God Supports the Death Penalty
Arkansas is big in the news right now because the state is trying to get through some executions before their execution drugs expire. And some Christians are upset about it and arguing that God is against it (for the record, I love prison ministry, I share Christ with inmates several times a year and I love taking Communion with Christian inmates who are my brothers in Christ).
Now to be clear, reasonable people can disagree on the death penalty. It is harder to get executed if you're rich and can buy the most expensive lawyer around. Every pro-bono attorney is not Atticus Finch. I'd argue those are obstacles to be overcome, not reasons to do away with capital punishment.
But there is one thing you cannot do if you take the Bible seriously:
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You cannot argue that the God of the Bible is against the death penalty.
Last week Shane Claiborne, social activist, tweeted that the death penalty is a disgrace to Jesus.
Sorry Shane. Not the Jesus of the Bible. Read Genesis 9:6. Is that true? Is the death penalty a disgrace to Jesus?
I also came across an article a while back by a "pro-lifer" pleading that Christians MUST reject the death penalty in the case of people like Jack Jones (he raped and strangled Mary Phillips to death in front of her 11-year-old daughter who was tied to a chair) if they are truly pro-life.
Is that true? Does pro-life equal rejection of the death penalty?
On both questions the answer is, "No."
Here are four reasons why:
1. God is FOR capital punishment.
No ifs, ands or buts. If you want to oppose capital punishment, don't use God as your source. In fact, you could preface your argument with "I don't care what God says about it!" Because that's where you are. And that's OK! Just be honest. I'm weary of people claiming Christ is against it. It's in black and white.
The Words of God Himself:
"Whoever sheds the blood of man,
by man shall his blood be shed,
for God made man in His own image."
Genesis 9:6 (ESV)
"But that's Ooooooold Testament. We're in the age of grace." Ok. A statement made from ignorance. But I'll play along.
New Testament:
"For he (the govt authority) is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer." Romans 13:4
That's New Testament. And God says "if you do wrong, BE AFRAID". And just in case you're unclear on the weapon, the sword was not used:
- to shackle a person,
- to give a person mercy,
- to taze them,
- to rehabilitate them,
- or to write them a citation.
The sword is a brutal, painful and bloody weapon of destruction, used to "run a person through" so to speak. In short – to execute them. And the sword bearer in Romans 13:4 is God's instrument of justice and wrath.
So Old Testament, New Testament, God never, ever gives any indication that He is against capital punishment, and in fact, endorses it. Why? Because God values life – He made man in His own image. And He punishes the taking of it.
2. It is a grave injustice to equate abortion and capital punishment.
When someone argues that to be truly "pro-life" you have to be anti-capital punishment, they are making a horrendously (and I'd argue inhumanly) unjust statement. It's saying that the murder of an innocent baby is the same as the Biblically endorsed execution of a man who brutally raped and murdered a woman in front of her daughter.
That is sick and twisted and is an indication of a morally compromised mind.
This statement is evidence of a broken moral compass. An innocent baby is not equal in any way to a guilty murderer.
They are not the same. Not in God's eyes. Not in any sense of justice. Only in a skewed "God's so impotent and weak that justice is just not even in His framework" sense does this view work.
3. Pleading mercy for a murderer is not necessarily noble OR pro-life.
This point I find most offensive. There's something particularly unsettling and untoward about Christians who are not the injured party pleading mercy for a murderer.
If you are injured, you have standing to plead for mercy for the aggressor. If your loved one is murdered, I suppose you have some standing to argue for mercy for the murderer.
But if you sit in another state, unaffected by the crime, suffering no loss, suffering none of the pain of the crime, pleading mercy for a murderer does not make you noble or necessarily pro-life. In fact, I'd argue it makes you:
arrogant,
unjust,
lacking in compassion for the true loss of the victim's loved ones.
And I'd say you have an unhealthy appetite for mercy that doesn't cost you a thing.
At the very least you have diminished the value of the life taken and the pain and suffering of the victim's loved ones.
4. Capital punishment doesn't keep a person from repenting and finding Christ.
Some, with a warped view of justice, argue that when a person is convicted of murder, that we should seek their salvation instead of their just end (according to God's Word: Gen. 9:6, Romans 13:4).
The two are not mutually exclusive. It's not either/or. You can give the death sentence in a court of law (no one's talking about vigilantism here) and still share Christ with someone. As mentioned before, I share Christ with inmates several times a year. I love it when anyone gives their life to Christ!
And the truth is, death sentence for a brutal crime could be a great motivator for repentance. Who wants to stand before God with the stain of brutality and murder on their soul?
You have to look no further that the thief on the cross in Luke 23. It was on the cross, hours away from death ... when faced with his own mortality that the thief repented and was granted salvation by none other than Jesus in the flesh.
Jesus didn't save him from execution. Jesus saved him from hell. A much better salvation.
Why does this matter?
Because Christians need to be people of the Word. People who know it, understand it, and follow it. People who do not misquote it or use it as a shill for their own agenda. And Christians need to be people of justice. Seeking justice and mercy for the victim, whether the victim is a baby killed in the womb, or a man or woman murdered on the street.
God is very clear on capital punishment. He offers salvation to all – the liar, the gossip, the thief and even the murderer. But nowhere in Scripture, NOWHERE in Scripture, does He offer rescue from the just punishment for crime. Rather He sets up governments to institute that justice and defend the defenseless.
God is for capital punishment.
Originally posted at I Like My Coffee Black.
