💥Of Morality and Death Penalty💥
The imposition of death penalty on certain crimes is something that is not really new. In fact, death penalty is one of the original teachings of the Bible; it comes from God.
Let me cite some instances that would prove that death penalty had already been implemented as early as the time of Moses and the Israelites.
During that time, anyone that would despise or would be rebellious against the Law of Moses shall die without mercy under two or three witnesses.
HEBREWS 10:28 says,
He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses:
Despising the Law of Moses is one offense that was penalized with death, specifically, by stoning.
However, if the sin that one committed was something very grievous, another form of death penalty was applied to that person. He would be burnt with fire as written in LEVITICUS 20:14, which says:
And if a man take a wife and her mother, it is wickedness: they shall be burnt with fire, both he and they; that there be no wickedness among you.
So, if a man takes for his wife both the daughter and her mother at the same time, all the three of them shall be burned with fire. All of them shall be killed by burning.
Aside from being burnt with fire, there were those who were hanged on a tree.
DEUTERONOMY 21:22-23 says,
22 And if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be to be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree:
23 His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged is accursed of God;) that thy land be not defiled, which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.
Based on the verses cited, there were several ways of executing death penalty: by stoning, by burning, and by hanging on a tree.
But it must be understood that, if ever they were enforcing death penalty that time, they were doing it under the guidance of God because Israel was a theocratic nation. In its entirety, it was ruled by God. The government of Israel was led by a king or by the prophets like Moses, or like the judges whom God raised in Israel. That is why Israel was a theocratic nation. And under the theocratic form of government of Israel, wherein the prophets of God were guided by angels to decide, death penalty was imposed.
In our present time, what we have are democratic nations which are being ruled by people. And in a democracy what prevails is the rule of the majority. Hence, from that aspect alone, we can already see that there is a very great difference between democracy and theocracy.
Today, nations are not at all theocratic that is why it is too risky to impose death penalty because it is no longer God, nor the angels, nor the righteous people that are rendering judgment to an accused person but judges who are often influenced by money and power. It is very fearful to even think that a person is to be killed by firing squad, or by a gas chamber, not because he was really guilty of the crime imputed against him but because the judge had been bribed and influenced by the rich and the powerful.
Am I in favor of the imposition of death penalty today? NO, I am not. The judicial system of many countries today is led and influenced by ungodly people, and that being the case, there is a very great possibility that they might arrive at an unjust and erroneous verdict.
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