death penalty: God's timeless standard for the nations?, The

Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Sep 2000 by Ballard, Bruce W

How dare those who subscribe to the Bible attempt to force their morality on others! How often we hear this confused and tired saw. Yet there are ample reasons, both from Scripture and historical example, not to try to legislate every element of Biblical religion. As I know of none that deny this, it will not be argued here. On the other hand, it is quite clear in both OT and NT that God will judge every individual and nation. Those falling too far short of God's requirement may see their earthly lives brought to a sudden end either directly through supernatural means or through divinely mandated human agents. The goal here will be to determine how far the mandate extends to human agents today. While the question of the mandate is a perennial one for those subscribing to Biblical teaching, contemporary American social problems highlight the question for us in a distinctive way. But three initial qualifications are necessary.

First, while it is true that sin can attract divinely ordained corporeal death, the converse statement, that those who meet an early death must have been particularly wicked, is rejected in Scripture. Examplars of faith (e.g. OT prophets, John the Baptist, Jesus, Stephen) and Christ's explicit teaching (Luke 13:1-5) show this. Second, the fact that divinely ordained capital punishment came upon those who committed certain offenses described below does not imply that other sins cannot attract such direct judgment (cf. Acts 5:1-10 on deceitful contribution, 1 Cor 11:27-30 on abuse of communion). Third, we cannot conclude that God will not forbear to directly destroy, in this life, those who commit the offenses that brought judgment in the cases discussed below.

In summary, then, the Biblically-informed argument here will be that: (a) there is a transhistorical transcultural standard of right to which God holds every individual and people; (b) sufficient violation of that standard merits the penalty of corporeal death; and, consequently, (c) the death penalty against such violation remains valid in contemporary societies. I will also sketch something of the nature of the standard as understood in Scripture, particularly from the OT. The topic is clearly of more than academic import. If the argument holds, then those who subscribe to the Bible ought to, in addition to evangelization and other works of charity and justice, pray and work that the standard may hold sway in their societies. To uphold the standard is to meet important requirements of divine justice and to help forestall divine judgment upon a society. In some cases, this could involve pressing for particular legislation. Other, indirect benefits of promoting the standard will be discussed in the conclusion. The related question, whether or under what conditions one contemporary nation ought to destroy another based on the other's failure with respect to the standard, will not be taken up here.

In Biblical accounts, the death penalty is sometimes carried out directly by God and/or angels, as with the flood or the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. At other times, death is a penalty to be carried out by divinely appointed human agents such as Israel, or, as the OT occasionally reports, other nations. In Genesis we learn that every people has a divine mandate to carry out capital punishment for at least one particular crime.

What are the divine standards incumbent upon all humans, violations of which draw the death penalty? In the OT we learn about this matter through specific commandments to humanity as a whole and to Israel, through prophetic oracles, and through narratives of destruction with their accompanying explanations. Naturally we cannot treat every relevant passage here. The NT has a lot to say about the ultimate death penalty, damnation, less upon the topic at hand. The Gospels record little on the topic from Jesus, and some of what we have has been taken both to support and to undermine the death penalty. The book of Revelation does provide a list of sins attracting divine punishment, including corporeal death, as part of its prophetic oracle concerning the end times. And Paul supplies an important list of offenses in Romans 1 for which all are accountable through divinely imprinted natural law knowledge and which are "worthy of death."

1. PRE-MOSAIC DEATH PENALTY

To the complaint that the Law of Moses, and therefore the death penalty, pertained only to Israel, one might begin by pointing to pre-Mosaic teaching. Before the flood, we learn in Gen 6:11 that God will put humanity to death for its corruption and violence. In Gen 9:5-6, Noah and his family are told: "Surely I will require your lifeblood; from every beast I will require it. And from every man, from every man's brother I will require the life of man. Whoever sheds man's blood, by man his blood shall be shed, for in the image of God He made man" (NASB, here and throughout). Noah and his kin are addressed as representatives of all humanity, as can be seen by the use of the generic term "man" and by the reiterated command to be fruitful and multiply (v. 7). The rationale, "for in the image of God He made man," is a timeless one. It makes murder a kind of attack on God. The idea that the Noahic covenant was meant for the whole world throughout earthly time is also the traditional Jewish view. Whereas God had been the agent of the death penalty in the flood, this office is now explicitly extended to humans in relation to the crime of murder. The explicit extension of this mandate in the Noahic covenant might explain why Cain was not previously to be killed by other people for committing murder (Gen 4:15).