Capital punishment, as ordained by God, is the only way to reduce crime in a long-lasting form. Although there are many who would refute this claim, the Bible holds its ground when it comes to the issue of capital punishment. The Bible has stood for, and will continue to stand for, capital punishment. Since God was the one who first initiated capital punishment, we should look to His Word to find the origin of it. Capital punishment was instituted when God told Adam and Eve “...in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Genesis 9:6 also references capital punishment by stating, “Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed.” Exodus 21:12 echoes this saying with, “He that smiteth a man, so that he die, shall be surely put to death.” According to the Bible, if a man kills another man, he is to be immediately put to death. He is not to be allowed to talk his way out of it. The Bible is very clear that punishment for crime should be swift and sure.
Some would argue that capital punishment can only be found in the Old Testament, and the New Testament is all about love and forgiveness. However in Matthew 5:17, Jesus said, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.” Jesus did not repeal all Old Testament laws and make up new ones, but on the contrary, He came to fulfill the law and the prophets. Yes, Jesus did come as a loving and merciful God, but He also came in submission to man's authority, which ultimately led to His death. Yet, does man's authority really belong to man? Does man own the authority with which to execute criminals? Jesus Himself said in John 19:11, while talking to Pilate before His crucifixion, “Thou couldest have no powe...
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...e is also a perfect, just, and holy God who cannot even look on sin. He has the power to forgive, but the punishment for crime still must be carried out. A great example of this was the thief on the cross next to Christ. In his last hours on this earth he accepted Christ as his Savior, but God did not take him off the cross because he believed. No, he still had to bear the punishment for the crimes he had committed. Jesus Christ is another good example. He did not even deserve to die. He was innocent! Yet, He submitted to the cross to pay for the sins of mankind. Sin will always have consequences, and just because God is willing to forgive sin, that does not mean He will also take away the consequences. What a criminal sows in crime, he will reap in consequence, whether those consequences are from the justice system, or from a perfectly just God in Heaven.
There are two different kinds of righteousness that are explained through scripture; passive righteousness and active righteousness. In the film Dead Man Walking, Sister Helen, a nun, comforts Matthew, a convicted murderer and rapist, and the tension between her comforting Matthew over the families loss of their children grows. Sister Helen opposes the death penalty, whereas the Apostle Paul, in Romans 13, did not object to the death penalty. The Apostle Paul teaches that we must live by grace with each other, but Paul also clearly states that we are to obey and respect human government. Passive righteousness and active righteousness are examined in Dead Man Walking.
It is my opinion that the reason that the death penalty is not a deterrent is because the murderer is not executed in a timely manner due to the appeals process. The imperfection of the criminal justice system lies with the fact that humans operate it: human sinfulness and the need for spiritual redemption is the reason for errors with the legal system (1 John 1:8-10). In order to maintain balance, God knew that tough laws (despite a human’s age) needed to be enacted due to the sinful nature of humankind. The Bible subscribes to a list of offenses with the mandated punishments set forth by God. The Word of God is inerrant and His directive for heinous crimes (e.g., murder, rape) was the death penalty (Genesis 9:5, 6; Exodus 21:15; Numbers 35:31; Deuteronomy 17:6, 22:25). Society has a legal and moral responsibility to respond to criminal victimization in order to preserve order and protect the community. God is ultimately forgiving, however His laws are clear. (Genesis 9:5, 6; Exodus 21:15; Numbers 35:31; Deuteronomy 17:6, 22:25). The Constitution guarantees offenders a fair trial, not a license to avoid justice. God, who is the greatest Criminal Justice Master in the Universe, the Supreme Law Maker and Giver, states in no uncertain terms that justice is to be equated with and sanctioned in accordance with the crime committed and that punishment to be delivered swiftly (Genesis 9: 5-6; Exodus 21; 1-31; Leviticus 24:7-22; Deuteronomy 13: 6-11, 19: 13-20, 25: 2; Romans 13: 1-4). The bottom line is, the imperfection of the criminal justice system lies with the fact that humans operate it: human sinfulness and the need for spiritual redemption is the reason for errors with the legal system (1 John
Proponents of capital punishment believe that killing criminals is a moral and ethical way of punishing them. They feel there is justification in taking the life of a certain criminal, when in fact that justification is nothing more than revenge. They also feel that the death penalty deters crime, although there have been no conclusive studies confirming that viewpoint (Bedau).
