"For he (the authority) is God’s servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God’s servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer." (9)

According to these words by the apostle Paul one of the responsibilities of the state governed by law is to be "an agent of wrath … on the wrongdoer." Jesus’ words about loving, forgiving and not judging is, according to Paul, not to be applied by the "authority". The divinely given role of the authority is, on the contrary, to revenge and "punish" and judge.

Once again we see how terms as "avenge" (12:19) and "punishment" receive a ‘divine’ acknowledgement. Without revenge and punishment there is no moral and no absolute right or wrong in life. Revenge/retribution on the other hand declares that there is such moral evil in life that deserves the most severe punishment. Retribution is thereby the protector and guardian of morality. And the capital punishment becomes the strongest expression that someone has done something very immoral, something that has thwarted the divine ordinances and aroused God’s displeasure.

The wording "he does not bear the sword for nothing" is a strong expression in the New Testament to the advantage of the death penalty. If Paul had lived in the 1800’s he could have written, "the authority does not have the guillotine in vain", or in the 1900’s "the authority does not give the lethal injection in vain."

That Paul accepted the death penalty as a form of punishment is seen in Acts 25:11. That verse also supports the interpretation that the "sword" here means the death penalty. There are some who claim that the "sword" only is a symbol for the punishing authority. But this is only partly right. Others mean that it refers to the State’s right to have a military power. But because of the previous and following sentences it is obvious that the wording also includes the capital punishment. This is also how theologians often have interpreted it. That "the sword" often was a weapon used in executions during the time of the Bible is seen in scriptures such as Ex 5:21, Acts 12:2, 16:27, Matt 26:52, Luke 21:24, Hebr 11:34, 37, Rev 13:10. 

"But if you do wrong, be afraid" (v 4). In other words, even Paul spoke about the death penalty’s deterrent (general preventative) effect.(10)

To a Christian the words "For he (the authority) is God’s servant" mean that arguments against the death penalty such as "no governing authority has the right to kill," "the death penalty is legalized murder," and so on, fall flat to the ground. Since, according to the Bible, it is God who acts when the State (the authority) uses the capital punishment (the sword). The authority is doing God’s deed – on God’s commandment. The death penalty thereby becomes a holy act, God is standing by and is actively present when the authority uses "the sword".

Click here and read from a speech given by a justice from the Supreme Court in the USA where he quote this bible passage.

"Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot …"

The author of the Hebrews refers to Deut 13:6-11 and 17:2-7, and there the death penalty is imposed over israelites who apostate or transgress the commandments of God. These decrees are - in principal and according to the author - still in force and valid, because he refers to these historical texts when he warns for the coming judgement which shall punish them who reject the atonement of Christ. If it, for instance, was so that the capital punishment not any more would have any principal validity, then even the analogous comparison - i.e. the authors strongly warning against rejecting the atonement of Christ - would be without power and weight.

These verses, consequently, show that according to the New testament one purpose with the death penalty is that it "prophetically" points forth to the coming seriousness of the Judgement Day.

"Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong …"

Not unusual methods of "punishment" during this time were flogging and death. Also in this scripture written by the apostle Peter there is therefore an indirect support of the death penalty and a direct support of the "punishment" as such, i.e. the thought that "the punishment" in itself had a value.

If Peter had felt that the death penalty was foreign to the Christian faith he would have had a perfect opportunity to mention that here. Or he could have avoided writing these words. But on the contrary this text lets us understand that Peter also had the capital punishment in mind. The text is identical to the issue and content of Rom 13:1-6.

"They called out in a loud voice, ´How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?´"

The apostle John here writes about people who were killed because of their faith and who plead to God to "avenge our blood".

The verse shows that after death, in God’s presence, the sense of right is more a flame and intense than before. The dead pleads to God’s holiness and truthfulness. And once again we see how universal and just and not bound by time the sense of "retribution" is. According to the continuing text they receive answer to their prayers, "the wrath of the lamb" finally afflicts the murderers, v 16-17. Also here we see that the God of the Old and the New Testament is the same.

"For they have shed the blood of your saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink as they deserve."

