Despite my original post on the Death Penalty being the longest one I’ve written so far there was still a lot of ground I didn’t cover. Mainly this was in an effort to be concise and also because I felt (and still feel) that the original post stands as an argument in its own right. But there have been several objections raised: the main one written by Rachael (link) in the comments section of the Death Penalty post. I urge you to read it because I don’t have space to reproduce here. Without further ado…
“The other day about why he thinks there is biblical evidence to support capital punishment here in the 21st century” This line is taken from a brief note on Rachael’s blog which you can read here. Now, I have a major issue with this sentence and it’s this: why is the 21st century different? Since Jesus’ crucifixion and subsequent resurrection from the dead in about 30AD humanity has been living in the end of the days. That is the time between Jesus’ resurrection and his Second Coming. This means that we still live in a godless, sinful, rebellious and disobedient world which has turned its back on God. 2010AD is no different from 100AD. God’s Holy law has not been changed. Genesis 9 v 5 still stands. “Whoever sheds the blood of man By man his blood shall be shed; For in the image of God Has God made man.” This verse is not part of Mosaic law and has never been overturned! This command still stands today. And Jesus’ command regarding the nature of Old Testament law still stands. “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.” Matthew 5 v 17 We should not make the mistake of naively assuming that the century we live in is somehow ‘superior’ to all the ones gone before. We are not more ‘civilised’. Humanity is still just a sinful as it was and God’s law is still just as applicable as it was. Could Jesus be any more clear? The Law still stands! Jesus came to fulfil the law not abolish it. The Death Penalty is an extreme view This argument wasn’t part of Rachael’s but it ties in nicely with what I have just been saying. Historically speaking the death penalty and Christianity were not seen to be contradictory for roughly 1900 years. And it has really only been since the 1950s that there has been a serious move away from the Death Penalty. What does this tell us? Well, the great theologians of the past – Calvin, Luther, etc – fully supported the death penalty. Great times of revival and spiritual light have been and gone and no one ever questioned the validity of it. It has only been within the last fifty years that Christian began to oppose it. Now, this breaks with a 1900 year history so should be questioned doubly carefully before accepting it. Have the last fifty years been ones of a strong church? No. Has great error crept into the church during the past fifty years? Yes. I know this is a historically argument rather than a Biblical one but we can’t just ignore 1900 years of Christian history and proclaim that these Christians were in some way ‘misguided’. They had the same Bible we have today! Their views are still important. Calvin and Luther never saw anything wrong with the Death Penalty because they saw what the Bible teaches about it. In your first post you just quoted random Bible verses! Come now, this is hardly fair; they were hardly random in choice. And anyway to quote another ‘random’ verse: “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,” 2 Timothy 3 v 16 All of the Bible is God breathed, not just the New Testament, the Old Testament as well. The Bible verses I quoted still stand today. They cannot be ignored, they cannot be proclaimed redundant and they cannot be proclaimed false. Commands that apply to individuals also apply to authorities There is a problem this argument runs in to. And the problem is Romans 12. The latter part of Romans 12 is all about love. As Paul writes: “Do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good.” v 21 “Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody.” v 17 “Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge, I will repay, says the Lord’” v 19 These three verses are a good summary of the arguments I hear against the Death Penalty. You may be wondering why I still believe the Death Penalty considering I have read and agreed with the verses. Well, Romans 13 goes onto say: “For he [the ruler] is God’s servant to do you good. But if you do wrong do not be afraid for he does not bear the sword in vain. He is God’s servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on wrongdoing.” v4 What shall we say? Did Paul forget what he wrote just a chapter before? Of course not! Paul differentiates between our commands as individual Christians and the commands for rulers and authorities. Notice as well, rulers do God’s bidding as they are God’s servants. The Death Penalty isn’t just man killing another man but God exercising his power of judgement through human authority. Should punishment be retributive or rehabilitating? Rachael argues that punishment for crimes (in this case specifically murder) have to be geared towards ‘curing’ the criminal of the criminal urges they possess. That a murderer goes into prison and comes out never to murder again. But is this a Biblical view on punishment? In short: no. In fact I would even go as far to say that it is a very dangerous view to hold. Why? Because it suggests that man can cure sin! It suggests that imprisonment can somehow get rid of the sinful desires inside of a murderer’s heart. That the murderer will exit the prison less of a sinner that he was going in. The pride! The arrogance! But as Christians we know that the sinful and wretched heart of a murderer (of all of us!) can only be cured through Christ Jesus. Man cannot rehabilitate sin away. 70% of all criminals go onto reoffend. Although I don’t know the exact murderer re-offend rate it’s bound to be close. Why? Because an act of sin hardens the conscience and makes it easier to commit the same sin again. By committing a murder a person has hardened his conscience and this makes it easier for them to murder again. The Death Penalty then is an act of love towards the rest of society by removing someone who has been known to murder and could easily murder again. Only Jesus can make a man’s heart new, no prison system can In addition, let us