Originally Posted by Mal316

Following the Torah is about obeying God out of love. If you love God, you will keep His commandments. Keeping the commandments is not a condition of loving God, it's a result of loving Him.


Concerning stoning: The death penalty is a most serious punishment. You must be extremely careful in its application. If you're wrong, you don't get a do-over. Because the death penalty is so serious, measures are put in place to ensure that the person convicted of a capital offense is truly guilty.

No one can be put to death on the testimony of only a single witness. You must have at least two witnesses to testify. And their testimony must be the truth. Do not bear false witness against your neighbor. Have nothing to do with a false charge. Do not side with the majority to do evil. Do not put an innocent person to death; God will not acquit the guilty.

I have posted at length, elsewhere, about putting to death a disobedient son (ben zorer). I could post it here again if people are interested. To make a lot of long posts short, however, that law is concerned with continuing the covenant for future generations by making sure parents act worthy of honor and that children honor their parents. There's no evidence that stoning a ben zorer ever happened.

Stoning is not something people get to decide to do on their own for perceived violations of the Torah. Even if someone was absolutely sure that a person had committed a capital offense that is not enough to have the violator stoned. Execution without a fair trial and judgment is not doing justice. It is in fact perversion of justice.

Also, in the U.S., stoning is no longer done as a means of capital punishment. We are to follow the laws of the country where we live so long as they do not conflict with God's laws. Death by chemical injection, or gas, or electricity (is that still done?) while technically is not stoning, is still putting to death someone convicted of a capital offense.

Nobody is killed for a seemingly minor break in the law. If a break in the law requires death, then that break was a serious offense.