80 Pro Death Penalty Quotes by Religious Leaders (Protestant)

IS CAPITAL PUNISHMENT SANCTIONED BY DIVINE AUTHORITY? - Since the days of Plato, men have conceived republics. They have invented new orders of society, new theories of socialism, and new names for things. But these are mere demonstrations of human weakness and of human scepticism. The bible has sanctioned republics and commonwealths and kingdoms without affixing any peculiar name to them. It prescribes no form of human government, because no one form of government would suit all the countries, climes and people of the earth. But the bible, in the name and by the authority of its Author, demands all persons in authority that they protect the innocent, and that they punish the guilty, and that they dispense justice to all. It also demands of the governed that they submit to "THE POWERS THAT BE," however denominated, as an ordinance of God; not through the fear of the sword, but for the sake of conscience. It inhibits them also from treason, insubordination and rebellion.

IS CAPITAL PUNISHMENT SANCTIONED BY DIVINE AUTHORITY? - If he have not a divine right I frankly admit that he has no human right--no warrant or authority derived from man--that will authorize such a solemn and fearful act. Though we should not, in the first instance, take into account the consequences of any decision, as having direct authority in influencing our reasonings upon the question, still it is important that we have some respect for them as arguments and incentives to a calm discreet and patient investigation of the premises from which are to be adduced conclusions so deeply involving the interests of the world.

And what, let me inquire, would be the consequences should it be decided that no man has no right to take away the life of man on any account whatsoever? Is it not the right to inflict upon him any penal /315/ pain whatever involved in this question? A single stripe may kill; nay, a single stripe inflicted by an officer of justice, and that no very violent one, has sometimes killed. A man has no right to punish at all in any way, if he may not in that punishment lawfully take away the life of him that is subjected to it. He has not even the right to imprison or confine a person in jail, workhouse or penitentiary, if he have not, in any case whatever, the right to kill. How many die in jails, workhouses and penitentiaries, from causes to which they would not have been exposed but in those places of punishment!

But, further, if a man has not the right to kill, nations have no right to go to war in any case, or for any purpose whatever. We argue that whatever power a Government has is first found in the people; that men can not innocently or rightfully do that conventionally, or in states, which they can not do in their individual capacities. True, when a government is organized, the citizens or subjects of it cannot use or exercise the powers to legislate, to judge, to punish, which, by the social compact, they have, for wise purposes, surrendered or transferred to the Government. Still, the fundamental fact must not be lost sight of- -that NATIONS HAVE THE RIGHT TO DO THOSE THINGS ONLY WHICH EVERY INDIVIDUAL MAN HAD A RIGHT TO DO ANTERIOR TO THE NATIONAL FORM OF SOCIETY. If, then, man had not originally a right to kill him who killed his brother, society never could, but from a special law of the creator, have such a right. And such, we may hereafter show, was originally the divine law. The natural reason of man, or a divine law, enacted that the blood of the murdered should be avenged by the blood of the murderer, and that the brother of the murdered was pre-eminently the person to whom belonged the right of avenging his blood.

IS CAPITAL PUNISHMENT SANCTIONED BY DIVINE AUTHORITY? - Wars are either defensive or aggressive. But, in either point of view they are originated and conducted on the assumption that man has a right, for just cause, to take away the life of a man. For it needs no argument to convince anyone, however obtuse, that man cannot rightfully kill a thousand or a million of persons, if he cannot lawfully kill one! I wonder not, then, that peace-men are generally, if not universally, in favour of the total abolition of capital punishment.

IS CAPITAL PUNISHMENT SANCTIONED BY DIVINE AUTHORITY? - We agree with those who affirm that punishments ought, in all cases, to be enacted and enforced with a special regard to the reformation of transgressors; but we cannot say with an EXCLUSIVE regard. Empathetic and special, but not EXCLUSIVE, regard, should be shown to the reformation of the criminal. There must also be a special and a supreme regard to the safety of the state, and the protection of the innocent and unoffending. The laws of every civilized community should unite as far as possible the reformation of the offender with the safety of the state.

IS CAPITAL PUNISHMENT SANCTIONED BY DIVINE AUTHORITY? - But how these two may best be secured, is a matter yet not agreed. A sentence of perpetual imprisonment is no guarantee of protection /318/ or safety to the state. The sentence, in the first place, may not be executed. It seldom is, in the case of persons holding high places in society. Governors sometimes reprieve. political demagogues, too, will not very conscientiously demur at the offer of many suffrages for a gubernatorial chair, on a private understanding that certain persons of influential connections sentenced to perpetual imprisonment shall on their election be pardoned. But, further, it is no guarantee that the monster who has been guilty of one murder may not murder his attendants or fellow-prisoners in hope of escape or that he may not fire his prison or in some way elope. He may be confined for life, and yet may again perpetuate the same foul crime. Are there not numerous instances of this kind on record? And has not the professedly reformed and pardoned criminal at times been guilty of a second, and sometimes of a theirs, murder? Such instances have been known in our own country and in our own memory. A sentence of perpetual confinement is not an adequate security against a murderer, in any view that can be taken of it Society demands a higher pledge of safety--a more satisfactory guarantee. It demands the life of a murderer.

IS CAPITAL PUNISHMENT SANCTIONED BY DIVINE AUTHORITY? – And strange as it might seem, we affirm the conviction that the certainty of death, is upon all premises, the most efficient means of reformation. When--I do not say the UNFORTUNATE, (a name too full of sophistry, though unfortunate he may be,) but--the MALIGNANT AND WICKED MURDERER has been tried, convicted and sentenced to die after the lapse of so many days or weeks, when all hope of pardon is forever gone, then evangelical instruction is incomparably more likely to effect a change than are the chances of a long or short life within the walls of a penitentiary. It is, therefore, I must think, more rational and humane, whether we consider the safety of the state or the happiness of the individual, to insist that the sentence of death be promptly and firmly executed.

So we reason against the assumptions of those who would abolish capital punishment, on the ground that all punishment should be for the salvation of the transgressor, and that his imprisonment for life, or till evident reformation, is an ample pledge for the safety and security of the state.

They reason as illogically against capital punishment who assume that imprisonment for life is a greater punishment than death. Satan, more than three thousand years ago, reasoned more logically than they. He then argued in the face of high authority, on the trial of a very distinguished person, that a man would give the world for his life. /319/ "Skin for skin, all that a man hath," said the devil, "will he give for his life."

