Should christians believe in the death penalty?

[Withdrawn]

Originally Posted by gloryseeker

If you pay attention to verse 5 specifically points to the command while "under the law." Jesus (as I am sure you know) was the transition from the law, but that didn't change God's characteristics? He didn't now change His opinion that "the wages of sin is death." Just as it wasn't because God become a vegetarian when animal sacrifices ceased. You are trying to compare apples and oranges.

The law was very much still in effect until Calvary. His ministry was a fulfilment of that law, not a transition "away from" the law. The people were caught up in the letter of it, while He was revealing to them the spirit of the law. My comparison is valid.

We should say that adultery/fornication is sin and that the penalty is death, not that we are going to kill them. As you pose the question it is apparent you have never done a study on grace. I would suggest you find out what it is first before using it in an argument.

Your assumption is incorrect. I'm not a novice. I've been in this for nearly 25 years and have taken a scholarly approach to the study of scripture. Perhaps your view of grace is flawed. Grace and mercy work together. Grace means that we are given life when we should receive death. What about my statement or question infers that I don't understand grace? Are you certain that YOU have an understanding of grace?

I don't advocate death for adultery and I assume the question posed here is referring to capital offenses. In that case I would say that shows we value life. If you are going to take another persons life then you will lose yours. The penalty is stiff because we value life, which is why I also oppose abortion, euthanasia, and other forms of killing.

Having said that, I am all for getting them saved before we juice them.

This is an inconsistent view. Killing is killing is killing. So we can say that God is FOR killing murderers because the OT says so. But He doesn't want us to kill adulterers or fornicators or rebellious children anymore (because it doesn't fit our purpose or social paradigm) even though the OT says we should. That's cherry-picking, IMO.

Besides the fact that "peace" and "reconciliation" are synonymous terms from a biblical point of view (see Eph 2:15), as I stated above get them saved.

Incorrect and irresponsible statement. They are not synonymous at all. One is the product of the other. Read it again. Reconciliation brings peace.

Point out that your eternity will be determined in 4 days, 2 hours, and 53 minutes. You need to make some eternal decisions right now.

It shows how naive Christians are about the Word of God. They are DEAD! The wages of sin is death dingy.

I'm not naive about the Word of God. Are you? Have you done a study on this topic? Or are you just ranting what you think it probably says about it? This isn't a question about salvation. It's about the social penalty of death - is supporting it consistent with our message as Christians?

And, WOW! It's been a long time since someone has called me dingy. Thanks, brother. Seems like brethren should be able to disagree without name-calling. Sigh...

In the context of "he who wins souls is wise" I can agree in the "approach." But you are absolutely wrong. The message is death and life. In a space saving comment, "you are going to die and go to hell living as you do, Jesus came to give you eternal life. Turn from your wicked ways!!!!!" is the message

Well, while I personally don't like fear based religion I would still have to disagree with you. Look at all the bondage so many Christians live under in a so called "holiness" lifestyle. It's fear based religion.

I agree and understand very well the fear that is associated with the so-called "holiness" lifestyle and works-based salvation. That's not what I'm talking about. Jesus and His apostles did not brow-beat anyone. Their message of repentance (for the kingdom of God is at hand) was delivered with compassion and service - not a "church service," but REAL service to the people in need. If there was fear, it was reverent fear that was invoked by the demonstration of the Spirit and power, not fear that the "rapture" could take place even today and you could be sent straight to hell if you don't repent. It's the goodness of God that leads men to repentance. Come on! You snap out of it.

You're not approaching this with an open mind, but rather with a made up mind. In my post, from which you cherry-picked quotes, I asked for a berean approach to studying and discussing this topic. Let's study it out. Let's open our Bibles, let the Holy Ghost guide us, and seek the mind of God.

Originally Posted by jaamez

We shouldn't just assume the Bible supports our views without really studying to make sure it does. Even more, we should not be trying to find scripture to support our views, but rather searching the scriptures to find out which views WE should support. That's why I asked in my opening post if anyone had done a Bible study on this topic. I've seen people in this thread say general things like "the Bible is clear..." or quote from the OT law and say, "see, God says they should die..." That's not a Berean study. Show us something, in the context of NT grace and mercy, that truly demonstrates that we should support this stand.

Let God be true and every man a liar. Let's put aside our preconceived notions and the "this is what I've always been taught" attitudes, and admit that there might be something we don't understand. I'm there. As I've said, I'm pretty conflicted. I feel in my spirit that the DP is wrong, but in my flesh I'm somewhat satisfied with retribution. More than anything, I really want to know the mind of Christ - on this and every other topic.

This was the rest of my posting - the part that you left off. And instead of responding to the actual request for an honest and transparent, studious discussion, you responded with ad hominem and sarcasm.


I would love an opportunity for someone here to engage me in Biblical study of this topic. My mind isn't closed, I'm just waiting for someone to provide some meat on the topic - and not just opinion, emotion and personal swipes. With the exception of Digging4Truth and perhaps another or two, I haven't really seen that yet - in eight pages.