Jesus then said to her, "Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin" (John 8:11).
Because the woman was not stoned in the end, many interpret it to mean that Jesus changed Mosaic law and then this argument is extended to capital punishment in general. However, Jesus still left the opportunity for her to be stoned. If one of the people in the crowd had been without sin, then the woman would have still been stoned. He did not tell them not to stone her, he only set a condition on who should cast the first stone. He said nothing about the second or third stone, only the first. Luckily, for the woman, there were no qualified takers who could cast the first stone. Therefore, Jesus did not abolish capital punishment in this passage. Instead, he raised the bar for those who are making the decisions to punish others. They should lead their lives free from sin, if they are going to punish the sins of others. Therefore, Jesus did not attempt to change Mosaic Law or to abolish capital punishment. The practice of capital punishment still remained a practice that was mandated by law.
Romans 13:2-4 states that, "God's vengeance is in the hands of the civil government." Therefore, the state should mandate capital punishment as a tool to use for God to carry out his punishment of the unjust. Regardless of the Biblically based arguments, there are still those who argue that capital punishment is unjust from a Christian perspective. For instance, Christians who accept humanistic and evolutionary concepts also argue for the loss of personal accountability for one's actions (Moyer). However, this argument is not Biblically based. Nowhere in the Bible does God eliminate personal accountability for one's sins and actions against man. Furthermore, as we found from an examination of the Old Testament, capital punishment is clearly called for in the Bible.
Positions that do not support the death penalty attempt to base their arguments on the Bible. One of the key arguments that is used by this faction is that Kind David was not put to death for his capital crimes. The verse most widely quoted on the subject reads, "As the Lord lives, surely the man who has done this deserves to die" (2 Sam 12:5). The reasons for David's exoneration are situational and cannot be taken as a blanket rejection of capital punishment. David was one of God's chosen and he acted in accordance to God's wishes. Sometimes a person's job is to carry out God's punishment and judgment on earth.
The most widely used argument against the death penalty is that the state if committing murder in violation of the mandate that, "Thou shalt not kill" (Exodus 20:13). However, the words "to murder" are used 49 times in the Old Testament, always in reference to premeditated murder (Anderson). However, the prescribed punishment for breaking this commandment was death (Numbers 35:16-21). Therefore, the act of carrying out a death penalty is not the same as murder by the state. This is one of the most widely posed arguments by Christians who are opposed to the death penalty, but it only stands as a valid argument when taken out of context. When placed within its proper context, this proves to be an invalid argument and the Bible continues to support the death penalty.
Support for the death penalty differs among various denominations. For instance, nearly 74% of evangelical Protestants...
Death Penalty: Social Attitudes and Modern Alternatives The issue of the death penalty raises deep emotions on all sides of the debate. Many feel that the death penalty no longer holds value as a tool for society to prevent heinous crimes. In the past, the prevalence of the death penalty created a measure of deterrence on social behaviors. However, in modern life, there is no longer is a measurable deterrence felt
The death penalty is therefore morally and ethically necessary not only for an ordered society but as a necessary means to protect the innocent from evil. Secondly, from a Catholic point-of-view this stance is supported by centuries of Church doctrine and by references to Biblical test, as discussed above. This also refers to the view that many modern Catholics take; which in turn refers to the contemporary emphasis on the
Death Penalty In the city of New Orleans, murder is an epidemic; one cannot watch a local news program or read a newspaper without hearing of another murder. The deaths and their attendant toll on families and loved ones are devastating, but the impact is not limited to the victims. Instead, this epidemic of murder impacts the entire community; the murders demonstrate a lack of respect for the value of
Tabak). Wrongful Executions Are Likely There have been cases where people are convicted and sentenced to death although they were innocent and committed no crime. "In the United States not only do countless men and women get arrested for murders they did not commit -- they get convicted and often sentenced to death as well. Occasionally they are even executed" (Robert M. Baird, et al., p.141). When such executions are likely
Islam Religion and Death Penalty: Islam is a term that comes from an Arabic root word that means peace and submission that have always been used as the universal Muslim greeting. Based on the origin of this word, the Islamic religion teaches that peace can only be found through submission to Allah (Almighty God) in soul, heart, and deed. As a monotheistic and Abrahamic religion, Islam is articulated by the Qur'an,
Furthermore, while the Supreme Court has recently been proactive about protecting groups that have historically been especially vulnerable to the death penalty, such as the mentally retarded and the mentally ill, there is no reason to believe that the Court has any interest in outlawing the death penalty. Even the 1970s moratorium on the death penalty spoke to how it was implemented and never questioned the basic constitutional soundness
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