What does the Bible say about the Death Penalty or Capital Punishment?

Grace Bible Church
Pastor Teacher
Robert R. McLaughlin
080220
What does the Bible say about the death penalty or Capital Punishment?

It was what Elizabeth heard that caused the embryo or the fetus to leap in Elizabeth’s womb, it was NOT what John the Baptist heard but it was a response that who was not even one day old as of yet that caused it to leap.

Secondly, it was because Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit that caused the response.

Also, remember what Mary was told by the angel when our Lord was in her womb in Luk 1:35…. we read “therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called [not is called] but shall be called] the Son of God.”

We are also told in the Old Testament that you should give a “life for life” but if there is a miscarriage it is not considered to be a life; Exo 21:2-23.

This is a very important doctrine, as you will see, because it answers a lot of questions that believers have concerning who they are and what the Lord has called them to.

Now, throughout the Old Testament, there is a principle that the Lord established concerning a life for life which we call capital punishment.

Question: “What does the Bible say about the death penalty or  capital punishment?”

Answer: The Old Testament law commanded the death penalty for various acts: murder (Exo 21:12), kidnaping (Exo 21:16), bestiality Exo 22:19, adultery; Lev 20:10), homosexuality (Lev 20:13), being a false prophet (Deu 13:5), prostitution and rape (Deu 22:24), and several other crimes.

However, God often showed mercy when the death penalty was due.

David committed adultery and murder, yet God did not demand his life be taken (2Sa 11:1-5, 14-17; 2Sa 12:13).

In GEN 9:6  “Whoever sheds man’s blood, By man his blood shall be shed, For in the image of God He made man.

“If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” (Joh 8:7).

There are times when the Lord intervenes and uses His sovereign will to handle capital punishment.

This means that there were times that should not be used to indicate that Jesus rejected capital punishment in all instances.

Jesus was simply exposing the hypocrisy of the Pharisees.

The Pharisees wanted to trick Jesus into breaking the Old Testament law; they did not truly care about the woman being stoned (where was the man who was caught in adultery?

You can tell this is a set-up just because the man isn’t there.

Now, God is the One who instituted capital punishment and God is the One who chose to give mercy.

The apostle Paul definitely recognized the power of the government to institute capital punishment where appropriate (Rom 13:1-7).

First, we must remember that God has instituted capital punishment in His Word; therefore, it would be presumptuous of us to think that we could institute a higher standard.

God has the highest standard of any being; He is perfect and therefore He knows perfectly what the human race can handle and what it cannot.

The point is, It is unbiblical to claim that God opposes the death penalty in all instances.

Christians should never rejoice when the death penalty is employed, but at the same time, Christians should not fight against the government’s right to execute the perpetrators of the most evil of crimes; Rom 13:1-8.

Now, Let’s establish the fact that there is mobility found in the female but it is the mobility extension of the mother.

1. In EXO 21:22-23, two men are fighting with each other.

2. “A woman with child has a miscarriage because of the man hitting the other man.”

3. Yet, there is no further injury — referring to the miscarriage.

4. If the woman recovered and the baby was aborted then her husband, has the right to ask for life to be given for life.

5. We can conclude that there was no life in the womb which is why a miscarriage is not considered a life.

6. He shall surely be fined as the woman’s husband may demand of him; and he shall pay as the judges decide.”

We also have the fact that God was not the God of our Lord in the womb but only outside of the womb; PSA 22:10  Upon Thee I was cast from birth; Thou hast been my God from my mother’s womb.

And notice that our Lord was cast from birth upon His God.

Also notice that David said; “Thou hast been my God from my mother’s womb not in my mother’s womb.”

We also need to listen to the words of our Lord and that is why JOH 3:7 “Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ — NOT CONCEIVED AGAIN.

The point is that when you were born physically alive, and therefore you have received the first imputation of human life to your soul began when you came forth from being in your mother’s womb when life truly exists.

This is when your life truly began because there is life in the womb but it is biological life which is the extension of the woman’s life , it is not a human life or humans soul until the fetus comes forth from the woman and then you have neshumah, the breath of life imputed to you as the first imputation.

This is extremely important because it will answer a lot of questions that some people have including why God is the one who chose your parents.

God chose both your father and your mother, in spite of your opinions and your questions, which I will seek to answer which is, “Why did God chose them to be my parents?”

DEU 32:4 “The Rock! His work is perfect, For all His ways are just; A God of faithfulness and without injustice, Righteous and upright is He.

And so, you may have had the question; “Why did God choose the parents that He did for me?”

However,  I would like to turn this around a little and as a parent ask God,  “Why did you give me the children that you gave to me?”

It goes both ways, for remember we provided the vessel, but God is the one who fills the vessel with a soul.

Remember human life begins at birth not at conception.

The word babe is the noun brephos in the neuter, not in the masculine or in the feminine which would have been a male or female, but it is in the neuter, it was not a person as of yet.

It was what Elizabeth heard that caused the fetus to leap in Elizabeth’s womb, it was NOT what John the Baptist heard who was not even one day old as of yet that caused it to leap.

Secondly, it was because Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit that caused the response.

And as we noted during our Q and A on Friday this was not the filling of the Spirit of the Church-age with the word pleroo which is the filling within the believer but this word is the pletho which literally means the filling of the Spirit upon the believer not within.

