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This edition of Ask the Pastor features Pastors Mike Clement and David Clement.
Mike Clement
The question was asked: There's been a lot of discussion on the death penalty. It appears that the Bible supports the death penalty, but Christians seem that seem to differ on their opinions of it. So the best thing that we can do is go back to God's Word and find out what God's Word has to say about it. I'm gonna turn to Genesis 9 beginning with verse 5. And this is where God is speaking to Noah after flood is over and Noah and his family are coming out of the Ark. It says, "Then surely the blood of your lives will I require, at the hand of every beast will I require it. At the hand of man, at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth man's blood by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God made He man." And so here we've got the foundational text that is used by believers to support the concept of the death penalty. It's an Old Testament teaching, but just because it's in the Old Testament doesn't mean that it's of no value. Jesus oftentimes referred to the law (the Old Testament) and we believe today that we're not under the bondage of the law as believers. But we are underneath all of scripture, since scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. So here's this raging debate. And oftentimes people that raise the issue of the death penalty are professed to be Christians, and they don't believe in it, Dave. What are some of the things that you've heard?
David Clement
I've heard many times over the years the statement that is found in The Ten Commandments and that is "Thou shalt not kill". You hear people say that when they're picketing the death penalty or a death sentence, oftentimes there's a sign that states "Thou shalt not kill". And what that's referring to murder, and again as Genesis pointed out, we are created in the image of God. And that's why there's the death penalty for a person that took another person's life, they committed murder, so their life was required of them. And that's what God stated. We see specifically when we go back to the beginning of creation where God created a man and female, and He created them in the image of Himself. And so that's the uniqueness there. We are totally unique to all the other beings that are here on Earth because the animals and the fish and the birds, they were not created in the image of God, but we human beings are. And so to strike out and murder somebody, as that passage says, is to strike out against the image of God.
Mike Clement
Okay, so what do we do with other things like war, what's the difference? Is there a difference between the death penalty from the government and somebody taking the life of another person and committing murder?
David Clement
The passage that you read there in Genesis, those six or nine verses, that was before government was established. That was right after the flood. It wasn't until later on that governments were established, that God Himself established them. And so He gave the governments rights and authorities in different areas to govern and to protect people, to make sure things were run properly. And one of the authorities that He gave them was the death penalty, and to be able to judge and to cast those things upon them. But police officers, soldiers, military, those all have the backing of the authority of the government behind them. That doesn't mean they can abuse it in any way, and there are definitely those that do, but they do have the authority of the government. And so they have that authority backing them as when they are carrying out those duties - if that's necessary to take another person's life, they're doing it under the authority of the government.
Mike Clement
I'd like to just share a couple of other verses. Now we're talking about the New Testament, Acts 25. This is where the Paul has been arrested, and actually he was arrested because he was falsely accused and he spent a fair amount of time in prison and eventually ended up in Rome itself. Paul is giving his defense, he says in verse 10 "Then said Paul, I stand at Caesar's judgement seat where I ought to be judged to the Jews. Have I done no wrong, as they're very well know us. For if I be an offender or have committed anything worthy of death, I refuse not to die, but if there be none of these things where have these accused me, no man may deliver me unto them I appeal unto Caesar. So you've got a number of things here. The apostle Paul actually had a number of confrontations with those that were his accusers. They couldn't really prove anything. And in fact, in one place they were plotting to have him transferred to another venue and then murder him along the way. So if his enemies were confident that he had done something worthy of death, then they could have just gone through the court procedure, but they wouldn't do that. They were going to kill him, they were going to murder him. And finally the apostle Paul, having gone through all these things and jumping through all these hoops, he says, "I appeal to Caesar." And what he did was he used his right as a Roman citizen. And Dave, you and I both are well aware that we live in a day and age where all kinds of people talk about their rights, but they don't talk about the responsibilities. And here the apostle Paul has both. He says, "If I'm guilty of something worthy of death, then so be it. I won't appeal that. But if I'm innocent, then I should have a trial and I should be found innocent." So here you've got submitting to authority and yet at the same time acknowledging that government has the right to do that.
I'd like to read another passage in Romans 13. It talks about being subject to higher powers, and certainly government is involved in this. And I'm going to begin reading with verse 1 but then go down to verse 4, it says, "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers, for there is no power but of God, the powers that be are ordained of God, whosoever therefore resisteth the power of government resisteth the ordinance of God, and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation, for rulers are not a terror to good works but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power, do that which is good. And thou shall have praise of the same, for he has a minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid, for ye beareth not the sword in vain, for he is a minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that do with evil." So this passage talks about the Christian's responsibility to be underneath the authority of the government and to submit to that authority. And in that passage, there's a number of places where it refers to those that are in authority as ministers of God. In verse 1 it talks about them being ordained, in verse 4 twice it refers to them as being a minister of God. And in that context it says to be afraid if you've done evil, for he bears not the sword in vain. And that reference to the sword is punishment up to and including the death penalty. So what you said there, David, there are certain responsibilities that are given to people and there are other responsibilities that are given to governments and they don't necessarily overlap.
Now we live in a fairness age, and that's not the way that we operated. We didn't have favorites, but you know at different stages of our family life we were able to do different things. And likewise in the ministry of our church and in all churches, there are duties and responsibilities of leadership, there are duties and responsibilities of members, and there are duties and responsibilities of anybody who walks through the door. Anybody who walks through the door needs to behave themselves. If they don't they're going to get escorted out. In many churches today, because we've got all these horrible things that have taken place where children have been abused, many churches and ours included have a protection policy, whereby if somebody wants to work with children in our church, they have to be a member. So they've submitted themselves to the authority of our church, and we do a background check, we find out if there's something in their background that would make it unwise to use them. And part of this we do because of what the government requires. So there's this whole area of submitting to the government, and the government has the authority to be able to execute people. In fact, there's even a duty or responsibility there - it's nice to say, well, you know, we're just going to be merciful and we're going to put somebody in prison for the rest of their life. The fact of the matter is they end up getting released, and a great number of times they end up being repeat offenders and take the life of somebody else. And that could have been taken care of if the death penalty was actually carried out.
David Clement
One other thing, too, along those lines. Sometimes we think of the death penalty as something that's only used if somebody has done the worst murder imaginable. But if we look, that's not exactly what we see in scripture. I mean, the Lord had much more lenient standards for sins that could be punishable by the death penalty. Murder was not the only thing that was punishable by death. The bottom line is the scripture does teach the death penalty. And it's not simply just for murderers. Most people in the country would admit that if somebody has taken somebody else's life, that they've forfeited their rights. That's even being argued in the courts right now and in some circles as well, but the fact of the matter is God in His word said not only someone who murdered, but in many other instances, God had the death penalty in placed for other sins and crimes that were committed there.