Where do we draw the lines between what is right and wrong? This question is fundamental to civilization, fundamental to a free society. To put this question in the bluntest and most offense terms: if there is a time to kill — which Solomon says there is — whom shall we kill, when, how and why?
I firmly believe in killing. It is essential to the future of civilization. There are some who must be killed, some who must die. But who are they? To kill or not to kill — that is the question? No, not really, rather, whom to kill or whom not to kill? — which answers the why question also, though not the when or how. Revising the question sort of kills the question, but still, kill we must, it is essential to any nation or civilization. That is why God gave Noah the command to punish by death those who murdered men.
So, then whom should we kill? For the future of civilization, who deserves to die?
First and most clearly, God told Noah that murderers deserve to die. God gave Moses laws that expanded the death penalty, but fundamentally it did not really change. A man who committed premeditated murder deserves to die. By extension, we might say, I believe but cannot fully argue it here, that professional criminals, men who have devoted their lives to a life of crime, also deserve to die.
But our present cultural and even global paradigm is very different. In “advanced countries,” we do not punish murderers by death. Instead, we put them in a cage — perhaps for a few years or perhaps for life. We put them in cages with other men like them and treat them like dangerous animals. Sometimes, after years of treating them like dangerous animals, we release them back into society — “the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel” (Proverbs 12:10b).
However, modern men who reject capital punishment because it is “barbaric” do kill and kill promiscuously. Whom do our societies kill? We kill unborn children who are unwanted for whatever reason. And they are slaughtered by the untold millions. The World Health Organization (not an intentionally ironic name, I suppose) estimates that: “Around 73 million induced abortions take place worldwide each year.”1 That is a whole lot of killing! Far more than the number of Jews killed by the Nazis! Double the number of those killed by Stalin! Even more than the millions killed by Mao! But mark well. The WHO says this is the number killed every year! Let that sink in: more than 70 million EVERY YEAR!
Let’s just assume this has only been true in this century. 70 million per year for the last 21 years. That is something like 1,470,000,000. Nothing in human history compares to this rate of killing. 20th century atheist Communists, who have been the greatest murderers so far in the history of humanity, cannot even begin to approach this number.
What shall we say to this? Perhaps these unborn infants all deserved to die?
As far as I can tell, it is not so. According to my detailed and meticulous research, very few of these unborn children have committed horrendous crimes. In fact, very few of them have committed any crimes — not even shoplifting. So, why do we kill them? What wrong have they done? They have committed the greatest crime imaginable to hedonist culture. They are inconvenient — economically and socially inconvenient. No doubt, this is a great evil. But does it give us just grounds to kill?
The obvious answer is, No! That is the only answer that can be given by people who believe that the Bible is true and that it gives us the grounds for a civilization that honors God and brings blessing to humanity.
Kill not the innocents!
But that does not mean we never kill.
To protect the innocent, we must kill. There is a time to kill and there are people who deserve to die.
Who are those people? Where do we begin?
We must kill the guilty — murderers. Begin with them.
“Whoever sheds man’s blood,
By man his blood shall be shed;
For in the image of God
He made man.” Genesis 9:6
Put all murderers to death — after a fair, public trial, which dismisses any case in which there is “reasonable doubt” — and see what happens next!
Some might misunderstand me to be saying that murderers cannot be saved. That is not at all what I mean. Murderers can be saved.
Before my wife and I came to Japan, we stayed for a few months in the home of a member of the church I pastored at the time. It has been over 40 years and I have not kept up with him since then, but a few years ago when we visited the community where we had ministered in 1980, we discovered that he had married and that God had given him a daughter. We also learned that his daughter, at 16, was kidnapped, raped, and murdered.
The police caught the man responsible. He was put on trail and found guilty. There was no reasonable doubt. What my friend did is what every father in such a situation ought to do. He visited the murderer in prison and preached the Gospel to him. He actually won the man to faith in Christ.
That does not mean that the man does not deserve the death penalty. He does. But if a society is going to follow the book of Genesis — which is just as much the word of Jesus as any of the red letters in the Gospels — then it must also follow Jesus who sought to save the lost criminal beside Him even when He Himself was dying on the cross for all sinners.
Seek the salvation of convicted murderers so that they may go immediately to be with Jesus when they are put to death for their crime. But put them to death we must. And if we do, we will not only reduce the number of murderers in the land, we will also find that fewer men follow their path. Putting men to death for the sin of murder is compassion on the land and protection of the innocent. It is justice that heals and saves. Putting unborn infants to death is the worst sort of murder — out-Caining Cain — murder that calls for God’s justice to fall on the land that tolerates — indeed, even promotes — the murder of the most helpless.
Ralph Smith is pastor of Mitaka Evangelical Church.