Capital punishment is not a morally acceptable practice because the process has come to represent a form of torture in our modern society and therefore, should not be seen as an acceptable form of punishment for any criminal act. The goal of a punishment is to properly reprimand the criminal so justice is served in regard to the victim. This can be achieved without violating our moral standards through the use of punishments which sufficiently punish the offender while still doing right by the victim. Capital punishment may be the most just option of retribution when punishing a murderer, but it serves as an injustice to the persons who must carry out the duty and has also become a torturous experience for the offender.
The death penalty continues to be an issue of controversy and is an issue that will be debated in the United States for many years to come. According to Hugo A. Bedau, the writer of “The Death Penalty in America”, capital punishment is the lawful infliction of the death penalty. The death penalty has been used since ancient times for a variety of offenses. The Bible says that death should be done to anyone who commits murder, larceny, rapes, and burglary. It appears that public debate on the death penalty has changed over the years and is still changing, but there are still some out there who are for the death penalty and will continue to believe that it’s a good punishment. I always hear a lot of people say “an eye for an eye.” Most people feel strongly that if a criminal took the life of another, their’s should be taken away as well, and I don’t see how the death penalty could deter anyone from committing crimes if your going to do the crime then at that moment your not thinking about being on death role. I don’t think they should be put to death they should just sit in a cell for the rest of their life and think about how they destroy other families. A change in views and attitudes about the death penalty are likely attributed to results from social science research. The changes suggest a gradual movement toward the eventual abolition of capital punishment in America (Radelet and Borg, 2000).
The death penalty has been part of our civilization since earliest times, from the ancient cultures to the Romans were harsh and swift in their judgments and execution. Jesus himself was a victim of the death penalty. Up though time murder has always been punishable by death as well as many other crimes. Justice was often harsh and brutal. In England there was hanging, drawing and quartering or beheading, France the guillotine was used as being quicker. When we came to this country we brought the same ideals with us. The witches of Salem were burned or drowned when they were thought to cause deaths. We used firing squads, hanging was popular in the east as well as out west, the electric chair and gas chamber, now the lethal injection. And until the present time justice was swift! When our forefathers signed the constitution the death penalty was being used but no mention of it was made in the 8th Amendment as the death penalty being "cruel or unusual punishment", because they did not feel being put to death because you deliberately took anothers life was unusual or cruel but EXPECTED!
In my opinion capital punishment is wrong. The death penalty is the center of much debate in society. This is due, in part, to the fact that people see only the act of killing a criminal, and not the social effects the death penalty has on society as a whole. Upon reading about the death penalty, it was found to be an unethical practice. It promotes a violent and inhumane society in which killing is considered okay. Since there are alternatives, the death penalty should be abolished. Some people believe capital punishment to be cruel and unusual. Others believe that a person who kills, should themselves be killed. This statement alone raises the question, "How should they be killed?" The question that should really be asked is, "Should we kill at all?" Would it be morally correct to kill someone just because they have killed someone else?
The death penalty is simply a modernized version of the Holy Bible’s “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, a foot for a foot”. Some argue that death is a necessary retribution for murderous cases - but is it effective morally? Revenge only glorifies violence, which is most definitely not the message the world strives to display. The death penalty is a negative form of punishment and insinuates a harsh reflection of society economically, politically, and socially.
