Month: September 2024

What Should Christians Make of Death Penalty?

The debate on whether Malawi should abolish death penalty or capital punishment continues to gather momentum. The Evangelical Association of Malawi and other mainline denominations have already come out in the open to support the abolishment proposal. However, other Christians are in favor of keeping the penalty in our laws.  In God’s providence I recently preached from Genesis 8:20-9:17 which I think adequately addresses the place of capital punishment in the human society.

As we come to Genesis 9:20 we meet Noah, who has just come out of the ark after the flood, building an altar to God as an act of worship. The Lord is pleased with Noah’s worship and reinstates the creation mandate which he first gave to Adam and Eve in Genesis 1:28 “To be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” (Genesis 9:1, 7). Then the Lord also establishes death penalty for murder and decrees, “And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man. ‘Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image’” (Genesis 9:5, 6)

If an animal attacks and kills a man, God orders that the animal should be killed. If one man kills another man, God requires that the life of the murderer should be taken away too. The reason for this commandment is that man was made in the image of God. John Calvin comments, “No one can be injurious to his brother without wounding God himself.” One undebatable truth in Genesis 9:5, 6 is that it is God himself who established death penalty.

Further, it is worth noting here that when the first murder in the history of mankind occurred in Genesis 4:8, God reserved the right to take the life of the murderer, Cain, to himself (Genesis 4:15). However, now God gives this right to man. “Man” in this passage should be understood as human government as we read in Romans 13:4 that human government is “the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.” After Genesis 9:5, 6 we don’t read anywhere else in the Bible where God reverses death penalty for murder which means that the command still stands today.

Some Christians who are against death penalty appeal to Matthew 5:38-40 as a ground for abolishment of death penalty. In Matthew 5:38-40 Jesus says, “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’  But I say to you, ‘Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.’” Does Jesus here abolish death penalty for a murderer? Not at all!

“An eye for an eye” or lex talionis in Latin is a legal principle that punishment should fit the crime. Courts should not give a greater punishment to a smaller crime or a smaller punishment to a greater crime. This principle rightly applies to criminal justice. However, people in Jesus’ time were abusing and seizing it as pretext for taking personal revenge on those who wronged them. So, Jesus is teaching that outside of criminal matters, Christians should not pay evil with evil but instead should overcome evil with good (Romans 12:21). The example of a slap on the cheek is not literal as that would mean Jesus forbids self-defense in the face of an attack.

Christians might differ on their view of death penalty for murder and we should respectfully agree to disagree. But I believe that it is hard to argue that death penalty for murder which was established by God himself in Genesis 9 is no longer required today. I just can’t find any biblical evidence in support of that argument.

What is the New Heaven and the New Earth?

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth has passed away, and the sea was no more” (Rev. 21:1)

Apostle John had a privilege to see the new heaven and the new earth in a vision. Now, what is this new heaven and the new earth that Apostle John is talking about here? This is the question that many Bible scholars and theologians have wrestled with, and there are are two main views. One says that this new heaven and new earth will be entirely new and different from the one we have now while the other one holds that the new heaven and the new earth will be a renewed or a transformed heaven and earth but not necessarily an entirely new heaven and new earth.

I am persuaded of the later view because of three main reasons. First, other passages of Scripture show us that the new heaven and the new earth will be a renewed one. Consider Romans 8:20-21 in which Paul writes, “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” Notice that Paul says that the current creation as we know it will be set free from the bondage and corruption of sin. God is not going to completely wipe away this creation and make a new one rather he will liberate and renew this current creation.  

Second, when we consider that in the new heaven and new earth believers will be the same believers, we know today but with renewed bodies and not necessary totally different people than the ones we know we should also conclude that the new heaven and the new earth will be a renewed universe rather than a totally new creation. The Dutch theologian, Anthony Hoekema put it well, “The difference between our present bodies and the resurrection bodies, wonderful though they are, do not take away the continuity: it is we who shall be raised, and it is we who shall always be with the Lord. Those raised with Christ will not be a totally new set of human beings but the people of God who have lived on this earth. By way of analogy, we would expect that the new earth will not be totally different from the present earth but will be the present earth wondrously renewed.”

Third, consider that sometimes the Bible uses the word “new” to mean “renewed” or “transformed” and not necessarily an entirely different thing.  For example, 2 Corinthians 5:17 declares, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” This verse does mean that when we get saved, we become an entirely different new person. We are the same person who has been renewed in Christ. Of course, our lives change; our thinking changes; our likes change but we are still the same person renewed in Christ. Or consider in Ezekiel 36:26 in which the God says “I will give you a new heart” meaning a changed or transformed heart. In the same way new heaven and new earth in Rev. 21:1 does not mean an entirely new heaven and new earth but a renewed or a transformed heaven and earth which is far more glorious than the current heaven and earth.

As believers we should always long for the new heaven and the new earth. It will surely come! However, it will not be entirely another one made from nothing as God did in the beginning (Genesis 1:1). The new heaven and the new earth will be the current heaven and the current earth renewed with much greater glory and goodness beyond human description (1 Cor. 2:7).