Wacky Wednesday--Heretics Should Be Executed

Note: Before reading the following arguments, please understand that they are not what I believe. On Wednesdays, I deliberately argue for wrong ideas, challenging my listeners to call and defend the obvious right answer, which is usually far harder than one would expect. This is a summary of what Wacky Andrew will be arguing, not a representation of what real Andrew believes.

~A proof
1. Murderers should be executed.
2. Heresy is false doctrine which leads people away from salvation.
3. Salvation is a person’s eternal soul destiny, either to be with God or to be in hell.
4. A person’s soul destiny is far more significant than a person’s mere life here and now.
5. Heresy is therefore a worse crime than murder.
6. At the very least, the punishment should be what it is for murder.
~Though it is not in vogue currently, numerous people have been executed for heresy (often even being tortured for it) in the past for precisely these reasons by people who cared about the doctrines of Christ.
~The Old Testament gives us several theological grounds for capital punishment, including blasphemy, Sabbath-breaking, and witchcraft.
~Wouldn’t you rather live in a society which at least takes religious doctrine seriously enough to kill over it rather than one (like ours) where apathy is the public virtue of record?
~Wouldn’t you rather live in a world where the Church had enough authority and political muscle to do something like this?
~The power to excommunicate and to accept into the Body of Christ sort of presupposes the power to do much lesser things, such as to the mere physical body, right?
~Ananias and Sapphira were killed for simply lying to God, let alone leading anyone astray by false doctrine.
~Do you think God shares your view that doctrine is so unimportant that anything should be tolerated?
~Isn’t the world better off without David Koresh and Jim Jones?
~Looking around at modern American society, how sure are you that unfettered freedom of religion is a great thing? Don’t you at least suspect that killing a few heretics along the way would have made things at least a little bit better?
~If you don’t believe in this, I have to wonder how serious you are about saving men’s souls.