panegryst wrote:Back on topic, what ever happened to 'deserving it'? C.S. Lewis wrote an excellent essay about this in his compilation God in the Dock. Do we punish criminals with the death penalty because we think it deters crime (which it doesn't]demands death[/b]? You can say what you will about the 'humaneness' of the death penalty, but the fact is God's Word gives the government the right to execute criminals in both the Old and New Testaments. The real 'death penalty' question is not 'How does the death penalty compare to other punishments' or 'How many are wrongly put to death', but rather 'What crimes are so horrible that they demand death?' One may answer, 'None,' but are you sure about that?
What about the answer "All?" I think the Bible makes it fairly clear that all who commit any sin are doomed to Hell. Hell being worse than death, I believe it would be logical to make the statement "those that deserve Hell deserve death." Hence, every single one of us has commited a crime so horrible that it demands death.
An interesting and perhaps off-topic analogy: crimes are penalized depending partially on who they are commited against. For example, assaulting the president is considered worse than assaulting some guy on the street. God being God, his position is so infinitly higher than someone such as the president that any sin against him is the worst possible degree.
Of course, that is ignoring grace, and Jesus Christ in general. All of us are likewise covered by grace, so that despite our sin we are permitted to be his children. I won't beat my point to death, I believe that it is quite simple. Given the fact that God's grace is infinite, should any crime be punishable by death? [By humans, I mean. The Bible makes it fairly clear that God will even the score at the end.]