Also, remember what Mary was told by the angel when our Lord was in her womb in Luk 1:35…. we read “therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called [not is called but shall be called] the Son of God.”

We are also told in the Old Testament that you should give a “life for life” but if there is a miscarriage it is not considered to be a life; Exo 21:22-23.

We also have the fact that God was not the God of our Lord in the womb but only outside of the womb; PSA 22:10 Upon Thee I was cast from birth; Thou hast been my God from my mother’s womb.

Then why JOH 3:7 “Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ — NOT CONCEIVED AGAIN.

JER 1:5 says  “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, And before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

Notice what it is talking about, it is talking about the omniscience of God or the foreknowledge of God  because it says, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,”

So, there is biological life in the womb or in the uterus, but no soul life.

When the fetus emerges, God creates soul life and imputes it to biological life.

Biological life is formed in the womb and is an extension of the mother’s physical life.

Biological life and the sin nature begin at conception; soul life begins at birth.

No one has life until it’s imputed.

Life begins when the fetus emerges from the womb and God gives to that fetus, neshumah, “the spark of life,” not developed in the womb, but is given by God at birth.

In other words, God does not impute neshumah to a blade of grass or to a stone, God cannot impute life without that life having a home or a place to go.

And the home or the direction of human life is the soul.

Note that the physical body was prepared before He came into the world……..that’s why He said, “but a body Thou has prepared for Me!”

TLJC trusted God for the first time as a child when He was one day old, upon His mother’s breast……not when He was in the womb.

PSA 22:10  Upon Thee I was cast from birth; Thou hast been my God from [not in but literally] out from my mother’s womb.

When God says…..give life to that fetus it goes directly to the soul which has been formatted or designed to receive life from God.

For example, in all of these passages, we have the Hebrew prepositional phrases “MI RECHEM or MI BETEN which indicate that we were created “outside of, away from, out from, separated from the womb.”

Look at Job 33:4, “And the breath from God has created me [a human being], and the breath [soul life] of the Almighty gives me [human] life.”

The “breath of God” is life, the source of life, which means breath, spirit, life, and lifestyle.

Isa 44:2  “Thus says the Lord who created you, who formed you outside [separated from] the womb.”

God formed you or gave you life out from the womb, separated from the womb, outside the womb, away from the womb.

The Hebrew prepositional phrase is MI BETEN and should be translated “out from the womb.”

In Ecc 12:7, “Then the dust [biological life] will return to the earth as it was, and the breath [RUACH, soul life] will return to God who gave it.”

The comparison of Job 33:4 with Isa 44:2 and Eccl 12:7 shows that there are two kinds of life:  biological and soul life.

Isa 44:24, “Thus says the Lord [JEHOVAH], your redeemer, the one who formed you outside the womb, `I, the Lord, am the maker of all things, stretching out the heavens by Myself and spreading out the earth all alone.”

Because of the unlimited atonement, God must provide salvation for everyone to whom He gives soul life at birth.  Therefore, He provides redemption for all.

Isa 49:5, “And now says the Lord who formed me outside the womb to be His servant to bring Jacob back to Him, in order that Israel might be gathered to Him  (For I am honored in the sight of the Lord, And My God is My strength).”

Isa 49:1, “Listen to me, O Islands [Greeks], and hear this you peoples from afar [Gentiles], the Lord called me outside [separated from] the womb; outside the body of my mother, He named me.”

Only God has the power to create human life, a power He has not delegated to man or to angels.

Human life does not exist until God creates soul life and imputes it to biological life after the fetus has left the womb.

Job 1:21  “Then he said, `Naked [biological life] I came outside of my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return there.  The Lord gave [soul life at birth], and the Lord has taken away [biological life at death]; blessed be the name of the Lord.'”

The soul life that the Lord gives at birth, He takes at death, and that life goes on forever.

Soul life is permanent and enters either heaven or Hades, depending on our attitude toward Christ.

Isa 57:16, “For I will not reprimand you forever [with Israel], nor will I always be angry.  For then the breath [soul life] will grow faint before Me, and the spark of life [soul life] which I have created.

Job had no human life until God imputed it to his soul.

Job is asking why God ever let him become a human being.

Verse nineteen explains the last phrase in verse eighteen.  Job describes the limits of life:  out from the womb and to the tomb.

If God does not give soul life at birth, there is no soul life, there is no existence.

Job also recognizes in the last half of verse eighteen that he would have been automatically saved if he had died as soon as God gave him soul life.

Job 3:11, “Why did I not die at birth, separated from the womb and then die?”

This clearly says that you cannot die as a human being in the womb, because no one is a human being in the womb.

(1)  Biological life originates from our parents at conception.  It is material and visible.

(2)  Soul life is created by God at birth and imputed to biological life.  It is immaterial and invisible.  Soul life is the “breath of God.”

(3)  The characteristics of the client nation are related to the origin of the soul.

(4)  As goes your life as a Christian, so goes your client nation.

(5)  The pivot of mature believers is the key to client nation prosperity; it is blessing by association.

(6)  We call the concept of blessing by association “the pivot.”

We also have the fact that God was not the God of our Lord in the womb but only outside of the womb; PSA 22:10  Upon Thee I was cast from birth; Thou hast seen my God from my mother’s womb.