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(continued from previous page) VII. Practical theonomy Once you accept the
principle of theonomy, don’t shy away from its implications. Don’t let the fear of man and the fear
of being politically-incorrect intimidate you and relegate you to comfortable
inconsistency. Of course, good
Christians can disagree with the implications of a society ruled by the Holy
Bible and we can disagree civilly on the role of the O.T. commandments in N.T.
governments, but we should never let the fear of man or pragmatism affect our
faith in the teachings of Scripture. 1. God’s criminal justice
system A. Government leaders are
commissioned by God to punish criminals. A theonomy would not only
assure the people that the state would restrain themselves from violating
God-given rights, but they would also restrain others from violating God-given
rights. The government is the
God-ordained agent of vengeance to punish those who commit crimes against
others. Romans
13 An attribute of love is
justice. Government leaders have
been specifically ordained by God to punish criminals. According to Deuteronomy 19:12-13, civil
leaders are forbidden to extend mercy to criminals. Letting murderers and rapists go free is
not a loving thing for the government to do, I’m sure you all will agree. The loving thing for the government to
do to murderers and rapists is what the Bible says to do to them, because man
cannot improve on God, and God in His love and wisdom said that murderers and
rapists should be put to death. And
he commissioned government leaders to execute this penalty. Only God can set aside the penalty that
criminals deserve.
Not all sin is a crime
according to Scriptures – not all sin has a civil sanction. Lust, for instance, is a sin, but
according to the Bible it is not a sin worthy of a civil punishment in this
life. The eternal sanction for the
sin of lust is hell, according to Matthew 5:27-30, but God did not instruct
governments to sanction those who break the tenth commandment in coveting
someone who is not their spouse.
But premarital sex is not only a sin, it is a crime as well, with a
specific civil punishment in Scripture.
The punishment for premarital sex was that the man had to pay the woman’s
father a fine, and he had to marry the woman and could never divorce her for any
reason. The reason for this is
obvious, to keep sex between one man and one woman for life, the way God
designed it to be. This sanction keeps the
young man’s hormones in check, and keeps young woman’s heart from being broken
by careless varsity studs! How
often does it happen that the woman consents to sex with a man who says he loves
her and promises to marry her, only to find out that he’s already told a half a
dozen girls the same thing? How
often does this happen and the woman finds out years later that she is still
wanting to marry her live-in boyfriend, but the low-life won’t commit? God’s Word would protect the woman’s
honor by forcing them to marry if they indulge in sex before marriage. Furthermore, the penalty assures
children that they will be born into a family with both a father and a mother in
the home, which is the God-ordained environment for the nurture of
children. The enforcement of this
sanction and the sanction for other sexual sins would eliminate all
sexually-transmitted diseases in society within one generation. God’s ways are
best! Law cannot be divorced from
sanction. The precept and the
penalty go hand in hand. The law of
God not only protects our right to life by forbidding murder, but it also
secures us in that right by endorsing a particular punishment against
murderers. Law without penalty or
sanction is not law at all, only advice or suggestion. The sanction, or civil punishment, is
the teeth of the law. The severity
of the sanction should be equal to the value of the precept transgressed. Who is more qualified to know the value
of the commandment that the Author, God Almight? Likewise, who is more qualified to
determine how transgression of that commandment should be punished in this life
but God? A law with a penalty
insufficient to promote compliance is a mockery of justice and a threat to a
free society. But the penalty our
justice system proposes for crimes is not the penalty which God's law
proposes. B. Four types of punishments
for civil crimes according to God's law: 1) Retribution - thieves
were to pay back 4 to 5-fold of what they stole, depending on the object
stolen. Thieves who turned
themselves in only had to pay 2-fold the value of what they stole (God’s law
encourages thieves to turn themselves in.)
In this form of punishment, the victim is appeased and the criminal can
go back and care for his family.
The prison system in America does not appease the victim of the thief
like God’s law does, but rather our system financially benefits the attorneys at
the expense of the victims and the criminals. Those who could not afford to pay back
what was due were sold into slavery to pay their debt. Slavery would be a form of punishment
for crimes in a godly society, similar to labor camps we presently have in some
prisons, only they would be operated and run not by the government, but by
private industries. 2) Public flogging (Deut.
