When God gave His law to Israel, His words to Moses were clear: "He who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death." (Exodus 21:12).
Note that in these verses God distinguishes between murder and execution, something death penalty opponents fail to do. Elsewhere in Scripture God distinguishes between murder and the killing of enemies during war, which anyone who values our national freedom must do.
In His law God also distinguished between premeditated murder and accidental manslaughter. The person guilty of the latter was allowed to live, though confined in one of six cities of refuge in Israel.
When Jesus came upon the crowd about to stone the adulterous woman, His dispute with them was about the legality of the proceedings, not about the intended punishment prescribed by the Mosaic Law.
Times may have changed since God spoke to Noah and to Moses, since Jesus' encounter with the adulteress. But God hasn't changed. Neither has humanity. And neither has morality.
JON BARTA
Valley Baptist Church
Burbank
Morality is not determined by man, but by God. If that were not the case then it's feasible that people, left without His spiritual compass, may one day vote that murder and drug-dealing are no longer criminal, and that robbery and rape should be left "to each his own." In this day of moral relativity, people are very limp-wristed when it comes to judging wrong from right.
