Today's biblically illiterate liberals, whose ethics are insincere and situational, falsely accuse Bible believing Christians, among whom all true Christians are numbered, for espousing, as liberals do themselves, contradictory convictions. For instance, they accuse Christians of hypocrisy for fighting against abortion, while, at the same time, favoring capital punishment. "How can you be for life," they ask, "if you don't oppose the death penalty." Unbeknownst to all who are unschooled in the Scripture, the biblical doctrine of the sanctity of human life necessitates both the condemnation of abortion, as well as the championing of the death penalty. 

In Genesis 9:6, the Bible says, "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.” Here, God not only ordained human government, but obligated it to execute murderers. Having just destroyed a violence-filled fallen world with a flood (Genesis 6:11), God, in order to deter future violence, established human government to eliminate murderers from the earth. Contrary to popular opinion, the Bible clearly teaches capital punishment, which necessitates belief in capital punishment by all who believe the Bible. 

Cold-blooded murderers have proven themselves to have a callous disregard for the sanctity of human life. Therefore, in order to protect others from them and to prevent them from ever repeating their heinous crime, they must be eliminated from society. Far from being contradictory to Christians’ belief in the sanctity of human life, favoring the death penalty, just like fighting abortion, are both consistent with Christians’ defense of innocent life.

Are you aware of the fact that the vast majority of violent crimes in our country are committed by repeat offenders? In addition, and far more disconcerting, many murders are committed by repeat offenders as well? If all violent criminals and cold-blooded murderers were eliminated from our society, by sentencing all violent criminals to a life behind bars and all murderers to death, our government, as God ordained it to do, would be deterring violence and defending innocent lives. Unfortunately, by failing to fulfill its God-ordained role, our government is not deterring violence, but incentivizing it, and it is not defending innocent lives, but endangering them.