IS CAPITAL PUNISHMENT SANCTIONED BY DIVINE AUTHORITY? – The occasion of this act of legislation, and the positive and peremptory terms in which it is expressed, alike commend it to our consideration and regard. It is expressed in the following words: - - "AT THE HAND OF EVERY MAN'S BROTHER WILL I REQUIRE THE LIFE OF MAN. WHOSO SHEDDETH MAN'S BLOOD, BY MAN SHALL HIS BLOOD BE SHED: FOR IN THE IMAGE OF GOD MADE HE MAN." No statute was ever more free from ambiguity, or more intelligible, than this one. I never have met with one who misunderstood it. Why, then, is its Divine obligation not universally felt and acknowledged? To one unacquainted with the power of sympathy, especially when its victim is seized with a morbid philanthropy or charmed with the fascinations of a new theory, it will appear somewhat mysterious how a precept so express, so authoritative and peremptory could be disposed of or evaded. It is done by the magic of a single assumption:-- "Christianity is more mild and generous and philanthropic than the law of Moses." But that is a provision of the law of Moses, is an assumption which rests on the simple ground that Moses the lawgiver wrote the book of Genesis. One might as justly assume that Noah's ark or Melchizedek's pontificate was a part of the law of Moses, because Moses is the only person who wrote their history. Form the age of spiritual Quakerism until now, the abolitionists of capital punishment /326/ generally occupy this ground. As there is no dispute about the meaning of the precept, the only to dispose of it is to locate it amongst the Jewish rites and usages which have been abolished. but the simple fact that this precept was promulged in the year of the world 1658, and that Moses gave not the law till the year 2513--that is, full eight hundred and fifty five years after--is a fact so prominent and so indisputable as to render any other refutation of the assumption a work of the most gratuitous supererogation. I wonder why the same romantic genius that embodied with the Jewish code a precept given to the whole human family almost a thousand years before there was a Jewish nation, did not also embody with the same code, and appropriate to the same people, the right to eat animal food, then for the first time given to man--the covenant of day and night, of summer and winter, of seed-time and harvest, indicated and confirmed by the celestial arch which God erected upon the bosom of a cloud in token of his "covenant with all flesh." The constitution that guarantees the continuance of day and night and the seasons of the year also secures and protects the life of man from the violence of man, by a statute simultaneously promulged and committed to the father of the new world for the benefit of the whole human race. Why not also represent this, too, as done away, and thus place the world without the precincts of the covenanted mercies given to Noah for his family and recorded by Moses the man of God? there is not, then, the shadow of a reason for the assumption that the present human family is not obliged to enforce the statute above named. The right to eat animal food, to expect the uninterrupted succession of seasons, and the obligation to put the murderer to death, are of equal antiquity and of the same Divine authority. Every one claiming any interest in the world, because of his relation to Noah, and God's charter of privileges granted to him, must either show, by some authority equally express and incontrovertible, that God has abolished one part of it and perpetuated the remainder, or advocate capital punishment upon Divine authority.

But still more convincing and decisive is the reason assigned by the divine Author of the statute commanding capital punishment. It is in these words:-- "FOR IN THE IMAGE OF GOD MADE HE MAN." A reason, indeed, for the statute, worthy of God to propound and worthy of man to honor and regard. Why a reason so forcible and so full of eloquence and authority could be so frequently disparaged by an intelligent and Christian community, is, to my mind, indicative not merely of the want of piety, but of that of humanity and self--respect. The reason here assigned for this precept places the crime of murder in an entirely new /327/ attitude before the mind. Much, indeed has ben said of this crime--of its enormous dimensions--of its moral turpitude--its appalling guilt--its diabolical malignity; but here it is presented to us as the greatest insult which man can offer to his Creator--to the Supreme Majesty of the universe, apart from all its bearings upon human society and its unfortunate victim. On one occasion the Messiah said of Satan that he "was a liar and a murderer from the beginning." It is impossible, then that we can exaggerate the wickedness and malignancy of murder. No one has yet been able to do it justice. It desecrates in effigy, and, as far as the impotent arm of flesh gas power, destroys, the once brightest image of the invisible and eternal God that adorns any province of his vast and glorious universe. Man is still great in his ruins. Once the most exact and beautiful and impotent similitude of the Great Original of universal being, he is to be reverenced; and, when renewed in the moral image of his Maker, he is to be loved and admired not only as the noblest work of almighty power, but as the special and exclusive object of redeeming grace and mercy. But it is enough for our present purpose to know that it making it the duty of society to avenge this crime, God makes its dishonor to his own image the paramount reason why the life of the murderer should be taken from him. The Most High does not give many reasons for his precepts; but, when he gives one, it is worthy of himself and of the occasion, and claims the profound respect of every discerning and moral man.

IS CAPITAL PUNISHMENT SANCTIONED BY DIVINE AUTHORITY? - It is scarcely necessary to remark how often and with what clearness and authority it promulged--"The murderer shall surely be put to death;" and again, "The avenger of blood himself shall kill him when he meeteth him." No one will, I presume, after a single reading /331/ of this statute, require any other evidence that capital punishment was divinely ordained during the whole period of Old Testament history--that it was an essential part of the Jewish institution and during its continuance extended much beyond the patriarchal requisition.

But there is a reason connected with these ordinances that demands our special consideration. Like that given to Noah, it has no respect to time, place or circumstance. It belongs exclusively to no age, to no nation or people. It is a reason, too, why murder shall not be pardoned, and why the Lord so solemnly and so positively said, "You shall take no satisfaction for the life of a murderer"--he must not be ransomed at any price. Does anyone ask why there should be no ransom, no commutation, no pardon? The answer, the reason, is one of fearful import. It is this:--"THE LAND CAN NOT BE CLEANSED OF THE BLOOD THAT IS SHED THEREIN BUT BY THE BLOOD OF HIM THAT SHED IT." So God almighty has ordained in his infinite wisdom, justice and benevolence. It is enough. HE has said it. No tears of repentance, no contrition of heart, no agony of soul, can expiate the sin of murder. As soon could the breath of a mortal melt the polar mountains of ice, dissolve the Siberian snows and fill the dreary wastes with verdure, the beauty and fragrance of ancient Eden, as soon would the sigh of remorse quicken into life the ashes of the murdered dead, or a single penetentail tear extinguish the fires of hell, as any expiation or ablution of mortal hand, other than the blood of the murderer, atone to God's violated law, do honor to his insulted Majesty and purify the land from the dark defilement of unavenged blood.

IS CAPITAL PUNISHMENT SANCTIONED BY DIVINE AUTHORITY? - I cannot but tremble for our country, if this be the decision of the Governor of nations, when I reflect upon the multitude that have in single combat sacrificed each other, in purpose or in fact, at the shrine of a false and factitos honor; and upon those who, in the sullen rage and malice of the dastardly assassin, avenged their imaginary wrongs by the blood of their fellow-citizens; and upon those who sought to conceal their infamous crimes of lust and passion--of burglary, arson and rapine--with the blood of those who might have been witnesses against them; I say, when I reflect upon the hundreds and the thousands thus murdered, whose blood yet unexpiated still pollutes our soil, and through the vagueness and ambiguity of our laws, the venality, corruption or incompetency of our tribune, or the servility or self- /332/ willedness of our chief magistrates, yet cries to heaven for vengeance, not merely upon the head of those that shed it, but upon the government and the people that still suffer them to live, methinks I see a most portentous cloud, dark, swollen and lowering surcharged with the fires of divine indignation, ready to burst in accumulated vengeance upon our blood polluted-land.

But, in extenuation of our apathy or as an apology for our indifference, it is sometimes assumed that the Messiah has forever abolished the bloody code of Moses and the patriarchs, and has preached a larger benevolence and forgiveness to nations. What a baseless assumption! What an outrage upon the character of the Messiah! True, indeed, he came not to judge the world, to act the civil magistrate, the civil lawgiver, or to assume regal authority over any nation or people of this world. His kingdom was spiritual and heavenly. In it, he would not have an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, or stripe for stripe. He would not have his followers go to law for any violence, fraud or wrong inflicted on them on his account. They might, indeed, sue those out of his kingdom for civil wrongs in civil courts, or they might consent to be sued for unjust demands upon them in their political and civil relations; but any wrong, violence or compulsion inflicted on them for their religion, their conscientious allegiance to him, they were to endure cheerfully, and rejoice that they were counted worthy to suffer wrong, or even shame for his name's sake. But he that hence argues for the abolition of civil government, of civil penalties, or for the abrogation of the statutes given to mankind by God himself, founded on his own perfections and the immutable relations of things, not merely typical and adumbrative in their nature, but jurisprudential and for the safety of society, shocks all common sense. As well might we say that morality and the moral character of God are mutable things. It enacts no civil statutes. It does not even designate the persons between whom the institutions of marriage may be consummated. It abrogates nothing in the Old Testament that was not substantiated in Christ, or that was not peculiar to the twelve tribes. But we have shown that the precept in discussion belonged, not to any institution, Patriarchal, Jewish or Christian, but to the whole family of man.

