Expert: Dr. Ronald E. Shultz - 4/6/2006

Question
Hi,
I am at my wits end and hope that i can find SOMEONE to help me here....
I am a Christian, and very proud of it, i was raised Baptist, however in later years have realized that i dont want to put my God in the "religion" box so to speak.
I have also in the last year become stronly ANTI Death Penalty. My believe lies in several verses in the bible, the fact that Mosaic law was changed with Jesus, the statements Jesus himself made and of course the 10 Commandments help.
Turn the other cheek, THOU shalt not kill, etc. One of my favorites is Vengence is mine sayeth the Lord.
At any rate, i have contacted a Baptist preacher regarding my question, but as most Baptists seem to do, he reworded the scriptures to suit the pro death penalty view point.
What is your take on the Death Penalty and God's stand? It wont change my viewpoint, but maybe my argument?
I want to know if you interpret the Bible to state the because God give us authority figures they should be able to enforce the "eye for an eye"
I will seriously look into any answers you provide, even if its the one i dont want!! lol.. i just want someone to give me a starting point..with scriptures I do know that many SBC Pastors use verses in Romans to support the Death Penalty, however i interpret those same verses another way, which is possibly because I want to see them that way, however i just do not believe the God i love would support the taking of a life, as i stated the Ten commandants state THOU Shalt Not Kill, and i dont see an "ie" after it...
Thank you
Lin Carl

Answer
I am sorry that you left your Baptist heritage for it is a rich and biblical one.  Many by that name have died for their faith and many were instrumental in shaping this country.   

I hope you are also against abortion if you are against the death penalty.  If you want to prove that God is anti-death penalty you will indeed have a hard time since He is not.  Yet, if nothing will change your mind, what is the point?  Nevertheless since I have never put my view into a treatise form before I will answer your question.

7523  ratsach (raw-tsakh');
a primitive root; properly, to dash in pieces, i.e. kill (a human being), especially to murder:
KJV-- put to death, kill, (man-) slay (-er), murder (-er).

Yes, I cannot just up and kill someone, but David said that God told him how to wage war and there is killing in war.  If you take the word to kill to mean any killing at all then God taught David how to sin as well as Moses, Joshua and et al.  That doesn't fit.

A passage before the law.

Gen 9:5-6
5 And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man.
6 Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man. (KJV)

Like the tithe since the death penalty was allowed before the Law it is not done away even if the Mosaic law though the moral law is still in effect. Only the sacrifical and ceremonial law is done away with.

A passage after the law.

What can you do with Numbers 8 which sets up cities of refuge where a person could go and plead his case if he accidently killed someone but if it was proven that he did intentionally kill someone he was turned out so that the avenger of blood can kill him?  

Need we go to Leviticus where there are numerous capital crimes, including adultery, rape, homsosexuality, bestiality, etc.???  False prophets and witches were condemned as well.

God could have killed all the Canaanites and others that were in the Promised Land because they were wicked but in essence He used the Israelites as His executioners. He could have had a plague, sent tornadoes and earthquakes that would have killed them all or just spoke the word and they would have vaporized. Instead He tested the Israelites' obedience by telling them to clear the land and because they did not they suffered because of it.

1 Sam 15:2-3
2 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt.
3 Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass. (KJV)

Hmm, the Lord told Saul to kill everyone.  That seems harsh by our current standards but when you study and see that many of these folks had terrible STDs and things you can understand why.  (Deut 28:58-61)  Even today we have perverts who have given three month old children STDs.  The Canaanites and the Egyptians practiced bizzare sexual acts.  When they first unearthed some Canaanites ruins back in the 1930s the paintings were so perverse that it made the explorers vomit.  Today, you would see as bad or worse on the Internet.  

Deut 21:18-23
18 If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them:
19 Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place;
20 And they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard.
21 And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die: so shalt thou put evil away from among you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear.
22 And if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be to be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree:
23 His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged is accursed of God;) that thy land be not defiled, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.
(KJV)

So much for Dr. Spock and the others who have brought us the rebellious gang members we have today.  If that were in effect when I was growing up I would not be here.  The elders would have stoned me. Hmm, death penalty for gluttony, drunkeness, and rebellious. Those would thin out the population of the US today for sure.

