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Capital Punishment
 
“Capital Punishment”
 
INTRODUCTION
 
1. Whenever an execution is imminent
questions are often raised...
 a. Should capital punishment be acceptable in a civilized society?
 b. Is it morally right for a government to administer capital
 punishment?
 c. What is the purpose behind capital punishment
and is it
 accomplished?
 
2. How do we find the answers to such questions?
 a. We could turn to various sources
and receive conflicting answers
 b. For Christians who believe the Word of God to be complete and
 all-sufficient (2 Ti 3:16-17; 2 Pe 1:3)
we must look to it for
 the answers
 
[In this study
we shall endeavor to glean from the Bible what it has
to say on the subject. Turning to the book of Genesis
the book of
beginnings
we read of...]
 
I. THE BEGINNING OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
 
 A. BEFORE THE FLOOD...
 1. Cain received protection from God against capital punishment
 - Gen 4:13-15
 2. Lamech
descendant of Cain
presumed even more protection
 against capital punishment after killing a young man - Gen 4:
 23-24
 3. By the time of Noah
mention is made of the corruption and
 violence which had filled the earth - Gen 6:11-12 (might this
 be the consequence of a society without capital punishment?)
 4. God's solution for the wholesale corruption and violence:
 capital punishment on a mass scale! (i.e.
the flood) - Gen
 6:13
 
 B. AFTER THE FLOOD...
 1. Man is immediately given an awesome responsibility - Gen 9:5-6
 a. God now requires a reckoning from those who kill
 b. He now requires a killer to be killed by his fellow man
 2. The reason God requires this of man: "For in the image of God
 He made man"
 a. To kill one created in God's image is a serious offense
 worthy of death!
 b. Because man is created in God's image:
 1) He possesses the ability to exercise justice and
 righteousness
  2) He is capable of being a worthy administrator of capital
 punishment
 
[While the evidence is scarce
it appears that before the flood people
took God's word to Cain as a license to kill without consequence. With
the flood
God Himself administered a form of capital punishment upon
the violent and corrupt. After the flood
He charged man with the
responsibility to take the life of those who shed blood.
 
Now let's take a look at...]
 
II. CAPITAL PUNISHMENT UNDER THE OLD COVENANT
 
 A. GOD GAVE THE LAW TO GOVERN THE NATION OF ISRAEL...
 1. The Law was both a civil and religious law
and has served as
 the basis for criminal justice in many other civilizations
 since first given by God
 2. In it
we find that capital punishment was proscribed for the
 following crimes:
 a. Premeditated murder - Exo 21:12-14
 b. Parental abuse - Exo 21:15
 c. Kidnapping - Exo 21:16
 d. Cursing parents - Exo 21:17
 e. Striking an expecting mother which causes the child to be
 born prematurely and dies - Exo 21:22-25
 f. Failure to keep a killer animal from killing - Exo 21:28-29
 g. Killing a thief in revenge - Exo 22:2
3
 h. Sorcery - Exo 22:18
  i. Bestiality - Exo 22:19
 j. Adultery - Lev 20:10
 k. Incest - Lev 20:11-12
 l. Homosexuality - Lev 20:13
 m. Marrying both mother and daughter - Lev 20:14
 n. Being a medium or spiritist - Lev 20:27
 o. Breaking the Sabbath - Num 15:32-36
 
 B. WAS THE LAW A GOOD LAW?
 1. Paul said that it was "holy and just and good" - Ro 7:12
 2. While the religious aspects of the Law was temporary (Ga 3:23-
 25)
the civil law served its purpose well: to govern and
 preserve a nation
 3. Who would be so presumptuous to say they could improve upon
 such a civil code of ethics?
 a. Many have arrogantly presumed they could do better
 b. And countries have gotten worse
not better!
 
[Certainly under the Old Covenant capital punishment was ordained of
God. But we live under the New Testament
not the Old; what does the
New Testament say?]
 
III. CAPITAL PUNISHMENT IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
 
 A. THE PURPOSE OF THE NEW COVENANT...
 1. Unlike the Old Covenant
the New Covenant is not designed to
 govern or regulate civil governments
 a. It is designed for those in Christ's kingdom
which is
 spiritual in nature - Jn 18:36
 b. Its purpose is to help man achieving and maintaining a
 right relationship with God
 c. So for the most part
it does not concern itself with
 telling men of the world how to regulate their civil
 affairs
 2. But in defining our relationship to civil authorities while
 subject to a Higher Law
there are references which reveal
 God's attitude toward capital punishment
 
 B. REFERENCES TO CAPITAL PUNISHMENT...
 1. Take a look at Ro 13:1-7
 a. Governmental authorities are established by God
 b. They serve as ministers of God
as "an avenger to execute
 wrath on him who practices evil"
 c. When a government fulfills its responsibility upon those
 who are evil...
 1) It "does not bear the sword in vain"
 2) This is a clear allusion to the administration of
 capital punishment!
 -- Thus the NT supports the government's right to exercise the
 death penalty!
  2. Consider what Paul said in Ac 25:11
 a. He was willing to die if he "committed anything worthy of
 death"
 b. A clear implication that in Paul's mind some crimes were
 worthy of death!
 
