Republicans - where in the bible does it say Jesus is pro-death penalty

[J.R. Brown]

Jesus taught love and forgiveness, not hate and revenge for sins against God. If you look at the OT (Old Testament), a lot of what they were teaching was vengence for sins against God. Jesus was sent to, not only take the sins of man away, but to instill the values of love and forgiveness.

[J.R. Brown]

I may be one of the few people who does not base their political views on Jesus's.

Yes, we're a dying breed, it seems.

Pretty common in most 1st world countries.

Yeah, I never vote on my religious beliefs. It just infuriates me when others misinterpret the teachings of Jesus and use them for justification of their political agendas

[J.R. Brown]

Jesus taught love and forgiveness, not hate and revenge for sins against God. If you look at the OT (Old Testament), a lot of what they were teaching was vengence for sins against God. Jesus was sent to, not only take the sins of man away, but to instill the values of love and forgiveness.

Yes, and we can see how well love and forgiveness worked against the Nazis at Auschwitz, the Japanese in Nanking and the Chinese in Tibet.  Love and forgiveness are fine, but they're no substitute for a serious ass-kicking.

That's so true. Basically this debate always goes nowhere. You can't compare spiritual life to life on Earth. It's too difficult for non-believers to understand. I loathe debating religion.

[J.R. Brown]

Returning to the original question, there is a verse in Genesis chapter 9, I'm not sure of the verse, that says in no uncertain terms that if a man takes another man's life, other men are to take his life.  Jesus didn't condemn the death penalty, even for the woman caught in adultry (John chapter 8 ).  He wanted the accusers to acknowledge their own shortcomings rather than condemn someone else.  He'd have been the same way with a murderer. 

True, but he wasn't against any sort of earthy justice system.

This debate is pointless, because this nation doesn't live under biblical law. Government may take an oath on the Bible, but they are taking an oath to uphold the laws of our nation and not the laws of the Bible. Once again, I loathe debating religion.

An individual's interpretation of their religion is their own business and shouldn't be debated. If they believe that Jesus was loving and forgiving and that's what they believe in their heart, no one has the authority to question that.

We are a civilized society and I am against the death penalty, because I believe civil people don't act like people of ancient times, killing in retribution for crimes that an individual commits. Now you can argue that the ways in which we execute people has evolved over time and I would have to agree with you, that we have definitely come along way in that area. But the hate and the idea of vengence is still present and personally if a friend of mine were murdered I would rather celebrated their life and focus on the postive aspects than focus on the horrible act that ended it.

Watching or even knowing that their murderer is being executed would just conjure up a lot of emotion that I really would not want. I would rather see that person be rehabilitated than see them die. If that person is incapable of rehabilitation than that's their problem and I want nothing to do with that. I would also want the same thing to occur if I were murdered and I'm sure that my family would want the same thing. I wouldn't want someone to have to die in vengence for my death. No matter how evil they are.

[J.R. Brown]

It's in my Bar Mitzvah parsha and in many other sources in the Bible. And no, it isn't crazy evangelicals contorting the text. :-)

Yeah, it's in the Old Testament and the laws of Moses, but I'm a Christian and when Christ was crucified those laws were nailed to the cross. I'm not sure where Jesus supports it. Some people on here have said that he did, but haven't showed me any specific passages from the New Testament. And if somebody does post something, PLEASE DO NOT post a passage from the King James Version. I have a real hard time getting through all of those thou's and art's. NIV is easier for most people to understand.

Besides, we don't establish our laws from the Bible. Not every American believes in the laws of the Bible. A debate on biblical law is pointless. As much as some evangelical Christians would want to establish a theocracy in this country, it will never happen.

[J.R. Brown]

It's in my Bar Mitzvah parsha and in many other sources in the Bible. And no, it isn't crazy evangelicals contorting the text. :-)

Yeah, it's in the Old Testament and the laws of Moses, but I'm a Christian and when Christ was crucified those laws were nailed to the cross. I'm not sure where Jesus supports it. Some people on here have said that he did, but haven't showed me any specific passages from the New Testament. And if somebody does post something, PLEASE DO NOT post a passage from the King James Version. I have a real hard time getting through all of those thou's and art's. NIV is easier for most people to understand.

