PUBLIC OPINION > The Death Penalty Is Necessary

The sin that would have rendered the death penalty back before Jesus, is still sin; and the penalty for that sin is still death. However Jesus paid for that sin with His own blood, with His own life.

Please let me explain:

Jesus asked the people who were about to stone the woman to death, "Who here is without sin?"

We are called to study the scriptures, rightly dividing the word of truth.

Yes, Jesus is the fulfillment of the law. And yes, sin is still sin. And yes, the penalty for sin is still death. However, Jesus paid that death penalty on the cross. And now, the only unforgivable sin is the rejection of Jesus, till a person's physical death, at which time such a person will go to hell and one day be cast into the lake of fire. --This is the second death.

We have to keep in mind that when people were stoned in the old-testament time, it was God's wrath being carried out by man. It was not man's wrath. Vengeance is the Lord's. --And that was put on Jesus, on the cross, the full payment for mans' sins, when Jesus died on the cross.

Jesus also made it where foods that were not allowed to be eaten, could be eaten after He came and fulfilled the law. The sins of eating certain foods and touching certain things were for a time. Once Jesus died and rose, those things were no longer sinful to do, like eating pork.

We also can now go "boldly to God" in prayer. It was a very serious thing for someone to go into a temple behind a curtain to pray to God, before Jesus died on the cross. A man had to be just right in order to do that, or he would actually drop dead. After Jesus died, there was an earthquake, and that curtain actually ripped in two.

We have to study the word in the context of the entire bible.

A good example is the homosexuals. It is still a sin for man to lie with man, as with woman. But we are not to stone them today. --If killing a person for his sins was still what God wanted us to do today, then that would include stoning homosexuals and women who were not virgins on their wedding night. We would not be able to pick and choose who we stoned, for what sin. It is to be all God's way, not part. So either we are to kill for all the reasons that the law said to kill someone, or Jesus was the fulfillment of the law and died for all sins, making the biblical death penalty paid up in full by Jesus.

The sin that would have rendered the death penalty back before Jesus, is still sin; and the penalty for that sin is still death. However Jesus paid for that sin with His own blood, with His own life.

Debra...

that penalty of death and sin was so they wouldnt go to hell not fro murdering someone

Paul Supports Capital Punishment

The Apostle Paul did not object to the death penalty. He knew his rights as a Roman citizen and defended them. Yet while on trial, he volunteered the following endorsement of capital punishment to Porcius Festus, Governor in Caesarea:

"For if I am an offender, or have committed anything deserving of death, I do not object to dying; but if there is nothing in these things of which these men accuse me, no one can deliver me to them. I appeal to Caesar." Acts 25:11
Then Festus, when he had conferred with the council, answered, "You have appealed to Caesar? To Caesar you shall go!" Acts 25:12
Vengeance is inherently good. God said, "Vengeance is Mine." Individuals, however, are not to avenge themselves, but are to allow God to avenge in His way:

Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay," says the Lord. Rom. 12:19 (see also Lev. 19:18)
While Paul instructs people not to seek their own revenge, but to "give place to wrath." Paul then explains that the proper channel for wrath is the "governing authorities." The government is the "place" for wrath and vengeance:

Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities... For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Rom. 13:1, 3
Godly rulers are a terror to evil doers. Note that God's two witnesses in Revelation "tormented those who dwell on the earth" (Rev. 11:10).

God through Paul specifically commands earthly governments to execute criminals with the sword:

For [the governing authority] is God's minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God's minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. Rom. 13:4
A sword is not used for scourging but for killing.

Paul instructs believers to "not avenge" themselves, "but rather give place to wrath." Governments are the place for wrath for they are "God's minister, an avenger to execute wrath." Individuals have one role, governments have another. Individuals do not avenge themselves, the government does. Believers forgive3, governments execute. So, if the governing authorities are to obey God, they must not bear the sword in vain but execute wrath on the criminal, for they are God's minister to avenge and bring terror on him who practices evil. Thus God commanded execution in large part to meet out vengeance against capital criminals.

The Woman Caught In Adultery

Does the story of the woman caught in adultery, forgiven and released (John 8:3-11) negate the death penalty?

God Forgave Adulterers Before

Gomer was an adulteress yet God forgave her (Hos. 3:1). Still, He demanded that His people obey His law (Hos. 4:6).

King David committed adultery and murder (2 Sam. 11). Yet God forgave him (Psalm 32:1-5).