The death penalty or some prefer to call it capital punishment has been around since 1608. During the foundation of our country there were twelve death – eligible crimes of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and they were as follows: idolatry, witchcraft, blasphemy, murder, manslaughter, poisoning, bestiality, sodomy, adultery, man stealing , false witness in capital cases and conspiracy & rebellion. While some are absolutely for it and some are absolutely against it there is one factor that comes into play on both sides of the argument and that factor is religion. Many people will state that there is or should be a line between church and state however religion has and will always play a major role in ones conceptual thinking as to what is right and as to what is wrong what is moral and what is immoral. Despite the fact that people would rather think or rationalize without involving religion is nearly impossible. “By virtually any definition, religion involves a central concern with making sense of life and death. The American legal system, rooted in Judeo-Christian ethics, routinely confronts issues that test our basic assumptions about the meaning and sanctity of life and about the role of the State in shaping and sustaining such meanings” (Young,1992).
Major world religions have assorted stands on the ethics and morality of the death penalty. These perspectives are mainly based on the religious teachings from religious books, such as the Quran and the bible, which has various incidences of offenders being publicly executed. As indicated in the Hebrew bible, which is the source for the Old Testament, there are various crimes that should receive the death penalty as retribution. These Jewish laws were considered to be divine as they formed a core part of the covenant between Yahweh (their creator) and the children of Israel. The Christians did not revise the bible when they adopted the Hebrew bible as their tenet. Neither Christians as the body nor Christ as the messiah redacted or revised the laws since they edited the Jewish divine law texts.
In past centuries, the problem was how to find the most painful way to execute a criminal, not whether criminals should be executed or not. Killing alone wasn’t an acceptable way of punishment (McCuen 8). Nowadays, 97.5% of crimes go unpunished in the United States, and the 2.5% who are punished are not being treated harsh enough (90). The death penalty honors human dignity by treating the defendant as a free moral actor to control his own destiny for good or for ill; it does not treat him as an animal with no moral sense (Kurtz). Criminals who murder, rape, kidnap, torture others, or commit treason should not have the same punishment as crimes of lesser value (Kurtz). This point is backed up by the bible, where it is stated in the first chapter. In Genesis 9:6 it says, “Yes, you must execute anyone who murders another person, for to kill another person is to kill a living being made in God’s image”. It is also brought up again in Exodus 21:23-24 where it states, “But if any harm results, then the offender must be punis...
Capital punishment is the punishment of death for a crime given by the state. It is used for a variety of crimes such as murder, drug trafficking and treason. Many countries also have the death penalty for sexual crimes such as rape, incest and adultery. The lethal injection, the electric chair, hanging and stoning are all methods of execution used throughout the world. Capital punishment has been around since ancient times; it was used in ancient Rome, and one of the most famous people to be crucified was Jesus Christ. Capital punishment is now illegal in many countries, like the United Kingdom, France and Germany, but it is also legal in many other countries such as China and the USA. There is a large debate on whether or not capital punishment should be illegal all over the world as everyone has a different opinion on it. In this essay, I will state arguments for and against the death penalty, as well as my own opinion: capital punishment should be illegal everywhere.
Christian’s hold three distinct perspectives on capital punishment, namely Rehabilitationism, Reconstructionism and Retributionism. Rehabilitationism is the view that death sentence should not be allowed for any crime; Reconstructionism holds that death penalty should be allowed for any serious crime; Retributionism recommends death sentence for some capital crimes. The last two positions share a somewhat similar view. This paper focuses on rehabilitationism. Proponents of this view comprise those who appeal to the Bible for justification and those who do not. The paper presents the arguments of those in the former group. Contrary to the view of the rehabilitationalists that the aim of punishment is reformatory or remedial, the paper argues that the aim of capital punishment is justice and a good society.
The best support documentation for this point of view comes directly from the word of God; where, in the Old Testament, the death penalty was required for a wide range of offenses, both civil and religious.
Though the death penalty is considered barbaric, it is not. With those who have ones that have died viciously to the ones who died young there is such a thing as karma. The death penalty allows those people who committed the crime to be punished equally. Therefore, I agree with the reason for having the death penalty. It is only fair that the criminal be punished for his wrong doings. The bible does say, “An eye for an eye.” When there is equal punishment and safety it makes people worry less. It allows them to live out their lives in peace, and to not look back on something bad that has happened to them.