Ron Gleason, Ph.D., The Death Penalty on Trial: Taking a Life for a Life Taken (2009)
134 pages
ISBN 978-0-9796736-7-2
$14.95 (trade paperback)
Buy it here for less.

Although modern men argue about whether or not capital punishment is an effective deterrent of crime, it is clear that God thinks it is, according to author-scholar Ron Gleason. Mike Gray reviews Gleason’s bold new book on the subject.

One damp afternoon about 4400 years ago, the Creator of the universe had a little heart-to-heart with Noah, one of only eight persons to survive a world-wide cataclysm that effectively reduced the earth’s population by at least 99.999999999 percent. The Creator was concerned that His creatures would not have to suffer another similar extinction event because of their sinful rebellion against His just and righteous authority.

Since Noah was, practically speaking, the only one in charge as well as being the ancestor of every human being—tens of billions of them since then—the Creator made a covenant with him, an agreement in which Noah and all his descendants could fill the earth with joy and fulfill the promise that one day a Redeemer would come to lift the curse of sin from the human race. One of the codicils of this unilateral contract, however, specified how human beings should deal with persons who would murder their fellows:

Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God made he man.

Right then and there, the Creator God laid down the law and established the moral and practical foundation for human civil government, making man responsible for dealing with crime. Murderers—those who kill for any reason except self-defense and to protect society—must always forfeit their lives, because to do otherwise is to thwart the Creator’s will in making man in His image.

You’d think that would have settled the matter, but you’d be wrong of course. In their long war against God, the children of Noah have shown endless inventiveness in contriving excuses for their wrongdoing and circumventing God’s expressed will, and the current widespread confusion concerning the death penalty is but one outcome of this battle.

In The Death Penalty on Trial, Ron Gleason presents as clearly as can be done just why the death penalty is essential not merely to maintain an orderly, civilized society but also why God instituted it—and why failure to implement it entails God’s judgment. It’s fair to say there is many a civil magistrate alive today who thinks s/he is doing a good, humane thing by not executing a murderer but who will one day be judged and condemned by the Creator for overthrowing His law as first revealed to Noah—a sobering thought, indeed.

Gleason shows how not only secularists but also self-deluded Christians present what they deem as sufficient rationales for doing away with the death penalty. Here are eight common reasons non-Christians offer contra capital punishment:

1. "The death penalty violates the constitutional ban against cruel and unusual punishment, the guarantee of due process of law, and equal protection under the law."
2. "Capital punishment is arbitrary and irrevocable."
3. "Executions give society the message that human life no longer deserves respect."
4. "Reliance on the death penalty obscures the true causes of crime and distracts attention from the social measures that effectively contribute to the control of crime."
5. "Reliance on the death penalty wastes resources."
6. "Decent and humane societies do not deliberately kill human beings."
7. "Capital punishment has not been proven to be an effective deterrent."
8. "The death penalty is too good for a murderer."

Gleason’s replies to these objections are informed by not only Scripture but also secular research and just plain common sense.

Some "more liberal-leaning Christians" oppose capital punishment as well, usually offering these five objections:

1. "Jesus’ ethics and teaching eliminate the need for capital punishment." (Gleason’s discussion of just what "turning the other cheek" meant in Jesus’ day is a real eye-opener.)
2. "Since those who come to Christ on death row are forgiven by God, we should forgive them too."
3. "Rehabilitated murderers could do much that is good."
4. "I feel so sorry that someone has to pay with their life."
5. "If we execute someone in error, we are not upholding the justice that God demands."

Read The Death Penalty on Trial to see how Gleason responds to these notions. It’s a short book, accessible, with good research to support the author’s viewpoints. Every child of Noah should know how the Creator feels about the death penalty and, in contemplating the awesome righteous judgments of God, pray that he never have cause to be subjected to it.

———-

Chapters:

1. Introduction
"In our approach to the death penalty as Christians, therefore, we must continually remember what the Bible teaches about the image-bearing nature of humans and the Image-Giving nature of God …. The crime of murder is heinous precisely because every human being bears the image of God. Someone who strikes down the image-bearer strikes at the holy, almighty Image-Giver, God Himself."

2. A Historical Overview
"It [the 1960s] was, indeed, the time to make love and not war. It was in vogue to question each and every authority. As a result, societal, political, and moral views changed considerably—exponentially—and that for the worst. Capitalism was ‘out’ and socialism and communism were ‘in.’ Sexual promiscuity, pornography, and drug abuse also became more common and rampant. During that turbulent decade, in 1967, without any significant legislative action, the use of the death penalty came to a halt. This lack of legislative action would become one of the harbingers of things to come."

3. The Death Penalty in Church History
"It is also true that everything in the Bible is ethical in this sense: ‘Even when Scripture expounds doctrinal propositions, it presents them as propositions that ought to be believed.’ This is true for both Christians and non-Christians; for the Old as well as the New Testament. In other words, all ethics is religious, even when it tries to be secular. In the end, all ethics presupposes ultimate values."

4. From the Old Testament
"Christians who assert that the sixth commandment prohibits all killing or, even more specifically, that it somehow prohibits the death penalty, have sorely missed the Biblical point. What the sixth commandment does is to prohibit individuals from taking the law into their own hands and killing for hate, for gain, or for getting even or trying to square wrongs on their own. However, the sixth commandment in no way prohibits states from bringing murderers to justice through capital punishment."

5. From the New Testament
"The government is called ‘the servant of God’ in our text.
To be a just servant of God, the civil magistrate must possess a heightened awareness of what is right and wrong; what is good and evil. Society today has a degree of moral awareness, but the ability of people in and outside of government to distinguish right and wrong has been buried under an avalanche of politically-correct, liberal, feel-good claptrap. The fogginess about right and wrong, good and evil has taken its toll on capital punishment."

6. Addressing the Secular Objections
"In other words, God prescribes certain instances where it is entirely right, proper, and prudent to take the life of a criminal. God prescribes the means whereby those individuals are to be removed from society, for the overall good of society. Progressive secular humanists actually cheapen life by wanting to play God in abortion and euthanasia, but do not want God to intervene in capital punishment. This is the clear difference between God-ordained and fallen-man-contrived punishment. It is precisely because life is to be valued that society is to be purged of those who do not hold human life to be precious."

7. Objections from Christians Who Oppose the Death Penalty
"The secular media adds to the confusion for it regularly refuses to reveal the grotesqueness and brutality of murder which is a gory, horrific affair. The colossal suffering of the victim is rarely reported in all the terrifying details. I’m convinced that if people really knew what happened, they would be angry and incensed and not so ready either to champion or take the side of the murderer. The media, however, continues to focus on the murderer and the sufferings he or she endures on death row, and finally, the execution—if indeed that actually happens."

8. Summary and Conclusions
"… secularists’ arguments against the death penalty have no solid basis to pronounce any action ‘good,’ ‘bad,’ ‘right,’ ‘wrong,’ or ‘evil.’ Although secular humanists do not like to admit it, they truly have no right—no foundational grounds—in their system to pronounce anything as something people ‘ought’ to do."

Appendix—Crime and Punishment: Judging the Death Penalty (by D. James Kennedy and Jerry Newcombe)

Endnotes (5 pages)

Bibliography (4 pages)

Scripture Index (3 pages)

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—Mike Gray