25:1-3) – this would replace the typical malpractice suit that we have today,
where a wealthy business like McDonalds pays eight million dollars to a woman
because she spilled hot coffee on herself.
If there was malpractice, then the person responsible would be publicly
flogged. There’d be no rich payout
for lawyers, and therefore no frivolous lawsuits. 3) "An eye for an eye, a
tooth for a tooth" – If a man injures another man through unjust assault, he
must pay for the man’s medical bills and lost salary until the man is thoroughly
healed. If permanent injury ensues
from the assault, “an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth” – what he did to
the victim is done back to him!
(Jesus forbade using this principle to take vengeance for personal
grudges, but all governments endorse some kind of sanction against those who
assault others, and God’s way is best) In accordance with this “an
eye for an eye” principle, perjury is punished in the manner that the perjurer
tried to injure his neighbor. Since
the testimony of witnesses carries so much weight in God’s criminal justice
system, perjury must be severely punished.
If someone perjures themself in a trial in order to get an innocent
person convicted of a crime they didn’t commit, then the perjurer is punished by
how he tried to get the innocent person punished. If a witness falsely testifies that she
saw the accused shoot the victim to death, then the witness would face the death
penalty if caught. This would be a
very strong disincentive to perjury.
4) Execution – murder,
kidnapping, homosexuality, incest, pedophilia, adultery, witchcraft, youth who
cannot be corrected with chastening, etc.
It’s God's will that such sins be crimes in society and that they be
punished by execution.
The God-ordained punishment
upon these sexual sins is designed to maintain the sanctity of the sexual
union. God designed sex for the
marriage bed between one man and one woman for life. This severe sanction provides a strong
impediment against sins that are particularly addictive and destructive to
society (Have you ever noticed that Saudi Arabia doesn’t have an AIDS
crisis? A lot less
homosexuals die in countries where homosexuality is outlawed.) Ezekiel
13: 19 Will ye pollute Me among My people
for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread, to slay the souls that should
not die, and to save souls alive that should not live...? Slaying the innocent and
letting the shedders of innocent blood live are both an affront to God. The Bible says that the killing of the
innocent brings a curse upon the land and its people. It also says that the curse can only be
lifted by executing the shedder of innocent blood. Numbers
35: 30 Whoso killeth any person,
the murderer shall be put to death by the mouth of witnesses: but one witness
shall not testify against any person to cause him to die. Deuteronomy
19: 11 But if any man hate his
neighbour, and lie in wait for him, and rise up against him, and smite him
mortally that he die, and fleeth into one of these cities: Exodus
21: 12 He that smiteth a man, so
that he die, shall be surely put to death.. (i.e. killing preborn babies
is a capital crime) Jesus affirmed the death
penalty directly in Matthew 15:3-9, and indirectly in Matthew 5:17-19, and
Matthew 23:2-3, and Paul in Romans 13, quoted above, and in Acts
25:11. Common rebuttal #1 against
the death penalty: "But in John 8, Jesus did
not stone the woman caught in the act of adultery". Response: As a matter of fact, Jesus
did tell those holding the stones to throw them. "Cast the first stone!" he
ordered to "him that is without sin".
This was no new concept - the God of the Old Testament also forbade
hypocritical judgment. Convicted in
their own consciences, the stones dropped to the ground and Jesus was left alone
with the woman. "Where are your
accusers? Has no man condemned you?" he asked her, to which she responded, "No
man, Lord." She didn't justify her
sin, and confessed Christ to be Lord. He then forgave her on condition of her
repentance: "Neither do I condemn you: go and sin no more." First of all, this was no
great new dispensationalist way to deal with penitent sinners. God forgave repentant capital criminals
in the Old Testament, too (King David, murderer of Uriah and adulterer with
Basheba). Secondly, it would have
been unlawful for Jesus to put her to death even if she was still
impenitent. Executions were to take
place publicly and the witnesses were to be the first to put her to death - the
witnesses had left and Jesus was alone with the woman. Furthermore, Leviticus 20:10 says,
"And the man that committeth adultery with another man's wife, even he that
committeth adultery with his neighbour's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress
shall surely be put to death." The
Pharisees claimed that the woman was caught in the act, so where was the
man?! One of the Pharisees’ sins
was not executing God’s judgment properly! So the law of Moses did not demand her
execution in this instance and Jesus, therefore, did not neglect it by pardoning
her on condition of repentance. I
conclude, therefore, that this passage does not undermine, but rather affirms
the God-ordained sanction against adultery in God’s criminal justice
system. Common rebuttal
#2: The
rebuttal comes, "Turn the other cheek", "Forgive, and ye shall be forgiven",
"Love your enemy", and "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord."
