The Death Penalty: Is It The Loving Thing To Do? Part II

The Old Testament is not lacking examples and specific instructions as to when and how the death penalty should be applied. In Genesis, chapter 9, God handed over the responsibility for application of the death penalty to human government. Last week I made a brief case for the death penalty from the Old Testament.

I didn’t spend a lot of time proving my point because few people will argue that the death penalty was proper in the Old Testament. A lot of people died in those times via execution. There were actually twenty death penalty offenses presented in the Old Testament; murder was only one of them. Some of the others are kidnapping, incest, adultery, rape, blasphemy, refusing to abide by the court decision, and witchcraft. If these were applied today our national population would drop drastically. What does that say about us?

Today, many Christians argue that the death penalty is not valid in our day and time. They say it is not taught in the New Testament. I disagree. I think it is valid and it is taught in the New Testament.

First of all, why do some assume that God is required to repeat in the New Testament everything that had already been established in the Old Testament? There are many things not mentioned in the New Testament that we still hold true today. Since the Old and New Testaments are really one unified story, it makes more sense to assume things already established don’t need to be addressed again unless they are changed or eliminated.

For example, we don’t sacrifice sheep and goats anymore. That has been changed. Jesus is our sacrificial lamb, once and for all. We no longer observe the ceremonial law. Although bestiality is not mentioned in the New Testament, it is in the Old, we still consider it a gross sin and crime.

There is nothing in the New Testament that says the death penalty has been done away with. Jesus talked often about the ultimate death penalty: Hell, eternal death! Jesus, Paul, Peter, and many others were executed, although wrongly. However, none argued against the government’s ability and right to do so. Paul even said, “If, then, I am a wrongdoer and have committed anything worthy of death, I do not refuse to die; but if none of those things is true of which these men accuse me, no one can hand me over to them. I appeal to Caesar (Acts 25:11).”

When I debate the death penalty very few people offer truly biblical arguments. Rather I usually hear a lot of Scripture out of context. I get the arguments like: “It’s not the loving thing to do,” “I know someone on death row,” “We are under grace, not law.” I love that last one. Tell the policeman who pulls you over that you are not under the law. He’ll love it and let you go for sure.

Once someone gave me that same argument. I said, “Can you kill people now under grace?” No. “Can you steal?” No. “Can you commit adultery with your neighbor’s wife?” No. Ummm. I responded: “Sounds to me that you are under some kind of law.”

And, I repeat that if one wants to argue that God did do away with the death penalty, one must prove when God changed His mind. I can’t find that He did. We have become so desensitized to sin today that we cringe when we think of applying the death penalty at all much less for things God said were capital offenses.

God is a loving God. He is also just, righteous, and holy. Sometimes, the death penalty is the loving thing to do for all concerned. Even the criminal has a chance to get right with God. Not everyone has that advantage at death. And, society will have less deadly criminals running lose. It’s the loving thing to do. It’s also the right thing to do when properly applied.

Note: If you have a good argument against the death penalty, please post it and I’ll respond.