Why does God command the death penalty? Why would a loving God allow a convicted murderer to be executed and supposedly end his chance to repent and change? The answer to these questions is plainly revealed in your Bible as being the resurrection of the dead. All unconverted sinners will be raised alive from the grave while Christ is ruling the Earth, and then they will be given a chance to learn and change.
The pagan teaching of an ever-burning “hellfire” to which most professing Christians today would condemn the executed murderer is nowhere found in your Bible! Hebrews 6:1-2 shows that the resurrection is one of the foundational doctrines taught by your Bible. And it is the knowledge of the resurrection that gives us God’s mind and understanding about the death penalty.
There are several references in the Old Testament to the resurrection, but only the Prophet Daniel begins to hint that there might be more than one resurrection. Daniel wrote, “Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.” (Daniel 12:2). In the New Testament, Jesus Christ said, “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned.” (John 5:28-29).
In Acts 24:15, the Apostle Paul plainly stated “that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.” Paul wrote at length regarding the resurrections in 1 Corinthians 15. The simple truth of your Bible is that there will be three resurrections (Revelation 20:4-15). The first will be at Christ’s return to Earth (1 Corinthians 15:22-23) when He
will resurrect to eternal spirit life those who have received God’s Holy Spirit in order to belong to Christ (Romans 8:9) and who have overcome and endured in God’s ways and held fast to God’s truth (Revelation 3:11-12; 21:7).
The second resurrection will occur 1000 years after Christ’s return (Revelation 20:11-12). Those in this resurrection will be given human physical bodies once again. For the first time, they will receive the opportunity to understand God’s precious truth and put it into practice in their lives (Isaiah 30:20-21) so that they, too, can be added to the spirit-composed family of God (Ephesians 3:14-15). This second resurrection is the missing dimension and key to understanding how a God of love can be in favor of a death penalty.
The third resurrection will also be a resurrection to physical life, but the end result of this resurrection will be eternal death, complete cessation of life—not spending an eternity boiling and bubbling in an ever-burning hellfire, but death. These individuals understood God’s truth and ways but rejected them, through either rebellion or weakness (Hebrews 10:26-27; Revelation 20:13-15; 21:8). God will mercifully impose an eternal death penalty upon them to prevent the creation of another ever-living, wretchedly miserable murderer like Satan the devil (John 8:44).
To understand how the death penalty can be a blessing, one must have God’s perspective on human life. Human death means nothing to God except a temporary sleep (1 Corinthians 15:51-55), because God can resurrect humans from the grave! If we understand the resurrections, then we can see how the death penalty is one of the greatest acts of love there can be—even toward the condemned criminal!
Imposing and carrying out the death penalty stops the example of lawlessness in society which can corrupt other human beings into the same wrong ways of violence and murder. Swiftly carrying out the death penalty also prevents the murderer from continuing in a downward spiral of ever-deepening rebellion against God’s law. The longer such a person is allowed to live, the more deeply entrenched will become their evil habits and twisted and corrupted human nature, all of which must be changed when the person is resurrected to physical life in the second resurrection!
The merciful God will even resurrect “Attila the Hun” and “Adolf Hitler”, along with every serial killer and mass murderer who has ever lived! Once resurrected, all those who did not receive the truth of God in their brief human life (the vast majority) will have their first opportunity to have an open mind and receive God’s truth! Every human being only gets one opportunity to respond to God’s truth! Just because a person has lived does not mean they understood God’s truth. They will receive their one opportunity in the second resurrection!
That is how the death penalty can be implemented in love! It deters others in this life from committing offenses worthy of the death penalty. And it prevents a murderer or violent
career criminal from continuing in his wrong and worsening ways and more firmly establishing habits which must be broken when he has his opportunity to receive God’s truth.
How beautiful is the pure truth of the merciful God!
China - in His image 