In loving
memory of William Wilberforce, who died on this date, July 29, 1833. We, the
comrades of Unit 1012, will post this Christian article for the Death Penalty.
We are aware that William Wilberforce did restrict the use of the death penalty
but he did not abolish it.
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William Wilberforce’s famous quote [PHOTO
SOURCE: http://www.epm.org/blog/2013/Jul/1/look-other-way]
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PAGE TITLE: http://www.epm.org/
ARTICLE TITLE: Capital Punishment: Right
or Wrong?
DATE: August 1, 1987
AUTHOR: Randy Alcorn
AUTHOR
INFORMATION: Randy Alcorn (born 1954) is an American Protestant
author and director of Eternal Perspective Ministries, a non-profit Christian
organization dedicated to teaching an eternal viewpoint and helping the needy
of the world. He has written several novels, including Deadline, Dominion,
and Deception. He received a Gold Medallion Book Award in 2003 for his
novel Safely Home. He has also written a number of non-fiction books,
including Heaven, The Purity Principle, and The Treasure
Principle. Eternal Perspective Ministries owns the royalties to his books
and 100 percent of them are given away to support missions, famine relief,
pro-life work, and other ministries. He and his wife, Nanci, have two grown up
and married daughters, Karina and Angela, who assisted him in writing the novel
The Ishbane Conspiracy in 2001. Randy and Nanci have four grandsons.
They live in Gresham, Oregon. He wrote a book similar to The Screwtape
Letters called Lord Foulgrin's Letters. In Alcorn's book, references
are made to demons, known only as "ST" and "WW" (for it had
become a crime in Hell to even speak their real names), who had their letters
found by a human and were punished by Beelzebub for their incompetence. He has
also written a sequel to Lord Foulgrin's Letters entitled The Ishbane
Conspiracy in which Lord Foulgrin from the first book is put on probation
and is receiving letters from a senior demon named Prince Ishbane. In between
the letters actual scenes from the humans lives unfold. In November 2009,
Alcorn signed an ecumenical statement known as the Manhattan Declaration
calling on Evangelicals, Catholics and Orthodox not to comply with rules and
laws permitting abortion, same-sex marriage and other matters that go against
their religious consciences.
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Randy Alcorn
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I'll define
Capital Punishment as “that social institution whereby a government punishes a
certain crime by putting the offender to death.” The assumed circumstances are
that a crime really has been committed, a certain person is known to be guilty,
and the verdict and execution is carried out fairly, by a recognized and
responsible government.
The issue
is not “Is capital punishment always right?” No one maintains that
capital punishment is right for every crime, or when carried out by just
anyone. When it is mistakenly carried out against the innocent it is horribly
wrong. The real issue should be phrased, “Is capital punishment ever right, and
if so in what cases?”
This is an
ethical problem that will never be resolved by mere human opinion. There are
thinking people, including many Christians, on both sides of the fence, and a
great many straddling it. But the morality of capital punishment, as well as
that of any ethical issue, must be ultimately measured by the teaching of the
Word of God.
In Genesis 9:6,
capital punishment is clearly instituted by the Creator. It was anarchy,
rampant crime, violence and immorality that brought about God's judgment by the
flood. Just after the flood, God ordained the institution of capital punishment
in order to keep crime in check, and protect society from further divine judgment.
A person guilty of murder was to be put to death. Hence, in at least this one
case, God delegated to man His sacred prerogative over life and death.
Under
Mosaic law, the parameters of capital punishment were greatly broadened. The
law advocated capital punishment not only for murder, but for kidnapping,
incest, homosexuality, beastiality, adultery, fornication, witchcraft, false
prophecy, attack or injury to parents, grave insult to parents, incorrigible
juvenile delinquency, Sabbath breaking, the intrusion of an alien into a sacred
place or office, and owning an animal that killed a human being, if the owner
knew it to be dangerous. The manner of execution, such as stoning, is sometimes
mentioned, but not always.
If we do no
more than simply read the Old Testament, it is obvious that capital punishment
was once a divine institution. The only question left to us is whether or not
it remains a divine institution today, in our own society.
First of
all, let me ask if we are obliged to exercise the death penalty for those
crimes specified under the Mosaic law. I would say “not necessarily,” for at
least two reasons. First of all, the law was a covenant with Israel, a very
special nation. Israel was a theocracy, meaning that it was in a unique
way under the rule of God. God granted Israel certain privileges and
responsibilities He has never granted to any other nation. Secondly, the Mosaic
law was fulfilled in Christ. Though the principles continue to abide, some of
the specific regulations have been superseded. We are not bound to offer the
sacrifices and keep the Sabbath. Likewise, it is questionable whether we are
bound to execute those guilty of all the crimes mentioned above (though
admittedly it would make our society a lot less crowded!)
Are we
likewise not bound to follow the teaching of Genesis 9:6
that requires capital punishment for those guilty of murder? To answer this
all-important question, we must consider the context of that command. It is
given to the ancestors of not just one nation, people, or group, but all
mankind. It is not a covenant with Israel, for that nation did not even come
into existence until hundreds of years later. Furthermore, there is no
indication anywhere in Scripture that this injunction was temporary or
restricted to one particular government. It was a command given to all human
government of all nations, and there is absolutely nothing in Scripture that
ever rescinds it.
In the New
Testament, Romans
13:1-7 indicates clearly that human government is still ordained by God,
after the law, just as it was in the days of Noah, before the law. The passage
indicates that the criminal should be afraid of the state, because it brings
judgment upon the one who practices evil, and “does not bear the sword for
nothing.” The “sword” is commonly understood to be a metaphorical reference to
the practice of capital punishment. As the state was obligated to practice
capital punishment of murders before the law, the same is said to be true after
the law.
The Word of
God seems to clearly indicate that capital punishment should be enacted upon
those who are proven guilty of murder. Whether or not this includes murder
other than the first degree is difficult to determine, but certainly it does
include first degree murder. While I have suggested we are not bound to
exercise the death penalty for all crimes under the Mosaic law, this does not
mean we could or should do so. Perhaps there are other crimes of a violent
nature that might warrant the death penalty in certain cases, particularly
involving repeated offenders. Whether this is true or not, the fact remains
that the state is not simply free to carry out the death penalty in cases of
first degree murder, but it is obligated to do so. This is true both in
terms of obedience to God, and in protection of society itself. For capital
punishment, in essence, is radical surgery designed to rid society of its worst
malignancies.
I have
heard many objections to the concept and practice of capital punishment. “It is
barbaric and inhumane,” “it is contrary to the love of God,” “it shows a low
regard for human life,” “only God has the right to take a human life,” “it takes
away the criminal's chance to reform or repent,” “it is not a deterrent to
crime,” and even “criminals are not responsible for their behavior.”
While most
of these objections are sincere, each of them can be biblically and logically
answered. The same is true of objections cited from Scripture, such as the
command “thou shalt not kill,” and Jesus' stopping the mob from executing the
adulterous woman. “Turn the other cheek,” “recompense no man evil for evil,”
and “avenge not yourselves” may appear to be inconsistent with the idea of
capital punishment. But when properly understood, as coexisting with Genesis 9:6
before the Mosaic Law and Romans 13:1-7 after the Mosaic Law, I do not believe they
are.
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