Deut 17:12-13
12 And the man that will do presumptuously, and will not hearken unto the priest that standeth to minister there before the LORD thy God, or unto the judge, even that man shall die: and thou shalt put away the evil from Israel.
13 And all the people shall hear, and fear, and do no more presumptuously. (KJV)

The context is that they came to the priest for a judgment call on something. The priest heard the case and made his ruling and one of the parties did not want to go by the decision.  If that happens he was stoned.  God doesn't play with frivolous law suits.  

OK, you might want to argue that we aren't under the Law or in a theocracy. We're under GRACE!!

Well, never heard Jesus or anyone teach against the government's authority to use capital punishment did you?  Any verse for your side outside of "thou shalt not kill, which you jave misinterpreted???  John the Baptist, Jesus and the Apostles were all executed.  No one questioned the government's authority to it.  You would probably be hard pressed to find anyone in the last 2,000 years of church history prior to the 20th century that argued against the right of the government to execute a criminal.  Only whether they were doing justly may have been questioned.  John Calvin had a man burned to death then regretted it but he never questioned the government's right to execute.  

Think about it, from the beginning it was foreordained that Jesus was to be executed. He was condemned by the Jews but because they were under Roman rule they had to get the Romans to do it so he was condemned twice unjustly, but judicially.  He could have died some other way and still paid for our sins.  Why execution?  Because when you stand before God you will either be acquitted by Christ's death or sentenced to the Second Death, separation from God in Hell(a spiritual execution). So, the picture of Christ in that context is perfect.

Rom 13:4 For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.
(KJV)

You have to be doing some major twisting of the Word here to get anything else but the right of capital punishment.
The context is about the rights of governments and that we should be subject to them not only for the wrath they can pour out upon us but for conscience sake.   

3162  machaira (makh'-ahee-rah);
probably feminine of a presumed derivative of 3163; a knife, i.e. dirk; figuratively, war, judicial punishment:
KJV-- sword.

From a site that sells Greek uniforms.

#500730 Machaira
The Machaira and the Falcata (different names for similar swords) were effective and devastating weapons, and quite capable of shearing a bronze helmet. The Greeks were feared warriors, with spear and shield being the primary weapon and armor. However, once the battle had joined and became hand to hand, the Machaira and the sword were available to strike terror into the toughest foe. Witness the destruction of the Persians in their abortive attempts to conquer the Greek city States. We have copied a Machaira seen depicted in many paintings, vases and frescoes. The blade is well tempered high carbon steel, parts are red bronze and grip is wood. Scabbard is leather. A beautiful historic weapon.

DEATH PENALTY ROMANS

The Romans were a people original of central Italy which in its maximum expansion occupated almost all Europe, North Africa and Asia Minor. The Roman civilization started in the VIII century b.C. with the foundation of Rome, and ended in the V century a.D., due to the barbaric invasions.

In the Roman age, at least in the first centuries, the public authority intervened to punish only the crimes against the general order which were extimated public treason. And in these case it intervened in high mode, often with the death penalty. For private crimes the law of retaliation was applied , which often caused the death of the cuplrit.
But not only the treason of the State and other crimes against the State were extimated among heaviest crimes, but also bringing away a boundary-stone which delimitated the border of a ground, stealing the beasts or the harvest from anyone, violating anyone, infringing a promise, lying, stealing during the night, setting a house on fire, stealing from the master, cheating a client.
The punishments, attending to the Law of the XII tables (V century b.C.), were really cruel. The Romans used beheading, flogging till death, hanging, drowning, cutting of the limbs, the stake; the vestals guilty of infidelity were buried alive, because shedding their blood wasn't permitted, and their seducer was beaten till death; public enemies, slaves who had stolen something from the master, culprits of false witness were thrown by the Tarpeia cliff; for the slaves, and for those peoples who were not Roman citizens, there was the crucifixion, a penalty particulary long and painful.
There are also many examples of other methods: the king Tullo Ostilio, for example, quartered Mettio Fufetio because he had violated the pacts with Rome, fastening him to two wagons which were then lauched in opposite directions.
Also in the long run there was this kind of punishments among the Romans; still in 71 b.C. more than 6,000 men who followed Spartacus in his rebellion against Rome were crucified along the streets, and in the first centuries of the vulgar age the christians, extimated coulpable of overthrowing the public order, were given to the bests like meal in the amphitheatre.

http://library.thinkquest.org/23685/data/romans.html

This is not a theological site but a historical one and they aren't for it so they haven't colored anything for theological purposes.  

