Death Penalty

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This discussion is fascinating, mostly because there are folks 
arguing against the death penalty, which is EXPRESSLY
provided for in the bible, but who would argue dogmatically
about alcohol, rings, etc which are rife with controversy.

Numbers 35:31 says "Moreover ye shall take no satisfaction for the life
of a murderer, which is guilty of death: but he shall be surely put to 
death......33: So ye shall not pollute the land wherein ye are: for blood
it defileth the land: and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is
shed therein, but by the blood of him that she it.

I don't know where folks get the idea that you have to hate someone to
execute them.  Probably from the crazies outside the prison who have a
party every time the lights dim at midnight, but as we can see from the
scripture, they're wrong to gloat.  But notice something else about v.31:
it says that "he shall be surely put to death."  That's a command and there
is no question about it.  V. 33 gives us an idea of exactly why it's a 
command.  Restating v.33 in modern (and somewhat secular) jargon, chaos 
begets chaos.  We end up living in a cess pool where someone decides 
that the death penalty is cruel and so we should just lock them up 
forever.  Someone else decides that forever is cruel and we should cut
them a break and parole them.  The next thing you know, they've committed
more murder, more mayhem and everyone's locking their doors.

There have been so many secular surveys done that show the vast 
majority of the crimes are done by a minority of the criminals.  They never
seem to make the spiritual connection that God ordained capital 
punishment for capital offenses for a reason: deterrence.

Prov, 26:3
A whip for the horse, a bridle for the ass, and a rod for the fool's back.

It's become so bad now, that I sat and watched a documentary about the
lady that killed the author of the "Scarsdale Diet."  The facts were plain,
she
shot him and that was that.  The amazing thing was that if she had pleaded
to manslaughter she would have received about 5 years in prison!  In the end,
she ended up doing 15 because her pride refused to allow her to admit her
guilt.  The sad part about this documentary was that they ended up making 
her sound like some sort of prison saint because she ended up doing so
much time.  Anyway, too much of an aside just to point out that sin is 
abounding because there are so many in this world who excuse the excesses
of the flesh and don't hold people accountable.

I suspect that it's because their hearts are so unclean that they can't stand
for anyone else to pay the price that they should have paid also (but perhaps
for different offenses).  That's a paper in and of itself.  Bro. Fretwell?

God's plan in instituting the death penalty for offenses such as murder (Gen 
9:6, Num 35:16-21, 30-33, Duet 17:6), adutlery (Lev, 20:10, Deut. 22:24),
incest (Lev 20,11,12,14), sodomy (Lev 18:22,  20:13) rape (Deut. 22:25),
kidnapping (Ex. 21:16, Deut. 24:7) witchcraft (Ex. 22:18), human
sacrifice (Lev 20:2-5) and many others was expressly for the purpose of 
providing an instant penalty to the crime being committed.  In the days of
Noah, there was no law against murder and sin and look what happened!  
Those days end up being pointed to in the N.T. as a sign that a God who's 
so sick of people abusing His grace and mercy that He's coming back for a 
final time in order to clean the spiritual house and start again from scratch.
 
He's had it!

If people have a promise of punishment of their evil deeds it will make
them think twice about committing the offense.  If we remove that swift
punishment for sin, people will do whatever they can in order to do the
crime and "get by."  That's a fact.  Don't take my word for it though:

Ecc. 8: 11-13
11  Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore 
     the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.
12  Though a sinner do evil an hundred times, and his days be prolonged, yet 
      surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, which fear 
      before him: 
13  But it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong his
days, 
     which are as a shadow; because he feareth not before God. 

I can't understand why we're getting all weepy over a criminal who has 
taken a life (or kidnapped or raped, etc).  The have shattered lives and 
torn families apart.  They've stolen peace of mind and sown confusion.  

If they repent, praise God!  If they don't they will be judged by God.  God
allows the wicked to be caught for their offenses in order to be brought
to divine justice.  Sitting on death row thinking about the offense should
give one pause to think about the eternal destiny that awaits.  If they 
repent and are baptised in the name of Jesus, they be paid their wages
just as surely as the workers who came to the vineyard late in the 
afternoon and who were paid the same as the man who worked all day.  If
they don't repent, that's their rebellion and they'll suffer for it by dying 
physically, and then in a instant, they'll begin their eternal torment.  They
couldn't admit their crime to God and they couldn't repent.  

If you think about it, they're actually being given more of a chance than 
we're giving them credit for.  If a criminal can be assured that he will be 
executed at a particular place and time, does he not have more ability to 
go to heaven than the victim whose life he took?  I say that in the sense
that the criminal knows when he will be judged and executed.  How does
any of us know that we won't go off the deep end, get mad and curse
the driver next to us and damn him to hell while we drive right off the end
of a bridge?  Talk about hating your brother and paying for it!  Obviously,
that's a little ludicrous, but the point is that we as saints must be on 
guard at all times because we don't know the time and the place of our 
demise.  And for that matter, the unsaved don't either.  A so-called "good 
person" could die in their sleep, unrepentant because they had never, on 
this earth had a mirror held up to their deeds.  The criminal, like the thief 

on the cross who repented, realized it all too well.  Take away that mirror 
from the criminal and he loses his perspective.  

Lastly, we don't know if the victim was saved, and neither did the criminal.  
However, he's being given a second chance at eternal life.  That's more 
than the victim received.  

We have the right to judge the offense.  God has given us that right, no, 
he has mandated it.  If we think we're a little sharper than God and that 
we can divine the intent of a man's heart, then we surely have become fools.  

Prov. 1:24-31
24 But since you rejected me when I called and no one gave heed when I 
    stretched out my hand,
25 since you ignored all my advice and would not accept my rebuke, 
26 I in turn will laugh at your disaster; I will mock when calamity overtakes 
     you-- 
27 when calamity overtakes you like a storm, when disaster sweeps over you 
     like a whirlwind, when distress and trouble overwhelm you. 
28 "Then they will call to me but I will not answer; they will look for me but
will 
      not find me. 
29  Since they hated knowledge and did not choose to fear the LORD, 
30  since they would not accept my advice and spurned my rebuke, 
31  they will eat the fruit of their ways and be filled with the fruit of
their 
     schemes. 

Lastly, grace is for the saints.  Grace is not for fools and criminals.  God 
extended mercy to this fool when he said he believed.  God then gave me
the faith and only then did God extend grace to me.  God extended it, not 
someone with a better scheme.  :-)

In Jesus name,
Brother Steven