Is Capital Punishment the Answer?
News of the assassination of Charlie Kirk sent another shock wave throughout the country. Now that the reality of the crime has sunk in, attention has shifted to what should be done with the alleged shooter. The tragedy occurred in Utah, and Utah is one of 27 states that have the death penalty.
President Trump is calling for it.
Anti-capital punishment groups on the other side are complaining that killing the killer is absurd and counterproductive.
Where do Christians stand in this controversy? We must know what the Bible says about it. This episode will explore the subject from the Old Testament to the New and apply relevant verses to this burning issue of today.
Read about this subject:
- Scriptures: Genesis 9:6; Acts 25:11; Romans 13:1-4
- Right From the Beginning, chapter 10: “The Death Penalty”
Listen to more on this subject:
Transcript:
Kerry Duke: Hi, I’m Kerry Duke, host of My God and My Neighbor podcast from Tennessee Bible College, where we see the Bible as not just another book, but the Book. Join us in a study of the inspired Word to strengthen your faith and to share what you’ve learned with others.
We have a problem: people are killing each other. It seems that every time we turn around we hear about another shooting. It makes no sense. It never does. But this is the world we live in.
What should we do about it? Taking guns out of the hands of decent, law-abiding citizens is not the answer. Turning killers loose on the streets after a year or two in jail is not working.
It’s time to go back to what used to be done with murderers in this country. They were put to death. They were hung, and that hanging was often in public. People today may think that’s awful, but it worked. It struck fear into the hearts of communities. It let criminals know they would be punished if they were caught. It sent a warning to citizens and it made a statement about justice.
But now we’ve become too intelligent to do this. We’ve let psychologists that don’t believe in God tell us what to do with outlaws. We’ve followed what other countries do with criminals instead of using common sense. Our courts have become weak. Our politicians have straddled the fence on this issue. And as always we are paying the price.
The Bible is very clear about the death penalty. A man who murders deserves to die. Let me repeat and emphasize that word “deserve.” When a man takes the life of an innocent person, he deserves to die. He ought to die. He does not deserve to live. When he takes the life of an innocent person, he forfeits his right to live.
God established the death penalty for murder early in the Bible. In Genesis 9, God spoke to Noah just after the flood. Noah and his family were the only ones saved from the flood. The old world perished. The flood reset the order of the world. Mankind had been full of very kind of evil you can imagine. So here in Genesis 9 God tells Noah what He expects and what He allows and doesn’t allow. He said in verses 2 through 4 you can kill and eat animals: “…the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the air, on all that move on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea. They are given into your hand. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you.”
But then God said human beings are different. You can kill animals for food and clothing. But taking the life of a person is different. God said in verse 5, “ Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; from the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of man. From the hand of every man’s brother I will require the life of man.” A man or beast who takes the life of a man will pay for it—with his life!
God was even more specific in verse 6. This is the first clear statement about the death penalty in the Bible. ”Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed; For in the image of God He made man.” To shed blood means to take life—human life. God is warning here that murder is not just a sin, but murder is a sin that deserves the punishment of death. If you take the life of an innocent person, then your life should be taken. “Whoever sheds man’s blood”—not the life of an animal—is to be put to death. “His blood” (the murderer’s blood) “shall be shed.” Then God gave the reason for this severe penalty. Why is murder so serious that it deserves the death penalty? God said it is because man is made in the image of God. Animals are not. God made man in His spiritual image. We have a spirit that makes us like God who is spirit. That spirit allows us to think and reason and feel and choose and have a conscience. Animals have none of that. Animals are made from the dust of the earth just like our bodies are. But man has a soul, an eternal spirit that no beast has. That’s what gives a human being worth. That’s why we are above animals. That’s why there’s a difference between killing an animal for food and killing an innocent human being. “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed; For in the image of God He made man.”