Response: These passages are indeed
reconcilable with the concept of justice aforementioned. We have an obligation to be slow to
judge and quick to forgive, to have a merciful, generous, and longsuffering
disposition toward those who offend us.
You may forgive someone who is killing you, but you have no obligation
nor right to forgive someone who kills someone else. You may even forgive a thug who is
raping you, but you have no right to forgive one who is raping a little baby to
death with a sharp surgical instrument while he is yet in his mother's
womb! Murderers should be executed
according to God's Word, our refusal to hold a personal grudge and willingness
to feed our enemy when he's hungry notwithstanding. C. God’s criminal justice
system provides an adequate disincentive. There would not be many
capital criminals in a society where capital criminals were executed. The disincentive is sufficient to keep
people from committing capital crimes.
God’s Word gives us this promise: after God commands a capital punishment
upon capital criminals, God says, Deuteronomy
13: 11 And all Israel shall hear, and
fear, and shall do no more any such wickedness as this is among
you. Capital punishment means
less capital crimes according to the God of the Bible, the standard of
righteousness and justice! That's good not only for the would-be victims, but
also for would-be capital criminals who would be effectively discouraged from
acting out their lust to the detriment of their neighbor. D. Executions were a public
matter. One of the reasons that the
disincentive was so strong was that the executions are to take place
publicly. The purpose of
execution according to God was that Israel would witness it, and be motivated to
fear God and obey. Furthermore,
the people were to participate in the execution. There wasn’t any “professional
executioners.” The Bible says that
the witnesses to the crime were to be the first to throw the stones of
justice. That the people witnessed
and participated in the execution of justice firmly impressed upon their minds
the disincentive that God wanted these executions to be. E. The laws would be simple
and clear. The amazing thing about the
law of God is how few moral laws there are. The Jews under the Law of Moses enjoyed
great liberty. We, on the other
hand, have thousands of pages of laws and regulations, some contradictory, which
govern every single aspect of our lives, from where we can fish to what we can
drive to what we can eat to what we wear to how much water your toilet must
drain with every flush! The
multitudes of laws and regulations turns everybody in America into a criminal in
one way or another. F. Prisons are unbiblical.
There would be no prisons if
a society enforced the law of God.
The principle behind these criminal training centers is wrong -
tax-subsidized groceries, utilities, weight benches, television, etc. That the law-abiding citizens, that the
victims, should have to pay taxes to pay the groceries of the criminals, pay to
keep them warm in winter, cool in summer, pay to educate them, medicate them,
legally defend them, entertain them – all of this is fundamentally wrong, and a
poor impediment to crime. The
sanction for a crime should be an impediment to crime. But life in prison is better than life
on the streets for many homeless drug-addicts, rapists, and murderers, and is
therefore a poor impediment to crime. G. Executions would take
place quickly. Delayed justice is
injustice. When we do execute a
criminal in America, we do not do it in accordance with God's law. Men that are executed are often done so
10-20 years after the crime was committed.
One of the aims of the punishment was to leave the distinct impression
upon society that those who commit the crime that was fresh on everybody’s
memory would get this punishment.
But by the time they execute capital criminals in our society, people
forgot all about the crime! This
dilutes the disincentive effect of God’s criminal justice system.
Ecclesiastes
8: 11 If the sentence is not executed
speedily, then the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil"
H. Attorneys are unbiblical. There
would be no professional lawyers according to God's law, only judges and
witnesses. There would be no
purpose for court lawyers if a society enforced the law of God. Lawyers discriminate against the poor,
who cannot afford them, and equal justice is impossible. God’s justice would never favor the rich
over the poor. Lawyers are masters
of perverting the laws and the judgments thereof, concealing evidence, clouding
the issue, giving emotional appeals, defending those they know are guilty, for
the sake of money, and this can never be right.
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