IS CAPITAL PUNISHMENT SANCTIONED BY DIVINE AUTHORITY? – Does not an apostle say that "the law is good if a man use it lawfully"? Does he not say that "the law was not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient: for murderers, man-slayers, /333/ man-stealers, thieves, liars, perjured persons," &c.? And surely for all these evil-doers it has, or ought to have its penalties. In executing these eon their proper subjects the law is used lawfully.

Again, does not Paul teach that the "powers that be are ordained of God"?--that the magistrate "is his minister," and that he rightfully wears a sword not his own, but God's? And, in the name of reason, why have a sword in the state, and worn by the civil magistrate, if it be unlawful or unchristian to put anyone to death on any account whatever? That would, indeed, be to "bear the sword in vain;" a thing which the apostles themselves would have reprobated. Christians, then, must remember that the magistrate is God's armed minister, and that he must be obeyed by every Christian man, not merely through the fear of his wrath , or of his avenging sword, but for the sake of a conscientious regard to God's authority, whose minister of justice he is. The civil magistrate is now the civil avenger of blood. Paul calls him "A MESSENGER OF WRATH upon him that doeth evil."

IS CAPITAL PUNISHMENT SANCTIONED BY DIVINE AUTHORITY? – There is not, then, a word in the Old Testament or the new inhibiting capital punishment, nor a single intimation that it should be abolished. On the contrary, reasons are given as the basis of the requisition of life for life, which never can be set aside--which are as forcible at this hour as they were in the days of Cain, Noah, Moses and Jesus Christ. We reiterate the statute with clearer conviction of its obligation and utility on every consideration of the broad, deep, solid and enduring premises on which it is founded:--"Thou shalt take (no ransom) no satisfaction for the life of the murderer."--"He that sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God made he man."- -"The land cannot be cleaned from blood but by the blood of him that shed it." For this purpose the magistrate is "God's minister, and avenger, to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil."

IS CAPITAL PUNISHMENT SANCTIONED BY DIVINE AUTHORITY? – It has been said, not by those of old time, but by those of our time, that the sixth precept of the Decalogue, "THOU SHALT NOT KILL," inhibits all taking away of human life. A sect of extreme pietists on Long Island, it is reported, gave to the precept a broader interpretation, and forbade the killing of any living creature for food. They are as consistent as one who says the precept "THOU SHALT NOT KILL" prohibits capital punishment. It is also the precept that calls for the blood of him that violates it.

Moses did not himself so interpret this precept; for on the very day that he descended from the mount with the autograph in his hand, he commanded the sons of Levi to gird on their swords and kill the idolaters who had eaten and drank and danced to an idol-- of whom no less than three thousand fell that day.

IS CAPITAL PUNISHMENT SANCTIONED BY DIVINE AUTHORITY? – I introduce this case for another purpose--to repudiate an objection urged against capital punishment. It is asked, What Christian man, or what man of delicate moral sensibility, could execute such a sentence--could dispatch to the judgment-seat a criminal crimsoned with the blood of his fellow-man?

It is not the sheriff's hand--it is not the sword of the executioner. It is the hand of God--it is the sword of justice that takes away that life that which he himself gave, because the criminal has murderously taken away a life which he could not give.

IS CAPITAL PUNISHMENT SANCTIONED BY DIVINE AUTHORITY? – And what shall we say of the father of the faithful, returning from the slaughter of the confederate kings?--of Moses, as the messenger of God, slaying not merely a single Egyptian, but smiting with his rod, in the depths of the Red Sea, the strength, the pride and the glory of /335/ Egypt?--of Joshua, the son of Nun, destroying seven idolatrous nations?--of Samuel, hewing to pieces with his own hand the king of Amalek?--of David and his hundred battles? time would fail me to name all the instances in which God has made the purest, the holiest and the best of men, as well as angels, the executioners of his justice. I shall mention another case--the case of Joab--one that, before I understood the statutes of the Lord on the subject of murder, often perplexed me. There lay king David, the beloved of his God, on the bed of death; and while making his last will and testament, he remembered Joab--the brave, the valorous, the mighty Joab--than whom no king could boast of a truer friend or a greater or more successful general--his own kinsman, too--his own sister's son. He names him to his son Solomon, his successor of the sceptre of Israel. And what is his will concerning Joab? What honors or rewards has he in store for him? Hearken to his words:--"Solomon, my son--thou knowest also what Joab, the son of Zeruiah, did to me, and what he did to the two captains of the hosts of Israel: to Abner, the son of Ner, and to Amasa, the son of Jether, whom he slew and shed the blood of war in peace, and put the blood of war upon his girdle that was about his loins, and in the shoes that were upon his feet. Do, therefore according to thy wisdom, and let not his hory head go down to the grave in peace." So willed the dying David. And what did Solomon his son? There was no city of refuge for Joab, but flying into the tabernacle and taking hold of the horns of the alter, Joab said, "Here I will die." And what said the king? "Go, Benaiah, do as he hath said. fall upon him and bury him, that," adds the king, "thou myest take away the innocent blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it."

But we have yet a stronger case--the case of David's son and David's Lord. His words are oracles from which there is no appeal; his example is an argument to which there is no response. Is he, or is he not, on the side of capital punishment? While on earth he was a SAVIOUR. In heaven he is now a KING. Hereafter he will appear in the character of a JUDGE and an avenger. we ask not what he will do then in finally and eternally punishing the impenitent. We ask not what he did while on earth as a Saviour; for then "he came to save men's lives, and not to destroy." But we ask, What did he do when he became king, when exalted to be the prince and the governor /336/ of the universe? He intimated the leading principles of his government before he was crowned Lord of all, to those Jews who were intent on his destruction. "I will," said he, "send you prophets, wise men and scribes. Some of them you will kill ad crucify, others you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon earth, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the alter. Verily, I say to you, all these things shall come on this generation." Did he when king execute this threat? Ask Josephus, Taccitus and a hundred other witnesses. as governor of the world, he dispatched Titus with a Roman army, and laid siege to Jerusalem and other cities in Judea. In the whole of these various wars and sieges--in the destruction of the city and the temple, he killed more than one million of the rebellious Jews, and sent the remainder into exile. But this is not the only case. It is but the first one of notoriety in his reign of justice. Ever since he ascended the throne his promise is, "All that take the sword shall perish with the sword." As king of nations and governor of the world, he executes wrath by his "ministers of justice" upon wicked men and nations, in the temporal punishments which he awards. According to king David, in the second psalm, when the messiah should be placed as king on Mount Zion, he was to "rule the nations with a rod of iron, and to break them in pieces like a potter's vessel." this he has already done in more than one instance, and will yet do in many more. But he does it not in person, but by his" ministers." Still, he does it.