Here it is an angel who praises God for his just judgement over those who murdered God’s servants on earth. It is lex talionis ("an eye for an eye") that goes even among the angels in God’s heaven. The punishment should fit the crime. Here it is not an earthly authority that judges the murderers to death, but the angels who empty their bowls of wrath over the earth. But also then there is the principle of retribution at work; one that sheds blood will one day taste the blood.

The punishment is motivated with a simple "they deserve" it. More is not needed to be said, heaven and earth is satisfied, a punishment of a guilty person never needs to be explained, it is obvious in a righteous and heavenly way.

Just as other people and countries, both the Romans and the Jews in the time of Jesus believed that the capital punishment was something natural.

Nowhere in the New Testament does Jesus or any of his apostles speak against the death penalty as a legitimate form of punishment in a direct or indirect manner. If the death penalty was something so barbaric and evil, Jesus would of course have reacted against it, as commonly practiced as it was. Because according to the gospels Jesus was not afraid to, in words or acts, break with customs and establishments that were a threat or that would hurt mankind in an unrighteous way. But Jesus and the apostles can on the contrary use parables or words, which more or less say "yes" to the capital punishment. And this is totally in line with the rest of the Bible. The red line concerning the death penalty that runs through the Old Testament and that begins in Gen 9:6 thereby continues in the New Testament.

Mixed inserts from the Christian faith

One can claim that all these words spoken by Jesus, Paul, Peter and John only shows us the way of thinking of that time and that it does not need to be decisive for us today. But we must not forget that Christianity is a religion based on Holy Scriptures. It means that the words by Jesus and the apostles have always had, and should always have, an authoritative position in the Christian fellowship. Their message makes up the foundational fundament for Christianity. The Bible can far from always be interpreted literary, and a naive fundamentalist Bible interpretation often leads in the wrong direction. But a traditional classical faith still takes the Bible seriously and does not view the Bible as though it were only primitive human thoughts during a certain period of time.

Most Biblical customs are certainly not applicable to the Christian church today. But the death penalty is something totally different than that, and it is something much deeper. It is about the image of God. Also today God is a just and holy God. It is about the image of man. Also today man is in the image of God. These realities make it impossible to place this issue in the category of past and old ways of thinking.

Only if the Bible is no longer the foundation of faith, and only if God’s being has changed, and only if man is no longer in the image of God can the capital punishment be questioned by a Christian.

Someone may want to compare to the slavery and say that nowhere in the New Testament is this questioned, but that the consequences of the Christian message still meant that slavery was abolished. This is correct, but the comparison is halting. "Slaves" and "masters" have existed throughout all times. Also today, even if we now call it employer and employee. The difference between now and then is that the worker/slave has a greater security due to laws and unions. Today a worker/slave can not be treated in just any way by the employers/masters.

Further on it should be noticed that most people during the time of the New Testament were slaves. It often did not mean a painful oppression and the slave could often be almost like a member of the family, and many did not view slavery as something unnatural. But slavery has also during the course of history been oppressive and an expression of a cruel social order. But there are no reasons to compare such slavery to the death penalty, for the following reasons:

Slavery in its oppressive form was built on injustice against innocent people. The death penalty is built on justice against guilty criminals. Slavery was sometimes ruthless. The death penalty expresses respect for the victims. Oppressive form of slavery is foundationally unnatural and wrong. The capital punishment is experienced as natural and right when used on the cruelest of humans. Slavery was a violation on the human value. The death penalty lifts the dignity and value of the victim.

We have seen that based on the Bible the main reason for the death penalty can be said to be: "in the image of God has God made man" (Genesis 9:6). Christianity teaches that God creates man and that the creation of man is in comparison to everything else created, unique. Only man is created in the image of God and only man can have a relationship with the Creator. Only man has received a part of something that makes him like God. Only man has an immortal soul. Only man can be aware of and experience God’s love. This is some of what it means that man is the crown of creation. In the light of this, violent crimes and murder becomes so much more heinous and so much more worthy of death. And in that same light it becomes clear that the main purpose of the death penalty is to reveal and confirm how valuable we humans are (mainly the innocent victims) in the eyes of God.

