Does the Bible Support Capital Punishment?
by David K. Bernard
Podcast recording (no venue stated in the delivered transcript)
Kind: teaching
Scripture: Genesis 9, John 8

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/david-k-bernard--does-the-bible-support-capital-punishment
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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let me say I think that Christians can have legitimate conscientious differences of opinion on this subject and that you know we have Christian Liberty to agree to disagree but I do want to make two important points that I hope we can all agree upon the first point in principle uh the Bible does provide a case for capital punishment in certain cases so if you go to Genesis chapter 9 it reminds us that humans are created in the image of God so therefore if someone kills someone they're actually attacking and attempting to destroy God's image creature and as a result Genesis 9 says if you do that then you will suffer the same consequence if you shed blood in destroying God's image creature your blood will be shed so there is a Biblical basis on the on the grounds of Justice that if you kill someone it is just for you to suffer the punishment of capital punishment so there's the theological basis of course I would haste an ad God is the perfect judge he created life he has power to take life he can judge us he knows the heart he knows the circumstances he knows any justifications or exceptions and so he is able to issue perfect judgment so in in the case of a true theocracy where God is the ruler we can say capital punishment is just so I do believe there's a case for that the problem is humans are imperfect and as you pointed out often capital punishment is not administered uh properly or correctively and so some of the regimes that you mentioned uh they deny human Liberties they take away human Liberties and they oppress good people and uh you know so they use capital punishment for evil and so that's why we certainly uh wouldn't want to support that but then even in a just Society or a society that attempts to be just in fear as the U.S tries to do many times um Justice is administered unequally so there can be racial Prejudice but I think also one factor that's not noted as much is there can be disparities due to Poverty so people that are poor which is often correlated with race they can't afford lawyers they can't they don't understand the process they don't have the right defenses or they're or they're looked down upon because of their poverty and social circumstances and so there does seem to be a disproportionate application of the death penalty certainly with regard to people who are poor and then as it's administered today there can be an extremely long time between the sentence and the execution and it can seem arbitrary it's just the the luck of the draw you you go 20 25 years multiple appeals to different judges different courts and it can seem random it's like a toss of the coin of whether somebody's going to find a loophole somewhere along the way and somebody's not so it doesn't seem fair if people who've committed the same type of crime and they both escape the consequences for 20 or 25 years that doesn't seem fair so if the death penalty is fair it doesn't seem fair to do that and then and some may even die waiting for the death penalty others may get off on a technicality or loophole and one is executed the other is not when the circumstances are the same and so if you're going to have that kind of system it seems it should be fair towards everyone the time should be greatly limited there should be appeals but there should be a an orderly Fair process that's fair to the victims and their families as well it's fair to a sense of justice as well uh another danger of course is that no human judgment is perfect and so what happens if you execute an innocent person there have been people that at least have been suspected that that happened and certainly there have been many cases where people have been on death row for years and finally through New Evidence through DNA through uh subsequent admission of prosecutorial wrongdoing just wanting to get a conviction wanting to win or even testimony of witnesses that either had their own agenda of escaping Justice themselves or protecting someone else or misunderstanding or wanting Vengeance and and just cooperating with what they thought they've been k cases where innocent people have been exonerated and of course I think our system is designed and I think should be designed in terms of justice that we'd rather see you know 10 people go free guilty people go free than one person be executed now if it's a limited sentence you might feel a little more philosophical that sometimes innocent people do suffer but at least there's life after the suffering but with execution that's a permanent um consequence that nothing could ever compensate so the person that's unfairly imprisoned can be released and can become stated financially but the person executed nothing can be done so that means that our imperfect Human Society we should look very carefully at the administration of capital punishment so I personally feel it should be very rare for extreme clear crimes even from a point of view of Justice you might say murder but I would say where there are very grossly aggravating circumstances um and which that's usually the case under U.S law there have to be some additional um not just the mere fact of taking someone's life but the manner the extremity uh the violation of all human standards and you know usually against law enforcement judges and you know uh aggravated uh torture Etc et cetera et cetera and so it should be rare it should be limited for the most clear cases the most egregious cases there should be a standard process of appeal that's not unlimited but it's reasonable long enough to ensure Justice to ensure the right decision but yet not so long as to be arbitrary Whimsical and no deterrence because for all practical purpose