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Argument: Capital punishment is supported by the Bible

Issue Report: Death penalty

Genisis 9.6

“He who sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed”

Robert Meyer, Renew America Columnist, “Why Capital Punishment is Pro-Life”, Renew America, 9/20/04 – “Since biblical times, the death penalty has been deemed as a just punishment for capital offenses. ‘He who sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed,’ (Gen.9:6). Notice that the scripture tells us that this is a duty delegated to mankind, not exclusively reserved for God. Specifically the state is delegated the duty of bearing the sword against the evil doer (Romans chapter13), as a derivative sovereign, until the final just judgement of God. There is no vigilantism or vengeance motive in the equation.”

Richard Eric Gunby, “Sanctity of Life & the Death Penalty: Flip sides of the same ‘Divine’ coin”, 7/2/03 – “The Covenant with Noah: In the single verse of Genesis 9:5, three times in short order God says, ‘I will require….’ It is clear in the context of this story of the covenant God made with Noah (Genesis 9:1-17) that the reckoning God will require for murder is nothing less than full compensation, or in other words, compensatory death. A reckoning is an accounting, a just accounting or just judgment. This is God’s pronouncement of what constitutes justice on earth for the crime of murder. God says clearly that a just reckoning is the forfeiture of the life of the murderer. And notice the foundational reason God says Capital punishment is required. It is required because the innocent that was murdered bore God’s image, ‘…for in his own image God made humankind.’ For your own lifeblood I will surely require a reckoning: from every animal I will require it and from human beings, each one for the blood of another. I will require a reckoning for human life. Whoever sheds the blood of a human, by a human shall that person’s blood be shed; for in his own image God made humankind. (Genesis 9:5-6)’…How much more so should a life be required of a human being (a fellow image bearer) that cheapens everyone’s life and afflicts damage on God’s image by the act of murder, as well as taking the life of an innocent human being. God has the right to protect His image as He chooses. And this Scripture specifically states He chooses to impose the ultimate penalty in this world (Capital Punishment) for damage done to His image.”

Exodus 21:12-14

“Whoever strikes a person mortally shall be put to death. If it was not premeditated, but came about by an act of God, then I will appoint for you a place to which the killer may flee. But if someone willfully attacks and kills another by treachery, you shall take the killer from my altar for execution.” Cited by Gundby 03 as what God prescribes for the breaking of the sixth commandment

Deuteronomy 19:4,5

“Now this is the case of a homicide who might flee there and live, that is, someone who has killed another person unintentionally when the two had not been at enmity before: Suppose someone goes in the forest with another to cut wood, and when one of them swings the ax to cut down a tree, the head slips from the handle and strikes the other person who then dies; the killer may flee to one of these cites and live.” – Cited by Gunby as what God prescribes for non-premeditated murder

Numbers

“If anyone kills another, the murderer shall be put to death on the evidence of witnesses; but no one shall be put to death on the testimony of a single witness. Moreover you shall accept no ransom for the life of a murderer who is subject to the death penalty; a murderer must be put to death…You shall not pollute the land in which you live; for blood pollutes the land, and no expiation can be made for the land, for the blood that is shed in it, except by the blood of the one who shed it.”Cited by Gunby as what God prescribes for the breaking of the sixth amendment

Numbers 35:33“So you shall not pollute the land where you are; for blood defiles the land, and no atonement can be made for the land, for the blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of him who shed it.”

Revelations

Revelation 13:9-10 – “He who leads into captivity shall go into captivity; he who kills with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.”[1]

Paul

Robert Meyer, Renew America Columnist, “Why Capital Punishment is Pro-Life”, Renew America, 9/20/04 – “In the book of Acts 25:11, the apostle Paul declares before Festus, that if he has done anything worthy of death, he refuses not to die. This indicates that decades after the resurrection, Paul still held that the governing authority had the right to execute criminals.”

Romans chapter 13

Romans 13:3-4, St. Paul states:“For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil…Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.”[2]

Robert Meyer, Renew America Columnist, “Why Capital Punishment is Pro-Life”, Renew America, 9/20/04 – “According to Romans chapter 13, the state has the authority and duty to use the sword of wrath against the evil doer. So execution is the duty of the state, but only God has the right to determine eternal rewards or punishments. Many sincere religious folks confuse the jurisdictions of the temporal and eternal domains.”

Other supporting quotations