People who do not believe in a god or any Holy Scriptures are forced to create their own image of the world. Every such alternative conception of the world has it very difficult to objectively motivate the expression "man’s inviolable value". The most common alternative to the faith in a Creator is that which sometimes is called "the evolution theory." In the extension this means that man really can not have a higher "value" than any other life form. And man can naturally not be "inviolable" based on this way of thinking. Since, for instance, the pig or the cow isn’t "inviolable" there is no reasonable reason for why just man, of all animals, is to be considered "inviolable". Such a theory must even strongly question the terms "value" and "inviolable".

The contrast to the Biblical way of thinking is noticeable. In the presence of God man has a real and truly inviolable value that is founded on just the fact that he was created by a loving God. It is this unique status and this unique value of man that makes God want the death penalty for the one who violates man by, for instance, murder. For about 100 years ago the decay of Christianity in Sweden began to speed, some time later the capital punishment was abolished. It was a natural evolution. When a society practically abolishes God it follows that man no longer can be viewed to be "in the image of God." Man then only becomes an animal of evolution within principle the same ‘value’ as other animals.

In other words: If man (the victim of crime) principally has the same value as a pig or a rat we do not have to view violent crimes and murders as something so serious that we impose a death penalty.

This evolution can be said to be a reason – maybe the most important reason – for why the murderer in many countrys only receives a prison term for a few years instead of a death sentence. The respect for God’s commandments has been put to the side and with that follows that the respect for man, namely for the victims of crime as God’s image, has been put to the side.

There are "Christians" who claim that the foundation for the value of man only is in that he exists, not in what he does, and that therefore you can not sentence anyone to death. But the Bible clearly teaches in almost every book of the Bible that man, no matter his high value, is hold responsible for what he does and is convicted (by God and by earthly authorities) for what he does, not for who he is. The blessing or the curse of God rests over man depending upon his acts (Deut 28, Gal 6:7-10, Rev 2:23). And the Day of Judgment is not portrayed as though man is only judged based on his status as a valuable man. It would mean that everyone would be judged to freedom and blessedness and that the punishment as such would have no place in the judgment. But the Bible is clear on this issue, it is the life of man, the evil and the good that he has done that is brought forth in the judgment. The deeds, everything that he has done, is going to be examined by the Judge (see for instance Matt 25:31-46, John 5:28-29, Rev 20:12).

This is also the case at earthly courts. We can think of the nicest person we know and at the same time the worst person we know – if both of them for instance had killed someone they would both be equally treated by the law. Man has always been convicted for what he has done, not for what he is.

Man’s unique and high value does not exclude the reality of the punishment. On the contrary, opposite to the animals it is namely man’s unique value as man that makes him responsible for the way he lives his life. And when it comes to violent crimes it is, in the Bible, not the value of the perpetrator but the value of the victim that is to be protected, defended and restored by God and the authorities. And this happens by fair and just punishments. The value of man and the punishment is not inconsistent in the Kingdom of God. Rewards and punishments are instead what follows in the traces of the value of man.

The judging authority on the earth must reflect this attitude that God has towards man as a responsible being.

Therefore, one who opposes a court trial and just punishment when it comes to violent crimes by referring to the inviolable value of the criminal thereby perverts the Biblical message and in fact degrades mankind’s value. It becomes an unconscious defence of evil.

People can construct different types of "human rights." Often these display closeness to Biblical principles. But "God’s rights" are higher and more binding, because God is the Creator of all things. God gives life and God takes life. This happens every second everywhere in the world. The Creator has this absolute power over everything living. God has given human beings protection and rights, but in these rights there is not the right to life for, e.g. the murderer. This power and right to take life God has partly delegated to the earthly authority, the state governed by law. One can therefore never say that man "is playing God" by using the capital punishment. It is still God who decides over life and death. But sometimes this occurs through the instrument "the authority" when a just death penalty is imposed.

Naturally the authority can misuse the given right to take lives, there are innumerous and terrible examples of this in history. But, from a Christian perspective, these authorities who have misused their power over human lives must one day be made to answer for what they have done.(11)

The wording "life is holy" can really only be spoken by a Christian (or by believers from other religions). Holiness belongs to the world of religion. And during the 20^th century it has not been unusual for Christian abolitionists to claim that the death penalty is unacceptable since "life is holy." But such an "upside down world" reasoning has both the Bible and the Christian history against it. This distortion means a serious attack on a holy God and on the value and dignity of the victim. On the contrary, the capital punishment clearly and forcefully preaches the holiness of the human life. One who kills that which is holy (God’s image) must be punished by death, because otherwise man – the victim of crime – looses all of his holiness and will have the same value as the animal.

