expected Israel to obey His laws and judgments. He called all of the above mentioned misbehaviors abominations. God did not want Israel, or any visitors to the land, or any immigrants staying in Israel to practice any of these unacceptable behaviors..

WARNING & PRESCRIPTION

When evil among a people increases over time, there reaches a point at which the people in the nation are destroyed. To prevent this from happening to Israel, God prescribed capital punishment for various crimes. Capital punishment is to be applied to whoever among the children of Israel, or even among visitors or immigrants in the land of Israel, who practice fornication, adultery, etc. God’s remedy is that guilty should be put to death. Stoning was used as a method of execution. Everyone that curses his father or his mother was also to be executed. So were those involved in adulterous, incestuous, homosexual relationships or lifestyles.

APPLICATION FOR AMERICA TODAY

Does that mean that today we execute people for committing what now is almost universally accepted as normal behavior? I’m afraid if we do, there would not be many people remaining in America or the world. However, what application does the above have for America today? At a minimum we should strengthen our laws to prohibit, stop their promotion and begin penalizing all such abominable behavior outlined above. Unrepentant persons should face the hard hand of the law if they disobey the law. I would not be opposed to doing away with no-fault divorce, I would increase penalties for adultery, demand that the moral standards be raised in our schools, etc.

As I stated in one of my previous postings, Just Judges, our judicial system, especially our judges have helped to send our country down the path to destruction. Their ungodly, immoral rulings have not constrained evil, but have intentionally or existentially, fostered or encouraged it. Judges should carry out the law and not legislate from the bench, which is happening much to often. That is why good Senators are needed to restrain evil and to insure federal judges are appointed who will do the same.

The bottom line is that we as a nation have two courses of action from which to choose to take: (1) turn from our ever-growing evil ways and turn to Jesus. To encourage the preaching of the gospel as a means of reviving our nation, or (2) to legislate laws that will restrict behavior for those who do not want to repent from their evil ways: murderers, rapists, adulterers, etc. I guess we do have a third option and that is do nothing and continue down the path we are currently on and that, of course, will surely lead to our ultimate destruction as it did for nations in the past.

Capital punishment may be extreme to some, but used properly it can be an effective deterrent to crime and to criminals-to-be. In many cases capital punishment is A Good Choice.

There are now only 13 more days until Ohio Voters can make A Good Choice on Tuesday, May 2nd in the Democratic Primary Election!