IS CAPITAL PUNISHMENT SANCTIONED BY DIVINE AUTHORITY? - It being evident, as we suppose, that capital punishment is not only countenanced by innumerable Biblical precedents, but that it is also most positively enjoined upon all persons to whom God has revealed his will, who are entrusted with the government of the world, we shall henceforth regard it as a divine precept and requisition, to which we are bound to yield our cordial assent; not because it chances to fall in with our theories of what is expedient, useful or consonant to the genius of our age and government, but because of the supreme authority that enacts it-- because it is a decree of the King of the universe, the ultimate Judge of the living and the dead, and because he himself has practiced it, and still continues to practice it, as moral governor of the world.

Though not disposed to appear paradoxical, I hesitate not to avow the conviction that the divine ordinance is as merciful as it is just--that, for example, it was most humane and merciful on the part of David to command his son Solomon to take away the life of Joab. I cite this /337/ case and avow this conviction, for the sake of those opposers of capital punishment, who, under the pretense of a more refined and enlarged philanthropy, are, nowadays, declaiming both eloquently and impassionedly against capital punishment because of its alleged cruelty and inhumanity. That those who thus inveigh against it are philanthropic in purpose and feeling, I doubt not. But that they are so in fact, is not quite so evident.

IS CAPITAL PUNISHMENT SANCTIONED BY DIVINE AUTHORITY? - In seeking to abolish capital punishment, do they not divest human life of one of its main pillars of defence? In all countries, and, I believe, an all ages, murders increase and diminish in the ratio of the certainty of the exaction of life for life. It must, in the nature of things, be so, Everything is safe or unsafe as it is guarded or not guarded by education--by law--by the magnitude and certainty or uncertainty of rewards and punishments. In abolishing capital punishment, the main bulwark against the perpetration of murder falls to the ground. The broad shield of a nation's safety and defence from violence and blood is broken to pieces, and the honorable and virtuous citizen, naked and defenceless, left exposed to the murderous assaults of malice and envy. Of what avail is the bare possibility of a punishment infinitely less than the injury inflicted on the individual and the state,--enfeebled, too, as it must be, by a hundred chances of escape against one of apprehension and conviction? Who could feel himself safe under a government where there is no protection of his life against the furious passions which not unfrequently display themselves in the most appalling forms, in some of those terrific monsters with which human society more or less abounds? Exiles, confinement in prison or workhouses, are to such demons as an act of Congress to a South American tiger, or as the stubble to Job's Leviathan.

In saving a murderer from death through a morbid compassion, society acts with more indiscretion than the fabled husbandman who, in commiseration, carried home to his hearth a congealed serpent, which, when warmed to life, fatally struck the children of its benefactor. In saving from the penalty of God's law a single murderer, society sins against itself, as well as against God, and occasions, or may occasion, the destruction of one or more of its citizens. If everyone convicted of murder in any of its various forms was infallibly put to death, can any intelligent citizen imagine that crimes of this sort would not rather diminish than increase? The strong probability of escape disarms every legal punishment of its terror to evil-doers. /338/

IS CAPITAL PUNISHMENT SANCTIONED BY DIVINE AUTHORITY? - The protection and safety of human life is the first and paramount concern of every intelligent and moral community on earth. The first statute ever enacted by the heavenly father in the present world, as before observed, was a statute FOR PRESERVING LIFE. I am not singular, I hope, in judging of the civilization of every community by the care it takes of human life. May not the religious and moral character of a community be fairly estimated by the value it puts upon human life, and the care it takes of it, as indicated in its statute-books, its courts of justice, its general police, and its numerous and various means of defense against the accidents and dangers which may imperil it? And may not these be learned from its public highways, its public /339/ conveyances, its public buildings, and from the character and capacities of the officers to whose fidelity these great interests are committed, as well as from the various exactions of service, and the extent of the penalties inflicted upon them for delinquency or malfeasance in the discharge of their duties?

If we would investigate the histories of ancient times recorded by profane writers also, it will be established — as indeed Nature herself seems to proclaim with a loud voice — that rulers by whose authority their inferiors might be guided were elected for this reason that either the whole human race must needs perish or some intermediate class must be instituted so that by it one or more (rulers) might be able to command the others, (and) protect good men but restrain the wicked by means of punishments. And this is what not only Plato, Aristotle and the other natural philosophers — furnished with the light of human reason alone - have taught and proved, but God Himself by the utterance of St. Paul writing to the Romans (Romans 13 verse 1 to 5), the rulers of almost the entire world, confirmed this with clear words. There the origin of all States and Powers is with the best of reasoning derived from God the author of all good. Thus Homer also recognized and freely testified when he called kings "the fosterlings of Zeus" and "the shepherds of the lost". And therefore, since we are beginning a discussion concerning the power of Rulers, what shall prevent us from passing over to that prime origin from which they derived and from considering to what end they were instituted? For it is obvious that every discussion of things just or unjust must begin and end with the end (to which it exists). For we must judge that something has been rightly and duly done when it had attained that end to which it was designed. When therefore the duty of the rulers is inquired into, all will admit that it is assuredly right to remind them of their duty and also to admonish them roundly whenever they stray from it. But when a case occurs of either restraining tyrants who are such beyond a trace of doubt or of punishing them in accordance with their deserts, the majority commend patience and prayers to God so earnestly that they consider and condemn as mutineers and pseudo-Christians all those who refuse to bow their necks to torture. Here we are doubtless on dangerous ground; I would therefore once again beseech my readers to bear in mind my remarks immediately preceding lest they draw inadmissible conclusions from what must be said in the sequel. I admit that I most strongly approve of Christian patience as laudable beyond all the other virtues and never sufficiently commended; I admit that men should be zealously exhorted to it because it contributes largely to the attainment of eternal bliss: rebellions and all disorder I detest as awful abominations; in affliction especially I am of opinion that we should depend upon God alone; prayer accompanied by a serious recognition of our error I recognize as the true and necessary remedies for the overthrow of tyranny since this evil is rightly counted among the scourges sent by God for the chastisement of the people. But I deny that all these considerations deprive nations crushed by manifest tyranny of their right to safeguard themselves against it by means of prayers and repentance as well as other just remedies; and this I corroborate whilst I reply on the following powerful arguments.

John Calvin commentary on Romans 13 verse 4: For he is God’s minister for good, etc. Magistrates may hence learn what their vocation is, for they are not to rule for their own interest, but for the public good; nor are they endued with unbridled power, but what is restricted to the wellbeing of their subjects; in short, they are responsible to God and to men in the exercise of their power. For as they are deputed by God and do his business, they must give an account to him: and then the ministration which God has committed to them has a regard to the subjects, they are therefore debtors also to them. And private men are reminded, that it is through the divine goodness that they are defended by the sword of princes against injuries done by the wicked.

For they bear not the sword in vain, etc. It is another part of the office of magistrates, that they ought forcibly to repress the waywardness of evil men, who do not willingly suffer themselves to be governed by laws, and to inflict such punishment on their offenses as God’s judgment requires; for he expressly declares, that they are armed with the sword, not for an empty show, but that they may smite evil-doers.

And then he says, An avenger, to execute wrath, “a revenger to execute wrath,” Com. Ver., Doddridge; “a revenger for wrath,” Hammond. Wrath is here taken to mean punishment, by Luther, Beza, Grotius, Mede, etc. see Romans 2:5; Romans 3:5; Romans 4:15. The phrase then might be rendered, “condemning to punishment the doer of evil.” There is a contrast between “for wrath” and “for good” at the beginning of the verse. — This is the same as if it had been said, that he is an executioner of God’s wrath; and this he shows himself to be by having the sword, which the Lord has delivered into his hand. This is a remarkable passage for the purpose of proving the right of the sword; for if the Lord, by arming the magistrate, has also committed to him the use of the sword, whenever he visits the guilty with death, by executing God’s vengeance, he obeys his commands. Contend then do they with God who think it unlawful to shed the blood of wicked men.