Look at where Romans was written by one who would be beheaded by the state. I think Paul knew the policies of the Roman government. He wasn't talking about war. Paul was not talking to an army but to common citizens of the realm and he was telling that even the cruel Romans could be used as the servant/minister of God as a revenger.

1558  ekdikos (ek'-dik-os);
from 1537 and 1349; carrying justice out, i.e. a punisher:
KJV-- a (re-) venger.

What do you think the ruler was going to to with that dirk that he carried not in vain? That knife was for punishment and as we see in the historical context the Romans didn't just play mumbly-peg with that knife or their other toys. They were cruel and sometimes capricious but Paul did not denounce capital punishment though he denounced many other things in the culture, both Jewish and Gentile.   

What makes you think that putting a man in a cage for 40-50 years is not cruel and unusual punishment?  Know what happens? They get hard and cold and set up small kingdoms and can order men to be killed. After all, what are you going to do them?  They are already in jail until death. I have had friends in the penal system tell me about these lads.  

So, a kid goes into jail because he stole a car for a joyride.  He gets to 2-3 years and may get out in a year and a half.  Six months into the sentence he won't become the slave or sexual partner of a lifer.  He is killed.  The lifer stays in jail.  Hmm, is that what a loving God would ordain?  

It is best for the murderer, the victim and society to have a death penalty.  50 years at $30-40,000 a year is quite a bill for a society to pay for someone who will never re-enter it and may harm guards and prisoners alike causing more grief and costs.  Where is the justice in that?  In the 50's when the death penalty was excerised more than it is now and more expeditiously there were less capital crimes because men thought twice about it.  Now, so what?  At best it may take 20 years or more before they are executed if they are at all so it is worth the risk.  

Follow all of Scripture and you will see that God allowed the death penalty as an act of grace and mercy out of love for the victim and society.  I am all for giving the condemned 30 days with a good evangelist in hopes of him/her being saved and excaping Hell, but then sending them on to Glory.

Deut 19:19-21
19 Then shall ye do unto him, as he had thought to have done unto his brother: so shalt thou put the evil away from among you.
20 And those which remain shall hear, and fear, and shall henceforth commit no more any such evil among you.
21 And thine eye shall not pity; but life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. (KJV)

Evil is to be put away as an example to hinder more evil.  God knew lads and lassies would come along like you and said not to have pity on them.

2347  chuwc (khoos);
a primitive root; properly, to cover, i.e. (figuratively) to compassionate:
KJV-- pity, regard, spare.

Harsh?

Rom 9:15 For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. (KJV)

Bottom line, the God you love will put people that refuse to be saved into Hell forever. Hell is worse than any jail we could ever come up with in our minds and lasts longer than any form of execution.  Why do you think He would not approve of the death penalty?  

Do you love the God of the Bible or one of your own making?  I think you have been hanging around too many Liberals aka Sadducees. Maybe you need to get back with the Baptists.  Study to show thyself approved.  You may not like everything that God does but He has the supreme right to do it.

God is a God of judgment, righteousness and wrath as well as mercy, grace and love.  The Cross is the blending of all those attributes.  Those who take advantage of the free gift will experience the love, mercy and grace.  Those who refuse it will get the other attributes.  

Speak the TRUTH in LOVE.  Both are required.  

It does not matter how long you live or in what manner you die but whether you die in the Lord or in sin.  Live a 100 years and die in your sleep in your sin and go to Hell forever.  Live twenty and get executed but recieve Christ before you do and it is Heaven forever.  Salvation is more important than length of days or mode of death.  Stay focused, Lin.  

May God though His Holy Spirit lead you in ALL truth as you seek His Word!