God takes no pleasure in the death of sinners, so as to delight simply in their death; rather, he delights to magnify his justice by inflicting the punishment which their iniquities have deserved. A righteous judge who takes no pleasure in condemning a criminal, may yet justly command him to be executed so that law and justice may be satisfied, even though it is in his power to procure him a reprieve.– George Whitefield, Letter to Wesley, Bethesda in Georgia, Dec. 24, 1740
CP Current Page: Opinion
| Friday, March 13, 2020
Ask Dr. Land: How can
pro-life Christians also support capital punishment?
I am frequently asked this
question both by fellow Christians as well as non-Christians. The short answer
is that the Bible clearly authorizes and teaches capital punishment. During the
Mosaic Covenant capital punishment was mandated for a variety of offenses.
However, the death penalty both pre-dates and post-dates the Mosaic Law and
Covenant. As far back as Genesis, God told Noah, “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood,
by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made He man” (Gen.
9:6). Here, God reveals the foundational reason why capital punishment is
appropriate at least for the murder of a fellow human being — each of is us
created in God’s image, and thus human life must be uniquely reverenced in
comparison to the respect due the rest of creation.
The New Testament also affirms
the government’s right to employ capital punishment as one of the options
available to fulfill their divinely ordained responsibilities. The Apostle
Paul, writing under the inspiration of God’s Holy Spirit, speaking of the civil
magistrate, declares, “For he is the minister of God to thee for good, but if
thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain:
for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth
evil” (Rom. 13:4). The use of the word “sword” in verse four is a reference to
the sword used to execute Roman citizens found guilty of a capital crime.
For nearly two millennia now,
this passage has been seen by most Christian faith traditions both as
authorizing governmental authority and authorizing their right to use lethal
force to punish evil doers, domestically through the criminal justice system
and internationally through the military in “just war” conflicts with other
nations.
But what about Jesus’ commands to
love and forgive your enemies? Just the other day I was discussing this issue
with a Christian colleague who immediately objected to my reference to the
Apostle Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, responding, “Well, capital punishment may
meet the standards of Holy Scripture, but it doesn’t survive an encounter with
the supreme 'love ethic' of Jesus who commanded us 'to love and forgive our
enemies.'"
I responded that there was no
conflict. He was making the mistake of succumbing to the “red letter” fallacy
of elevating the “very words of Jesus” above the rest of the New Testament. As
one of my other colleagues once said, “All the words of the New Testament are
important, but the very words of Jesus take precedent.” Such logic mistakenly
has led many Christians to set up a false dichotomy between Jesus and the
Apostles Paul, John, and Peter in the rest of the New Testament.
In fact, if you really give the
“very words” of Jesus precedence, then you will reject all such false
dichotomies. In the Gospel of John, Jesus preparing His disciples for His
departure into Heaven after the Resurrection, says, “And I will pray the
Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you
forever; even the spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it
seeth him not, neither knoweth him, but ye know him; for he dwelleth with
you, and shall be in you” (John 14:16-17 emphasis added).
Jesus then continues to explain
the coming Day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit would come in an entirely new
and indwelling way in every believer. “These things have I spoken unto you,
being yet present with you. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom
the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all
things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you” (John 14:25-27).
Jesus also tells His disciples,
“I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. . . .
When he, the Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth; for he
shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak
and he will show you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he will receive
of mine, and shall show it unto you” (John 16:12-15).
In other words, Jesus’ teachings
to His disciples though recorded with supernatural accuracy, were limited by
the then current limited spiritual cognition of His hearers. Those limitations
were removed when they were indwelled, spiritually transformed, and filled with
the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
This amounts to Jesus Himself
pre-authenticating the rest of the New Testament (Acts-Revelation) and giving
it the authority of a more complete revelation since the previous limitations
of His listeners were now a thing of the past. So, if we are going to give
special attention to the “very words” of Jesus, He is telling us to look to
Acts through Revelation to interpret the Gospels much in the same way we use
the New Testament to interpret the Old Testament. All Scripture is inspired and
“God-exhaled” (2 Tim. 3:16). While we do not believe in progressive
inspiration, we do believe in progressive revelation. All of the Bible is
equally inspired by God. However, the New Testament builds upon the revelation
of the Old Testament just as Acts through Revelation builds on the Gospels.
So, there is no contradiction
between God’s revelation through the Apostle Paul and the historical accounts
and teachings of Jesus in the four Gospels. How do we integrate the
Gospels with the Epistles? Well, for example, if someone murders my wife, I
have no right to hate or seek vengeance on that person. As a Christian, I must
ask our Heavenly Father and the Holy Spirit to help me to forgive and love that
person. At the same time, I have the right to expect the divinely mandated
civil government to fulfill its responsibilities and obligations by penalizing
evil doers and punishing that person to the fullest extent of the law.
Lastly, it must be said, if we
are going to support the use of capital punishment for crimes such as murder,
then we have to be as dedicated to capital punishment’s just and equitable
application as we are to its use. When we look at the history of the United
States, we must acknowledge that capital punishment has not been applied
equally. Historically, you have been far more likely to be executed in America
if you were poor, an ethic minority, or a man. That must change. I believe we
have made substantial progress concerning gender bias and ethnicity, but not as
much on poverty. The O.J. Simpson case is living proof that someone can get
away with homicide if they are rich enough. And sadly, poverty and minority
ethnicity are still too often combined in our society.
With those caveats, yes, I
believe Christians can and should support capital punishment in crimes such as
homicide that are proven beyond the shadow of a doubt and the perpetrator is
convicted by a jury of his peers.
Dr. Richard Land, BA (magna cum laude), Princeton; D.Phil. Oxford; and
Th.M., New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, was president of the Southern
Baptists’ Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (1988-2013) and has served
since 2013 as president of Southern Evangelical Seminary in Charlotte, NC. Dr. Land
has been teaching, writing, and speaking on moral and ethical issues for the
last half century in addition to pastoring several churches.
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