Does the Bible (God) allow executions?

Question

I know the bible say's an eye for an eye but it also say thou shall not commit murder. Anyone have any analytical thoughts?

Answer 1

In Acts 3:23 Peter claims that Deuteronomy 18:18-19 refers to Jesus, saying that those who refuse to follow him (all non-Christians) must be killed.

Answer 2

In the Old Testament, God initially said, "an eye for an eye." But after Jesus, He said to "turn the other cheek." You're right about God saying, "thou shall not commit murder." If He allowed executions, that would basically be saying that murder is allowed(which it isn't) and that the Bible contradicts itself, which it DOESN'T.

Answer 3

Yep,

While we have none of the autographs of the Bible, the early manuscripts we do have have and that are known to be genuine, by the most conservative estimates, have 200,000 differences between the wording in them, and while many are not meaningful, some completely change the doctrine of the church. (Ehrman, Bart, Ph.D.; Misquoting Jesus: The story behind who changed the Bible and Why; Harper Collins, 2006 -- p. 89). less conservative estimates range up to about 400,000 -- and there are programmers now endeavoring to write a program that will be able to count the exact number of variances.

And that's only the start of the difficulties for the Bible. If you only use the Textus Receptus (Received Text) as it is printed in modern Bibles then you are looking at enormous problems anyway -- in fact insurmountable ones. The World does not have corners (Isaiah 11:12), nor does it sit on pillars (I Samuel 2:8), nor water (Psalms 24:1-2). God did not establish a solid dome over the earth (that's what firmament literally means) and he does not have a palace on top of it from which angels can come and go up Jacob's ladder -- which might be reached by the tower of babel -- and where he keeps "treasuries" of hail and snow (Job 38: 22-23). For the sake of all that is decent, you can't even harmonize the 1st and 2nd chapters of Genesis with each other, say nothing of being able to defend the Biblical creation as scientifically factual. That's no surprise though, as the Bible tells us that beetles have four legs (Leviticus 11: 21-23) and that rabbits chew their cuds (Deuteronomy 14:7). It says that pi is 3, not 3.14 (I Kings 7:23 and 2 Chronicles 4:2) and that the mustard seed is the smallest seed in the world and grows into a tree [neither of which are true] (Matthew 13: 31-32). It is hardly a font of rational thought or scientific accuracy. Furthermore these errors only scratch the surface. Try harmonizing accounts in Joshua and the telling of the same tales in timeline in Judges sometime. If you can you are more proficient than any theologian I've ever met, and I've met a few.

Late bronze age men created the OT and early iron age ones the NT. It is not surprising therefore that God cannot lead Israel to defeat Iron chariots after promising he would (Judges 1:19), and it is not surprising that the flight of Israel from the god Chemosh, after the king of a city the Jews were beseiging and that God had promised them they would overthrow The King of the city offered his own son to Chemosh as a human sacrifice, resulting in Chemosh driving the Israelites away (2 Kings 3: 19-27) -- further it is not surprising that no punishment is mentioned -- the Israelites were still sacrificing their own children, as is evidenced in several places, but most graphically in Judges 11:30-39

The long and short of it is, the Bible is a mythic book, written by bronze and iron age men who were recording primarily oral legends in written form. In any realistic sense it is drivel. You can see, just in the passages I noted above from 2 Kings -- the last vestiges of polytheism fading away. Chemosh was supposed to get power from human sacrifice, just as Jehovah did -- and that power allowed him to turn the table against Israel, despite the fact that God was with Israel.

Read the verses, read the context -- to all the things I've suggested, calm your breathing and thinking and ask yourself if this is really the God of the Universe you are reading about -- or a tribal deity, which has now evolved into the one we worship. I think you will find biblegod sadly lacking -- something the liturgical churches have been saying for hundreds of years. If you find yourself unwilling to even look -- ask yourself why? Are you willing to sacrifice the truth, in order to maintain a comfortable myth for yourself?

And if you want a chuckle, read the second, and theoretically final version of the ten commandments. They are in Exodus 34: 10-26. That is the covenant Yahweh actually made with Israel. No seething here.

So, the reality is, analytically, the Bible has nothing to do with God, neither does the Koran or the Book of Mormon -- those are the works of men -- I could give you a complete -- historically accurate explanation of how canon came about -- but it would take several more pages.

The simplest thing to do is to recognize that the Bible is not the word of god -- it is the word of man, what it says on execution or anything else doesn't matter from an ethical or moral standpoint. We need to take a deep breath and decide what we think our morality SHOULD be, not try to guess from a poorly written ancient book what a supernatural being tells us that it ought to be.

Then we can get somewhere.

Have a nice day.

Regards,

Reynolds Jones
Schenectady, NY
http://www.rebuff.org
[e-mail]

Answer 4

God promotes the separation of Church and State. Therefore, the Bible does not advocate or denounce executions because state executions are just that, a matter for the state. The Bible (God) is pro-life and the State should try to keep that position as best it can. If the State is in line with God's will it will be blessed. If not, then God's blessings will be absent. That is how we can tell how God feels about matters taken care of by the State.

Answer 5

You are person that does not rightly divide the Word of God to show yourself approved before Him.

You need to start and start now while we live in this final generation the Bible speaks of.

If you study the Word, you would know for certain that God allows executions. Its in the volume of the Book.

Killing a person that has committed a crime that justifies the death penalty is not murder. Look up the definition of murder yourself to settle that in your mind.

Do hope that helps you.><>

Answer 6

The bible indicates that rulers are placed in authority or deposed by God to limit the evil that mankind would otherwise do without them. Since the rulers are human, the system is not perfect. The scriptures warn Christians of rulers that "it is not for nothing that he wears the sword." This is clearly a reference to capital punishment. However, the scriptures also note "do not fear those who can kill the body but not harm the soul." It is the eternal purpose that Christian's should live for, not the transient life here on earth. Since Christians are humans, that perspective is imperfectly reflected also. However, eternal life is not based on the good of a person. If it were no one could earn it because no one can be the perfect person that God demands. God was Merciful to send his Son to die in our place. That is why Christians can be saved even though none of us is perfect.

Answer 7

If you believe that the Bible is the word of god then it's safe to say that god loves nothing more than executions. He himself is shown within the book to have executed every living thing on the planet save one family and 2 of most land animals. He executed all of the inhabitants of 2 cities. More than this Just take a look at all of the offenses in Deuteronomy and Leviticus that are punishable by death... If a man has sex with a goat, the man, and even the GOAT must be executed!

It would seem through the evidence in the Bible that god doesn't just allow executions... he revels in them!

Answer 8

Yes it says thou shall not commit murder, but that is if you kill someone in a rage. It goes on to say that if a crime has been committed one can be put to death which is the eye for an eye

Answer 9

Um, there are a lot of contradictory rules when you try to make a blanket one. That's why there are those who say Jesus/God is love but then there's the Old Testament or the Inquisition or the Crusades. I think there are others, like the many witch burnings, but there are so many individual murders, it's hard to ilst them here.

Answer 10

See Joshua 11:20

Answer 11

The definition of murder is to kill unlawfully (illegally). An execution is lawful (legal).

Of course, if you wanted to be wicked, one could also argue that it is not murder to kill a nonbeliever because they are already dead, and only believers are truly alive.

Ephesians 2:4-5 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.