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

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

What are the particular offenses known through conscience to violate God's ordinance and warrant death? In addition to a more general condemnation of evil, Paul lists the following specific offenses in Rom 1:23-31: idolatry, homosexual acts, greed, envy or spite, murder, strife, deceit, malice, being a gossip, slandering, hating God, insolence, arrogance, disobedience to parents, lack of love, lack of mercy. Following our list from the OT, we find these capital crimes reiterated: idolatry, homosexual acts, murder, deceit (false witness in capital cases), malicious treatment (of Israel and other nations), acts of greed (in the sacking of Israel by neighbors, for instance), slander against God, the arrogance that exalts self or nation as divine and self-sufficient in wealth and power, mistreatment of parents, the lack of love and mercy shown in some of these acts and in ignoring the cry of the needy (one of Sodom's offenses). Again, Rev 9:20-21 provides a very similar refrain.

VI. LATER DISPUTES CONCERNING THE CONTENT OF THE NATURAL LAW

It might be objected at this point that a cross-cultural and transhistorical survey would not uncover a united humanity when it comes to the wrongness of offenses Paul tells us everyone naturally knows about, to say nothing of agreement about penalties. Of course, Paul also tells us, in Romans 1, that such natural moral knowledge can be suppressed in unrighteousness. As Aquinas was later to put it, the natural law can be suppressed through bad desires, bad habits, and bad company.6 So we should not expect to find perfect unanimity.7

Calvin, though, does find a remarkable agreement among peoples on the moral law, together with a lack of general agreement on penalties, both of which he applauds.8 Even a brief review of some ancient, medieval, and modern law codes confirms his overall impression concerning both the fact of wide agreement about what moral offenses should count as crimes and greater disparity concerning penalties.9 As one contemporary Christian historian notes, modern social science provides direct support for natural law moral claims: ". . . anthropologists are able to show by empirical observation that ... the last six of the Ten Commandments, which require respect for parents and prohibit killing, adultery, stealing, perjury and fraud, have some counterpart in every known culture."10 Hence, special revelation of OT laws is in some part reiteration of natural law knowledge, perhaps even largely so. 11

The final question of our discussion, it will be recalled, is whether the crimes for which the death penalty is assigned in the OT ought to be so penalized today. I take it that the vast majority of contemporary European and American Christians 12 would answer this question negatively, with some exceptions in the case of murder. By continuing a theological tradition that reduced natural moral knowledge to some, if not all, of the Ten Commandments and an amorphous general "equity," leaders in the Reformed tradition directly contradict Paul's teaching as to the type of specific knowledge all have concerning wrongdoing. Given this reduction of the natural law, Calvin is consistent when he relativizes Israel's penal laws to the peculiarities of the period. 13 How could the Gentiles be held accountable to God, even through the human agency of the state, for wrongs of which they are unaware? Indeed, even Christians need not keep to OT laws when they go beyond "equity."