–– David de Bruyn

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In July of 2023, Ghana’s parliament voted to abolish the death penalty. Africa still has 30 countries that have the death sentence in their legal system, though it is rarely used in over half of these. Fourteen countries in Africa regularly use the death penalty: Nigeria, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Somalia, Uganda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Sudan, Egypt, and Libya. In 26 African countries, capital punishment has been removed from the law books. 

Amnesty International reported that in sub-Saharan countries, there has been a 67% drop in capital punishment in the last three years. Egypt remains the leading practitioner of capital punishment in Africa.

Modern secular political wisdom asserts that the death penalty is a barbaric relic from the past. This wisdom believes in something known as rehabilitationism. In this scheme, justice primarily seeks to reform, not punish. Since the death penalty does not reform anyone, proponents of this theory assert that it should be abolished. 

The Bible, on the other hand teaches retributionism. This view of justice believes that the primary role of justice is to punish evil, not reform it. For this reason, retribututionists believe that the death penalty should still be in place. What is the biblical basis for this?

First, God has the power and right to take human life. As the Creator, life is a gift from Him, and He has the right to bestow it or remove it. 

Second, God has extended legitimate authority to human government, including the right to execute evildoers. Capital punishment is instituted in Genesis 9:6, very early in human history, shortly after Noah’s flood. This verse teaches us that Capital punishment is based on the biblical principle of the sanctity of human life. Since man is made in the image of God, man’s life has value and purpose. To take an innocent human life is immoral, for one is destroying the image of God in doing so. 

Under the Mosaic Law, many offenses aside from murder were to be punished by the death of the criminal. However, in a capital case, two or three eyewitnesses of the crime were required for conviction (Deut 19:15). Circumstantial evidence was not sufficient grounds for death, nor was the testimony of a single individual. Also, capital punishment involved both the state and the accusers. It was never the sole right of kings or leaders to execute individuals. 

Third, even though Christ fulfilled the Law, New Testament passages clearly expect it. In Romans 13:1, Paul writes that rulers are ordained by God to carry out justice with the sword: a picture of violence and execution. At the time Paul wrote this, capital punishment was a common practice, and he doesn’t take issue with it. Bearing the sword implies the right to take the life of the criminal.

Some suggest that the commandment “Thou shalt not kill” rules out capital punishment. However, capital punishment is not the same as murder. Legitimate governments can put convicted criminals to death without being charged with murder.

Fourth, justice is the primary reason for capital punishment. Murder and other offenses disturb the proper moral order and only the death of the murderer can restore that order. Restitution is not possible for murder, and attempted reformation can at best only guarantee that the same act by the same man will not occur again. But nothing can satisfy justice in regard to murder except the death of the murderer. Whether or not capital punishment deters crime is really not the issue. The issue is justice: the price of a human life, and the cost a man must incur if he murders one made in God’s image. 

Those African nations abolishing the death penalty reveal that they are embracing a secular view of man: one where man is good enough to reform himself, and one in which the value of human life is not so high as to forfeit your own life if you take another’s.