look to the Bible and see how God punishes the wicked we see that he punishes his people (the Israelites) in order to turn them back to him but he punishes the evil nations of the world with retribution in too many example to mention here. Also Mosaic Law is firmly based on retribution – let the severity of punishment be aligned to the severity of the crime. But Jesus says to love your enemy, etc… “So he [Jesus] made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle, he scattered the coins of the moneychangers and overturned their tables.” John 2 v 15 The New King James Version reads “drove all from the temple area, and the sheep and the oxen.” In other words Jesus had no problem saying “love your enemies” and whipping those that had broken God’s direct law out of the temple courts. He did not attempt to ‘rehabilitate’ them but directly punished them for their sin. Here Jesus was acting in full authority and power. We are called to replicate that authority. We are called to be more like Jesus. This does not mean that as individuals we go out and whip people but we should support a strong justice system that seeks to punish the evildoer for his deeds not to cure him because he deserves to be punished and because sin cannot be cured! We should love justice more than murderers. The passage from Romans only applied to the Romans Why? Paul does not say that it only applies to the Roman government. It is a command to all authorities to reward good and punish evil. Saying otherwise would be like saying that the commands for a holy life in Timothy only apply to Timothy. Or Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount only applied to the Jews. Paul deals with rulers as a concept not specifically Roman rulers. “For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you. For he is God's servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God's servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also because of conscience” Romans 8 v 3 – 5 When Paul talks of rulers he talks of all rulers from Roman times until the ultimate ruler Christ Jesus returns in power and authority to judge us all. The current Labour Government is an ‘agent of wrath’. A particularly rubbish one but an agent nevertheless. And as such it is called to take up the sword against evil. Paul is talking about a Biblical ruler would do. He sets a standard for all rulers to follow. As Christians we must submit to authority while they continue to reward good and punish evil with the sword. It is only when they start to reward evil and punish good that we are called to not submit. The Church needs to minister to those imprisoned Yes! By all means, in times past then those on death row were given the choice to talk to a minister and it is good to be spreading the glorious salvation of the gospel to those facing eternity. But this does not negate their punishment. They still have to be justly punished for their crimes. The Death Penalty is combating evil with evil We know that nothing evil comes from the Lord. Yet in the Old Testament he commands his people on 16 crimes that deserve the penalty of death. Therefore the death penalty cannot be evil. It is justice. We live in a fallen and sinful world; harsh punishments are required to keep evil men in check. God will punish murder for us Indeed, God will punish all of us with death. But he uses authorities as his instruments for punishing criminals in this life. Death is God’s right not ours True, but once again he delegates part of this power to human authorities as seen throughout the Bible. In the same way that God uses Babylon to punish the Jews for rebelling against him he uses human authorities to punish murderers with death. Mosaic Law shows us this as well – rulers and authorities have every right to use the death penalty to punish murder with death. Being against the Death Penalty makes Christians stand out Considering that public opinion today is largely against the death penalty should that actually say ‘makes Christians stand in”? Condemning someone to death means that they lose out on a chance to be converted Basically, the argument runs that the longer someone is alive the more chance they have to be converted. If murderers got the death penalty rather than go to prison then they lose 50+ years of their life when they could have been saved. The only thing I can say is that God is in complete control of who and who is not converted. If a murderer is going to be converted then they will be regardless of the sentence past. Remember, we deal not in human terms of time but in God terms of his sovereignty over all things. Final words The cornerstone of my argument is Genesis 9 v 5 “Whoever sheds the blood of man By man his blood shall be shed; For in the image of God Has God made man.” This sums up a correct Christian, loving, attitude towards crime and punishment. Put a love for justice before our love for the evildoer. For in the same way God loves us all but still sends unbelievers to Hell. (Yet, his love was great enough so as to provide sinners with a way to salvation! Jesus had to take the punishment that God required.) God is holiness and justice and love, all three together, no contradictions and we are called to be like God! We need to submit to this command of the Lord’s. For all things that come from God are good - even the Death Penalty. Love and the Death Penalty are not two opposing views but rather they walk hand in hand under the glorious banner of justice. 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Consider, if you will, the act of murder – is there a more wretched act? On human terms you are depriving someone of their most precious possession: their life. Never again will that person laugh, love, smile or cry. Then consider the effect of family and friends of having to cope with the loss of a loved one and then consider more the effect on society of another act of brutality – the frowns upon hearing the news, the grief at such a tragedy. And as Christians we know that the act of murder is even worse than that. It is a deliberate act of rebellion against the fact that life is one of God’s greatest gifts to all mankind. And worse still, we know that murder sends an immortal soul into eternity. Murder then is the vilest of acts, but has the Bible to say about it?
