Capital Punishment

We are going to focus on the justice of capital punishment; that is, whether or not it is just in God's eyes for a Christian (or the "State") to shed the blood of another man. We are not here considering the reasons for and against capital punishment. What we want to know is, "Are the Old Testament laws concerning the shedding of human blood in response to "capital crimes" applicable in this age?" We'll start with this question:

1. "Where does the Bible make a distinction between "moral" and "civil" (political) or "ecclesiastical" (religious) laws?"

Traditional Protestant ethics has divided the Scripture, particularly the Old Testament, into at least two divisions: the "Moral Law" and the "Ceremonial Law." Even if the theologians do not agree on a precise definition of the "Moral Law," many still agree on which laws are to be described as "Moral:" laws against theft, adultery, and murder are fairly clear.

"Ceremonial Laws" are those that accomplished an educational function. These laws taught the Israelites something about God's program for the salvation of the world. They taught men about the work of the coming Messiah. They were a foreshadow of things to come, and when the things foreshadowed actually came, the foreshadows had served their purpose. The most obvious laws no longer literally observed in the New Covenant are laws concerning the possession and division of the land of Palestine, laws of cleansing, and the ritual shedding of blood. We may assume that all other standing laws are binding in the New Covenant unless the New Covenant specifically teaches otherwise. This is the "theonomic" ("God's Law" [in its entirety]) position.

2. "Are we to assume that the laws concerning the shedding of the blood of certain criminals are binding ("moral") or typological ("ceremonial")?"

The best way to determine the answer to this question is to examine the purpose and function of these laws. If we find them to be laws concerning the land of Palestine, laws of cleansing, or the ceremonial shedding of blood, we might well infer that they were educational laws, not to be literally obeyed in our day.

An example of the problem can be found in Deuteronomy 21:1-9:

Deuteronomy 21:1-9, "If one be found slain in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee to possess it, lying in the field, and it be not known who hath slain him: Then thy elders and thy judges shall come forth, and they shall measure unto the cities which are round about him that is slain: And it shall be, that the city which is next unto the slain man, even the elders of that city shall take an heifer, which hath not been wrought with, and which hath not drawn in the yoke; And the elders of that city shall bring down the heifer unto a rough valley, which is neither eared nor sown, and shall strike off the heifer's neck there in the valley: And the priests the sons of Levi shall come near; for them the LORD thy God hath chosen to minister unto him, and to bless in the name of the LORD; and by their word shall every controversy and every stroke be tried: And all the elders of that city, that are next unto the slain man, shall wash their hands over the heifer that is beheaded in the valley: And they shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it. Be merciful, O LORD, unto thy people Israel, whom thou hast redeemed, and lay not innocent blood unto thy people of Israel's charge. And the blood shall be forgiven them. So shalt thou put away the guilt of innocent blood from among you, when thou shalt do that which is right in the sight of the LORD."

Aside from the problems we have already discussed regarding the joint-efforts of elders ("civil"?) and priests ("ecclesiastical"?), many questions concerning the New Testament obedience of this passage arise.

Are the civil magistrates responsible to obey this law? Not in its Old Testament form, most would agree. When an unsolved murder takes place, no one argues that we should shed the blood of an heifer to cleanse the land of the shed blood of the victim.

But, if the crime is murder and the murderer is found, is it still necessary and proper in the New Testament to shed blood, in the same way the heifer's blood was shed? Why is the shedding of blood in the case of the unsolved murder no longer appropriate in the New Testament, but the shedding of the blood of the convicted murderer is appropriate? In the Old Testament, if the killing was accidental and the killer was found, he was to flee to the City of Refuge until the death of the High Priest (Numbers 35:25-28). Should this be the pattern today?

The theonomists are pretty well agreed that it is no longer necessary to have cities of refuge to protect manslaughterers from Family vengeance-takers until the death of the high priest. Likewise, there is near-universal agreement that in the case of an unsolved murder the laws of Deuteronomy 21 no longer have an educational function demanding literal obedience by civil (ecclesiastical?) officials.

The problem is one of consistency: if unsolved murders no longer require the ceremonial shedding of blood, why do solved murders require a shedding of blood?

Numbers 35:33, "...the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it."
Hebrews 9:22, "And almost all things with blood are purified according to the law, and apart from blood shedding there is no remission."
The purpose and function of the shedding of blood was for the remissions of sin (Numbers 19:9,17). There is no longer a need to shed any living creatures' blood for sin anymore (including man’s), because Jesus is our sacrifice!

Ephesians 5:2, "…Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God…"

Christ’s blood was already shed for us (Matthew 20:28, 26:28, Mark 14:24, Luke 22:20, Isaiah 53:12). Since Christ's death and resurrection, the whole earth has been permanently cleansed of the death-curse it labored under since Adam's fall in the Garden of Eden.
In Old Testament Israel, for instance, the land was polluted - religiously polluted - by any unsolved murder. The elders of the city, in which the murder occurred, had to slay a heifer in order to remove the pollution from the land (Deuteronomy 21:1-9). Calvary annulled this law; the death of Christ covered the pollution and permanently cleansed the land. There is no ritual cleansing required by the civil magistrates in order to free from the land of pollution, whether it's for unsolved murders or solved murders.