God preordained, for his own glory and the display of His attributes of mercy and justice, a part of the human race, without any merit of their own, to eternal salvation, and another part, in just punishment of their sin, to eternal damnation.

He that spares the bad injures the good.

Tuesday 2 January 2007 -  Bishop of Lichfield, the Rt Revd Jonathan Gledhill, said Saddam's hanging "cannot be called unjust".

In a statement, he added: "For many criminals death is in fact a greater mercy than life-long imprisonment... Anyone who deliberately murders another human being immediately forfeits his or her own right to life.

"If Saddam Hussein had a fair trial and proper opportunity to appeal, his execution cannot be called unjust."

To say, therefore, as some have said, if God is all love toward fallen man, how can he threaten or chastise sinners is no better that saying, if God is all goodness in Himself and toward man, how can He do that in and to man which is for his good? As absurd is to say, if the able physician is all love, goodness and good will toward his patients, how can he blister, purge, or scarify them, how can he order one to be trepanned and another to have a limb cut off? Nay, so absurd is this reasoning that if it could be proved that God had no chastisement for sinners, the very want of their chastisement would be the greatest of all proofs that God was not all love and goodness toward man. [A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life (1729)]

And, therefore, the pure, mere love of God is that alone from which sinners are justly to expect that no sin will pass unpunished, but that His love will visit them with every calamity and distress that can help to break and purify the bestial heart of man and awaken in him true repentance and conversion to God. It is love alone in the holy Deity that will allow no peace to the wicked, nor ever cease its judgments till ever sinner is forced to confess that it is good for him that he has been in trouble, and thankfully own that not the wrath but the love of God has plucked out that right eye, cut off that right band, which he ought to have done but would not do for himself and his own salvation. [A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life (1729)]

God will give absolute justice, which is the only good thing. He will spare nothing to bring his children back to himself, their sole well-being, whether he achieve it here—or there.

Protestant scholar and journalist Rev. G. Aiken Taylor states,”Most Christians tend to confuse the Christian personal ethic with the requirements of social order. In other words, we tend to apply what the Bible teaches us about how we - personally - should behave toward our neighbors with what the Bible teaches about how to preserve order in society. And there is a big difference. Capital punishment is specifically enjoined in the Bible. ’Who ever sheddeth man’s blood; by man shall his blood be shed’ (Genesis 9-6). This command is fully agreeable to the Sixth Commandment, ‘Thou shalt not kill,’ (Exodus 20:13), because the two appear in the same context. Exactly 25 verses after saying ‘Thou shalt not kill’, the Law says, ‘He that smiteth a man so that he may die, shall be surely put to death’ (Ex 21:12)." See also Leviticus 24:17 and Numbers 35:30-31.(TDP:OVS, pg. 84,1986) Biblical teachings regarding personal conduct, civil government and eternal judgment and relations are often taken out of context, thereby replacing one duty or instruction improperly with another.

Jesus Christ and the Death Penalty

The Old Testament has numerous examples of legal capital punishment.  King Saul and the Israelite army won a great victory over King Agag and the Amalekites.  But they made the mistake of sparing King Agag, the fat sheep and cattle--the very things the Lord had commanded them to destroy (1 Sam. 15:20-21).  Samuel rebuked Saul and informed him that he would no longer serve as king of Israel because of his disobedience (1 Sam. 15:22-23).  “Then said Samuel, Bring hither to me Agag the king of the Amalekites.  And Agag came unto him cheerfully.  And Agag said, Surely the bitterness of death is past.  And Samuel said, As your sword has made women childless, so your mother shall be childless among women.  And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord at Gilgal” (1 Sam. 15:32-33).

Jesus Christ and the Death Penalty

Do you remember the contest between God’s great prophet Elijah and the prophets of Baal?  Both Elijah and the prophets of Baal asked that fire come down from heaven to consume the animals that had been placed on altars.  Jezebel’s prophets cried and cut themselves with knives and lancets until blood gushed upon them (1 Kings 18:28).  Their god did not respond because he was no god.  Elijah taunted them: “Cry aloud: for he is god; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is sleeping and must be awakened” (1 Kings 18:27).  After Elijah demonstrated that his God was God, he said to the Israelite people who had watched the contest: “Take the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape.  And they took them: and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon, and slew them there” (1 Kings 18:40).

Jesus Christ and the Death Penalty

Is there any doubt in your mind that Jesus Christ knew of these Old Testament incidents?  If you believe Jesus did not approve of the death penalty, how do you explain his silence on these well-known stories from the Old Testament?  It is absolutely unthinkable that he did not know, since he was God manifest in the flesh (1 Tim. 3:16).  Since he did know, why did he not say, “I am aware that Samuel hewed king Agag to pieces and that Elijah killed the prophets of Baal.  Although these were God’s prophets, they sinned grievously by their violence”?  If he thought such violence was always sinful and approved of it any way, how can we say Christ was honest and sinless?  It ought to be obvious that Jesus Christ endorsed the death penalty under some circumstances.

Jesus Christ and the Death Penalty

Has it ever dawned on you that Jesus never--not even one time--criticized the teaching of the Old Testament?  He disapproved of the way some of the Jewish leaders abused and misused the scriptures, but he did not question the inspiration and authority of one word of the revelation of God in the Old Testament.  If the Son of God endorsed all of the Old Testament, how can we call ourselves Christians and doubt any of its teachings?  I am reminded of a question raised by a radical Jewish scholar.  He asked, “How can you call yourself a Christian and entertain a different view of God than Jesus Christ had?”  We must have the same attitude toward the Old Testament that the Son of God so openly expressed.

But did he endorse all of the Old Testament?  Did he not have some reservations about the flood, the prophet Daniel, Jonah and the big fish story, Lot’s wife and information about Abraham, David and other Old Testament characters?  If he had such reservations, he never expressed them--never.  The truth is: He approved of the very incidents that most liberal scholars doubt or deny.

Jesus Christ and the Death Penalty

If what Engelder and Gaussen affirm is true--and there really is no doubt about it--when Christ endorses all of the Old Testament, did he not approve of the death penalty that was extracted on a number of occasions?  Are we going to accuse our Lord of not knowing his own word or of failure to point out the mistakes of Moses or of David--if they made mistakes?  Contrary to what many liberal theologians and others say, Jesus believed all of the Old Testament to be God’s word.  If the Old Testament ordained the death penalty--and few, regardless of their theological views would deny that fact--how can anyone say that Jesus objected to the death penalty?  He loved, preached, and obeyed the Old Testament--all of it, all the time.  If he ever questioned the legitimacy of the death penalty, he was negligent in failing to tell us about it.

The Merciful Death Penalty From the August 2000 Trumpet Print Edition » How could a loving God advocate capital punishment? By Joel Hilliker and J. Tim Thompson -
In the growing national debate, death-penalty advocates are being made to look heartless and uncompassionate. But let’s ask this fundamental question: Is the God of the Old Testament heartless and uncompassionate? The Bible says that God is a God of love (1 John 4:8). So why would a God of love allow the death penalty? How could a loving God actually command putting someone to death? As we will see, when the death penalty is understood from God’s vantage point, it is one of the greatest acts of love there can be toward society—and the condemned criminal.