We all know that in the Old Testament, God commands that murderers were put to death (Exodus Chapter 21). But that was 3000 odd years ago, what should a ‘modern’ Christian’s view be on murder in relation to himself as an individual and through the process of law and order? When you read about a murder in the paper how do you feel? Pity, I imagine, pity for the relatives left behind who have to pick up the pieces. And, if you’re like me, you might also feel angry at the low life scumbags who could carry out such a horrific act. What is that anger? Nothing more than the righteous anger God feels against all sin. We are, after all, made in the image of God. What God can feel, we can feel, to a limited extent. So then, this righteous anger is not an act of sin but rather a blessing, a sign that our wills are closely aligned with God and that the act of murder is a terrible crime. However, this anger should never lead to a desire for vengeance, vigilante killing or revenge of any sort. We have Jesus’ commands in the New Testament that I’m sure you can quote better than me: “You have heard it said: an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I tell you do not resist an evil person.” “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you (Matthew 5 v 44).” “Do not judge or you too will be judged.” (Matthew 7 v 1) You probably also remember the story about Jesus and the adulteress where Jesus says: “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” (John 8 v 7) So, we see that as individual Christians we are called to forgive the sins of others: even murder. Therefore if one of our loved ones is murdered we must try and forgive the murder. Difficult, yes, but necessary as Christians. With you so far, but what about the government and the law? The biggest mistake Christians make is applying the commands Jesus gave to us as individuals to the course of law and order as well. Take the command: love your neighbour as yourself. If you apply this to the law who then would ever be punished? Obviously this can’t stand. Or the one: “do not judge or you too will be judged”. Again if you apply this to the government then the law cannot do anything and that can’t be what Jesus is commanding. We must make the distinction between commands for individuals and commands for authority (governments). The two are completely different! I cannot stress this enough. Therefore the law can take an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth because the commands for the individual do not apply to the justice system. What then are the New Testaments commands concerning the punishment of murder? The same as the Old Testament. As Paul says in Romans 13 v 3 -4: “For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you. For he is God's servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God's servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.” (Emphasis added) There is a lot of teaching in here. First is that God appoints all rulers and authorities and gives them power to uphold justice. This is good; justice needs to be upheld for society to function. Secondly rulers are commanded to bear the sword against evil. Sword of course meaning the power of death. Thirdly the ruler is God’s servant! “An agent of wrath” – God’s righteous anger burns against all sin and he commands governments to carry out his wrath for certain sins. Murder is definitely one. Christians as individuals have to rely on the authorities to punish murder. Governments have been granted the power of justice and vengeance. Vengeance is wrong. “Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay," says the Lord” Romans 12 v 19 Vengeance is right for God but wrong for us – individually! And God carries out his vengeance using governments as his instruments. But Jesus would never have supported the death penalty! Well, Jesus says in Matthew 15 v 3 - 4 (or Mark 7 v 8 – 11) “Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said: “Honour your father and your mother” and “Anyone who curses his father and mother must be put to death.” So you see Jesus had no problem with the death penalty and by saying the above shows that the death penalty is God’s command. And let’s go to Paul – Paul followed Christ – if Christ opposed the Death Penalty so would Paul. Yet in Act 25 v 11 Paul says: “If however I am guilty of doing anything deserving of death, I do not refuse to die.” Paul would have accepted the death penalty if he had deserved it. Still not with you… When Jesus was on the cross did he say anything about the wrongness of the death penalty? Nope. And the thief that repents says: “We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve.” Luke 23 v 41 And Jesus does not contradict him as I’m sure he would have had Jesus been against the death penalty. It should be mentioned that the thief would be guilty of far more than just stealing to merit crucifixion. Jesus saved an adulterous woman from being stoned. Therefore he is against the death penalty. Well no, because firstly there were not two witnesses as called for in Mosaic Law. Secondly the man should have been stoned as well but he wasn’t there. Thirdly the “he who is without