Milo;342420 wroteBrent, I am curious that someone who went to a seminary is so casual about the value of life . . . isn't ALL life sacred? Doesn't God say something along the lines of, "as you do to the least of my creations . . .". I find your support of the Death Penalty to be puzzling.
Matthew 25:40, one of the great parables in the New Testament and one of the scarcest portions of the Bible. Volumes have been written on that phrase by theologians far greater than me. But one of the principles of hermeneutics is to be able to understand the passage in the context it was written as well as the context of the entire scriptures.
You are correct, all life is sacred, born and unborn that’s what I believe the scriptures teach. Man was created in the image of God. Man is not an animal but has intrinsic value and with that has a soul that will exist beyond the earthly shell (our human bodies) we have now.
I also believe that the Bible clearly teaches that man will be sent to an everlasting punishment, and feel the judgment of God one day. So believing in a Capital Punishment for a what society says is a capital crime is not out of the realm of possibility. When someone doesn’t value the life of other human beings why should society value their life?
If one takes the historicity of the New Testament to be true. There was a man named Jesus who claimed to be God, hung on the cross with two criminals. One thief acknowledges He was God and was told he would be remembered in paradise. Jesus accepted the punishment for Himself (death on a cross) and for those He died with, the two criminals society put on crosses with Him. I really don’t see an inconsistency here. Especially from a biblical standpoint. I have been trying to stay away from that point of view here on this forum because I know that people believe the bible is a book of errors, fictions and proven to be wrong. I believe the biblical case for capital punishment to be very compelling.
Understand I don’t think CP is for everyone who commits crime, far from it. I think it could be done on a case by case basis. If this guy (insert any mass killing spree in a school) had somehow lived; I believe in the court process and I would have no problem if a jury of his peers unanimously voted for life imprison. Conversely, I have no problem if they decided in the death penalty as well. I mean if they have no sense of value in the taking of human life aren’t they saying they believe their life has no value? Isn’t that why the majority of these school shooters more often than not takes their own life rather than go to jail?
I don’t think CP fits every case, but I know a few that it does:
1. Anders Behring Breivik, who is serving a 21-year sentence for killing 77 people in a bombing and shooting rampage last year,
2. Paul Kenneth Bernardo, also known as Paul Jason Teale (born 27 August 1964), is a Canadian serial killer and rapist,
3. Clifford Olsen, he has since passed.
4. Russell Williams is a convicted murderer, rapist, and former Colonel in the Canadian Forces.
5. John Wayne Gacy, Jr. was an American serial killer and rapist who sexually assaulted and murdered at least 33 teenage boys and young men between 1972 and 1978. Died in jail.
6. Charles Manson, still serving out his sentence.
7. Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer was an American serial killer and sex offender. Dahmer murdered 17 men and boys between 1978 and 1991. Killed by inmates.
8. Saul Betesh and Robert Wayne killers of Emanuel Jaques (1965 – 1977) was a shoeshine boy in Toronto, Ontario.
9. Susan Leigh Vaughan Smith is an American woman sentenced to life in prison for murdering her 5 children
10. The murder of six year beauty contestant JonBenét Ramsey deserves the death penalty.
I could go on but I think you get my point of who would be in that targeted group to be considered for CP.