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Articles
Kill a Killer?
I was watching the news this past week and they were talking about the Jodi Arias trial. She was recently convicted of first degree murder of her boyfriend. They are in the penalty phase of the trial now, in which the jury can recommend life in prison or the death penalty. The comment was made about the jurors if they will make the moral decision to have Jodi "killed" by the state. So it was described as making the choice to "kill" a killer. The accurate way to state the matter is this: They must decide to execute a convicted murderer or give her life in prison as punishment for her crime. The bible in fact does speak about capital punishment in all three dispensations. In the patriarchal age God said, "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image." Gen.9:6. God also taught in the Mosaic age capital punishment, "Whoever strikes a man so that he dies shall be put to death." Ex.21:12. Then in the gospel age that we live under, we read, "If then I am a wrongdoer and have committed anything for which I deserve to die, I do not seek to escape death. But if there is nothing to their charges against me, no one can give me up to them. I appeal to Caesar." Acts 25:11. Also in Rom.13:4, "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." So we clearly see that God has ordained and has given government the moral right to execute convicted murderers. The jurors would not be "killing" Jodi Arias, they would simply concur with what God has ordained and taught through the ages, that murderers will reap the consequences of their violent actions and be executed as a just punishment of their crime.
