Christianity and Capital Punishment
On November 5, 2009, Army psychiatrist Nidal Hasan, opened fire on fellow soldiers stationed at Fort Hood, Texas while crying “Allahu Akbar!” He murdered 14 people that day, including a pregnant woman who begged for the life of her unborn child before being gunned down. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth recently announced that Hasan will be executed via firing squad at the same time and place he committed his heinous crime. This news, as well as the recently botched execution of Christa Pike, has catapulted capital punishment onto center stage of our national discussion. Even the Pope weighed in on X:
“The death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person. The common good can be safeguarded and the requirements of justice can be met without recourse to capital punishment: effective systems of detention have been developed that protect citizens while at the same time do not completely deprive those who are guilty of the possibility of redemption.”
Is the Pope right and capital punishment wrong? How should life-cherishing, mercy-savoring Christians feel about capital punishment? Most importantly, what does God feel about it? When we consult his word, we find that God grants the civil magistrate the power of capital punishment for the sake of human dignity and deterrence.
Dignity
On the summit of Mount Ararat, in a spring green world reclaimed from the flood, God established his covenant with Noah, “And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man. ‘Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image’” (Genesis 9:5-6). Rather than delegitimizing capital punishment, the “inviolability and dignity” of human life demands capital punishment.
I know of a little girl who, in a fit of anger at her father, found a cherished childhood photograph of him decked out in his pop warner football gear. Blinded by rage, she tore the photograph in two and left it where he would find it. Though she was powerless to harm him, she could tear at his image. What made her act so painful was not the cost of the torn photograph, but the torn image upon it.
Unlike any other creature, people bear the image and likeness of God. The imago Dei means that people are precious, priceless, and worthy of respect. An assault upon a human being is an assault upon the image of God in them. The dignity of human life is so great that when it is unjustly taken, the only proper restitution is “life for life.” (Deuteronomy 19:21). “If any person kills a person… no atonement can be made…except by the blood of the one who shed it” (Numbers 35:30…33).
Deterrence
Capital punishment is designed not only to defend the dignity of the slain but also to deter the living from lawlessness. This is not mere speculation; it is one of God’s explicit purposes in judicial punishment, “… So you shall purge the evil from your midst. And the rest shall hear and fear, and shall never again commit any such evil among you” (Deuteronomy 19:19-20).
This capital punishment principle was given, not to theocratic nation-state of Israel, but to Noah, the second progenitor of mankind and chief architect of human civilization after the flood. Thus, the duty of the civil magistrate to execute murderers is universally binding.
This principle is reinforced in the New Testament as well. As Pilate stood before our bruised, bleeding but gloriously unbowed Savior, he asked “‘Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?’ Jesus answered him, ‘You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above.’” (John 19:10-11) Though Jesus reminded Pilate of the origin of his authority, he did not dispute the nature of Pilate’s authority to wield the sword of justice. Paul explained, “For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.” (Romans 13:3-4)
The dread of the magistrate’s sword should restrain lawlessness in us.
On July 15th 1701, Esther Rodgers was hanged for murdering her own child. But while awaiting execution in prison, she’d been wondrously converted through the ministry of a local pastor, repented of her sins and acknowledged the justness of her sentence. Before the noose was slipped around her neck, she cried out to those in attendance, “I beg of all to have a care. Be obedient to your parents and masters; run not out at nights, especially on Sabbath nights, refrain bad company for the Lord’s Sake… keep God’s Sabbaths, mind the Word of God, and let good people be your company.”
So, the gallows speak a grave but necessary word to us all: “Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good” (1 Peter 2:13-14).
