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| John Murray |
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)
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International Commentary on the New Testament series but now superseded by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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