Zeev's Turnips Talk Politics (ZTTP)

[webster groves]

One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?" "The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these." Mark 12:28-31

I think the New Testament makes it quite clear which are the greatest laws - see above. The fact that Jesus acquiesced to His execution at the hands of civil authorities can hardly be interpreted as approval for capital punishment. My original point was that the New Testament does not demand capital punishment. The Old Testament does allow such punishment in very certain cimcumstances (much more restrictive than the laws of Texas, mind you). You must decide which to follow - the Old Law or the New. Your numerous NT citations are admonitions to submit to civil authority. They are not precepts that such authority is necessarily correct in the eyes of God. For if you believe that, then you must necessarily believe that the actions of Saddamm Huessein, the civil authority in Iraq, are justified by God. Which is it going to be ? Also, as a loyal American (I assume), do you believe our founding fathers were disobeying God when they revolted against King George - the civil authority at the time. To say the NT favors capital punishment by making 3rd order inferences of what is written - is a mockery of the Word.

My beef is the perversion of the Bible by revisionists of the last 100 years. They say the Bible means this and the Bible means that - when what they are really saying is only that the Bible means what I want it to mean. Whatever it takes to gather a flock that wants simple answers to difficult questions. So they get simple answers - but by what authority ? If you say the Bible - which Bible. If the church - which Church. In the end people believe what they want to believe.