So, my question is, do you think our courts would be in better shape if we had the following rule/law?
Deuteronomy 18
16 “If a malicious witness comes forward and accuses someone of a crime, 17 then both the accuser and accused must appear before the Lord by coming to the priests and judges in office at that time. 18 The judges must investigate the case thoroughly. If the accuser has brought false charges against his fellow Israelite, 19 you must impose on the accuser the sentence he intended for the other person. In this way, you will purge such evil from among you. 20 Then the rest of the people will hear about it and be afraid to do such an evil thing.
My thought is that our current day in age, with all of the endless lawsuits, etc. If someone knew that if they didn't win their case, they would have to pay the amount they sought, it would definitely filter out a lot of nonsense and the only people who would really pursue any type of retribution would be the ones who truly have been wronged.
The other side of the coin though, is that this would also increase the likelihood of people not prosecuting a crime because they didn't have enough evidence to know for certain they would win--sometimes allowing criminals to escape.
So what is better? Allowing some of the guilty to get off free, or having some of the innocent, end up being found guilty? I think God is saying he rather not have false accusations.
One other thing to note here is that the verse before says that in order to be convicted of a crime, there must be at least two to three witnesses. This practice could also let some guilty people off if only one person had seen the crime.
So with all that said, and knowing that God will ultimately judge all of us one day, I much rather be in a world that does not find Innocent people to be guilty. Knowing full well that some guilty people may not be convicted. They will have their day of reckoning whether or not we find them guilty.
Thoughts?
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2 comments:
wow. very interesting.
i like God's law better, and i like your reasoning.
I didn't know you had a blog, good thing ms. corinn pointed you out.
anywho, I like that idea, about the if the person accuses falsely they have to accept the punishment they were having to put on the other person. But i could only see that within the church, not through our secular nation-state.
Unfortunately, when our system is based around racism and sexism, and the vast majority of cases just come down to who pays their lawyers the most money, we couldn't institute anything like that without just furthering those institutions of racism, sexism and corruption.
I'd like to take your suggestion one step further, though i suppose few would agree with me, and not try to take any of our brothers and sisters to court. I dream that we could allow only God's justice, and know that we will have our reward if we have been persecuted for righteousness sake.
For Jesus came not to rule, force, judge, accuse, or have anyone accused before him. Rather he came to serve, and to allow himself to be ruled over, forced, accused, judged, condemned and mistreated.
For we follow the cross rather than the sword, the banner of love above any flag, the One who rides a donkey instead of a warhorse. Let us follow the slaughtered lamb. And leave all our notions of justice to the only One who is truly just. Alleluia.
well here i go getting all worked up again. I'm excited to hear more of your thoughts.
peace and love,
~T. Brandon
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