Death penalty for fellow Christians

This is so off topic;
The book and this passage is dealing with Gnostics who had crept into the church and spread their false doctrine. Now John in the 5th chapter is finishing the letter and telling them to pray for these brothers. The passage is not speaking about one who is saved and one who is lost. In both cases the person is lost. However the passage is speaking of a person who claims to be saved, (Again keep in mind John was dealing with the problem of Gnosticism and they did not hold that Jesus actually had flesh and blood.) You might want to study their many false beliefs as they denied the actual living breathing Christ.


So John says if they see someone who is in sin ( that sin would be related to the Gnostics teaching which John has been dealing with) they can be prayed for, this is not a real brother but someone who calls themself a brother but really needs saved by the evidence of their sin and they are still alive, but if someone who calls themself a brother and rejects everything about Christ while claiming to be a brother and they die they are not to pray for them. By the way praying for the dead is still alive and well and wrong. This way we can know the sin because it is what John has been writing about in the letter.
Both the one with sin not unto death and the one with sin unto death are both lost. They were calling themselves brothers and seen as brothers because of the confusion in the Gnostic's teachings. One thing that caught my attention while studying this was the word "life". In just about every case the word related to eternal life unless there is some modifier to make it clear it is speaking of earthly life. In this case it is speaking of eternal life.

 

What is saddening is for believers trying to play God and circumvent His commands. :tear: He commands the death penalty and does not say unless they are sharing the gospel. God can circumvent His word but not us. If He wants one of them spared don't you think He has the power to do it?

 

The murderer shall surely be put to death.

 

Agree!

Agree!

 

Mestillthinks you are reading a whoooole lot into the passage. Totally disagree.

 

freeatlast...I'm wondering if you would baptize someone on death row, if they became a Christian while there? Would it be ok for them to partake in the Lord's Supper?

 

The death penalty is doing His work.

 

The execution of an innocent person is murder. So from your statement above should those state officials who carried out the execution of a person later proven innocent be put to death? Should the judge and jury be punished?

 

:laugh::laugh::laugh:

 

No because it is not murder. They are acting on the authority of the people who find the person guilty under the conditions and terms of the laws of the land based on evidence presented at trial. Secondly almost all death convictions today are 100% proven that the person is guilty otherwise the person gets life so any claim that someone stands against the death penalty because of wrongful sentencing is a sham.
It would only be murder if someone knowingly gave false testimony or information and in that case the one who gave it should be held as a murderer and put to death. The death penalty is called for by the Lord and has never been rescinded even for a believer.


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Then the SS and Gestapo following Hitler's orders, the henchmen following Saddam's orders, the Roman soldiers killing of the innocents etc. were not guilty of murder. They were just following orders of those in authority.

That was found not to be a valid defense in the Nuremberg Trials.

Likewise those murdered in the killing fields of Cambodia were not murder, using your logic as, again, those folk were only following orders of those in authority.

When those in authority are wrong then everybody is wrong who follows those orders.

The 100% proven is your opinion.

And we have no real idea of how often that happens.

Are you as concerned about the commands of God about loving and taking care of others as you are of killing others?

Why did Jesus violate God's command by not having the woman taken in adultery stoned to death?

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You are trying to change the subject. This is about God's call for the death penalty and if we are going to obey or rebel.

 

No, my friend. I am not changing the subject. You are not following through on some of your opinions to their logical conclusion.

Is not life without parole a form of execution?

 

...then you share the same dilemma if the person is found to be innocent after the fact based on your "logical conclusion". There is no perfect human system and there will always be those imprisoned and executed who are innocent. We don't throw out the baby with the bath water, though.

 

I cannot believe you are being serious. Supporting the death penalty is siding with the world?!? Such nonsense is why the world views Christians as wacky.

 

There are several areas where your ideas depart from God's word.

1] You have God failing to plan how to spread the gospel...so he has to rely on a convicted murderer to spread the gospel.

Because all sin is forgiven by God for the believer...following your thought...
then all criminals who commit crime should be released as soon as the are saved..so they can do missionary service then.

2] Paul acted within the law at that time...it was not like he was the boston strangler. A police officer who shoots a criminal is not a murderer.

3] God does not contradict His own word,and needs no help from us to help Him correct what he has commanded.