In the beginning, God’s law not only allowed but dictated the “eye for an eye” philosophy, a punishment system considered cruel and unusual punishment in today’s culture. The mandated death penalty at the time was probably a just punishment—without the threat of return death, people would have run amok. At the time of Christ’s birth, God changed, though, like almost any parent does at the first sight of their newborn. Christ came into the world for many reasons, and one of the most important ones was to bring God’s change of philosophy. In the alternative, God changed his philosophy at the time of Christ’s birth and made his pedagogy known to Christ as he matured.
The change of the death penalty can be determined in repeated references to the Christian tenets of forgiveness and treatment of prisoners. Dick Cheney is the anti-Christ of prisoner treatment.