The Merciful Death Penalty From the August 2000 Trumpet Print Edition » How could a loving God advocate capital punishment? By Joel Hilliker and J. Tim Thompson -
Many people believe that in the “Christian” era, the death penalty no longer should be enforced, saying that the grace of Jesus Christ does away with the need to execute criminals. That is an error! The one who became Jesus Christ is the author of the death penalty in the Old Testament.

The Merciful Death Penalty From the August 2000 Trumpet Print Edition » How could a loving God advocate capital punishment? By Joel Hilliker and J. Tim Thompson -
This is a very important point in our study of the death penalty. The one who became Jesus Christ was the God of the Old Testament who demanded death for murderers! Hebrews 13:8 tells us, “Jesus Christ [is] the same yesterday, today, and forever.” Furthermore, that same unchanging Jesus Christ said in Matthew 26:52, “for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.” Likewise, Jesus Christ inspired the Apostle John (Revelation 1:1) to write in Revelation 13:10, “he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword.”

By the authority of God the Father, Jesus Christ is the author and originator of the death penalty. He bolsters His words in the Old Testament with clear statements of support in the New Testament.

The Merciful Death Penalty From the August 2000 Trumpet Print Edition » How could a loving God advocate capital punishment? By Joel Hilliker and J. Tim Thompson -
Old Testament authority to execute murderers is placed into the hands of men, as shown in the above-quoted scriptures. In the New Testament book of Romans, God reaffirms that authority: “Let every soul be subject unto the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist [speaking of man’s governments and courts] are appointed by God…. For he [a government or court official] is God’s minister [“servant” or “magistrate” in some translations] to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil” (Romans 13:1-4; New King James Version).

The Merciful Death Penalty From the August 2000 Trumpet Print Edition » How could a loving God advocate capital punishment? By Joel Hilliker and J. Tim Thompson -
The God of love tells us in such scriptures as Hebrews 12:5-6 that for our own good those who commit wrong must be corrected. Correction is the God-given means to prevent crime and other problems. Using strong correction forces change in criminals convicted of lesser offenses and eliminates entirely the threat of those convicted of violent crimes such as murder.

The Merciful Death Penalty From the August 2000 Trumpet Print Edition » How could a loving God advocate capital punishment? By Joel Hilliker and J. Tim Thompson -
Too often, we indulge the weaknesses of criminals. The liberal element in our society constantly seeks to explain away evil deeds by reason of “mitigating circumstances” that supposedly justify a lesser or softer sentence. Claims of parental abuse, mental instability and racial injustice have all been used to acquit clearly guilty individuals.

Science has even rushed to the aid of lawbreakers by trying to uncover genetic and biochemical predisposition to violent behavior. “Evidence Found for a Possible ‘Aggression’ Gene,” blared a 1993 headline in the journal Science. Some sociobiologists claim that “impulsivity,” a trait presumably caused by bad brain chemistry or bad genes, is enough to give someone the inclination to lead a life of crime.

That is the whining, indulgent nonsense that is preventing deterrence of crime today. We shouldn’t be trying to “understand” criminals, we should be harshly punishing them with retribution so severe that they never want to commit crime again!

And in the case of intentional murder, for reasons we will see later, that severe punishment should be death.

The Merciful Death Penalty From the August 2000 Trumpet Print Edition » How could a loving God advocate capital punishment? By Joel Hilliker and J. Tim Thompson -
Mankind continually makes excuses for his wrong behavior and, in particular, has done so concerning crimes deserving the death penalty in the last 40 years. When will we learn that there are no mitigating circumstances, justifications or excuses for crime and lawlessness? There are reasons why people do things, but those reasons cannot be allowed to become excuses for which they are given leniency. History repeatedly shows that when a society indulges its criminals with leniency, that society will drift into anarchy and total collapse!

The Merciful Death Penalty From the August 2000 Trumpet Print Edition » How could a loving God advocate capital punishment? By Joel Hilliker and J. Tim Thompson -
Ecclesiastes 8:11 tells us the importance of swift punishment when it says, “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.” How clear and wise! When wrongdoing is not immediately punished, then all or almost all of the deterrent value to any subsequent punishment is lost!

The Merciful Death Penalty From the August 2000 Trumpet Print Edition » How could a loving God advocate capital punishment? By Joel Hilliker and J. Tim Thompson -
As for determining a person’s guilt, there is only one biblical rule: “Whoever kills a person, the murderer shall be put to death on the testimony of witnesses; but one witness is not sufficient testimony against a person for the death penalty” (Numbers 35:30; nkjv). Deuteronomy 17:6 agrees: “Whoever is worthy of death shall be put to death on the testimony of two or three witnesses, but he shall not be put to death on the testimony of one witness” (nkjv). In God’s eyes, repeated reprieves and appeals—and now, insistence upon DNA testing to verify guilt—should not be necessary for death-row inmates.

The Merciful Death Penalty From the August 2000 Trumpet Print Edition » How could a loving God advocate capital punishment? By Joel Hilliker and J. Tim Thompson -
If mankind would only receive instruction from the word of God instead of doing what seems humanly right.

As pointed out above, without swift punishment, any hope of dissuading others from committing similar crimes is lost or greatly diminished. Ezra 7:26 guides us toward speedy response to crime by stating, “And whosoever will not do the law of thy God, and the law of the king, let judgment be executed speedily upon him, whether it be unto death, or to banishment, or to confiscation of goods, or to imprisonment.”

The criminal mind does not respect authority. The only thing such a person respects is equal or stronger force! And when that strong force is used immediately to severely punish an offender, it makes others of like mind think twice before acting likewise.

The Merciful Death Penalty From the August 2000 Trumpet Print Edition » How could a loving God advocate capital punishment? By Joel Hilliker and J. Tim Thompson -
No sane man or woman wants to put another person to death. It is understandable to have a certain degree of pity for someone who is going to die, even if he or she deserves to die. But it is the seemingly interminable delays of 10 to 18 years that are taking the much-needed deterrent value out of the death penalty! The death penalty, once carried out, is as humanly irreversible as the murder itself, and therefore great care must be taken in implementing the death penalty. But human justice will always be flawed to a degree, and we cannot stop the wheels of justice or remove the deterrent value of the death penalty simply because we may make a mistake! To do so is to make a far greater mistake!

The Merciful Death Penalty From the August 2000 Trumpet Print Edition » How could a loving God advocate capital punishment? By Joel Hilliker and J. Tim Thompson -
People who commit crimes are promised a fair trial—not a perfect trial. Yet so many of the habeas corpus appeals (many of which amount to little more than stalling tactics) are procedural and/or frivolous in nature, nit-picking the court over minor imperfections in court procedure. Flawed humans will make mistakes. But that must not stop us from following God’s plain commands! A swift death penalty was intended by our Creator to deter or restrain additional people from committing the sin of murder. To stop or delay the death penalty because the courts are afraid of making a mistake is direct disobedience to God and His laws!

The Merciful Death Penalty From the August 2000 Trumpet Print Edition » How could a loving God advocate capital punishment? By Joel Hilliker and J. Tim Thompson -
Many a career criminal has already proven he cannot “make it” in normal society; and if he murders, rapes, robs and commits general mayhem, so what? He knows he’ll be provided food and shelter for the rest of his life so that he never has to work again! Why should he fear to kill? Even though he probably murdered unmercifully, the “merciful” liberals will see to it that his life is spared so that the taxpayers can support him for the next 20, 40 or 60 years in a prison environment where he is “somebody”—a “man among men” so to speak!