One who kills, commits a violent attack on God’s image and holiness also within himself.

A violent criminal is therefore at war against God, his fellowman and himself. Such a person can not be allowed to live if the respect for the holiness of life and especially the holiness of the victim is to have any value. If he is allowed to live, the state governed by law gives him a greater value than that of the victim.

The capital punishment must therefore be viewed as a moral/religious necessity. If the life of man is holy, a reflection of God’s image, then a murder is an indirect attack on the Creator and the sustainer of all life and all that is holy. If a murderer then is allowed to live we give him a value and a dignity that places him above God’s image in the victim and thereby even above God. And then the blasphemy reaches its highest peak; the evil has then taken God’s place on the throne and has received the highest value. An evil deadly activity should not be allowed to go that far.

When it comes to the holiness of human life, the faith and the humanity of a Christian demands that he first think of God, then the victim, thereafter the relatives of the victim and then of the common man who can be the victim of tomorrow. And when our thoughts are turned this way the death penalty becomes a song of praise of the holiness of life, it becomes exultation and a confirmation of the most holy thing here on earth – the human life. "Life is holy", therefore the death penalty must be defended.

- If a murderer sentenced to death during the waiting for the execution becomes religious and goes through a thorough change in his personality and becomes deeply regretful, would he not be pardoned? – If media gets a hold of such a newly reborn death sentenced convict (who may perhaps also be beautiful and may be a woman) some are likely to feel that pardon is justifiable. But nevertheless, one moment's reflection will let us understand that the death sentence must still necessarily be carried out.

A punishment is always based on the crime and not on the personality change that may have taken place in the perpetrator after a crime. It is the person at the crime that is punished, not the person after the crime. Everything else would have devastating consequences.

The trust in the State is lost if it begins to pardon every criminal who has gone through a radical change for the better due to a conviction to a religion. The banner "Become religious and be pardoned!" can never be allowed in a civilized State. How many actors would be born through this? And who could be able to decide between the true and the false? And how much religion and goodness should be demanded if pardon is to be given? And more than anything: what would all those victims who have suffered both physically and mentally feel if their attacker was pardoned because of religious conversion?

However nice a murderer may become after a crime he has to be punished, not because of his niceness, but because of his crime, and this is because of the victim and for the sake of legal order. The foundation of the judicial system has always been that it is the crime that determines the punishment and not an eventual future change of character, however welcome and gratifying such a change would be.

The conclusion is that in a functioning state governed by law it is necessary that even a violent criminal who has become ‘good’ must pay for his crime so that justice can be served.

Some Christians are afraid that the death penalty limits man’s time to seek God. But such a fear is unfounded. Many things can happen in life that suddenly ends a man’s life. A traffic accident, a natural disaster, a sickness, etc. If a man dies young it does not mean that it is something that has happened beyond God’s control. It would create a small and helpless god without any real power. Such a god is foreign from the God that the Bible speaks of. It is classic Christian faith to claim that every man’s time here on earth is numbered.

The alternative to a death penalty - lifetime in prison – does not have to mean a greater possibility for a man to seek God. It may be the opposite and mean that the criminal becomes hardened and falls even further away from God. On the other hand it is not unusual for people to begin to seek God and salvation during the time they spend on death row awaiting their execution.

And it is not hard to imagine God’s presence in the cells where the death sentenced inmates are. Opposite to someone sentenced to a prison-term the death-sentenced inmate on death row is forced to confront the grim reaper and look him in the eye. Thereby all the existential questions concerning life, death, guilt, salvation, forgiveness, eternity, heaven and hell are brought to light. All this that we all sometimes consider, now becomes intensively present and urgent. Some death-sentenced inmates will push aside all existential questions. Others remain indifferent. But some will (like the robber on the cross) during their last time on the earth seek counseling.

In other words there is nothing in the death penalty that can hinder God from calling unto himself those that he has chosen from eternity.

When it comes to the argument of "some innocent people may be executed" Christians have one more counterargument that a non-Christian supporter does not have. The innocently convicted person will have restoration in a coming life if he is executed here on earth.