The first thing God talked to Noah and his family about when they stepped out of the ark was man’s relationship to animals and men’s relationship to each other. Now murder was wrong before the flood. Murder has always been wrong. The law against shedding blood in Genesis nine is not a new law. The first murder recorded in the Bible is in Genesis 4. Cain killed his own brother Abel. God may have told them not to kill each other, but that’s not recorded. But God didn’t have to spell this out for them. The creation itself taught them. Paul shows in Romans 1 and 2 that the creation itself teaches us that some things are wrong. Even if a man doesn’t have a written law of God, he can still know that things like murder and idolatry are wrong.
But Genesis 9 verse 6 is the first recorded place where God gives the death penalty for murder. The old world is gone. The flood wiped the slate clean. And the first thing God warns about is the crime of murder. God is talking to Noah. But Noah was not a murderer. His wife, his sons and their wives were not killers. So it’s obvious that God is not just talking to Noah and his family about the death penalty for murder. The Lord is giving this warning for Noah’s generation and every generation that followed.
Notice again what Genesis 9 verse six says: “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed.” The death sentence is to be carried out “by man.” Other men are to take the murderer and put him to death. This is not vigilante justice. It’s not a mob execution. God is giving MEN the authority to take that man and put him to death. God in these words is talking about government. The Lord put government here to keep law and order. He ordained civil government to reward good law-abiding citizens and to punish criminals. Sometimes they don’t do their job like they should. But we’re talking about what they have the responsibility to do. So as the world and mankind get a fresh start in Genesis 9 after the flood, God lays the foundation for civl government.
The Lord says other men will do the executing. God could have taken care of murderers Himself. He could have just struck every killer down the first time he took someone’s life. Sometimes God did strike people dead in the Bible. He had just wiped out the human race except for Noah and his family. But God decreed that MEN should take the killer, by force if necessary, and put him to death.
That doesn’t mean those men who execute him are perfect men. Sometimes we hear people say, “Capital punishment is wrong. The Jews asked Jesus if it was right to stone the woman who was caught committing adultery. But Jesus said, ‘He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.’” Jesus did say that in John 8 verse 7. And, many people think He’s saying that we’re all sinners and no one has the right to judge anybody, and certainly not to condemn a person to death. But that is not what Jesus means. This is one of the most misquoted and misapplied verses in the Bible. The law of Moses gave the death penalty. There is no question about that. But that law didn’t say that only SINLESS people could do the stoning! That would have been impossible. God knew full well when he gave human beings the authority to use the death penalty that those same men were sinners.
But here’s the difference. The Jews who threw those stones under the old law may have been guilty of gossip or envy, but that didn’t put them in the same category as a capital crime. But if, let’s say for instance, some of them were guilty of murder just like the man they were stoning for murder, they would have no right to throw a stone at him. They ought to have been put in there with the murderer and be put to death like him. That’s what Jesus is talking about. He’s not saying “He that is without sin of ANY KIND, let him throw a stone at her first.” He’s saying “He that is without the same sin this woman has committed—the sin of adultery—let him throw the first stone at her.” But none of the Jewish men in John 8 would do that. They were hypocrites, but at least they had enough conscience left to feel too ashamed to go any further with their fiasco. And it was rotten from the start. The law of Moses did give the death penalty for adultery. But, it said the adulterer AND the adulteress were to be put to death (Leviticus 20, verse 13). The Jews in John 8 said they caught this woman in the very act of adultery. So where was the man? If they were so concerned about keeping the law, why didn’t’t they bring the man too? Because they were guilty of the same sin. That’s why the Bible says after Jesus said those words about throwing the first stone, “Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last” (John 8, verse 9). They were all guilty of the same thing, and a people guilty of the same sin as the person accused have no right to judge. They are condemned themselves. So when Jesus said, “He who is without sin” in John 8 verse 7, He’s talking about the sin of adultery, not sin in general. So this is not a verse against capital punishment.
