The Bible mentions capital punishment for several different
crimes a few of which are homicide (Exod. 21:12, Lev. 24:17, and Num.
35:16-34), kidnapping (Exod. 21:16, Deut. 24:7), and human sacrifice (Lev.
20:2-5)1, but do these rules still apply to today’s times? Should the United States continue allowing
capital punishment in certain states?
It has been debated both among Christians and among
non-Christians upon whether capital punishment is good or bad. Upon reading the Bible, this could be interpreted
for both sides. There were a lot of
rules for capital punishment in the Old Testament and there are a lot of scripture
in the New Testament that could also be seen as promoting capital punishment. There is also scripture in the New Testament
that could be used to say that capital punishment is immoral. I am going to discuss several of these
scripture and tell what I believe each of these scriptures entail. Since this is a more opinionated discuss on
the interpretation of scripture, I will use a variety of sources.
Here
is a Christian who supports the death penalty.
These are a lot of the most popular reasons that Christians believe in
capital punishment.
The most popular reason for Christians to believe in the
death penalty is Exodus 20:13 which, in the KJV, says, “Thou shalt not kill.” Most biblical scholars believe that this
should instead be interpreted as “thou shall not murder” which is what most
modern Bibles state. Christians that
support the death penalty say that it is not murder, but rather is just
killing. According to www.thefreedictionary.com,
the definition of murder is “the unlawful killing of one human by another, especially
with premeditated malice”. Whether the
act is unlawful depends on whether the act is legal at the time, i.e. whether
the death penalty is legal in that state or not. The phrase “premeditated malice” leads to my
conclusion that the death penalty is murder and therefore is spoke against in
Exodus 20:13. The death penalty is
premeditated and I also believe that it shows malice because the death penalty
is intended for revenge. It is intended
to harm someone because of an act that they committed to someone else. Therefore, I believe that this scripture does
not promote the death penalty, but rather speaks against the death penalty.
Furthermore, Jesus’s nature is forgiving. Jesus not only supports, but demands
forgiveness. In Matthew 18:21-22 (KJV), the Bible says, “Then Peter came to
Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive
him? Up to seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do
not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.” This states that we should forgive each other
when someone sins against us. In Mark
11:25, Jesus says, ““And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything
against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you
your trespasses.” Jesus says that if we
do not forgive those that sin against us, God will not forgive us of our
sins. If we kill someone because they
have sinned by murdering someone else, how is this showing forgiveness towards
that person? This testimony
about why the song “Forgiveness”
by Matthew West was written shows how powerful forgiveness can be. (Here is the full story about this testimony.)
There are many other scriptures that may point to capital
punishment as being holy, but for the verses that I have shared above, I have
decided that the death penalty is immoral.
I think that forgiveness is better than revenge and this is something
that I live by. I believe that there are
better ways to protect our society than the death penalty.
Notes:
A
comprehensive list of mentions of capital punishment in the Bible can be seen
in “Capital Punishment and the Bible” by G.C. Hanks (2002).
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