Regard the Mosaic endorsement of capital punishment. Can this be justified on New Covenant grounds? Yes, in two ways. First, in Romans 13:4, Paul speaks of our governmental leaders who do not “bear the sword in vain.” Obviously the sword is not used for correction but for execution, and Paul acknowledges this right. Paul does not bother to provide an extensive list of what crimes are rightly punishable by death, but the right itself is assumed. Also, there is the pre-Mosaic stipulation that murder is an attack on God’s image and, therefore, worthy of death (Gen. 9:6). Murder as a personal attack on God is a notion that is not confined to the Old Covenant alone; it remain a capital offense in every age.
— Fred Zaspel, Pastor, Theologe und Autor
Related Bible passage: ROM.13.4
Topics: Ethical Questions, The Bible & the Word of God
Occasions: For Reflection
Fred Zaspel
Fred Zaspel ist ein US-amerikanischer Theologe und reformiert-baptistischer Pastor in Pennsylvania, der zudem Systematische Theologie am Southern Baptist Theological Seminary lehrt. Bekannt ist er vor allem als Experte für das Werk von B. B. Warfield sowie als Mitgestalter der sogenannten New Covenant Theology. Bibellesern vermittelt er eine christozentrische Schriftauslegung, insbesondere der Psalmen, sowie Zugänge zur reformiert-evangelikalen Dogmatik.
All quotes by Fred Zaspel (18)
If you judge people, you have no time to love them.
Mother Teresa
It is not your business to succeed, but to do right: when you have done so, the rest lies with God.
C.S. Lewis
The good you do today, will often be forgotten by tomorrow. Do good anyway.
Mother Teresa
My obligation is to do the right thing. The rest is in God's hands.
Martin Luther King Jr.
There are no ordinary people; every neighbor carries eternal significance.
C.S. Lewis
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
Martin Luther King Jr.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Desmond Tutu