Opus 2013-225: Monday Pulpit: Debate on the Death Penalty

I teach a Sunday School class of high school and college students.  One of the issues that comes up fairly regularly is the issue of capital punishment.  There are a lot of Christians in the world that have decided that the death penalty is too cruel and should never be invoked.  Many refer to the words of Jesus, such as,

(Matthew 5:38-9 KJV)  Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:  But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.

Sunday, at the church we were visiting, the pastor was demonstrating how God set up a form of representative government in the elders of Israel.  In the process he pointed out that one of the responsibilities of the elders was to punish murderers.  You can review Deuteronomy 19 for the way in which cities of refuge were set up for people guilty of manslaughter.  The Bible covers the nuances.  But if you keep reading you find that in cases of first degree murder the penalty was death.  Even if such a criminal made it to a city of refuge he was to be executed. 

One of the key arguments today is that life is precious and we should not take life, even in punishing murderers.  That was addressed also.

(Deuteronomy 19:13 NAS77)  "You shall not pity him, but you shall purge the blood of the innocent from Israel, that it may go well with you.

I use the NASB here because I think it is a little more clear.

Notice that one reason given is so that things will go well with the rest of society.  Maybe we need to look at our practices and ask if banning the death penalty is just another ingredient why God may not be smiling on us any more.

This is not offered as a final and conclusive “gotcha!”  It is simply one more piece of the puzzle we must consider as we try to remove the false teachings of the pagan, new age culture that have inserted themselves in our sense of right and wrong.

homo unius libri