by Norman D. Fox -
Many nations have abandoned capital punishment as a penalty for any crime including premeditated murder. The United States, due to the biblical origins of our code of law, utilizes the death penalty at the federal level and in many states. But the practice has become controversial as some Americans now oppose it totally and others have reasons to criticize the way it is applied. This Essay examines biblical teaching on capital punishment which has formed the basis for its use through American history.
THE ORIGIN AND DURATION OF CAPITAL
PUNISHMENT
The death penalty for murder was commanded by God in Gen. 9:5-6. Noah and his family had just stepped off the ark into a new post-flood world, and God was initiating a covenant with mankind (Gen. 8:20-9:17). This covenant, in force “As long as the earth endures” (Gen. 8:22) included the promise from God never again to flood the entire earth, a covenant sealed with the rainbow “for all generations to come” (Gen. 9:12).
Thus, God’s capital punishment directive originates in the Noahic Covenant, not in Moses’ Law which would apply specifically to the Jewish nation and would hold legal force only until Christ fulfilled it in His life, death and resurrection. God’s covenant with Noah predates the Law by centuries, and outlasts it, “as long as the earth endures.”
God requires the death penalty because of the high value of human life. He says man must execute murderers because “in the image of God He made man” (Gen. 9:6). This authorization was not accompanied by details about how that power was to be rightly exercised. Moses’ Law later gave specifics which American government still uses for guidance, but God’s capital punishment command itself is clear from Noah’s time.
OLD TESTAMENT TIMES AND CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
God’s Law as revealed through Moses expanded the doctrine of capital punishment by adding several offenses besides murder that could result in the death penalty, and by adding many particulars about how the death penalty was to be administered. There is little record, in or around the scriptures, of capital punishment actually being inflicted for many of the non-murder offenses, but it was always there as a last resort. Even “the God of the Old Testament” preferred repentance to death when possible (Eze. 33:11).
Moses’ Law provided a number of principles that served as safeguards against hasty or capricious executions, which can be listed as follows: The Principle of Proportionality (Ex. 21:23-25), The Principle of Intent (Num. 35:22-24), The Principle of Due Process (Num. 35, and Deut. 17:8-9), The Principle of Individual Responsibility (Deut. 24:16), The Principle of Fairness (Ex. 23:6-7), The Principle of Reluctance to Execute (Eze. 33:11), and The Principle of Certainty of Guilt (Num. 35:30, Deut. 17:6).
Some present day critics of capital punishment raise valid objections against the way in which the penalty is sometimes meted out. Most of these objections have to do with violation of one or more of the Mosaic principles. For example, Charles Colson of Prison Fellowship Ministries points out that many states do not require the level of evidence (two eyewitnesses) described under the Principle of Certainty of Guilt.
The Ten Commandments’ prohibition against murder (Ex. 20:13) clearly does not prohibit the death penalty, it justifies it! The same context requires “He that smiteth a man so that he dieth, shall surely be put to death” (Ex. 21:12). The primary reason that God instituted civil government was to see that this happens in an equitable way, so that individuals do not have to take such retribution into their own hands. (See Essay #1, Government: A Creation of God.)
NEW TESTAMENT TIMES AND CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
The New Testament says little about capital punishment, and says nothing whatsoever about abolishing it. The end of the Mosaic Law period, as we have seen, did not end God’s covenant with Noah, so there is no reason to assume that the death penalty for murder ended. Moses’ Law may still provide helpful guidelines for implementing the penalty, but few Bible scholars on any side of the debate would advocate bringing capital punishment into modern law for crimes unrelated to premeditated murder.
If Christ or his apostles had intended to end capital punishment, they had plenty of opportunity to say so. Instead, Jesus acknowledges the Roman government’s power to execute Him (John 19:10-11), but reminds Pilate that the power had been given by God, implying that it must be exercised righteously. Paul in Acts 25:11 makes the same acknowledgement, but presses his claim to be innocent of any crime that would call for capital punishment. In Rom. 13:4, Paul’s use of the word “sword” certainly implies nothing less than the state’s capital authority.
AMERICAN LAW AND CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
Through most of American history, there was little question that the death penalty was appropriate. The U. S. Supreme Court ruled in 1890 that capital punishment was not “cruel and unusual punishment” in the Constitution’s meaning of the term if it did not “involve torture or lingering death.” When the death penalty has been legally challenged in recent decades, the Court has sometimes required that abuses in the system be corrected, but has never ruled capital punishment unconstitutional per se. Major decisions to this effect have included Furman v Georgia (1972), Gregg v Georgia (1976) and McClesky v Kemp (1987).
In 2003 the outgoing governor of Illinois, George Ryan, stunned the nation by declaring all 167 death sentences of convicted murderers on his state’s death row null and void. Once a supporter of capital punishment, Gov. Ryan says his concerns about inappropriate sentencings led him to commute all the death penalties. He quoted former Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun, who declared in opposition to the death penalty, “I no longer shall tinker with the machinery of death.” Ironically, Justice Blackmun authored the majority opinion in the 1973 Roe v Wade decision, thereby tinkering with considerably more deaths than will ever be at issue in the death penalty debates. (See Essay #14, Roe v Wade: Fatal Right to Privacy.)
The Pentateuch warned Israel that failure to properly apply the death penalty would bring moral pollution and guilt upon the whole nation (Num. 35:31-34, Deut. 21:1-9). Many Bible-believing Americans are concerned that this warning applies to our nation as well, and seek instead the blessings of obeying God on this issue “that it may go well with you” (Deut. 19:13).
For further study:
Rus Walton, Biblical Solutions to Contemporary Problems
(Ch
3), (1988), Christian Liberty Press.
502 W Euclid Ave., Arlington Heights, IL
60004
Gary DeMar, God
and Government, Vol 3 (Ch 7), (1989),
Wolgemuth & Hyatt, 1749 Mallory Ln,
Suite 110, Brentwood, TN 37027
Daniel W. Van
Ness, “Punishable by Death,”
Christianity
Today, July 10, 1987
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