no one can foresee the consequences so that would indicate a very strict rare system and you might say well in the Bible they executed people for all kinds of things but I think you have to understand the Old Testament God was giving principles and he was showing how wrong sin is and how evil it is and how it cuts off people from God it cuts off people from society and how the death penalty is just however even in the Old Testament it seems that Mercy was given far more than one might expect that just because the law in principle said it would be just to execute someone that doesn't mean in every case or even the majority of cases it was always implemented the example of King David who obviously committed adultery which the penalty was death yet he found Mercy in in God's sight he did wrong he suffered consequences in his family the rest of his life but he did pray a prayer repentance Psalm 51 a beautiful prayer repentance God honored that so even when it was Justice God himself offered Mercy we find that in the New Testament in John chapter 8 the woman who was caught in the act of adultery again under the law she could be executed it seems that was probably very rare if it even happened at the time of Christ because the Jewish religious leaders tried to catch the Lord in that so they said here's a woman she's caught in a very Act of adultery there's so here there's zero question about guilt so you don't have to worry about is this unjust you know how do we know for sure they said she's she's guilty and the law is clear she deserves to die so what do you say now if if the law was routinely implemented at that time it wouldn't have been much of an issue it wouldn't have been a hard question for Jesus or it would have made him look bad but obviously they were trying to put him to the test that he was going to give an answer that was going to be so offensive to people that he would lose his credibility and of course he wisely said you know whoever's without sin cast the first stone and so they they all left because none of them could say they were without sin and it was obviously a setup because if she was caught in the very act well there's a man that's equally guilty so why didn't they bring him so already they were being unjust but then Jesus did not say she wasn't deserving of the penalty but he told her neither do I condemn you go and sin no more so he said it's just that you would suffer consequences but I'm going to offer you mercy and so here's my second main point I do believe that in rare cases Society does have the right to Institute capital punishment so we might have different opinions of when it would be just when it would be appropriate what would be the right process what is fair can it be implemented fairly without discrimination without racism without disadvantaging the poor et cetera et cetera so all those are legitimate debates so even if we say yes in principle there are some crimes deserving of death but we still have many discussions about what's appropriate today in our culture since we're not a theocracy but then my second question my second point would be as Christians we opt for mercy so while we recognize people deserving of death and when I read of some horrible crimes of child torture and murder or you know mass murder or a direct attack upon the fabric of our society killing of police officers and judges and you know you know I read some of these very horrendous crimes I say that person deserves to die uh but if I as a Christian and a minister if I'm offered an opportunity to minister in prison I want to do that and I've done that many times and if someone is on death row then I want to mention them I I had a a cousin who was in church in the early part of his life but didn't live for God got involved in drugs etc etc and in Rage he killed his wife and her mother and father killed three people he was put on death row he never was executed he eventually died in prison and he did go to a United Pentecostal prison ministry service so I hope there was a good ending but here is a man that I would say by the law of the state as well as the law of God he was deserving of death but I personally didn't want to kill him and I didn't want to see him executed I wanted to see him saved so there have been times I've gone into a prison and I could say this person that I'm trying to teach a Bible study to her that I'm preaching to I'm praying for I'm trying to get them to receive the Holy Ghost they deserve to die but I'm glad they're not dead yet I'm glad my job is to minister the gospel so if you're asking me would I vote to kill them if you're asking me would I sign up for the job of being the Executioner of what I flip the switch on the electric chair I would say no I would say I have a conscientious objection to that even though I recognize that it would be just for society to do this I don't think I should participate because I'm trying to save a life and save a soul now some would say well that's a cop-out you're you know you want other people to do the dirty work but you're not willing but I say no I think that's part of being a Christian in a secular society we recognize the second secular society has certain rights of justice but we also as Christians we want to operate redemptively within our secular society so some Christians might conclude well we shouldn't have capital punishment because all of us should have that Redemptive attitude or because the death penalty cannot be perfectly uh instituted or other Christians might say you know what the Bible does support the concept and in some cases it's fair and just and yeah let's give them years of opportunity but the end let's execute justice so there are two different opinions but where I personally would say is yes the society as you know government is instituted by God and yes government does have the right to implement capital punishment in certain circumstances however as a Christian as an individual I'm always going to pray and act on the side of redemption mercy and trying to save a soul