I once saw an article in a church newspaper entitled “McVeigh Execution Compels Reflection on Death Penalty” under the broader heading “Restorative Justice.” As is typical of most “Christian” pronouncements on the subject, it was an offense to anybody who knows Biblical theology and human psychology. By way of response I will quote somebody who does not suffer from the slipshod thinking so prevalent in today’s pulpit and editorials, Martin Luther. This is taken from his sermon for the 22nd Sunday after Trinity, preached in 1530. He begins by making a distinction between secular and sacred kingdoms, and goes on to deal with the unique responsibilities of the secular government.
“…In this civil kingdom or government there is no forgiveness of sin, but rather punishment for sin. That is why Holy Scripture calls it the sword in Genesis 9 and Romans 13:4. God did not put a useless piece of paper into the emperor’s hand, but rather the hardest and sharpest sword with which to execute punishment; not a pen, but a sword. God gave the emperor a sword to indicate that civil government is not to forgive but rather to use the edge of the sword to punish crimes. If civil government were to forgive crimes, you and I would lose everything. When a thief steals everything there is in a house, when a murderer robs and kills whomever he meets on the street, if the prince of a territory and the judge of a city were to ignore and forgive crimes, we would all lose our property, our bodies, and our lives.
“When thieves insist on stealing and murderers insist on killing, then the emperor and his agents have a responsibility to address the problem in a different way than I or some other preacher of the Word and servant of peace would address it. It is not appropriate for us preachers to wield the sword; our job is to proclaim grace, to forgive, and to announce forgiveness in the name of Christ. To repeat, the job of the emperor and his forces is to punish evildoers, not to forgive them (Rom. 13:4).
“Unfortunately, what is happening today is that officials in the civil government, who are reminded of their responsibility to punish, not only are indifferent and lazy about punishing crime, but actually aid and abet the criminals. We must diligently teach this doctrine, so that people will learn and know that civil government must be stern and severe. The Turks know how to discharge this responsibility; they waste no time in disciplining. Whoever disobeys given laws loses his head. The result is that there isn’t nearly as much unrest or rebellion among the peasants, city folk, knights and household servants as there is in our country.
“This negligence in regard to secular government is to a large extent the result of the monks, who in their sermons taught that princes and lords should always be merciful and should not practice capital punishment. By doing this, they brought secular government to the point where rulers pleaded conscientious objection when it was their duty to execute criminals. Our Lord God could easily enough have instituted that kind of civil government if that had been his pleasure, or if such a government would have been good and useful for the world. But God deliberately commands civil government to make use of the sword; they are to use it in punishing civil evil…
“…Therefore, secular governments must punish, not spare, criminals. However, the fact that secular officials often neglect this duty is the fault of the pope, the monks, and the false preachers who fail to teach the proper distinction between the spiritual kingdom and the secular kingdom…”
I could go on, but the Rev. Mr. Luther has made his point. We see that capital punishment is not an Old Testament thing, but a Bible thing. It is endorsed in the New Testament as well as the Old. At no time does God say, “I’ve changed my mind,” as the nouveau Marcionites in most churches would have us believe. Capital punishment is not for the benefit of the criminal, but for society as a whole. The threat of death may lead the criminal to repentance, but that is not the point. The point is that when a person commits a heinous crime, they forfeit their civil rights, and society as a whole is duty-bound to make a spectacle of them. In the Bible, the death penalty was imposed with the explanation, “You must purge the evil from Israel.” Particularly in the case of murder, if I can kill without giving my own life, the life of the victim is no longer sacred. We are stewards of human life, and to abuse it by coddling criminals is to prove ourselves unworthy stewards.
I close with a critique of the usual quotation of Exodus 20:13. It should read, “Thou shalt do no murder.” The use of “kill” dates to the King James Bible, which is a misleading translation. In only four cases is the Hebrew rasah translated kill, two times in reference to the ten commandments, and two times discussing cases where killing somebody is technically justifiable. In 14 other instances it is translated as a variant of murder.
The Rev. Robert McLeod
