Today, I was watching videos on YouTube and I found one of John MacArthur defending his position in favor of the death penalty, he says that it is very clear in the Bible, does he use the law of the Old Testament that says: He who throws the blood of man, because his blood will be shed by man?(Gen 9:6) and uses the text in which Jesus tells Peter when he attacks the guard who was going to stop Jesus, “Jesus said to him: keep the sword !Why will all who wield the sword die by sword. ?(Mt 26:52), to say that Jesus also supported the death penalty, according to the scriptures of the Old Testament. What is your position on the death penalty?Is the text MacArthur uses about Jesus really used to defend the death penalty?
Before Christ? In all this question of the legitimacy of the death penalty, there is no violation of the sixth commandment, “Will you not kill?”
- Hodge? This commandment.
- As our Lord declared (Mt 5:21.
- 22).
- Forbids wickedness in all its degrees and manifestations.
- The Bible recognizes the distinction between anger and evil.
- The former is sometimes allowed; the second is by nature.
- And therefore always bad; the first is a natural or constitutional emotion emanating from the experience or perception of evil and includes not only disapproval.
- But also outrage and a desire to rectify or punish in one way or another the harm inflicted.
- The other understands hatred and a desire to inflict evil to satisfy this wicked passion.
- We read that our Lord was angry; in it.
- However.
- There was no wickedness or resentment.
- He was the Lamb of God; when he was cursed.
- He did not respond with a curse; when he was in pain.
- He did not threaten; even prayed for his enemies on the cross.
Before Christ? Yes, but how does this relate to the death penalty, why could she be admitted despite the ban?
Hodge? In the various commandments of the Decalogue, the ultimate manifestation of all evil is chosen for prohibition, with the intention of including the smallest forms of evil itself. When murder is prohibited, all degrees and manifestations of malice are included. value for man’s life, mainly because it was created in the image of God. He is not only like God in the essential elements of his nature, but he is also a representative of God on earth. of irreverence towards God, and second, all men are brothers and sisters. They are of a blood; the children of an ordinary father. On this basis, we are obliged to love and respect all men as men; and do everything they can not only to protect their lives, but also to promote their well-being. That’s why killing is the greatest crime a human being can commit against his neighbor.
Before Christ? But if this is the case, the death penalty also takes the life of a human being and is therefore also reprehensible.
Hodge? Since Sixth Command prohibits intentional manslaughter, it is clear that the ban does not include the application of the death penalty, a penalty that is not applied to satisfy the feeling of revenge, but to satisfy justice and preserve society, as they are legitimate and very important objectives, it is followed that the death penalty for murder is also legitimate.
Before Christ? This means that, for the sake of society, it is legal to apply the death penalty as punishment.
Hodge? This penalty, in the case of murder, is not only legitimate, but also mandatory. This is expressly established in the Biblia. Si someone sheds the blood of man, his will be shed by man; Why did God make man in his image?(Genesis 9,6). It is obvious that this is a perpetual obligation, since Noah, the second leader of the human race, was commanded. Therefore, it was not designed for a particular time or nation. It is the proclamation of a general principle of justice; a revelation of God’s will. Moreover, the reason given by law is a permanent reason. Man was created in the image of God; and therefore, whoever sheds his blood, his will will be shed by man. This reason is as valid at a time or place as at any other time or place.
BC? Yes, but the text you quoted was told to Noah in the opening pages of Genesis. What evidence is there in the Bible that this principle must remain valid?
Hodge? The order that the murderer must be killed without fail is repeatedly found in the law of Moses (Ec 21:12, 14; Leviticus 24,17; Numbers 35. 21; Deuteronomy 19,11, 13) There is a clear recognition in the New Testament of the continuing obligation of divine law that the murderer should be punished with death. In Romans 13. 4, the Apostle says of the magistrate that “it is not without reason that he brings the sword”. The sword was edized as a symbol of the power of capital punishment. Even for secular writers, says Meyer, the fact that the magistrate carries the sword?It was an emblem of power over life and death. The Apostle himself says (Acts 25. 11): “If I have committed a death-worthy evil or crime, “which clearly indicates that, in his view, there were crimes for which the death penalty was passed.
BC? And for us, should the same rule also apply?
Hodge? In addition to these arguments based on Scripture, there are others that come from natural justice. It is imperative of our moral nature that crime be punished; that there must be a fair proportion between the crime and the sentence; and that death, the greatest punishment, is the appropriate punishment for the greatest of crimes. That this is the instinctive opinion of men is shown by the difficulty which must sometimes prevent the mob from taking revenge with their bare hands in the event of cruel murders. This sentiment is so strong that there is a certainty that some kind of unbridled justice will be implemented to replace judicial inefficiency. This justice, devoid of what is right and impulsive, is often directed and wrong, and in an established society it is always criminal. Being of the nature of men that, if the death penalty, as a legitimate and regular judicial penalty, is abolished, it will be applied by the avenger of blood or by the tumultuous assemblies of the people, society must choose between assuring the murderer a trial just by the constituted authorities, or hand him over to the blind spirit for revenge.
Wouldn’t that cause even more violence?
Hodge? Experience teaches that where human life is devalued, it is not safe; that where the killer escapes with impunity or is unduly punished, the killings multiply terribly, so the practical question is: who should die, the innocent or the murderer?
Virtual interview created by the website Bom Caminho, adapted from Systematic Theology?Charles Hodge? Editor Hagnos ?, P. 1290 to 1292.