Capital Punishment

For those who read the story of Noah, one cannot help but read the passage at the end of the story where God demands an accounting for the life of his fellow man.  Reading the passage, you see that in essence, God was deeming capital punishment not just permissible, but expected.  Why would a loving, kind God, who is our Beloved Father, not just allow, not just condone, but demand the life of a murderer?

The simple answer is this:  We are made in the image of God Himself.  To allow someone to take the life of another person, who was made in God’s image would be tantamount to defiling Himself.  Humanity is special in God’s eyes, and to allow people to wantonly take another person’s life would be to treat God with disdain.

If you read through the bible, you will notice that murderers and criminals were condemned to die, and the elderly and infant (the least capable of defending themselves) were to be protected at all costs.  In today’s world, the liberalist agenda has reversed those orders.  Criminals and murderers are receiving more and more protection from the system.  In contrast, men like Jack Kevorkian are taking lives and promoting “euthanasia.”  Our president-elect has made it very clear that he is supportive of abortion and would work to further abortion rights in America.  If there is any more telling evidence that our nation and our world is heading in the wrong direction from that desired by Holy GOD, I would be shocked.

I realize that God’s way is not the most popular way.  It just happens to be the right way.

Apologetics Tidbit #2

Okay, this time I am not delving so much into science.  Instead, lets look at history and mythology.  Why?  Well, first of all, nearly every culture on earth has a flood myth, which lends credence to the idea that there was a cataclysmic flood.  Otherwise, there would be no reason to believe that only Moses knew about it.  The fact that every culture has a flood story means that it is in the collective consciousness of nearly every culture, which means that it probably happened.  Now, to differentiate between some of them, the Hebrew version is the only one that seems plausible.  The most common example to refute the Bible is the Gilgamesh epic.  A couple problems, though.  First, Gilgamesh was told to build a boat that would dwarf the ark in only seven days.  Also, it took only seven days to flood the earth, and another seven to dry.  Another problem is that the boat shape of Gilgamesh’s ark was a giant box.  It wouldn’t last long in a real flood, as there would be no steering and it would not glide in the water.  It would have been capsized at some point.  Noah’s ark was a far superior design, and the time period was long enough that a horrible cataclysmic flood would not be impossible under that time frame.

God and mercy

God had every reason in the world to kill every airbreather on earth.  Mankind had decided, not unlike today, that they would rather be their own gods than to worship the true God.  God found only one man on all the earth that loved Him, and He saved him and his family from destruction.  God had every reason in the world to destroy humanity completely, but because of the faithfulness of one man, he did not.  He saved him, his family, and all the animals of the world.

A common refrain today is that God is different from the way he was in the Old Testament.  There are enough episodes of His mercy to humankind and His steadfast love even in the face of rejection in the Tanakh that prove otherwise.  To be faithful to lovingly preserve His creation for the sake of one man is evidence enough of His mercy.