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Should Christians Support the Death Penalty?
Capital punishment is considered only in the most extreme of cases, and even then, it’s rarely used. Despite its infrequent use, is the death penalty something Christians should support?
http://gospel.com/blog/index.php/2009/10/26/should-christians-support-the-death-penalty/
Topics:
Death, Politics, Society, Death Penalty, Electric Chair
All Topics
Absolutely not. Death leaves no chance for a person to find a lasting relationship with God. Let God appoint the time of a persons death not man. Beyond that its also cruel to send a person to death row to spend the remainder of their lives waiting to be executed. Everyone deserves the right to life weather or not they caused harm to other humans. There are other ways to deal with those kind of people.
Genesis 9:6 says, “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed. For in the image of God, God made man (NASB).†God supports capital punishment in the Bible (Villenga). In the book of Numbers, God gives clear guidelines on the use of capital punishment:
If anyone kills a person, the murderer shall be put to death at the evidence of witnesses, but no person shall be put to death on the testimony of one witness. Moreover, you shall not take ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of death, but he shall surely be put to death. You shall not take ransom for him who has fled to his city of refuge, that he may return to live in the land before the death of the priest. So you shall not pollute the land in which you are; for blood pollutes the land and no expiation can be made for the land for the blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of him who shed it. (NASB)
Many would say that the “new covenant†in the New Testament annuls the law of the Old Testament; however, Jesus said in Matthew:
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. (NASB)
the previous is a segment from my thesis on capital punishment.