Let’s look again at what God said in Genesis 9, verse 6: “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed; For in the image of God He made man.” God said this in the first book of the Bible and He never changed His mind about it. Murderers deserve to die. They are worthy of death because they have taken the life of a fellow human being who is made in the image of God. God taught this here in Genesis 9 in the Patriarchal age and He taught it later in the law of Moses. In Deuteronomy 21 verse 22, the Bible says, “If a man has committed a sin deserving of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree…” The Jews who were under that law could know the difference between a sin that deserved death and a sin that didn’t. The law of Moses said that the punishment for some sins was paying a fine. For instance, if a Jew stole a sheep and sold it, he was to pay back four sheep. If he stole an ox and sold it, he was to pay back five oxen (Exodus 22, verse 1). They were other crimes under the law Moses that deserved a beating (Deuteronomy 25, verses 1 through 3). But they were sins that were so heinous that God gave the death penalty for them. That’s why the Bible says anyone who committed them was worthy or deserving of death.
There were many sins other than murder that were punishable by death under the law of Moses—striking one’s parents, kidnapping people and selling them as slaves, homosexuality, adultery, bestiality and others. But the sin of murder is consistently shown in the Old Testament to be deserving of the death penalty. Numbers 35 verse 31 says, “Moreover you shall take no ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of death, but he shall surely be put to death.” God said they were to accept no ransom for this man. In other words, if he or his friends or family said, “We will pay you any amount of money if you’ll let him live,” those in charge were not to take the money.
And, the law of Moses taught that there was a difference between killing someone accidentally and what we call cold-blooded murder. Deuteronomy chapter 19 talks about a man who is swinging his axe to chop wood, and the axe head slips off and hits the man with him in the head and he dies. That was an accident and the law didn’t say to put him to death. It also made a distinction between death caused by a fight and premeditated killing. Exodus 21 verses 12 through 14 says, “He who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death. However, if he did not lie in wait, but God delivered him into his hand, then I will appoint for you a place where he may flee. “But if a man acts with premeditation against his neighbor, to kill him by treachery, you shall take him away from My altar, that he may die.” It is a tragic thing to cause the death of anyone, but it is more serious to plan it and do it intentionally. That kind of killing deserves the death penalty without any question.
This is why it’s ridiculous for people to say the Bible contradicts itself on this point. Some people tell us that the verses were looking at contradict Exodus 20 verse 13 where the Bible says “Thou shalt not kill” in the King James Version and “You shall not murder” in the New King James. This is an absurd argument. Obviously, taking human life is wrong in some situations and right in others. Exodus 20 verse 13 is talking about deliberate killing of innocent people. Genesis 9 verse 6 is about executing murderers for that very thing. God gave us life and God has the right to take life. He also has the right to say when a human being deserves to die. And, He has the right to authorize human governments to carry out the death penalty.
So think about what we’ve seen so far. The death penalty was given by God in the Patriarchal age before the law of Moses. Then it was given in the law of Moses. In fact, there is more in the Bible about the death penalty in that part of the Old Testament than anywhere else. But what about the New Testament? Is capital punishment allowed by God in this, the Christian age? There is no passage clearer about this than Romans chapter 13. Here is what the Bible says in Romans 13 verses 1 through 4. Verse 1 says, “Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.” The institution of government is from God. God is the One who has authority. He delegates authority to human governments. That doesn’t mean that He talks to them. It means that governments are like parents. God gives authority to mothers and fathers. They have a right to tell their children what to do. Ephesians 6 verse 1 says, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.” Sometimes parents abuse that power. They abuse their children. They neglect their sons and daughters. But that doesn’t change the fact that God put a structure of authority in the home.
The same thing is true with governments. It’s true that human governments abuse their power. They don’t respect good citizens like they should. They favor people with money. They aren’t as just and fair as they should be. But most governments won’t tolerate stealing and killing. If they did, their society would collapse. So they must use force at times. Every government must deal with criminals. That sometimes means putting criminals to death either when police are trying to capture violent offenders or when a prisoner on death row is executed. When a government uses the death penalty for crimes deserving of death like murder, they’re not acting on their own authority. They are acting as authorized agents of God.