The most famous, throughout world history, innocently executed person is no doubt Jesus. Even the apostle James was innocently executed, and according to tradition this was the case with most of Jesus’ apostles. To these apostles, and to all other Christians who have been executed because of their faith, the execution has become a way to the paradise where a reward and a restoration await.

A Christian does not believe in chance, meaning that someone by mistake and beyond God’s control could be executed. A Christian sees the hand of God behind everything that happens, good as well as bad, even if much of it seems incomprehensible. God is everywhere and he sees to his chosen ones even if they, without any fault of their own, would happen to find themselves on death row. According to traditional Christian faith God is almighty, nothing can happen against God’s will. If an innocent person is executed God will never have to say: "Dear me, I happened to loose control here, that was bad, now I better shape up."

No one has the right to speculate what eternity awaits an executed convict – man is to keep quiet. One of the robbers on the cross came to the paradise. What happened to the other one is not mentioned in the Bible.

For a Christian who believes in hell the death penalty should be something natural. According to old Christian traditions God will one day judge the whole world and hell is then a dreadful reality. This is something that is reflected when the authority imposes the death penalty. Every time we see the authority – the earthly equivalence to God’s court – sentence someone to death, our thoughts can rightly think of the final judgment. Hell is described in the Bible as the eternal death penalty.

When thinking of this aspect, it is not strange that many who call themselves Christians abhor even the thought of the death penalty. This is a natural consequence of the fact that those who within the church walls deny hell (and there are a lot of those) also deny the capital punishment.

There is a belief that the nature of man is good. This belief has as a consequence that when someone commits an act of violence it is because of either the social environment or because of a mental disorder/sickness. With this belief the lawbreaker himself has no, or very little, responsibility. And therefore there is no room for any punishment based on this belief.

The belief that "man is good" can easily be questioned without any interference of religion. The history of man gives us a very dark and gloomy image of the human nature. Lies, hate, violent crimes, murder, wars, etc. has been a part of man during all of his time on earth as far back in time as we can go. During the last century alone, with two world wars, the "cleaning" during Stalin’s time, the bloody wars of the Red Khmers, Vietnam, Kosovo and all other wars and acts of terror, are more likely to speak of an inhabitant evil within man. A belief in man’s inhabitant goodness seems, purely intellectual, both naive and untenable. The history of man does not support such a belief.

Neither the Bible or classical Christian faith accepts such a belief. Man is created in the image of God (Gen 1:26) but after "the fall" this image has been distorted and damaged. Man is no longer only good, because evil has taken its place in the heart of man.

"The Lord: … Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood." Gen 8:21

"Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me." Psalm 51:5

Jesus: "From within, out of man’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man unclean." Mark 7:21-23

This inhabitant evil does not mean, according to Christian faith that the worst of desires are always lived out as though man was an evil robot programmed to always commit the worst of acts. Because against this, we must put God’s image that is still within man though damaged. This image always wants what is good within man. Besides, man is created with "free will". He has, despite all, a certain ability to make decisions and moral choices. Man is therefore not predestined to evil but is, according to the Bible, a creature with responsibility for his own life.

In other words, there is, according to Christian faith, a genuine evil. This evil is an evil that is independent of the environment of growing up, raising, education, social surrounding, etc. And this justifies the State’s right to sentence violent criminals, who live out their evil impulses and desires, to punishment and in certain severe cases even death.

A god who is unable to be angry has no morals and does not care for any morals, but such a lawless and careless god is not the God of the Bible. A large part of the Old Testament, but also the New Testament, therefore speaks of the wrath of God.

The capital punishment shows that God cares and has ‘feelings’, it declares God’s burning wrath. And the authority is called to be a channel for this wrath of God. But today when neither God or man is allowed to show strong moral indignation over heinous crimes, the consequence will be, among other things, a denial of something so morally evil in the world that it deserves death, and that in turn will be a denial of a greater just order in the world.

Why the Bible at all speaks so much of God’s wrath is because mankind has fallen into sin. Man is no longer all the way good. Also the evil is now in man as a present and frightening reality. And if man lives out this evil he is made to answer and can be punished, here in time by "the authority" and in eternity by God.

