Types of Execution

[VirginiaHuguenot]

didn't Dahmer die in jail. Also didn't one of those guys (Dahmer or Bundy or someone) confess Christ shortly before before killed in jail?

Yes.

Jeffrey Dahmer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Fatal Addiction: Ted Bundy's Final Interview

Also see this:

http://www.puritanboard.com/f16/ted-bundys-statement-12416/

 

[kvanlaan]

This is relevant only tangentially, but I found a lot of insight into the practical side of this issue in reading "Cry, the Beloved Country" by Alan Paton.

 

[govols]

I think we are obligated not to cause needless pain, even while executing death for a legal matter. We carry out the sentence based on the weight of the execution (i.e. final result death) not in the pain inflcited on the way to that final end. Otherwise, we would have state advocated torture.


Suppose then that a killer killed a person with a chainsaw, limb by limb....who would be the State Executioner in that case?

My head agrees with you, Perg, but my heart is asking what if the one murdered by a chainsaw was (God forbid) a family member?

That is when I get put in jail with that person ...

 

[Jimmy the Greek]

Calvin says:

For they bear not the sword in vain, etc. It is another part of the office of magistrates, that they ought forcibly to repress the waywardness of evil men, who do not willingly suffer themselves to be governed by laws, and to inflict such punishment on their offenses as God's judgment requires; for he expressly declares, that they are armed with the sword, not for an empty show, but that they may smite evil-doers.

And then he says, An avenger, to execute wrath, 1 etc. This is the same as if it had been said, that he is an executioner of God's wrath; and this he shows himself to be by having the sword, which the Lord has delivered into his hand. This is a remarkable passage for the purpose of proving the right of the sword; for if the Lord, by arming the magistrate, has also committed to him the use of the sword, whenever he visits the guilty with death, by executing God's vengeance, he obeys his commands. Contend then do they with God who think it unlawful to shed the blood of wicked men.

Gill says:

for he beareth not the sword in vain. The "sword" is an emblem of the power of life and death, the civil magistrate is invested with, and includes all sorts of punishment he has a right to inflict; and this power is not lodged in him in vain; he may and ought to make use of it at proper times, and upon proper persons:

for he is the minister of God; as is said before, he has his mission, commission, power and authority from him; and is

a revenge to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil; he is a defender of the laws, a vindicator of divine justice, an avenger of the wrongs of men; and his business is to inflict proper punishment, which is meant by wrath, upon delinquents.

I think with Calvin and Gill, you have all you need for an answer. In part, the "sword" is not to be taken so literally, but as indicating the role of civil governement as a judge and enforcer.