Anyone, Christian or non-Christian, who looks at the world today clearly sees the indescribable evil that permeates it. Each person has within him/herself the potential for great evil, and many people choose to be wicked, which always ends up being at the expense of someone else. Thankfully, we do not have to live in a world overrun by evil and crime. The Bible has guidelines and commands that, if followed, would make our world a safer and more pleasant place to live.
Everyone knows that the world would be a better place if the people committing the heinous crimes in society were stopped. But how? Many different solutions have been offered, and the Bible also offers solutions. One of the biblical solutions to violent crimes is the death penalty. The Bible supports the death penalty in both the Old and New Testaments. In fact, according to Scripture, the death penalty is perhaps the most important key to having a just legal system and a safe society. The death penalty was not invented by man to solve a social problem. God commanded it so that the men, women and children who make up our society can live their lives free from fear. Today, society’s alternative to the death penalty is that truly evil people are “housed” (jailed) at great financial and social cost to the very people they have wronged. Furthermore, without the deterrent that the death penalty provides, many people are emboldened to do evil they would not otherwise do.
This short booklet will examine several aspects of the death penalty, including why many people say the Bible is against it. It will quote verses from both the Old and New Testaments that support the death penalty, and show that it is a vital part of the judicial system given by God. It will also examine verses showing that people who should be executed include murderers, kidnappers, people who commit perjury in capital cases, and people who, through reckless and careless behavior, take the life of another person. It is not the intent of this booklet to expound every verse in the Bible that supports the death penalty, nor to give an explanation of every capital crime in the Old Testament. Our primary purpose is to show that the Word of God is supportive of the death penalty for certain crimes, and most assuredly, murder.
We also want to show that the “death” penalty is actually affirming of the value of life, of which God is the author. It is common for people to think of the death penalty as a terrible thing, and very demeaning of human life. Actually, the opposite is the case. It is very demeaning of human life when someone who takes a life or ruins a life (such as by rape, kidnapping, etc.) “pays” with less than life itself, and sometimes with only a few years in prison, if that. Such “justice” sends the message that the life of an innocent person is not worth much, something that most criminals believe already. The death penalty, on the other hand, sends the clear message that life is very valuable indeed, and if a person takes the life of another, the only viable compensation is the criminal’s own life. The death penalty is the necessary antidote to the poisonous influence of evil and evil people upon human society.