We must not get softer on crime, we must get tougher!

The book of Proverbs states, “When the scorner is punished, the simple is made wise,” and “Smite a scorner, and the simple will beware” (Proverbs 21:11; 19:25). People can learn vicariously from the experiences of others!

The Merciful Death Penalty From the August 2000 Trumpet Print Edition » How could a loving God advocate capital punishment? By Joel Hilliker and J. Tim Thompson -
The deterrent effect of the death penalty is muted because of current practices. But even basic understanding of human nature tells us that, if administered properly, the death penalty would have a significant deterrent effect!

The Merciful Death Penalty From the August 2000 Trumpet Print Edition » How could a loving God advocate capital punishment? By Joel Hilliker and J. Tim Thompson -
Imposing and carrying out the death penalty stops the example of lawlessness in society which can corrupt other human beings into the same wrong ways of violence and murder. Swiftly carrying out the death penalty also prevents the murderer from continuing in a downward spiral of ever-deepening rebellion against God’s law. The longer such a person is allowed to live, the more deeply entrenched will become their evil habits and twisted and corrupted human nature, all of which must be changed when the person is resurrected to physical life in the second resurrection!

The Merciful Death Penalty From the August 2000 Trumpet Print Edition » How could a loving God advocate capital punishment? By Joel Hilliker and J. Tim Thompson -
That is how the death penalty can be implemented in love! It deters others in this life from committing offenses worthy of the death penalty. And it prevents a murderer or violent career criminal from continuing in his wrong and worsening ways and more firmly establishing habits which must be broken when he has his opportunity to receive God’s truth. How beautiful is the pure truth of the merciful God!

"It is because humans are created in the image of God that capital punishment for premeditated murder was a perpetual obligation. The full range of biblical data weighs in its favor. This is the one crime in the Bible for which no restitution was possible (Numbers 35:31,33). The Noahic covenant recorded in Genesis 9 ("Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed. "Gen 9:6) antedates Israel and the Mosaic code; it transcends Old Testament Law, per se, and mirrors ethical legislation that is binding for all cultures and eras. The sanctity of human life is rooted in the universal creation ethic and thus retains its force in society. The Christian community is called upon to articulate standards of biblical justice, even when this may be unpopular. Capital justice is part of that non-negotiable standard. Society should execute capital offenders to balance the scales of moral judgement."  From "Capital Punishment: A Personal Statement", by Charles W. Colson., a former opponent. He is spiritual advisor and friend to numerous death row inmates and the Founder of Prison Fellowship, the largest Christian ministry serving incarcerated prisoners. Ph.703-478-0100.

"While the thief on the cross found pardon in the sight of God  - ‘Today you will be with Me in Paradise’ - that pardon did not extend to eliminating the consequences of his crime  - ‘We are being justly punished, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds.’ (Luke 23:39-43)". Neither God nor Jesus nor the Holy Spirit nor the prophets nor the apostles ever spoke out against the civil authorities use of executions in deserving cases - not even at the very time of Jesus’ own execution when He pardoned the sins of the thief, who was being crucified along side Him. Indeed, quite the opposite. Their biblical support for capital punishment is consistent and overwhelming. Furthermore, Jesus never confuses the requirements of civil justice with those of either eternal justice or personal relations. Charles Colson accurately recognizes this fact in stating that" it leads to a perversion of legal justice to confuse the sphere of private relations with that of civil law." All  quotations from Charles Colson’s "Capital Punishment: A Personal Statement". See D.6. See also Leviticus 24:17 and Numbers 35:30-31.(TDP:OVS, pg. 84,1986) Biblical teachings regarding personal conduct, civil government and eternal judgement and relations are often taken out of context, thereby replacing one duty or instruction improperly with another.

"Capital Punishment: A Personal Statement" - I must say that my views have changed and that I now favor capital punishment, at least in principle, but only in extreme cases when no other punishment can satisfy the demands of justice.

"Capital Punishment: A Personal Statement" - The reason for this is quite simple. Justice in God's eyes requires that the response to an offense - whether against God or against humanity - be proportionate. The lex talionis, the "law of the talion," served as a restraint, a limitation, that punishment would be no greater than the crime. Yet, implied therein is a standard that the punishment should be at least as great as the crime. One frequently finds among Christians the belief that Jesus' so-called "love-ethic" sets aside the "law of of the talion." To the contrary, Jesus affirms the divine basis of Old Testament ethics. Nowhere does Jesus set aside the requirements of civil law.

"Capital Punishment: A Personal Statement" - What about mercy? someone is inclined to ask. My response is simple. There can be no mercy where justice is not satisfied. Justice entails receiving what we in fact deserve; we did in fact know better. Mercy is not receiving what we in truth deserve. To be punished, however severely, because we indeed deserve it, as C.S. Lewis observed, is to be treated with dignity as human beings created in the image of God. Conversely, to abandon the criteria of righteous and just punishment, as Lewis also pointed out, is to abandon all criteria for punishment.

"Capital Punishment: A Personal Statement" - Paul's teaching in Romans 13 squares with his personal experience. Testifying before Festus, the Apostle certifies: "If...I am guilty of doing anything deserving death, I do not refuse to die."

"Capital Punishment: A Personal Statement" - But in spite of the flaws of the system, I have come to believe that God in fact requires capital justice, at least in the case of premeditated murder where there is no doubt of the offender's guilt. This is, after all, the one crime in the Bible for which no restitution was possible. Lest we believe the Old Testament was characterized by indiscriminate capital justice, Old Testament law painstakingly distinguished between premeditated murder and involuntary manslaughter; hence, the function of the cities of refuge. Israel's elders, we can be assured, would have adjudicated well at the gate. In the case of involuntary manslaughter, deliverance out of the hand of the avenger occurred. In the case of murder, the convicted criminal was put to death.

"Capital Punishment: A Personal Statement" - I'm well aware that sincere Christians stand on both sides of this issue. One's views on the death penalty are by no means a test of fellowship. While we take no pleasure in defining the contours of this difficult ethical issue, the Christian community nevertheless is called upon to articulate standards of biblical justice, even when this may be unpopular. Capital justice, I have come to believe, is part of that non-negotiable standard. A moral obligation requires civil government to punish crime, and consequently, to enforce capital punishment, albeit under highly restricted conditions. Fallible humans will continue to work for justice. But fallible as the system might be, part of the Christian's task is to remind surrounding culture that actions indeed have consequences - in this life and the life to come.

Before that happens, the elements of the crime, all of them, must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt. If this sounds “soft” to you, then the Old Testament was “soft.” We find in Numbers 35 and Deuteronomy 17 the requirement that there be more than one eyewitness to convict anyone of murder. God so abhors convicting the innocent that bearing false witness in a capital case is a capital offense in itself! (Establishing Justice Guilt, Innocence, and Due Process By: Chuck Colson| Published: July 7, 2011 7:56 AM)

Billy Graham, Evangelical religious leader, in an article titled "The Power of the Cross," published in the Apr. 2007 issue of Decision magazine wrote: "God will not tolerate sin. He condemns it and demands payment for it. God could not remain a righteous God and compromise with sin. His holiness and His justice demand the death penalty."

