Bob R:
It seems impossible that the same God wrote the OT “eye for an eye” and the NT “turn the other cheek”. This is but one differing ideology that is conflicting between the two Testaments. Can anyone explain this?
Thanks
- Bob
These statements do NOT conflict. The Church still teaches (and always will since it’s doctrine!) that legitimate governments have the authority to exercise the death penalty
when necessary. Jesus’s statement to “love you enemy” is most certainly true. St. Thomas Aquinas exlained that to love is “to will the good of another.” There is not one death row inmate that I do not wish to be saved (though this does not take away from the fact that he’s still my enemy). However, IMHO, modern ideologies have changed the meaning of “love” to: withholding due justice and temporal punishment from wrongdoers. This has led to pacificism in the Church on all issues from war to the DP. The Catholic Church has NEVER taught pacifism! We are fighters (ie. - Crusaders, Conquistadors, the Notre Dame Fightin’ Irish, and I could go on and on) and always have been. After all, remember what Christ said in Matthew 10:34 (refer to my signature
). Now, as far as “turning the other cheek,” this also holds true, but in no way conflicts with the idea of capital punishment. Christ was saying that we should not lash back in
vengeance. Many will claim that the DP is used as revenge, but it is not (at least not in America considering we take 20 years to execute people!
); however, if it is being used in that manner, then it is wrong. In his book entitled The Catechism Explained, Fr. Francis Spirago explains:
“The officers of justice, in as far as they stand in the place of God, have the right to sentence evil-doers to capital punishment. . . . The authority of the magistrate is God’s authority; when he condemns a criminal, it is not he who condemns him, but God. . . .
Yet the judge must not act arbitrarily; he must only sentence the criminal to death when the welfare of society demands it. Human society is a body of which each individual is a member; and as a diseased limb has to be amputated in order to save the body, so criminals must be executed to save society. As a matter of course the culprit’s guilt must be proved; better let the guilty go free than condemn the innocent.
It is an error to suppose that the Church advocates capital punishment on the principle of retaliation; an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. This is a principle of Judaism, not of Christianity. The Church does not like to see blood shed, she desires that every sinner should have time to amend.
She permits, but does not approve capital punishment.”
PS - Suggesting that the God of the O.T. and N.T. are different is what the Gnostics did.
“For I, Yahueh–
I change not; therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed.” Mal. 3:6
“Long ago you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you endure; they will all wear out like a garment. You change them like clothing, and they pass away; but
you are the same, and your years have no end.” Psa. 102:25-27
“Jesus Christ:
the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” Heb. 13:8
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”
(Matthew 5:17-19)
). God also protects His children in the OT (read the Exodus). He pretty much destroys Egypt to protect Israel.
