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ISLAMIC
JUSTICE!
Hands
and Feet Amputated!
A news
report came out on January 11, 2008, that made the daily
news. Americans
and many others were dismayed by the report, assailing
the contents as cruel and sadistic. According
to The New York Times, Islamic Law in Iran required
the amputation of the right hands and left feet of five
criminals. These men, convicted of robbery, suffered this fate because
of their misdeeds and according to the Muslim requirement
of strict punishment. In
addition to this criminal punishment, seven men were hanged
because of murder and drug smuggling in Iranian cities. This
also would arouse the condemnation of many in more liberal
countries.
Non-Islamic
people may condemn this kind of criminal punishment, but
we should thoughtfully consider the matter more carefully. We
must acknowledge that God’s own Law, given through Moses
some 3,500 years ago, required certain punishments that
contemporary man would also ridicule and denounce.
God, through
Moses, declared, “You shall appoint as a penalty life for
life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot
for foot, burn for burn, wound for would, bruise for bruise” (Exodus
21:23-25). Later,
in Leviticus 25:19-20, we read this similar statute: “If
a man injures his neighbor, just as he has done, so it
shall be done to him: fracture for fracture, eye for eye,
tooth for tooth; just as he has injured a man, so it shall
be inflicted on him.” We
may wonder if there should have been pity for one
who was found guilty of such sins and crimes. God
answered: “You
shall not show pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth
for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot” (Deut.
19:21).
In our
reaction against the Muslim practice of Islamic Law, we
should be careful that we do not likewise condemn the strict
justice that was demanded by God during the Mosaic period. This
justice was required in the very Law of God Himself!
How should
the Christian today
look upon criminal punishment? First, we
should not object to the governmental infliction of rightful
and just punishment on a criminal that has been found guilty. Paul, the apostle, plainly says that we should “be in subjection
to the governing authorities” (Rom. 13:1). Further, “if
you do what is evil, be afraid, for it does not bear the
sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger
who brings wrath on the one who practices evil” (v. 4). God
has the rightful governmental authorities inflict appropriate
punishment on evildoers of society (cf. 1 Peter. 2:13-14). Even
at the time of Noah, God gives this principle: “Whoever
sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed, for
in the image of God He made man” (Gen. 9:6). This
would seem to indicate that there would be many thousands
of people in America and many more around the world who
should—under God’s direction—be put to death because of
murder. Not
only murderers, however, but all criminals should be punished. This
should include thieves, robbers, child-abusers, kidnappers,
and others.
Second, we
would observe that there is much miscarriage of justice
in this world. No
nation perfectly carries out civil penalties, as God would
want. Sinful
men make mistakes and sinful men often wrongfully punish
ones who should not be punished and allow true criminals
to go free or experience very light sentences. One
day God will exercise perfect punishment, according to
His righteousness, justice, and wrath. God “will
render to each person according to his deeds. . . . there
is no partiality with God” (Romans 2:6, 11).
Third, the
Christian operates in an entirely different realm. We
are part of a spiritual kingdom rather than a worldly one
(John 18:36). While
the civil government operates according to justice that
should punish the evildoer (Romans 13:1-7), the follower
of Christ is under the higher law of love and mercy that
seeks to redeem the sinner and reclaim the criminal (see
Romans 12:14-21). God
will exercise rightful vengeance in His own good time and
there is a Day of Judgment coming (Romans 12:19; Matthew
25:31-46). The
Christian loves even his enemies (Luke 6:27-28).
If Islamic
nations exercise certain punishments, let us be careful
to weigh the matter before we utter wrongful accusations. Let
us look at this as God would want and not as humanistic
ideas would suggest or a philosophy that would demand more
rights for the criminal than the one who has suffered at
the hands of wicked men!
Richard
Hollerman
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