Thanks again for taking my questions, everyone.

I'm curious what some of your thoughts are concerning the fulfilling of the law in Matthew 5:17.

It's to my understanding that the greek term used for "Fulfill" here is "Plesori," a term that greek scholars have had some difficulty with, though the general consensus is that it means to "Fill up/fill full" or, "To complete."

There are some basic theories about this among various theologians-
1)That Jesus was only referring to the 10 Commandments. That doesn't make sense to me, personally.
2)That Jesus was referring to the entire OT and the prophets, to include the actual Torah laws. I think this one makes a lot of sense.
3)That Jesus was specifically referring to the law itself, this to include all 613 of the ancient laws God gave to the Jews, and He fulfilled the spiritual intent of such, which of course validates a certain premise with #1 and 2 as well.

For whatever reason I went through a tremendous struggle with certain portions of this, though with the help of many dear Christian friends along the way, certainly Jesus Himself, I've managed to resolve each and every emotional conflict and source of confusion concerning the OT laws to the best of my ability-I actually got through it where I can definately say now with all honesty that I fully believe this all adds up and that every Word in that OT was inspired by God.

I went into such a panic for well over a year as I attempted to get through all of the pathways within the law itself, but again, I can say with complete certainty now that I feel it all adds up and that Jesus did indeed fulfill the spiritual intent of the law, that goes without saying.

In terms of the final question I have for all of you, which is the second question I ask you here, if I can use capital punishment once again for example's sake, how does one specifically substantiate some of God's evolving perspectives concerning such, which plays into a larger sub-theme of the Bible itself-

By this I mean, Christians will point to Romans 13 and the law itself to substantiate the necessity for the death penalty. Despite not ever wanting to see people put to death like this from the heart, I understand that this is a Biblical reality now so we must respect God's Word in such case.

At the same time, however, and this remains a source of mass confusion for me, what if there's a King David sitting on death row right now, a gentleman who might have snapped or something and ended up killing somebody but whose heart might be completely right with God.

While God did indeed punish David for the strategic murder he was involved with in relation to the affair, He did not go about justice in the same way that the law would demand-in this case, David's own life, not his child's. Something like that has to be the most confusing thing to sort out in the head I could ever think of, and this is the one final area I'm still trying to resolve.

In such case, was David the only single person in history that quite literally broke God's law from the standpoint of what he did which would have called for his own death, only for God to take the matter into His own hands and overide the very rules He Himself gave for the entire nation?

A person can try to justify this all they want, but the simple fact of the matter is that David clearly broke the "Do not murder" law, that which called for the death penalty-that of his own life-but God went about a different plan of sorts, taking the life of an innocent child in place of David who should've been put to death for the offense according to God's own law.

Well, alright-take a case of a 3 yr old molestation victim coming from an altogether broken home that goes on to kill a man that tries to rape her once she's 21, 22. From the age of 3 to 21, she had done everything in her life to get through the emotional trauma of her childhood, then once she's in college at a college party a boyfriend betrays her and tries to rape her on a first or second date, and she kills him. In between it all, however, she had spent her life volunteering at the church to help rape victims, the poor, selfless service all around.

My uncle, a devout Christian down in GA, couldn't stand Bush from day one because he put to death a woman while governor in TX because of a similar story I can't recall right now, but he felt that she could've done a lot for those in prison to find Christ because this lady had evidently been raped as a child and killed a man later in life that had attempted to rape her. Once she was in prison, though, she found Christ, and it was legitimate-she became an Evangelical while in prison but evidently Bush still pulled the plug on her despite having taken this man's life during an attempted rape.

Well, it would be my guess that most Evangelicals would support Bush based on that Romans 13 passage, but how do we get around what God did w/ King David?

The key question is, do we isolate that as a strictly personal "Overide" of sorts between God and King David? If so, how then do we justify the passage in Genesis where God unequivacly says that those shedding blood will have their own blood shed (Gen 9:6), not to mention the direct language in the law itself as well as Romans 13.

King David did, in a sense, have his "Own" blood shed through the death of his child for his sin, that needs to be pointed out, but at the same time such did not take place within the realgms of the eye for an eye philosophy, we know that.

The final question is pretty simple, therefore-how possibly do we make sense of this type of thing (Including Balaam-who was used by God in the OT days and whose life would have been spared, presumably, had he not betrayed God in the end, despite the call for all sorcerers to be stoned to death under the law, the OC having been in effect during Balaam's life).

Is it a case where despite all of these laws being in place under the NC itself that we just simply turn a blind eye when a convict is mysteriously pardoned after having been given a 25 year sentence after 2 or 3 years and presume that to be God's hand at work?

I'm basically lost on this issue, so I'm hopeful at least one of you can help here again. Thanks so much.

As a final note, I TRULY am thankful for this website and for all of the regulars that participate here to help out all of those that are seeking Him. I would recommend this venue to many others, and plan to once the opportunity arises. Thanks a bunch.