A
The reason why there is no record of Jesus ever intervening in a government execution, despite coming to the aid of at least one person whose life was being threatened by a street mob after an accusation (rightly or wrongly) of adultery, is because the Mosaic Law mandated the death penalty within strict guidelines it prescribed which Jesus never once taught was in error.
Those strict guidelines are actually interesting, though most people don't take time to analyze them. For example, Numbers 35:31 specifically distinguishes the capital offense of murder from the almost twenty other offenses punishable by death prohibiting a “ransom for the life of a murderer.” In all other cases a substitution could be made for the death penalty except the crime of murder which was so serious that the death penalty was to be enforced. Only in the case of premeditated murder was there the added stricture of “Do not accept a ransom for the life of a murderer, who deserves to die” (Numbers 35:31).
The word “ransom” is the Hebrew kōp̄er, meaning a “deliverance or a ransom by means of a substitute.” Both Jewish and early Christian communities interpreted this verse in Numbers 35:31 to mean that out of the almost twenty cases calling for capital punishment in the Old Testament, every one of them could have the sanction commuted by an appropriate substitute of money or anything that showed the seriousness of the crime; but in the case of what we today call first-degree murder, there was never to be offered or accepted any substitute or bargaining of any kind: the offender had to pay with his or her life.
Likewise, Paul recognized the justice of the death penalty. When he was brought before the judgment seat of Festus, he said, “For if I be an offender, or have committed any thing worthy of death, I refuse not to die” (Acts 25:11). By this, Paul admitted that there were offenses worthy of death and that the government had the right to administer death in those cases.
He further states in Romans that “But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil” (Romans 13:4).
The Bible doesn't condone the present situation where murderers are housed for life in expensive institutions that innocent citizens are forcibly taxed to pay for who then cause many more murders and create an institutionalized prison gang run environment that prevents a great deal of real reform from ever occurring.
The NT teaches that a murderer can both repent and be saved by God but also executed by the state for the crime of murder. There is no dichotomy.
Some of our liberal affected friends prefer their own modern liberal theological interpretations to what God's Word actually teaches in the original language in historical context so, of course, they can be safely discarded as erroneous.
Those strict guidelines are actually interesting, though most people don't take time to analyze them. For example, Numbers 35:31 specifically distinguishes the capital offense of murder from the almost twenty other offenses punishable by death prohibiting a “ransom for the life of a murderer.” In all other cases a substitution could be made for the death penalty except the crime of murder which was so serious that the death penalty was to be enforced. Only in the case of premeditated murder was there the added stricture of “Do not accept a ransom for the life of a murderer, who deserves to die” (Numbers 35:31).
The word “ransom” is the Hebrew kōp̄er, meaning a “deliverance or a ransom by means of a substitute.” Both Jewish and early Christian communities interpreted this verse in Numbers 35:31 to mean that out of the almost twenty cases calling for capital punishment in the Old Testament, every one of them could have the sanction commuted by an appropriate substitute of money or anything that showed the seriousness of the crime; but in the case of what we today call first-degree murder, there was never to be offered or accepted any substitute or bargaining of any kind: the offender had to pay with his or her life.
Likewise, Paul recognized the justice of the death penalty. When he was brought before the judgment seat of Festus, he said, “For if I be an offender, or have committed any thing worthy of death, I refuse not to die” (Acts 25:11). By this, Paul admitted that there were offenses worthy of death and that the government had the right to administer death in those cases.
He further states in Romans that “But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil” (Romans 13:4).
The Bible doesn't condone the present situation where murderers are housed for life in expensive institutions that innocent citizens are forcibly taxed to pay for who then cause many more murders and create an institutionalized prison gang run environment that prevents a great deal of real reform from ever occurring.
The NT teaches that a murderer can both repent and be saved by God but also executed by the state for the crime of murder. There is no dichotomy.
Some of our liberal affected friends prefer their own modern liberal theological interpretations to what God's Word actually teaches in the original language in historical context so, of course, they can be safely discarded as erroneous.