Besides, we don't establish our laws from the Bible. Not every American believes in the laws of the Bible. A debate on biblical law is pointless. As much as some evangelical Christians would want to establish a theocracy in this country, it will never happen.

First off Jesus says to pretty much respect the laws of the established earthy government. He certainly was no "liberal" like some lefties love to claim. He never said for humans never to judge, that is another false claim. What he actually said was for humans not to make rash judgements. Jesus respected the law of the land for how it stood and was a very orthodox Jew. So I would certainly say he wouldn't have a problem with the death penalty if applied for the right reasons.

And J.R. you are wrong on your point about biblical law. Much of the US law has its roots in biblical law and to claim otherwise is ridiculous. I know the secularists want to ban religion and strike it from every school book, law book, etc. but that will never happen. And no, I don't want to set up a "theocracy", you and Opebo can spout that nonsense if you like but it certainly is not true.

Please read the entire thing and reflect on what I am saying instead of just responding. From your responses it seems like you skim through it and don't really understand what I am implying in my response. I'm guilty of doing the same thing almost all of the time. I apologize for the length.

I don't want to ban religion. I am a secularist and I am also a devout Christian. I just think in such a diverse culture as ours, we shouldn't force Christianity on the rest of the population through laws and such. We should share our faith but never force it upon others. That will just turn people away, and no Christian wants that.

I interpreted the New Testament as saying that the high priests of the Jewish church collaborated to have him killed. If he was such an orthodox Jew, why would they have him killed? Not simply for blasphemy. That's just the excuse they came up with. He was saying and doing some pretty outlandish things for that time and they wanted to shut him up. So, they found a loophole in their laws and murdered him.  I'M NOT SAYING HE WAS A LIBERAL in the sence that we think of today. He would have never supported abortion, gay marriage, etc. etc. And that's why I don't either.

The death penalty meant something different than it does today. People were killed for any little sin against God and in my opinion there is NO LITTLE SIN. A sin is a sin. Mortal or Minor, God does not differentiate the two. That's one of the many ridiculous things the Catholics came up with. I think. Don't quote me on that though. Today, people are killed for vengence of the death of someone. If you truly wanted an old testament death penalty, you would kill people for being athiest, dishonoring their parents, unfaithful husbands or wives would also be killed, along with the murders and theives. Also, the people in the old testament were told by God himself to put certain people to death. God actually spoke to them. Now you can believe that if you want.

He was a revolutionary and the Son of Man. He died for our sins and changed the way people think about God and their own faith.
I am not trying to impose any belief on you, this is my personal interpretation and it's what I feel is right in my heart. You may or may not agree with me, that's up to you. You may also be right, this question is too difficult to answer with a yes or a no and it may never be answered until we are standing in front of him. But DO NOT EVER tell me what kind of relationship I should have with God or what I should believe. In my last post I was just conveying my beliefs. I was not forcing anything upon anybody.

All I'm saying is, who are we to judge who lives and dies? This murderer has to die because he conspired to do it, while this one didn't mean to, so he gets off. Or better yet, this person didn't mean to do it, but drugs were involved, so they have to die.

[J.R. Brown]

It's in my Bar Mitzvah parsha and in many other sources in the Bible. And no, it isn't crazy evangelicals contorting the text. :-)

Yeah, it's in the Old Testament and the laws of Moses, but I'm a Christian and when Christ was crucified those laws were nailed to the cross. I'm not sure where Jesus supports it. Some people on here have said that he did, but haven't showed me any specific passages from the New Testament. And if somebody does post something, PLEASE DO NOT post a passage from the King James Version. I have a real hard time getting through all of those thou's and art's. NIV is easier for most people to understand.

Besides, we don't establish our laws from the Bible. Not every American believes in the laws of the Bible. A debate on biblical law is pointless. As much as some evangelical Christians would want to establish a theocracy in this country, it will never happen.

I don't think you loathe debating religion as much as you claim you do.  There are lots of non-religious threads on this forum, yet you keep coming back here.

I don't like debating what's in the bible. Mostly, because I'm still learning about what is actually in there. However, I do enjoy debating whether or not the Christian bible should really be compared to national laws or part of national law.