A Christian View on the Death Penalty

A discussion on the death penalty came up yesterday after church. Part of me debated whether I should just remain silent or to bring up my take on the issue. I am probably the only person in the whole church that takes the stance that a Christian should not be for the death penalty. Let me explain.

We can argue whether the state has authority to enact the death penalty, but I think that argument is irrelevant to the discussion. The state give doctors the authority to abort a baby, yet we still say that it is something that we should not do. The state gives people authority to do all sorts of actions we would deem immoral, yet we still call those actions wrong. Just because the state allows something does not make that action right. The state has the authority to do all sorts of disgusting actions. The United States is not the kingdom of God, and we need to be extra careful in all times to never lift it up as being such.

One can obviously argue that there was a death penalty in the Old Testament. There is no question about that. But to say that since it was in the Old Testament law it still applies today does not seem logical since none of the people who say that try to live out all of the law. We believe that the law was useful for revealing sin and a placeholder until the coming of the Messiah(very simplified explanation for the law), but that we are now under the law of the Christ rather than the law of the Old Testament. Because of this, I cannot buy the argument that the death penalty should be practiced today because it was prescribed in the Old Testament law. We cannot just pick and choose parts of the law that we feel are still applicable and proclaim them as such. That is not a consistent use of the Old Testament law as explained in the writings of the New Testament.

Our primary citizenship as Christians is to the kingdom of God. This means that we are only obedient to the United States if it does not go against obedience to our king, God. We subject ourselves at all times to our nation's authority; however, subjection does not mean that we must be obedient. It sometimes means that we will accept our punishment when we feel that we must be disobedient.

Is there ever a reason to kill someone for the kingdom of God? There must be, or we should not be for the death penalty. I cannot think of an example where killing does not violate the "turning the other cheek" principle or the teaching that we are supposed to "love our neighbors" and "love our enemies". If we should not kill, then we should not ask our state to kill, which is what we are doing if we are Christians who support the death penalty and live in a democracy. We should never ask anyone, whether that is our state or our neighbor, to do something we would not do ourselves.

In conclusion, I might be open to changing my mind, but none of what I have heard to date has caused me to consider that a Christian should be an executioner for our secular state. I have read some articles on the internet, and they always demonize anti-death penalty people as being against the Scriptures. Please do not do such; I will not demonize pro-death penalty adherents. If you can show me in Scripture where a Christian should be for the death penalty (that does not mean that Paul or Jesus acknowledges that there is a death penalty), please show it to me.