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John Murray
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QUOTE: Nothing shows the moral
bankruptcy of a people or of a generation more than disregard for the sanctity
of human life. And it is this same atrophy of moral fiber that appears in the
plea for the abolition of the death penalty. It is the sanctity of life that
validates the death penalty for the crime of murder. It is the sense of this sanctity
that constrains the demand for the infliction of this penalty. The deeper our
regard for life the firmer will be our hold upon the penal sanction which the
violation of that sanctity merit. (Page 122 of Principles of Conduct)
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Nothing shows the moral bankruptcy of a people or of a generation more than disregard for the sanctity of human life. And it is this same atrophy of moral fiber that appears in the plea for the abolition of the death penalty. It is the sanctity of life that validates the death penalty for the crime of murder. It is the sense of this sanctity that constrains the demand for the infliction of this penalty. The deeper our regard for life the firmer will be our hold upon the penal sanction which the violation of that sanctity merit. (Page 122 of Principles of Conduct) John Murray [http://victimsfamiliesforthedeathpenalty.blogspot.com/2014/05/john-murray-on-sanctity-of-life.html] |
AUTHOR: John Murray (14 October 1898 – 8 May 1975) was a Scottish-born Calvinist
theologian who taught at Princeton Seminary and then left to help found
Westminster Theological Seminary, where he taught for many years. Murray was
born in the croft of Badbea, near Bonar Bridge, in Sutherland county, Scotland.
Following service in the British Army in the First World War (during which he
lost an eye, serving in the famous Black Watch regiment) he studied at the
University of Glasgow. Following his acceptance as a theological student of the
Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland he pursued further studies at Princeton
Seminary under J. Gresham Machen and Geerhardus Vos, but broke with the Free
Presbyterian Church in 1930 over that Church's treatment of the Chesley,
Ontario congregation. He taught at Princeton for a year and then lectured in
systematic theology at Westminster Theological Seminary to generations of
students from 1930 to 1966, and was an early trustee of the Banner of Truth
Trust. Besides the material in the four-volume Collected Writings, his primary
published works are a commentary on the Epistle to the Romans (previously
included in the New International Commentary on the New Testament series but
now superseded by Douglas J. Moo's commentary), Redemption Accomplished and
Applied, Principles of Conduct, The Imputation of Adam's Sin, Baptism, and
Divorce. Murray preached at Chesley and Lochalsh from time to time until his
retirement from Westminster Theological Seminary in 1968. He married Valerie
Knowlton 7 December 1967 and retired to Scotland where he was connected with
the Free Church of Scotland. Writing after a communion season at Lochalsh,
Murray said, “I think I feel most at home here and at Chesley of all the places
I visit.” There had been some consideration that upon leaving the seminary,
Murray might take a pastorate in the newly-formed Presbyterian Reformed Church,
but the infirmity of his aged sisters at the home place necessitated his return
to Ross-shire, Scotland.
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