Thread by @RettCopple

Thread On The Biblical Apologetic For The Death Penalty Vs @tisaiahcho's "Christian Convictions":

God Institutes the death penalty in Gen 9:6, the Noahic covenant.

"He who sheds the blood of man by man shall his blood blood shed."

https://twitter.com/tisaiahcho/status/1458635216709431305

It should be noted that this institution of a civil jurisdiction is a radical deviation from the pre-flood anarchy and evil resulting from God sparing Cain for the murder of Abel and the ensuing boasting of Lamech (Gen 4:23-24).

Lamech considered himself 77 times more untouchable than Cain for being 77 times more evil.

God expands the penal sanction for all capital crimes covered in the book of the law, Deuteronomy, in the Mosaic covenant.

Cho's "Christian convictions" conerning the abolition of the death penalty is a verse taken from the sermon the mount where Jesus is teaching his followers not to pursue justice, which is what an eye for an eye is, for personal offenses.

That because it is not their jurisdiction to do so.

Instead they are, as followers of Christ, to exhibit the grace and mercy of God towards their enemies as Christ has done toward them, and not take up the cause of vengeance, which belongs to the Lord.

It should also be noted that the preface to the sermon on the mount, which is all expounding on the law of God, is "do not think that I have come to abolish the law" (Matthew 5:17).

That "not one jot or tittle" is abolished until "heaven and earth pass away."

So Jesus is saying at the start of the sermon on the mount not to think the very thing Cho's "Christian convictions" are making him think.

That the civil penalty in the law of God is abolished.

We know this because of the rhetoric Christ uses.

"You have been told, but I tell you."

He used this to say hate was murder, and lust was adultery.

This is why the people were astonished.

He didn't teach like the scribes and the pharisees but rather as someone with authority over the law itself.

He taught as if he himself was the law giver!

He isn't saying that murder and adultery are ok but hate and lost aren't.

No he didn't come to abolish the law, he came to magnify the law and make it honorable (Isaiah 42:21).

Neither is he saying that the law is wrong about an eye for an eye when he uses "you have been told, but I tell you."

He is not abolishing the law, he is magnifying and honoring it.

There is no consistent scientific method of biblical interpretation that can get you to abolishing the civil application for an eye for an eye from this verse.

That is Biblically, what justice is.

It is Biblically, what equity is.

An eye for an eye is a good and godly principle when we understand what jurisdiction God gives the ministry of justice to.

Who is it that bears the sword of God's justice?

"For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God's servant for your good..."

"...But if you do wrong, be afraid, *for he does not bear the sword in vain.* For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer."

-Romans 13:3-4

The civil magistrate is given the sword from God for a purpose.

He does not bear it in vain.

It is to cut down those who do evil.

The civil magistrate is ordained by God as a "minister of justice."

Therefore it is his responsibility, and not ours, to pursue an eye for an eye.

God requires it of him.

"Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil."

-Ecclesiastes 8:11

The End.