[While the New Testament is focused upon the responsibilities of
disciples of Jesus in His spiritual kingdom
there is certainly no
indication that it is wrong for government to administer capital
punishment when necessary. The principle established in Gen 9:5-6

given to all of mankind before the Old Covenant
remains a
responsibility placed upon the governments of men!
 
But what about objections commonly raised whenever the issue is
discussed?]
 
IV. COMMON OBJECTIONS TO CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
 
 A. THE BIBLE SAYS "THOU SHALT NOT KILL"!
 1. The word "kill" is best translated "murder"
 a. Cf. Exo 20:13 (NKJV
NASV
NIV)
 b. This command forbids killing with malice and premeditation
 2. In the next two chapters
God prescribes the death penalty for
 nine different crimes! - e.g.
Exo 21:12-17
 -- The command not to murder is directed toward individuals; one
 must ignore the context and twist the Scriptures to apply it
 to the issue of capital punishment!
 
 B. THE BIBLE SAYS THAT GOD HAS NO PLEASURE IN THE DEATH OF THE
 WICKED!
 1. It is true that God says He has no pleasure in the death of
 the wicked - Ezek 18:32
 2. But consider the context of this statement:
 a. The soul that sins shall die; one shall not bear the
 iniquity of another - Ezek 18:4
 b. Certain sins makes one worthy of death - Ezek 18:10-13
 c. God encourages the wicked to repent and do what is right
 - Ezek 18:21-23
 d. But even the righteous person who begins to do wickedness
 shall die if they do not repent! - Ezek 18:24
 -- The whole thrust of the passage is this: repent before it
 is too late; God may have no pleasure in the death of the
 wicked
but that doesn't prevent Him from carrying it out!
 (cf. God's death penalty on 24
000 in the plains of Moab
 - Num 25:1-13)
 
 C. CAPITAL PUNISHMENT DOESN'T WORK
IT DOESN'T DETER CRIME!
 1. This is true to a certain extent
when it is not carried out
 quickly - cf. Ecc 8:11
 a. But it does prevent the person executed from ever killing
 again!
 b. Its ineffectiveness in preventing crime by others is an
 argument against our system of administering capital
 punishment
not the idea of the death penalty itself
 2. "Determent" is not the only purpose
there is also the issue
 of "justice"
 a. Justice demands that the punishment fits the crime
 b. As God explained when He proscribed the need for capital
 punishment: "For in the image of God He made man" - Gen 9:6
 c. Some crimes are so heinous
any punishment less than death
 is not justice!
 
 D. INNOCENT PEOPLE ARE SOMETIMES PUT TO DEATH!
 1. This can happen...
 a. But again this an argument that pertains to a system in
 which capital punishment is administered
 b. It not an argument against the idea of capital punishment
 itself
 2. In the Old Testament...
 a. Capital punishment could not be applied unless the crime
 was seen by two or more witnesses - cf. Deu 17:6
 b. If a single witness made an accusation that proved false

 it could fall back on him! - cf. Deu 19:15-21
 3. Personally
I prefer to seeing the death penalty limited to
 certain cases...
 a. In which there are two or more eyewitnesses
and there is
 no doubt
 b. Where the conviction is not dependent upon laboratory
 evidence
 -- Where there are no eyewitnesses
then perhaps the maximum
 penalty should be life in prison (in case the laboratory
 evidence is later proved faulty)
 
CONCLUSION
 
1. Does God approve of capital punishment? We have seen...
 a. That God gave mankind the responsibility of carrying it out after
 the flood
 b. God's own illustration of justice in the government He gave to
 Israel
 c. How Christians today are to acknowledge the right and
 responsibility given by God to governments to be His ministers in
 avenging wrath on the evildoers
 
2. Certainly any civilized nation abhors violence and bloodshed; but
 civilization cannot exist...
 a. With violence and corruption running rampant
 b. When government fails to administer justice with punishment that
 fits the crime
 
3. How does God view governments that fail to carry out their
 responsibility to execute wrath to the evildoer?
 a. As with anything that takes away justice: woe! - Isa 5:20-23
 b. As with anyone who fails to fulfill their responsibility: cursed!
 - Jer 48:10
 
Many may refuse to accept what the Bible has to say about capital
punishment. But let those who profess to be Christians and accept the
Bible as inspired acknowledge that capital punishment is ordained of
God!

－－《Executable Outlines》