Jumpstarter 6 of 10

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Question 6

Bercot highlights “enlightened” laws (protections for indentured servants, limits on lashes, due process rights, refuge from abusive masters, protections for widows and children) alongside death penalties for “sins” like blasphemy, spiritism/witchcraft, adultery, and homosexual acts; how does this mixture expose the difference between importing Old Testament civil penalties and living under Jesus’ kingdom, and where do you see Christians today wanting the benefits of biblical morality without adopting Jesus’ way of mercy and discipline?

Another way to ask: What does it show when a society has some fair laws but also uses death penalties for “sins” like blasphemy, adultery, and homosexual acts? Where do Christians today want biblical morals enforced but resist Jesus’ way of mercy and correction?

Direct Answer Bercot presents Massachusetts as a society that could be advanced in civil protections yet still miss Jesus’ kingdom by using Old Testament-style death penalties for sins that should be handled by repentance and church discipline.

Support from Transcript:

He praises certain laws as “quite enlightened” and even “ahead of its time,” noting rights for servants, refuge from abusive masters, and limits like “no…more than 40 lashes.”
He lists due-process protections: no arrest/property seizure except by “written law,” right to bail (non-capital), appeal rights, equal application to foreigners, no double jeopardy, and no torture to force confession.
He then calls out the “bad side”: death penalty for blasphemy, other-god worship, spiritism/witchcraft, bestiality, male homosexuality, and adultery.
His interpretive key: “the Puritans lived in an Old Testament world, being mostly blind” to “laws and forgiveness that Jesus introduced.”
On witchcraft specifically, he says true kingdom Christians would not execute: “We aren’t living under Old Testament law…We should excommunicate…But that’s it.”

Discussion Follow-ups Where do Christians today emphasize controlling public sin through law while neglecting Jesus’ pattern of mercy, repentance, and spiritual discipline within the church?

Jumpstarter 6 of 10