webster...
""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"
It seems you did not read my reply closely - capital punishment is the responsibility of the government, not the individual, and does not conflict at all with the teaching of Jesus which you quote and which does apply to the individual.
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"The fact that Jesus acquiesced to His execution at the hands of civil authorities can hardly be interpreted as approval for capital punishment."
Even less so can it be seen as an argument against capital punishment. More telling is the fact that He did not utter a word against the execution of the other two men.
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"My original point was that the New Testament does not demand capital punishment."
Demand?? No, the New Testament does not demand capital punishment, nor did I say that it did. It does support the idea of capital punishment though, and most certainly does not argue against it.
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"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"
Again you did not carefully read what I wrote - I said that we are to obey the dictates of government except when they conflict with the commandments and teachings of God. Even then, we are to submit to the results of our disobedience.
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"if you believe that, then you must necessarily believe that the actions of Saddamm Huessein, the civil authority in Iraq, are justified by God."
No, your logic is faulty and the conclusion does not follow the premise. God never justifies evil, nor does He condone it. You are making a straw man argument that does not stand up under inspection and is not what I said, nor is it what the Bible says.
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"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."
Frankly that is one I have not thought about, much less researched, and the only verses that come to mind (other than obeying civil government) are where slaves are enjoined from anything but good service to their masters, although masters are encouraged to free their slaves. Without study, I would have to pass on that one.
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"To say the NT favors capital punishment by making 3rd order inferences of what is written - is a mockery of the Word."
"3rd order inferences??" I included several direct quotes that are germaine to the subject. At some point you have to either agree with or reject what the Bible clearly says, even if it disagrees with your position.
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"My beef is the perversion of the Bible by revisionists of the last 100 years."
On that we agree completely - but if you check history, the biblical revisionists of the last hundred years are those liberal "christians" who understand what the Bible says, but choose to reject it by redacting what they do not like and claiming that it is really not part of the Bible. They are condemned by their own words.
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"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."
That is why I always tell everyone to not believe other men, but like the Bereans, check everything out by searching the scriptures to see if it is true. Keep all statements in context, compare scripture to scripture, and examine unclear passages in the light of more clear ones. Never take my word for anything, nor that of anyone else nor that of any church - Sola Scriptura - only the scriptures are the final arbiter.
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