It was a conscious decision on God's part to not execute David. As Nathan said to David:


As Nathan said to David:

"The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die. However... by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme..." 2 Sam. 12:13
Still, God's law remained in effect (Ps. 1:2; 19:7; 78:1, 5-8; 89:30-32; 119).

God forgave the New Testament adulterer just as He forgave Old Testament adulterers, in neither instance revoking His law. God has all authority to forgive the criminal and disregard temporal punishment. Contrariwise, Men must obey God and cannot ignore punishment.

Jesus Did Not Repeal The Law

Without the law, lawlessness cannot exist. Yet as Christ said, "because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold" (Mat. 24:12). Christ will throw "those who practice lawlessness... into the furnace of fire" (Mat. 13:41-42).

Jesus was born under the Old Testament law:

...God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law. Gal. 4:4
The Mosaic law was still in effect in the New Testament according to Jesus:

"Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets... Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great..." Mat. 5:17-19
And Jesus said to him, "See that you tell no one; but go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded as a testimony to them." Mat. 8:4
"The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do..." Mat. 23:2-3
[Jesus said,] "Did not Moses give you the law, yet none of you keeps the law? ... Moses therefore gave you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath, so that the law of Moses should not be broken, are you angry with Me because I made a man completely well on the Sabbath?" John 7:19-23
Some argue that all this changed after the resurrection. Yet after His resurrection, Jesus said:

"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations... teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you." Mat. 28:19-20
And years later, "James and all the elders" said to Paul:

"You see, brother, how many myriads of Jews there are who have believed, and they are all zealous for the law." Acts 21:20
Paul Used The Law

Jesus did support the death penalty and He left a hearty biblical record proving the point. Jesus has been so remade by the modern world into a mix of Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa and Tiny Tim that they cannot see the Jesus clearly portrayed in the Bible. Let us look at the record.

Consider this: the Mosaic Law very strongly supported the death penalty and Jesus never once disobeyed the law or taught against it. He said, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil” (Matthew 5:17
). The law made numerous provisions for the death penalty. Jesus did not come to destroy these provisions but to fulfill them. As such, He would have supported the death penalty.

The Woman Taken in Adultery

But, you say, what about the women taken in the very act of adultery. This story is told in John 8:3-11
. The scribes and Pharisees sought to find something against Jesus. Their method of operation was to ask a question or present a problem in which either solution would hurt Jesus (see several instances in Matthew 23). In this case, they presented the woman taken in adultery and reminded Jesus, “Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?” (v.5). If He upheld the law, the meek and lowly Jesus would be portrayed as cruel. If He made an exception to the law, He would be in favor of breaking the law. In either case, His bond with the people would be broken.

However, Jesus did the unexpected. He stooped down and wrote with His finger on the ground. What He wrote, we are not told. When the Pharisees insisted on an answer, He said, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her” (v.7) and continued writing.

One interesting fact about this story: only the woman was brought. No man was accused. Yet, adultery is definitely a two-person sin. Is it possible that Jesus wrote Leviticus 20:10
on the ground? It says, “And the man that committeth adultery with another man's wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbour's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.” Notice, both the adulterer and the adulteress are to be put to death. Not one, but both.

At any rate, the consciences of the accusers began to accuse their own hearts. One by one, beginning with the eldest, they slipped away until no man was there to accuse the woman. With no accusers, there was no required penalty. Jesus had used the occasion to point out the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees while at the same time showing His love to the unloved. He told the woman to go and sin no more.

Let Him Die the Death

This is a wonderful illustration of the grace of God, but it is not proof that Jesus opposed the death penalty. In fact, He made a direct statement of His support. Again, in dealing with the scribes and Pharisees, when they accused the disciples for not washing before eating, Jesus said,

“But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition? For God commanded, saying, Honour thy father and mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death.” Matthew 15:3-4


He then described (v.5-6) how the Pharisees allowed someone to hold back needed help for their parents by saying that it was a gift to God. This was the dedication of their possessions to the temple to be given at the time of their death. Of course, they could do anything they wanted with this gift until they died. But in the eyes of the Pharisees it freed them from their obligation to honor their mother and father by caring for them in their old age.

According the Jesus, the applicable commandment was that he who cursed his mother or father was required to die the death. However, the Pharisees had transgressed this commandment by their man-made traditions. This is not Jesus opposing the death penalty. This is Jesus requiring it.