Replies

“May I reference the New Covenant?”

I don’t know, was the U.S. Constitution based on the New Covenant?

The New Covenant does not apply to those who are not participants in the Covenant.

“In the Old Testament, under the Law, justice was eye for an eye. There’s a distinction between then, and now.”

Do you think the New Covenant means that God was unjust under the Old one?

The Church operates under the New Covenant, but the Kingdom of God is not yet on the earth. And the earth operates under God-ordained government with citizens who are NOT necessarily Christian.

What you are both advocating MIGHT apply to Christians who are being persecuted for their faith. Christ’s sermon on the mount was not for modeling our criminal justice system by. We could as easily cite His parable in which God is pictured as a king who is willing to put people in the dungeon and torture them. We don’t model our government upon these patterns either. Consider, for example, the parable of the widow appealing to a judge for justice. Christ says that God will AVENGE His own elect.

The Church does not (though it has wrongly done so in the past) execute people. God-ordained governments do.

Re-read the passage to which you are referring when it comes to not following the “eye-for-an-eye”. Christ is talking about how His followers treat others.

Matthew 5:17-18, 38-39
Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled...
You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.

Would have turning the other cheek to mean allowing criminals to burn your babies to death?

Would you do away with the justice system altogether and just forgive such criminals? That is not what Jesus was talking about.

Romans 13:1-4
Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.

The purpose of eye-for-an-eye criminal justice is to deter would-be criminals and cause them to treat others as the would-be criminals wish to be treated.

If the woman who burned this baby to death had known she was going to get the same, it just might have kept her from committing this wicked act in the first place. But by being overly merciful to wicked criminals, our failing judicial system will result in others assuming they will never pay for their crimes. And we will see MORE of the same. This harms EVERYONE. Even the criminals are harmed because the law does not offer sufficient motivation to deter them from their crimes.