Although the Decalogue clearly prohibits murder, it doesn't prescribe what punishment should be applied to that sin. Why? Because God had established the punishment due to this particular sin/crime long before, cf. Gen 9:6. The death penalty was at least implied even long before God spoke of this injunction to Noah to our first parents in Gen. 4:15, where it appears that death upon murderers was a known and practiced punishment. The point being that the death penalty was in practice from creation (cf. Gen 2:16, 17; 3:5).

Israel, when it was in existence in the OT was a theocracy; church and government combined. In the new covenant, the Church and the civil government are separate and thus all corporal punishment has been relegated to the civil government while the Church has retained punishment for sin in a non-corporal manner, e.g., admonishment, rebuke and excommunication.

Does that help? <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/scratchchin.gif" alt="" />

In His grace,

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simul iustus et peccator

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