Walter Berns (chapter 2, argument 14) has showed the deeply moral stand in the wrath. At a quick glance this may seem to go against the Bible’s teaching of loving everyone and not seeking revenge. But the Bible does not forbid a moral indignation over evil, because it would transform us into cold people without moral judgment.

Moses expresses his wrath several times (even if it can not be justified every time). Those who wrote the Psalms often express wrath over evil people and all evil that happens. The bitterness of the prophets in the Old Testament over the people’s riots and disobedience is leaving nobody unmoved. The wrath of Jesus when he brings out the whip and uses it on those who defile the temple is well-known, as well as when he, in wrath, calls out his woes over the religious leaders (Matt 23:13ff). We can read about the church leader Peter’s wrath when he strongly corrects Ananias and Saphira (Acts 5). To be upset over immorality is something normal (Matt 18:31). But in everyday life among people (in families, in school, in the work place, in leisure time) wrath is never allowed to spill over (Eph 4:26). However, there has to be something in life that has the right and power to give a controlled expression of wrath when the most heinous crimes are committed. And it is the authority, the courts, that have been given this power and right to practice retribution, and they become then, somewhat of a channel for God’s wrath over immorality.

But the capital punishment also reveals some of God’s love. God would not react in such a strong way with punishment and anger over the perpetrator if he did not love man – the innocent victim. A man is the apple of God’s eye. One who hurts a human being also hurts God and at the same time attacks the love that God has for mankind. The reason for why God reacts with anger is because he loves every innocent victim of crime. If God did not love mankind he would be indifferent and cold when it came to every bloody violent crime that takes place.

Both the Old and the New Testament of the Bible declares God’s justice (Deut 32:4, Rom 1:32, 2:5). God is just, he rules in justice (Psalm 9:9, 51:6, 96:10, 1 Peter 2:23), and he wants man – his creation – to pass fair judgement (Lev 19:5, Deut 16:18, Prov 24:25, 29:4).

"When justice is done, it brings joy to the righteous but terror to evildoers." Prov 21:15

Since God is just and we humans are created in the image of God, we also have a conscience of fairness – a sense of justice. Something within us reacts when injustice takes place. It is this conscience of what is fair that allows people to live in harmony with each other. If there was no sense of justice the path would be open to a world dominated by anarchy and riots. Because of sin and darkness in the world this inherited sense of justice may be darkened and may even be despised and rejected. But no Christian should accept that justice has an even more ceasing space in the society and within the judicial system.

The state governed by law has been given a mission by God (whether the State believes it or not) to pass judgement according with justice as the foundation. A well functioning State that passes judgement based on justice is therefore a reflection of the God who one day will judge the world with complete justice.

Time and again bishops and priests here in Sweden show up in media wearing their white collars rejecting the death penalty. This is a sad show in many ways.

First, they break with their vows as priests by not keeping to the Confessions of the Swedish Lutheran Church that supports the death penalty according to the Great Catechism by Martin Luther on the fifth commandment. Secondly, they discard everything in the Old and New Testament that in many different ways support the capital punishment. These Biblical laws are discarded by the statement that they are irrelevant for today. Above we have shown that this is not tenable. Thirdly, they do not accept the balanced biblical description of God as being not only love, but also a just and holy God that can be wrathful. Either they discard the message of God’s wrath or reinterpret it until it is unrecognizable. Forth, they do not have Christian history on their side but only represent their concept of justice as something divergent in comparison to classical and traditional Christianity.(12)

The act becomes even more tragic when one considers that the capital punishment preaches such things as justice, righteousness, respect, dignity, human value, solidarity and compassion. Such things that the Bible and the Christian faith lift up and declare‘divine’.

As a simplified conclusion we may say:

In the Bible the capital punishment stands on the side of the weak, the afflicted, the tortured, and the dead – their dignity and human value is restored by the death penalty. The death penalty is on the other hand the face of wrath turned against those who severely oppress, defile, beat, torture and kill their neighbour.

God’s commandment of the death penalty therefore becomes a powerful testimony of God’s holiness and justice against the violent criminals and a testimony of God’s love and care for the victims of crime.