sin” line does not apply to governments. Also the death penalty should have been given by a court of law not a mob. So Jesus followed the protocol of the law and let the woman go. Only God can take a life! Yet in the Old Testament case law He delegated this power to the justice system. In the New Testament Paul makes it clear that this delegation of power still stands. It is perfectly permissible for the justice system to take a life in the right situation. But the Old Testament civil law was overthrown! First: “Whoever sheds the blood of man By man his blood shall be shed; For in the image of God Has God made man.” Genesis 9 v 5 Here we have a command from God that murder must be punished through the death penalty. Notice that this is outside of Old Testament case law and therefore not ‘undone’ by Jesus’ death on the cross. The death penalty was so important as to be given before the civil law; before the Israelites even existed! Never has this command been overthrown. Never. This command also overrides the one God laid down after Cain killed Able about not shedding Cain’s blood. Second, was the moral and civil law of the Old Testament really overthrown? (The ceremonial law definitely was). “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5 v 17-19 God’s law still stands. Murder requires the death penalty. And again in Romans: “Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God...” “Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law.” Romans 3 v 19, 31 The Death Penalty is first spoken of in Genesis, re-affirmed in Mosaic Law, re-affirmed again by Jesus, re-affirmed again again by Paul on several occasions and finally re-affirmed last of all in the book of Revelation. The Bible is of one accord: the punishment for murder is death. But isn’t the death penalty just like murder? Then putting someone in prison would be just like kidnap. Also God says in the Ten Commandments: “You shall not kill.” Exodus 20 v 13 And then in the next chapter God commands: "He who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death.” Exodus 21 v12 So there is no contradiction in God’s eyes between the command not to kill and the death penalty. What if mistakes are made? The world we live in is imperfect, mistakes will always be made. We must trust in God, who is in control of everything. We must trust that if an innocent life is taken then God let that happen. The possibility of mistakes should not stop us carrying out God’s commands. It doesn’t work, in the USA… The US government should heed the wisdom of Solemn: “When the sentence for a crime is not quickly carried out, the hearts of the people are filled with schemes to do wrong.” Ecclesiastes 8 v 11 This is why the death penalty doesn’t work as a deterrent in the United States. Swiftness of execution has to also be established. How can you say what you’re saying? We live in a civilised society! No, we live in a society full of unrepentant sinners with no desire to see any of God’s laws carried out in this life. That is why so many people are against the death penalty: sheer bloody minded rebellion against God’s law. And the last time I checked our so called ‘civilised’ society is in the habit of letting murderers free after 8 years and then acting surprised as they re-offend. The Death Penalty is so cruel! No, murder is cruel. The Death Penalty is justice. I’m having problems here… If you can find fault in my Biblical argument by all means disagree. If not then you have to submit to God’s word. It might not be nice or happy but it is in the Bible. Remember commands to the individual Christian do not apply to the government and the course of law and order. Also remember how terrible murder is, how holy God is and how unrepentant man is. Then you might see that the death penalty is justified. But…but…why do so many people disagree with this As I have said before because mankind is living in rebellion against God and all God stands for. The world hates the death penalty because the world hates God. But as Christians we are called to submit to the will of God and recognise that the only Biblical punishment for murder is death. And we need to thank God that he has delegated his justice to the governments of today and pray that they would keep his law rather than break it. In conclusion The Bible is of one accord. Murder needs to be punished by death. Therefore we should support any government who carries out God’s command and is a terror to evil doers. We must always realise that the government should institute the death penalty as God’s chosen punishment for sin. We should submit to the Bible’s overwhelming agreement on this issue. And above all focus on the pain and damage murder causes to the victims not to the criminals. There is always a choice. If the Death Penalty is implemented then everyone has the choice: murder and risk death yourself. If someone chooses to make that choice then the consequences of their actions are on their own heads. Links: Very useful, better than this blog post: http://www.apologeticspress.org/articles/1974 Any points I haven't covered whack an email off to me. |
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