God’s verdict concerning the death penalty in the Bible is stated clearly in Genesis 9:6: “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.”  

We see right here that human life is especially precious because man is made in God’s image.  We also see that to take a life at one’s own accord is murder.  Killings resulting from a righteous judicial process, and the killings of those who are evidently in the process of doing harm to others which cannot be stopped except through potentially deadly force, are not murder.  

In the Ten Commandments when God says “Thou shalt not kill”, it is a reference to murder.  The versions of the Bible which say “thou shalt not kill” would have been more accurate to say “thou shalt not murder.”  

Many use the story of Jesus dealing with the woman caught in adultery in John chapter 8 to say that Jesus condemned the death penalty.  Yet His Word doesn’t contradict itself.  Everything in the Bible, Genesis 9:6 included, is inspired by Christ’s Spirit.  John 8:1-11 (where we see the story of the woman caught in adultery) is not even dealing with whether the death penalty is right or not.  The passage is actually dealing with a wicked and clever attempt to frame Jesus which Jesus countered in a righteous and even more clever way to expose the hypocrisy of His adversaries.  The passage is not about an honest, sincere, and accurate attempt to carry out the death penalty on terms consistent with those laid out in Scripture.  

It is a failure of the United States, and a failure of most other countries, that they do not practice the death penalty like they ought to or really anywhere even close to that.  This is one of the key ways in which the world has turned from God, let injustice prevail, and sided with criminals over the oppressed and the potentially oppressed.  People who say that the death penalty is wrong and unjust are in the wrong and they are unjust themselves as they thereby justify murderers and other highly malignant criminals by seeking to have them absolved of the only logical just punishment which their crimes warrant.  The Bible says in Proverbs 12:10 that the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel; and this is a key example of that.  

Some say that the death penalty does not work.  Yet the death penalty ensures that duly convicted killers never kill again.  And that is the definition of working.  And suppose it didn’t accomplish one iota more than that, to oppose it is still enabling future killing.  And above all, opposing the death penalty is contending with God’s verdict that whoso sheds man’s blood should have his blood shed by man.  The obvious fact though is that the American states, and most other places which still practice the death penalty in any form (which is still better than not at all), they don’t do it consistently enough nor quick enough for it to have even a significant amount of the impact which it ought to have (in terms of it being a deterrent to others committing murder).  The death penalty cannot and does not serve as the effective deterrent to felonious crime which it ought to serve as considering the inconsistency, unnecessary hoops, and overall complicated and prolonged process of carrying it out now.

The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 8:11 “Because 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.”  

It is only logical to conclude that those who oppose the death penalty contend with God’s severity towards sin and have contention with His Government.  They would dethrone God if they had the power to do so.  Mankind in general wants God to lighten up on His demands and wants to believe that the consequences of living in sin will not really be that bad.  This fits right in with opposition to the death penalty.  

Law and order being properly carried out in this age, and especially the death penalty being properly carried out, preview the horror that those who continue in sin will face on Judgment Day.  A convicted criminal screaming and/or crying as he is led off to face the sentence which his deeds have made proper for him tells everyone else that you will indeed actually reap what you sow.  The message is sent that God does not lighten up on His righteous demands to accommodate man; and that the consequences of living in sin will surely be drastic and unbearable.  

Righteousness must be done when it is unpleasant and when it is painful.  It is even appropriate to say that you will not find anyone in heaven who would oppose the death penalty for anyone, including a family member or close friend, when the evidence pointed to their guilt in a capital crime.  Anyone whom that sounds foreign or strange to almost certainly has an ungodly attachment to relatives and friends any now which is hindering them right at this very moment from doing what is right before God and being a true disciple (i.e. a true believer) in Jesus Christ.

Jesus says in Matthew 10:37-39: “He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.  And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.  He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.”

Aaron’s email is: [email protected]

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God’s commands never change:

John 8:58 “Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.”

Malachi 3:6 “For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.”

Hebrews 13:8 “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.”