Replies

Notice that he also equates the guilty prisoners in IL with an innocent man - Jesus. Like Pilate, Jackson would have let the murderer, Barrabas off the hook for his crimes.

DONATE TODAY!!!. SUPPORT FREE REPUBLIC

Donate Here By Secure Server

Or mail checks to
FreeRepublic , LLC
PO BOX 9771
FRESNO, CA 93794

or you can use

PayPal at Jimrob@psnw.com
STOP BY AND BUMP THE FUNDRAISER THREAD

In his reply to Governor Pilate, Jesus himself affirms that the authority to put to death has been given to the state by God:

So Pilate said to Him, "You do not speak to me? Do You not know that I have authority to release You, and I have authority to crucify You?" Jesus answered, "You would have no authority over Me, unless it had been given you from above. . . ."
--John 19:10-11

Here is what the Lutheran Confessions teach, on the basis of Holy Scripture, concerning the civil order and capital punishment. Notice that the Roman opponents did not disagree with what the Lutheran confessors had written in the Augsburg Confession. Both sides, the Lutherans and the Roman Catholics, approved of capital punishment. The current Bishop of Rome has departed from many centuries of Christian teaching when he now teaches against capital punishment.

The Apology of the Augsburg Confession, Article XVI: Of Political Order (1531):

The Sixteenth Article the adversaries receive without any exception, in which we have confessed that it is lawful for the Christian to bear civil office, sit in judgment, determine matters by the imperial laws, and other laws in present force, appoint just punishments, engage in just wars, act as a soldier . . . ; finally, that legitimate civil ordinances are good creatures of God and divine ordinances, which a Christian can use with safety. This entire topic concerning the distinction between the kingdom of Christ and a political kingdom has been explained to advantage in the literature of our writers, that the kingdom of Christ is spiritual . . . ; meanwhile it permits us outwardly to use legitimate political ordinances of every nation in which we live. . . . For the Gospel does not destroy the State or the family, but much rather approves them, and bids us obey them as a divine ordinance. . . . the Gospel does not introduce laws concerning the civil state, but is the remission of sins and the beginning of a new life in the hearts of believers; besides, it not only approves outward governments, but subjects us to them, Rom. 13, 1 . . . as divine ordinances. The Gospel forbids private redress. . . . Public redress, which is made through the office of the magistrate, is not advised against, but is commanded, and is a work of God, according to Paul, Rom. 13, 1 sqq. Now the different kinds of public redress are legal decisions, capital punishment, wars, military service.

The Large Catechism: The Fifth Commandment (1529):

Thou shalt not kill. . . . God and government are not included in this commandment, nor is the power to kill, which they have, taken away. For God has delegated His authority to punish evil-doers to the government. . . . Therefore, what is here forbidden is forbidden to the individual in his relation to any one else, and not to the government.