BellaOnline Forums Religion and Spirituality Bible Basics Death penalty

What does bible say about death penalty?

Oh good grief, CDM...don't get them started - !!

I suppose it depends whether you subscribe to the old testament, in which case, God did a whole lot of killing himself, and was quite ferocious and vengeful, or whether you subscribe to the New Testament message of 'Turning the other cheek'. It has to be remembered though, that Moses (Old Testament) was given the Ten Commandments by God, on Mt. Sinai, and the Fifth Commandment is quite clearly "Thou Shalt Not Kill." It gives no clauses, exceptions or provisos, but is quite clear on the fact that Life, no matter whose, is sacred.

However, some states in America support the death penalty, including Bush's home state...and he purports to be a devout Christian, so I'm not quite sure how things balance out that way, for him....

We can't use 8 cells for stem cell research according to GB and his religious cohorts, but the death penalty is just fine, but only one person at a time is killed. Wars where thousands are killed are so much better.

I simply can't come to grips with that philosophy.

I don't know how people like him can sleep at night. And that's not a criticism...I wouldn't be in a Political leader's shoes for anything...Truly, with what they have to deal with, I really don't know how they can sleep at night - !

Naturally, the Dalai Lama ( as both a political AND Religious leader) is a different kettle of fish altogether - but then, I would say that, wouldn't I - ?!

Sorry. That's 'off-topic'....

As a Christian, I am vehemently against the death penalty and I myself do not see the problem of stem cells.

Apparently they can come from aborted fetuses, umbilical cords and from palcenta. I am sure they come from other places as well and I really do not understand the hoo ha about them.

If they can be used to help people with debilitating diseases and no one or no thing is purposely killed for them, I do not understand why they cannot be used.

As for George Bush, I do not agree with a whole lot of his policies and I do not know how deep his Christian walk is with God, but I do not think he prays before making life changing decisions as Abraham Lincoln was documented to do.

As a Christian, he should consult more with God, if he doesn't do that already, (only God and he knows about that anyway), so I will refrain from commenting on that further.

As far as the Death Penalty goes, I am against it as he should be too, however, even if he was, I do not think he can change that law on his own and apparently states can adopt that law if they so choose to. I also do not know how many Christians he has as advisors and should try to surround himself with more, if he doesn't have already.

However, I digress.

I don't believe we belong in Iraq in the capacity that we are. I feel it is another Viet Nam conflict. We got Saddam so he finished his father's work.

I don't believe we should be over there trying to force our beliefs on other countries and their political policies. I also do not believe that women should be treated the way they are in some cultures but there is no one else helping them either, so to speak, so we are in a Catch-22.

I apologize for running on so long too.

Death penalty is not acceptable in new testament? But was accepted by the old?

God said that we have to follow not only His laws but the laws of the land too.

People were put to death for many things especially blasphemy.

Romans 6:23 reads "For the wages of sin is death."

If death was a law of the land back then, then death was permitted in the Bible by the law.

Thou shalt not kill does not refer to the law of the land, it refers to killing outside of the law or for revenge or for whatever.

Just like "Thou shalt not judge, lest ye be judged yourself." does not refer to law judges, it refers to people judging other people on looks, reputation, etc...

By the way, why the swastika, Alexandra?

Was Hitler a Buddhist?

The Oldest Known Symbol

The swastika is an ancient symbol that has been used for over 3,000 years. (That even predates the ancient Egyptian symbol, the Ankh!) Artifacts such as pottery and coins from ancient Troy show that the swastika was a commonly used symbol as far back as 1000 BCE.
From About.com

So only Hitler made the swastika bad. And since that is in most of our memories, we remember only the bad that his adopted symbol represents.

That is a big problem. An evil man adopts a symbol and that symbol becomes bad.

Come to India. Go to any Hindu household. there are millions of them. Ask any devout hindu about Swastika nd he/she will draw it in a jiffy. It is with Swastika that we begin all our religious prayers and mind you most of the uneducated hindus whodraw Swastika know nothing about damn Hitler. Swastika is as old as Mahabharata that is more than 5000 years old.

Jesus clarified, " thou shalt not kill" by stating it as " thou shalt not murder." Amadeus is correct about this.