Dwindling In Unbelief: Collision: Are Douglas Wilson's beliefs good for the world? Part 2

I came across a blog article attempting to systemize the "cultic" beliefs of Doug Wilson. I like Doug Wilson and I have been blessed to hear some of his lectures and debates and I am quite impressed. The writer of this particular article is not impressed or happy in the slightest regrading what Dr. Wilson stands for. I'd like to respond to this writer because I want to affirm that about a great many things Wilson is correct. This second post deals with Doug Wilson's stance on: On the Law, Homosexuality, and the Sin of Pity". My comments will be in read, the writer of the original article's words will be black.

On the Law, Homosexuality, and the Sin of Pity

The entire legal system would depend on one book: the Bible.

Let's pretend, just for a moment, that we could have it our way. The great revival we have been praying for has occurred, and every executive, legislator, and bureaucrat in the capital has just been saved. Knowing they ought to begin applying Scripture in their jobs, but not knowing how to go about it, they come to you and your church for advice. What will you tell them? How should they apply God's law?

Looking at the Bible with an eye toward applying it in the civil realm, several things become apparent. First, it is pretty small. … [O]n the average, a little over 1,000 pages. Think of the money governments will save on printing and shelf space!

If biblical law is to be biblically applied, then the biblical punishment must be used.
. . .

Of course, there would be laws enforced against certain crimes which are currently ignored, such as homosexuality.

The list of crimes punishable by death would be a long one, and would include witchcraft, adultery, homosexuality, and cursing one's parents. Most people today would consider this cruel, but that's because they are guilty of the sin of pity. We should kill our family and friends, without pity, by stoning them to death if they believe in the wrong God. And we should cut off a woman's hand if she touches a man's private parts while defending her husband in a fight. And our eye must not pity her.

The civil magistrate is the minister of God to execute wrath on the wrongdoer (Rom. 13:4). God has not left his civil minister without guidance on how to exercise his office. The Scriptures set forth clear standards of judgment for many offenses. Capital crimes, for example, include premeditated killing (murder), kidnapping, sorcery, bestiality, adultery, homosexuality, and cursing one's parents (Ex. 21:14; 21:16; 22:18; 22:19; Lev. 20:10; 20:13; Ex. 21:17).

In contemporary American jurisprudence, none of these offenses is punishable by death, with the occasional exception of murder. The magistrates have dispensed with God's standards of justice. Some Christians believe this is an improvement. They would be horrified to think that the "harsh" penalties of the law should still be applied. Sometimes this is the result of the mistaken belief that the Old Testament has no further application after the advent of Christ. This is an exegetical problem. Too often, it is the result of a sinful view of the criminal. This sin is called pity. … Why is pity a sin?

First, pity is not always a sin. But neither is it always good. … God included in the law specific prohibitions against the exercise of pity in meting out punishment.

If your brother, the son of your mother, your son or your daughter, the wife of your bosom, or your friend who is as your own soul, secretly entices you, saying, "Let us go and serve other gods,". . . you shall not consent to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him or conceal him; but you shall surely kill him . . . (Deut. 13:6-9).

If two men fight together, and the wife of one draws near to rescue her husband from the hand of the one attacking him, and puts out the hand and seizes him by the genitals, then you shall cut off her hand; your eye shall not pity her. (Deut. 25:11, 12).

God commands the judge to evaluate the crime rather than the criminal. If the crime is one for which God requires death, then death must be the punishment. Your eye shall not pity. … Thus, the Bible teaches that pity is not an option where God has decided the matter. The magistrate, God's minister, is to faithfully execute justice according to God's standard, not man's

I agree with Wilson. The only way you  can't is if you disagree with God. Theses crimes are so horrific to God that it demands final and complete punishment because if it was allowed then it would spread like a cancer to all the society. I mean people who disagree with this today are in fact saying that witchcraft, adultery, homosexuality, and cursing one's parents isn't really that bad - certainly not deserving of a death penalty.If you notice that these crimes addressed so harshly condemned for Ancient Theocratic Israel are no longer thought today to be wrong and has been allowed and encouraged in our society today. These same things have become pervasive in our culture along with all the negative consequences that go with them. Those laws were designed to spare God's people of those consequences.  We've got abortion, juvenile delinquency, broken families, generations of children sans mother and/or father, and the occult masquerading as a legitimate faith. Of course our world is broken. We broke it because we disobey God. We deserve what we have. Which why pity was and will be withheld.

As for trying to apply theses standards today....I see no reason to assume that the standard is no longer valid because it shows God's character and that does not change. However we are not told to implement the punishments that were in place in theocratic Israel and I see nothing in Doug Wilson's theology that says we should only that if we re-instituted God's standards we would all be better off.  Wilson is right!

Dwindling In Unbelief: Collision: Are Douglas Wilson's beliefs good for the world?