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Humanistic law flouts God's law BY NICHOLAS R HOLMAN is, the apple," i.e., the environment, Special to the News & Record the world man lives in. From such a

perspective, it is wrong to blame Our society is plagued with many man. The world must be remade by

ills. One of these is crime. Re- man to be fit for man. To punish cently, the death penalty has cap- man is thus seen as evil: it is God, tured much of our attention. who made the world - and the Individuals, families, and groups men who, under God, established debate the subject, as they have God's law-order - who must be done for centuries, to no avail. punished. Thus, between Biblical

Perhaps it would be helpful if our law and humanistic law lie an un-society had a clear and concise way bridgeable gap and an unceasing to deal with crime, particularly warfare. murder. The principle involved in the

From a Christian viewpoint, the Biblical law of punishment is stated , issue is quite clear. The Bible in Exodus 21:23-25: "Thou shalt clearly teaches capital punishment give life for life, eye for eye, tooth as a means to deal with such hei- for tooth, hand for hand, foot for nous acts as premeditated murder. foot, burning for burning, wound The Bible advocates the death pen- for wound, stripe for stripe." Some alty in the Old Testament and un- ~hoose to interpret this literally, dergirds its use in the New but the very context (Exodus Testament. 21:1-36), a delineation of offenses

The death penalty appears at the and penalties, makes clear that it nset of God's covenant with NuafC--1ueans that the punishment must fit

"And surely your blood of your the crime; it must be proportionate lives will I require; at the hand of to the offense, neither lesser nor every beast I will require it, and at greater_ This principle is restated the hand of man; at the hand of in Leviticus 24:17-21 and Deuteron-every man's brother will I require omy 19:21. the life of man. Whoso sheddeth The New Testament, contrary to man's blood, by man sball his blood popular opinion, neither negates be shed: for in the image of God nor eradicates this stance. Jesus made he him" (Genesis 9:5-6). taught his followers to forgive

Not only every murderer but ev- seven times 70. Moreover, he never ery animal which kills a man must advised anyone to take personal pay with its life: God requires this revenge. Jesus said plainly, "I have of a country and brings judgment not come to destroy the law and the finally for non-compliance. As H.B prophets." Yet his chief apostle, Rand noted in the Digest of the Paul of Tarsus, penned a remark-Divine Law, "Contrary to popular able truth in Romans 13. He stated belief, the Bible does not hold life that the governing authorities were cheaply. It is a serious thing to take to instill fear in would-be law-life, and for the taking of life the breakers, not that criminals should murderer forfeits his life." For this instill fear in the rest of society. reason, there can be no ransoming Today the honest, good and decent or pardoning of murder (as distin- citizens live behind fences and guished from accidental killing) barred doors, while the murderers nor a ransom taken, for to do so is roam unhindered in the streets_ to defile the land where God dwells If we would apply the simple law in the midst of His people (Num- used by the Israelites, some clarity bers 35:29-34). would be given to an issue some-

In terms of Biblical law, the re- times lost in the moral ambiguity in quired modes of punishment, as our nation. summarized by Rand, were: This may seem harsh at first, but

• The death penalty for capital anyone who loves his fellow man offenses. desires a society in which he is free

• Whipping from one to 40 to live without fear. stripes for minor offenses.

• In cases of stealing and de- The Rev Njchqlas R. Holman is pastor of Cornerstone Baptist StruCtiO~. Of another man's prop- CLuvnL ;_ C r=char.a._ ~

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a e to m e restitution, or pay the fine, were compelled to contribute their work and labor until the debt had been fully paid.

• Confinement in a city of refuge for accidental killing.

The replacement of this system by imprisonment is relatively re-cent; as late as 1771, a French crim-inologist wrote that imprisonment was permissible only in the case of people awaiting trial. But today, prison is all there is: the death penalty is out of fashion.

The prison system, a humanistic device, is now under attack by the humanists, who want to replace it with the mental institution and psy-chiatric retraining. However, since their theory holds that a sick soci-ety breeds sick men or criminals, the major attempt is to have psy-chological reconditioning (or brain-washing) of all people by me~ of the schools, pulpit, press, and tele-vision. Humanistic environmental-ism requires such an approach.

This humanistic environmental-ism is a form of the same basic ~ evolutionary faith that was formu- 1 lated by Lamarck: Man can be and is determined by his environment and by acquired characteristics rather than by his own inner being. Not man's sin but the world around him determines man's will. 1

Lincoln Steffens, in referring to 1 man's fall, blamed neither Adam ,

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