Catacomb Resident Blog

Justice: Restoration versus Punishment

26 August 2024

When you begin to dig deeper into the biblical value system, it makes cultural and social evil more obvious.

In the Bible, torment is a mark of Satan. Biblical justice aims at building and maintaining social stability based on God's moral character. Thus, the primary concern in catching and judging sinners is removing the threat to social stability. If it is possible to restore a loss, that is required. If not, it's wholly wrong to artificially imagine a debt that does not exist. The western punitive "justice system" is demonic, aiming to torment violators.

It's not a question of whether torment happens, but whether torment is the goal.

If there is no path to making good on losses, then the next concern is whether the violation points to an ongoing threat. If so, the focus is removing the threat. It depends on the nature of the sin. Some sins are so grave, presenting serious threats to stability, and demand execution. A grisly execution is not torment; it is simply demonstrative, a message to remind the community what God takes seriously. This is reserved for threats that defile the community and alienate them from God's character.

Other sins do not warrant execution, but expulsion from the area because their sins threaten the fabric of the community, but aren't inherently defiling. Some sins require only ostracism within the community. The point is not spite, but recognizing that someone does not love their community enough to act like family. Other violations call for restrictions that take away the violator's freedom to choose how they spend their day. You'll notice that the way Scripture defines things, prison is virtually no different from slavery. The only distinction is how one got into that set of restrictions. Everything builds back into the community.

You'll notice how none of this punishes the community the way western prison systems do. There is no need to torment the violator, a course of action that requires a lot of resources and manpower. The whole point in the prison/slavery system is not tormenting, but filling the violator's life with discipline and purpose that gives back to the community in concrete ways. The biblical focus is redemptive when possible.

Satan provokes vindictiveness; God promotes healing and restoration.


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