Wednesday, February 16, 2011

CC--9th Commandment: Why is perjury so important?


--Since this is listed among other commands which were prohibiting capital offenses, the most strict way to understand this is the prohibition against perjury in capital cases.
--The Old Testament rule on perjury was that whatever penalty was to be inflicted against your victim would be visited upon the false testifier.
--This is a simple rule to understand since the person is abusing the legal system to do to someone else what would clearly be a crime if he did it directly. And so he deserves to be punished for that every bit as much as if he were simply doing the act himself. He’s using the courts as his weapon every bit as much as if he used a sword.

Deuteronomy 19
16"If a malicious witness rises up against a man to accuse him of wrongdoing,
17then both the men who have the dispute shall stand before the LORD, before the priests and the judges who will be in office in those days.
18"The judges shall investigate thoroughly, and if the witness is a false witness and he has accused his brother falsely,
19then you shall do to him just as he had intended to do to his brother. Thus you shall purge the evil from among you.
20"The rest will hear and be afraid, and will never again do such an evil thing among you.
21"Thus you shall not show pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

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