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Carl Ferdinand Howard Henry
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"The
rejection of capital punishment is not to be dignified as a ‘higher Christian
way’ that enthrones the ethics of Jesus. The argument that Jesus as the
incarnation of divine love cancels the appropriateness of capital punishment in
the New Testament era has little to commend it. Nowhere does the Bible
repudiate capital punishment for premeditated murder; not only is the death
penalty for deliberate killing of a fellow human being permitted, but it is
approved and encouraged, and for any government that attaches at least as much
value to the life of an innocent victim as to a deliberate murderer, it is
ethically imperative."
Dr. Carl F. H. Henry, Twilight Of A Great
Civilization, Crossway, 1988, p 70, 72.
Christians
who speak out against capital punishment in deserving cases “. . . tend to
subordinate the justice of God to the love of God. . . . Peter, by
cutting off Malchu’s ear,. . . was most likely trying to kill the soldier
(John 18:10)", prompting " . . . Christ’s statement that those who
kill by the sword are subject to die by the sword (Matthew 26:51-52)."
This “implicitly recognizes the government’s right to exercise the death
penalty."
Dr. Carl F.H.Henry, "A Matter of Life and
Death", p 52 Christianity Today, 8/4/95.
Pontius
Pilate said to Jesus, "You do not speak to me? Do you not know that I have
authority to release you, and I have authority to crucify you?" Jesus
answered, "You would have no authority over me, unless it had been given
you from above."(John 19:10-11). "Jesus reminds Pilate that the
implementation of the death penalty is a divinely entrusted responsibility that
is to be justly implemented.”
Prof. Carl F.H. Henry, 45th Annual N.A.E.
Convention, "Capital Punishment and The Bible". Jesus confirms that
the civil authority has the lawful right to execute Jesus, and others, and that
this right has been given to that authority by God.
Carl Ferdinand Howard Henry (January 22, 1913 – December 7, 2003) was an American evangelical
Christian theologian who served as the first editor-in-chief of the magazine
Christianity Today, established to serve as a scholarly voice for evangelical
Christianity and a challenge to the liberal Christian Century.
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