Paul says in verse 2, “Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.” The King James says people that resist the government will receive damnation. That doesn’t mean damnation in hell in this verse. It means the condemnation of the government. Governments don’t tolerate rebellion well.
Paul is telling the Christians at Rome to obey and submit to the government. And what government were they submitting to at that time? The Roman government! What kind of government was that? It was a pagan empire. The Caesars were very corrupt. It was not a model of virtue. And yet Paul told the Christians to submit. Of course, the implied backdrop to this is that Christians are to obey the law of the land as long as that law doesn’t conflict with the law of God. If it does, then Christians are to obey God’s law, not man’s. When the Jewish high court told the apostles not to preach the gospel in Jerusalem, Peter and the other apostles said, “We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5, verse 29).
But that was and is the exception and not the rule. Peter himself said the general rule is this: “Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, whether to the king as supreme, or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good” (I Peter 2, verses 13 and 14). Peter said to obey the law as far as you can as Christians. And notice that he says the officers these government leaders send to enforce the law are to do two things: punish evildoers and praise the citizens that do good, that is, that obey the law.
Paul warns Christians not to rebel or you’ll end up getting the edge of the sword. He explains this in verses 3 and 4: “For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil.” Again, he’s stating the intended purpose of government. It’s true that governments sometimes terrify the good people instead of the bad ones. But generally speaking they don’t tolerate people killing each other. So Paul says that government has authority from God. He warns us not to resist their authority. So, do you want to live your life without being afraid of the authorities? The sensible answer is yes. Then, Paul says, here is what you need to do so that you won’t have to be afraid of them: “Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.”
Here is plain proof that the New Testament authorizes the death penalty. The government bears the sword and does not bear it in vain. Roman soldiers didn’t carry a sword at their side just to look official. They were armed with swords in case they had to use them. And what are swords made for? They are not made to beat people with. Clubs and sticks are for that. Those swords were not like whips. The Jews had whips and the Romans had scourges, but swords were made to kill.
The sword of the government represents the power of the government to take life, and that power comes from God. The sword the implies the use of a policeman’s gun. It includes the military. God authorizes governments to use deadly force to protect themselves from enemies without and criminals within. In either case, they are using the sword. If they misuse it, then they will answer to God Almighty. But even then, that abuse does not negate what Paul is saying here in Romans chapter 13.
Paul knew what it was like to be threatened with death. In Acts chapter 25 he appeared before the Roman ruler Festus. When Festus asked him if he would be willing to go back to Jerusalem to be judged by the Jews, he said, “For if I am an offender, or have committed anything deserving of death, I do not object to dying; but if there is nothing in these things of which these men accuse me, no one can deliver me to them. I appeal to Caesar.” Paul didn’t say he had done anything deserving of death. He said IF he had done any such thing, then he would be willing to die. Paul admitted that the death penalty is right when it applies to people who deserve it.
Still, many people object to capital punishment. That includes nonbelievers and some who identify as Christians. One of the most common objections to the death penalty is this: “What purpose does it serve? If you kill the killer, you’re sending the message that it was wrong for him to kill, but it’s okay for us to kill him. And what good does it do to put a criminal to death? It sure can’t help him. He’s dead. As a matter of fact, taking his life means taking away any chance he has to reform his life. Not only that, but putting him to death won’t prevent others like him from killing. They’re going to do it anyway.”
That is what we’re hearing. Now let’s respond. First of all, punishing a killer is not about doing what’s best for him. It’s not about rehabilitating him. It’s not about giving him another chance. What about the person he killed? That person will never have another chance at life. But modern psychology and penal theory are hung up on this point. They don’t see the deeper issue. The purpose of capital punishment is not to reform the killer. It is not even primarily to keep others from committing this crime. The purpose of the death penalty is justice. It is retribution. This is what God has been saying in the Bible for thousands of years! That’s what He means when He talks about sins that are deserving of death!