In my opinion, in the past 25 years, people quit talking to God. People stopped reading the Bible. The death penalty was removed and human life was no longer considered sacred. We became comfortable murdering babies and scoffing authority. It is critical to understand the death penalty was God's idea, not man's. Genesis 9:6 "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man his blood shall be shed; for in the image of God had God made man." [Clergy corner: God's take on capital punishment Monday, 09 July 2012 00:48]

The preservation of the death penalty is to preserve the quality and sanctity of human life. Capital punishment places a high value on human life. It says: "If you take a life that is so important, your life will be forfeited." It's interesting that in one year after the Supreme Court struck down the death penalty, they legalized abortion in America. If human life is no longer sacred, we can murder babies and save ourselves the embarrassment brought about by our own immoral actions. [Clergy corner: God's take on capital punishment Monday, 09 July 2012 00:48] 

God instituted the death penalty to ensure the protection of human life (Genesis 9:6) Exodus 20:13 "Thou shall not murder." Understand God does not forbid killing. He forbids murder. [Clergy corner: God's take on capital punishment Monday, 09 July 2012 00:48]

As Claus Westermann, one of the most famous Old Testament scholars of the twentieth century explained, this text indicates that God expects murderers to be punished with death. "The execution of the death penalty by humans is the carrying out of the command of God."

Every human life is sacred precisely because every single human being is made in God's image. Murder is, Westermann explained, "a direct attack on God's right of dominion."

He commented further: "Here in Genesis 9 murder is something utterly on its own; nothing can be compared with it. Throughout the whole sweep of human history, the murderer by his action despoils God."

And yet, in another statement from his commentary on this text, Westermann points straight to the reason that a post-Christian culture loses its moral confidence in the punishment of murderers. He states: "A community is only justified in executing the death penalty insofar as it respects the unique right of God over life and death and insofar as it respects the inviolability of human life that follows therefrom."

What today's modern Christians have failed to see, and through their ignorance have allowed to happen, is the fact that God's commandments also include righteous and severe punishment on evil! Because we have decided that we could out-god God and be more benevolent in meting out punishment for wrong doing, we have fought to "moderate" His commands on how to punish crime (sin).

We have disobeyed His commandment and destroyed our society! Because we the people have allowed our "law makers" to sidestep God's divine laws for punishment of evil doers, we have shifted that righteous judgment from individuals to our nation and society. Hence, we have, by not obeying God as a society, caused His judgment and righteous wrath to befall the whole nation! We have literally damned ours and our children's future to destruction because of our ignorance, apathy, arrogance and rebellion against God's word. We leaned unto our own understanding, worshiped the creation by becoming our own gods and developing our own laws and legal system. You see, my friend, righteous judgment WILL be fulfilled on evil men as individuals or as a whole! [UNDER PENALTY OF DEATH By Pastor Butch Paugh January 25, 2012 NewsWithViews.com]

You may say, "Now wait a minute, we are not evil"! My answer is simply this: sinning outright or tolerating sin IS evil! To tolerate sin IS sin. Simple huh? Deuteronomy chapters 11, 28, 30 confirms this truth completely! We as a nation, as a people, were to make certain that righteous judgment is carried out for all men. Rich or poor, young or old, famous or obscure! Judgment must be performed righteously and equally for and to all people! But because we have violated God's judgments on evil doers such as murderers, rapists, kidnappers, sodomites, lesbians and much more, we have totally damned our nation! We were commanded to mete out "lawful" punishment so that the people would see it being done, and they would fear to commit such vile acts and we would rid the evil from among us! (Deut. 13:6-11, Deut 21:18-21, Romans 1:32) [UNDER PENALTY OF DEATH By Pastor Butch Paugh January 25, 2012 NewsWithViews.com]  

We have been commanded to purge ourselves (I Cor.5:7, II Tim.2:21). Christ said that He will purge His people (Matt. 3:12, Heb 1:3, II Pet 1:9). If His people will not purge themselves and their land from sin, (crimes against God's law system), He will purge and punish their nation, children and grandchildren (Hosea 4:6)! Josiah is an example of a righteous leader that obeyed God's word, and by doing so blessed his people (II Chron. 34). Unfortunately, this was not usually the case and ultimately Israel sinned beyond redemption. (See my article titled "To Sin Beyond Redemption" on newswithviews.com) God himself judged Israel with severe punishment for not purging themselves and their society on many occasions I John 4:4 and Ezek. 24:13-14 are good examples. There are MANY more! Ec. 8:11 states the truth very clearly and why evil spreads and how nations place themselves under the death penalty. [UNDER PENALTY OF DEATH By Pastor Butch Paugh January 25, 2012 NewsWithViews.com]

Amid the thunder and lightning and literal shaking of Mount Sinai, God's voice THUNDERED the sixth commandment: "Thou shalt not murder" (Exodus 20:13, Jewish Publication Society translation). Biblical authorities agree that "murder" is a more correct reading of the original inspired Hebrew than the word "kill." For it is possible to kill and yet not to murder. And it is important to understand that only the letter of God's law was given to ancient Israel, whereas Christians are to live by the spirit and fullest intent of that law as magnified by Christ Himself.

Under the original letter of the law, it was intentional killing or murder which was forbidden. Remember that in this same "book of the covenant" given to Israel, God commanded them to kill or execute those guilty of major crimes (Ex. 21:12-17). Also, the instructions in Numbers 35:9-34 show that accidental killing was not regarded as murder. Even here, though, manslaughter was obviously a terrible offense -- and the careless or unwitting slayer had to remain in a city of refuge for perhaps many years until the high priest died. [Commentary on the Sixth Commandment]

Just as capital punishment was commanded by God for serious crimes under the letter of the law, so the commanded wars of Israel should be viewed not as acts of wholesale murder but the carrying out of the divine will through human instruments. Notice in Deuteronomy 7:1-2 that God directly commanded Israel to exterminate the heathen tribes in the land of Canaan. This was not humanly devised warfare nor was it personal vengeance or malice. It was the express will of Almighty God who gives life -- and who alone has the right to say when it shall be taken.

Incidentally, it should be noted that the history of the time indicates that these nations occupying Canaan were absolutely wicked in the extreme -- and were burning alive their own children in human sacrifice to their pagan gods. This was part of the intelligent reason why the Creator ordered their extermination at that time. Notice that in all these cases where God permitted man to take life, it was only as His agent -- at His express will.

God's original purpose was that man should learn not to kill. And although it was permitted in certain instances to the carnal, unconverted people of Israel, we shall see that God is now developing in His Spirit begotten children the character to love, to serve and to save life -- not to destroy it. [Commentary on the Sixth Commandment]

XXXVII. Of the Civil Magistrates = THE Queen's Majesty hath the chief power in this realm of England and other her dominions, unto whom the chief government of all estates of this realm, whether they be ecclesiastical or civil, in all causes doth appertain, and is not nor ought to be subject to any foreign jurisdiction.
    Where we attribute to the Queen's Majesty the chief government, by which titles we understand the minds of some slanderous folks to be offended, we give not to our princes the ministering either of God's word or of sacraments, the which thing the Injunctions also lately set forth by Elizabeth our Queen doth most plainly testify: but that only prerogative which we see to have been given always to all godly princes in Holy Scriptures by God himself, that is, that they should rule all estates and degrees committed to their charge by God, whether they be ecclesiastical or temporal, and restrain with the civil sword the stubborn and evil-doers. The Bishop of Rome hath no jurisdiction in this realm of England.
   The Laws of the Realm may punish Christian men with death for heinous and grievous offences.
    It is lawful for Christian men at the commandment of the Magistrate to wear weapons and serve in the wars.