The seventeen arguments for the death penalty that this book deals with in chapter 2 anyone may find reasonable and sensible. It is not deciding if one is religious or not, but if one has a healthy, humane mind and a sound sense of justice. However, this chapter shows at a Christian who respects the Bible has an easier time defending the death penalty since the Bible commands it.(13)

It is however natural for a non-Christian to find the Biblical arguments irrelevant, yes maybe even repellent. Also the most central issue of the Christian faith, the message of the cross, is according to the apostle Paul ‘foolishness’ for one who does not believe (1 Cor 1:18). Then it is not unnatural to think that another of God’s ordinances, the capital punishment, may seem as ‘foolishness’ when the subject is only viewed from a Biblical perspective. But the seventeen arguments in chapter 2 show that it is not necessary at all to bring in religion or the Bible. The death penalty can easily be defended without any reference to the Bible.

When all the arguments have become silent and the waves of the debate have died down it is not difficult for a Christian to sense another dimension – the invisible, an invisible world where the real fight is being fought, the spiritual war between cosmic disorder and riot on one side and cosmic order and submission on the other side. One may sense a struggle between the powers of the heavens concerning the being or non-being of Justice and Human value’s, a struggle for obedience or disobedience of eternal principles and ordinances. In such a universal and supernatural struggle the thought is tempting that humans can be unaware puppets in the hands of the disobedient powers who are fighting for a complete freedom from moral and ethical values, and as a consequence come to abhors everything connected to punishment and especially the death penalty.

The Biblequote in this Chapter is from The New International Version.

From Abolitionist to Supporter of the Death Penalty:

Charles W. Colson is a known politician and author in the USA, and the founder of Prison Fellowship Ministries, the world's largest outreach to prisoners, with offices in 88 countrys. He has meet many criminal sentenced to death. For a long time he were an abolitionist, but became a supporter of the death penalty after his conversion to christian faith. Click here and read his interesting and powerful testimony. And here you can read more about Charles W. Colson.

Footnotes:

Footnote 9. Paul’s letter to the church in Rome was probably written 57 ad, approximately 7 years before Nero’s persecution of the Christians. It is interesting to notice that when the letter was written there was no authority anywhere that was not pagan, and Paul had already suffered under the authority as shown in Acts, yet Paul claims that all authority is placed there by God (Rom 13:1). Back.

Footnote 10. Also in other places in the Bible the death penalty can be seen as a deterrent punishment, see Deut 13:10-11, 17:12-13. 19:20, 21:21. Back.

Footnote 11. A Biblical comparison can be given: In the 700’s and the 500’s BC Assyria and Babylon served as God’s punishing tools to afflict Israel and Judah and lead them into captivity (see for instance Isaiah and Jeremiah). But these great powers misused their given power and sometimes went too far in their punishing role, and therefore they one day came under the judgment of God. Back.

Footnote 12. Concerning Martin Luther and the death penalty, see also The Death Penalty – A Historical and Theological Survey, 1997, Megivern, page 141-143. On page 144 and 177 the author writes concerning the time of reformation: "The practice of capital punishment had found a virtually impregnable position to occupy in the social order of Western Christendom and was surrounded by protective theory by the best theological minds … Capital punishment was daily becoming more deeply entrenched in its use with increasingly enthusiastic approval by churchmen, both Protestant and Catholic, more so than in any other age in Christian history." Back.

Footnote 13. The Christian church has always been a strong supporter of the death penalty. Naming a few: Clemens of Alexandria, Augustinus, Origenes, Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther, Melancton and John Calvin. A few minor sects and individual Christians have stood up as abolitionists during the course of history, but it was not until the 20^th century that more and more Christian churches began to abandon their defence of the death penalty. Yet it can be mentioned that as late as 1992 when the Catholic Church released their great international work "The Catechism of the Catholic Church" we could read that the death penalty is allowed in "most severe cases" (§ 2266). A survey made in the USA showed that between 1972-1988 73.3% of the Catholics and 71.4% of the Protestants were in support of the death penalty for murder. In the population at large the support during this time was 71.2% (Death Penalty Opinion in the Post-Fuhrman Years, New York University review of law and Social Change, 1991.) And among so called Evangelical/Conservative churches around the word the support of the capital punishment is fairly strong. We can mention that the theologian and author John RW Stott and the world evangelist and author Billy Graham, both internationally famous, great men, have spoken in favor of the death penalty. Back.

To Appendix I

Part One 

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© David Anderson 1998, 2002

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