But, for the sake of argument, let’s think about the objection that capital punishment does not deter or prevent crime. Here’s an important verse. It’s found in Ecclesiastes chapter 8 verse 11. “Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.” The word “sentence” means a penalty or a type of punishment. What happens with that penalty is not given? What happens when people who do wrong are not punished? According to the so-called experts in psychology and legal theory, there is little if any correlation between punishment for crime and the effect it has on others who might commit that crime. Well, that’s human wisdom talking. What does God say? This verse written about 3000 years ago is the wisdom of God speaking. And not only that, it’s confirmed by thousands of years of experience and common sense. This verse says that when crime goes unpunished, there will be more crime. The problem will get worse. Criminals will be more bold and daring if they think nothing will happen to them if they get caught. This is exactly what we’re seeing all around us. We live in a generation where people think there are no consequences to their decisions. That’s true in general. And it’s tragically true in regard to crime, especially the crime of murder. Solomon says when you don’t punish evil, “the heart of the sons of men “will be “fully set in them to do evil.” They will not simply do evil. Their minds will be full of evil, and they will do it as much as they can. When there is no law and order, society will be lawless and more dangerous.
On the other hand, when criminals are brought to justice and made to pay for their crimes, this does put a check on others who might be prone to commit those crimes. Of course there will be exceptions. The death penalty won’t put an end to all killing of innocent people. This is not a blanket, universal promise. It’s a principle. It means that, generally speaking, this kind of punishment does keep a check on crime. And there’s a very important word in Ecclesiastes chapter 8 verse 11. He says that the punishment must be administered speedily or swiftly. That’s one reason why even capital punishment today doesn’t have the effect it used to. By the time we get around to executing cold-blooded killers, it’s been twenty or thirty years, and people have either forgotten about what he did or they don’t even know. In the early days of this country, justice was handed out quickly. There were no pointless, long, drawn-out legal battles. The sentence was, as Solomon said, carried out swiftly. And, it had a powerful effect. The lesson from this verse is clear: if you want to keep the crime rate down, punish criminals and do it quickly.
Here’s another objection. Opponents of capital punishment complain that it is cruel and barbaric. Why don’t they talk about what these vicious killers did to their victims? What about the raping, the torturing, and the stabbing and strangling of innocent men, women and children? What about taking a gun into a school or church and shooting complete strangers? Why don’t these anti-death penalty groups spend more time talking about the real victims?
A criminal who is honest with himself, will admit that he’s getting what he deserves. Do you remember the thief on the cross who regretted what he had done? He didn’t blame society. He didn’t look for excuses. He admitted that he deserved to die. The Bible says in Luke 23, “Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him, saying, ‘If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us.’ But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, ‘Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong’” (Luke 23, verses 39 through 41). He said we’re getting what we deserve!
Does this mean that killing an innocent person is an unpardonable sin? No. David had a man killed so that he could have his wife, but God forgave him. God also commuted the sentence of death in his case. But God doesn’t speak directly from heaven today like He did then. And, God didn’t do away with the death penalty when he pardoned David—in a legal, as well as a spiritual, sense. His case was an exception. And if you think it wasn’t fair for God to pardon him and not others, remember that David paid for what he did for the rest of his life. And remember that what God said in Ecclesiastes 8 verse 11 about punishing crime quickly was written after the story of David. Human governments today make exceptions to the law. Sometimes they’re not fair. But that doesn’t change the principle that taking human life is a sin worthy of death.
The point is that a man can be forgiven of murder just like any other sin, but there are earthly consequences. Moses sinned when he didn’t give God the glory when he brought water out of the rock the second time, and God punished him. He wouldn’t let Moses go into the promised land because of what he did before the congregation of Israel. God forgave Moses. We know that because Hebrew 11 says that Moses is in glory. But he had to pay an earthly price for his sin. And, even when Moses asked God to lessen the sentence, God said no.
There’s an old saying: “crime pays.” And on the human side of that, we had better do what we can to make sure it does.
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