DR. RICHARD LAND DEFENDS CAPITAL PUNISHMENT WITH STIPULATIONS

Just War theorists have cited this passage for centuries to give biblical justification for the use of government-authorized lethal force in warfare. [The death penalty can be pro-life On Faith- Can you be pro-life and pro-death penalty? How does one reconcile these positions? September 15, 2011]

  

 

Richard Land

                We will post three articles from Richard Land and Dean Rutherford defending capital punishment in a biblical way.

INTERNET SOURCE: http://www.onenewsnow.com/church/2015/10/30/land-defends-capital-punishment-with-stipulations

Land defends capital punishment - with stipulations

Friday, October 30, 2015

The nation's largest evangelical association has adjusted its stance in support of the death penalty, acknowledging that Christians differ over their beliefs about capital punishment.  

After backing the death penalty for more than 40 years, The National Association of Evangelicals recently passed a resolution recognizing the growing opposition to capital punishment among Christians concluding that "we affirm the conscientious commitment of both streams of Christian ethical thought."

OneNewsNow sought reaction from Dr. Richard Land, president of Southern Evangelical Seminary in North Carolina.  He cites Romans 13 for his support of the death penalty and argues that Christians can be both pro-life and pro-capital punishment.

"You're echoing what God says in Genesis 9," says Land, "that anyone who takes another human being's life premeditatedly and wantonly is assuming the prerogatives of God. And they have no right to do so and that the penalty for doing that is the forfeiture of your own life."

The longtime theologian adds a caveat to his support, which is that the legal system must provide adequate legal defense. That includes competent defense attorneys and an adequate appeals process, and DNA testing in every capital case.

"If we're going to support capital punishment – and I do – then we have to be as committed to its equitable and just application as we are to it being used," Land says.

The death penalty can be pro-life

On Faith- Can you be pro-life and pro-death penalty? How does one reconcile these positions?

 

It is often pointed out, contrary to what most people expect, that there is a positive correlation between being pro-life and supporting the death penalty. Conversely, there is also a positive correlation between being pro-choice and being against the death penalty.

Many people who are pro-choice point this out and talk about the Roman Catholic church’s attempt to have what they call a “seamless garment” approach, which means that if you are pro-life you must also be opposed to the death penalty. I support both the pro-life position and the death penalty and see consistency rather than contradiction in holding these positions. Yet that does not mean that I support, without reservation, the death penalty as it has been and is still often applied in the United States.

I am pro-life because the Bible clearly teaches us that life begins at conception (Psalm 51:5) This truth is supported with ever increasing detail as the science of embryology reveals more and more about the intricacies of human fetal development. The Bible also tells us God is involved when conception takes place (Jeremiah 1:4-5), and that God is involved intimately in the process of maturation and development of a child even prior to birth (Psalm 139:13-16).

In the most sustained passage in the New Testament concerning God’s plan and role for government (Romans 13), we learn that God ordained the civil magistrate to punish those who do evil and reward those who do right. 

We also are told, in Romans 13:4, that the civil magistrate bears not the sword in vain. In the original Greek language the word used there for “sword” is the same word used for the type of sword used to execute Roman citizens who were found guilty of capital crimes. Clearly, the Apostle Paul, inspired by God’s Holy Spirit, is granting to the civil magistrate the use of lethal force as one of the options available to punish those who do evil--in the case of domestic criminals, the police force, and in war, the military.

Just War theorists have cited this passage for centuries to give biblical justification for the use of government-authorized lethal force in warfare.

If one is going to support the death penalty, one also has to support its just and equitable application. Historically, in the United States we have not justly and fairly applied the death penalty. You have been much more likely to be executed if you were poor rather than wealthy, if you were a man rather than a woman, and if you were a person of color rather than white.

Those who support the continued option of the death penalty as a biblically authorized option in heinous crimes must also work for its just and equitable application. While the imbalance concerning race, ethnicity and sex have been significantly reduced, it still remains true that a wealthy person is much less likely to be executed than a poor person. 

O.J. Simpson is perhaps the classic example--a man who most people would accept as being guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of having murdered his wife and another person but was let off because he could hire the best lawyers available. We need to find a way to address that unjust imbalance if we want to continue to support the death penalty.

However, on the other side of the coin, it must be said that people who are pro-life believe that life is sacred, and that when a person, wantonly and premeditatedly takes the life of another person, they have forfeited their right to continued life. And when they are found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt by a jury of their peers, they should be executed.

I don’t believe that people have a right to support something that they’re not willing to participate in themselves. If I’m going to support the death penalty, I have to be willing to perform the execution myself. I think of the case of Jessica Lunsford, the 9-year-old Florida girl who was abducted from her home, raped and brutalized in every imaginable way for three days by John Couey, and then was buried alive with her doll. If the state had the chance to give John Couey his lethal injection, I would be comforted by the fact that justice was executed .

The man had forfeited his right to live. And if he had not died from the ravages of his drug abuse before he could have been executed, he should have been executed. The only just sentence for a man committing such a crime was execution.

I believe we should keep the death penalty to be used in heinous cases like this, and in cases of treason and other reprehensible crimes against humanity. I believe this is consistent with my pro-life position.

I believe that people who are pro-life are horrified by a person taking upon themselves the prerogatives of God and wantonly and premeditatedly taking another person’s life. They believe that when a person is found guilty of doing this with premeditation, they have forfeited their right to life in a civilized society.

Richard Land  | Sep 15, 2011 10:54 AM

  

Samuel kills Agag

Artist: MERIAN, Matthaeus the Elder

Monday, 09 July 2012 00:48

Clergy corner: God's take on capital punishment

Written by  The Valley Chronicle

 

"In my opinion, in the past 25 years, people quit talking to God. People stopped reading the Bible. The death penalty was removed and human life was no longer considered sacred."

Dean Rutherford 

Mike Barber of Perris recently strangled his wife and bludgeoned his six-year-old daughter to death after a paternity test showed his daughter was not his. If Mike Berber is found guilty of these charges, the District Attorney will likely push for the death penalty.

Crimes in America today have become more horrific and gruesome. It is as if the criminals have absolutely no morals and values.

When, and how, did America take a turn for the worst? In 1962, the Supreme Court ruled prayer out of public schools. In 1963, the Supreme Court threw the Bible out of our schools. That started the drug culture, sexual revolution, and rebellion against authority. In 1980, the Supreme Court also threw the 10 Commandments out of public schools in America.

In my opinion, in the past 25 years, people quit talking to God. People stopped reading the Bible. The death penalty was removed and human life was no longer considered sacred. We became comfortable murdering babies and scoffing authority. It is critical to understand the death penalty was God's idea, not man's. Genesis 9:6 "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man his blood shall be shed; for in the image of God had God made man."

The preservation of the death penalty is to preserve the quality and sanctity of human life. Capital punishment places a high value on human life. It says: "If you take a life that is so important, your life will be forfeited." It's interesting that in one year after the Supreme Court struck down the death penalty, they legalized abortion in America. If human life is no longer sacred, we can murder babies and save ourselves the embarrassment brought about by our own immoral actions.

God instituted the death penalty to ensure the protection of human life (Genesis 9:6) Exodus 20:13 "Thou shall not murder." Understand God does not forbid killing. He forbids murder.

The major problem with our justice system isn't the death penalty. The problem is the failure of the system to carry out any penalty within a reasonable period of time. The United States is extremely slow to carry out executions. A criminal can easily wave up to 20 appeals. If the death penalty was carried out effectively and swiftly, it would get the attention of other criminals. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes said: "Justice postponed is justice defeated."

Dean Rutherford is the senior pastor at Hemet Valley Christian Church.