What Does the Bible Say About the Death Penalty?

What does the Bible say about the death penalty?

That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. Well, hi, I'm Bill Meyer along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. Our phone lines are open and you can call us for the next 25 minutes or so. Here's the phone number and jot this down for future reference. 1-833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. You can also post your question on one of our social media sites. You can watch Adriel live in the studio right now on YouTube and send him a message through our YouTube channel. And of course, you can always email us your question at questionsatcorechristianity.com. First up today, let's go to Jason calling in from Kansas.

Jason, what's your question for Adriel? I just want to say God bless your program and continue to bless it up. My question is, was it my family Bible study Monday, and we had a question come up about continued repentance. We all fall short of the glory of God, and we wondered—some people in the church we go to felt like once you're saved, you no longer have to repent for things you do daily, your sinful behaviors. I was wondering what some study scriptures I could look up and bring back to my group there on Monday. Yeah, that's a great question, Jason, and thank you for your encouragement.

Glad that the program is a blessing for you, but really an important question. We're believers in Jesus Christ. We believe that the blood of Jesus Christ, his once-for-all sacrifice, is sufficient to cleanse all of our sins, past, present, and future.

But if that's the case, why do we continue to ask for forgiveness, or should we continue to ask for forgiveness every day? Well, the fact of the matter is I would say yes, absolutely we should, and this is something that's implied even in the prayer that Jesus taught us to pray in Matthew chapter 6. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Right there, Jesus says, every day we should be praying, forgive us our debts.

God, forgive my sins, because we sin against God in thought, word, and in deed. And even though we're justified as sinners through the blood of Jesus Christ, by faith in Jesus Christ, we still wrestle with indwelling sin, and that indwelling sin quenches the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, quenches our fellowship with other believers, and that's why we need to bring it into the light and confess it. And this is exactly what John says in 1 John chapter 1 verse 5.

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth, but if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus' son cleanses us from all sins. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. In other words, we're called to continually confess our sins to the Lord, to walk in repentance so that we might be walking in the light, having that pure fellowship with the people of God, with the body of Christ, confessing our sins.

That doesn't mean that every time we sin, we lose our salvation or something like that, but we do lose this sense of fellowship, closeness with each other, especially when we sin against each other, and that's why it's so important to confess to God and even to confess to one another where it's appropriate. So certainly, Jason, I think those two texts that you can look at, Matthew 6 where Jesus taught us to pray, forgive us our debts, and then there in 1 John 1 would be good passages to take to your Bible study group and so wonderful to hear that you guys are digging into the Scriptures together. Hey, Jason, thanks so much for your call and thanks for being a regular listener to Core Christianity. We really do appreciate you. Let's go to Kathy calling in from Indiana. Kathy, what's your question for Pastor Adriel?

Thank you for taking my question. Mine has to do with rapture. I wondered if there was biblical support for a rapture and if so, then is there seven years tribulation and then Christ is coming yet again? For like the unbelievers, I'm a little confused and so is my family, so I was wondering if you could speak on that.

Yeah. Well, Kathy, thank you so much for that question. Here we're talking about the doctrine of the last things, the end times, the coming of Jesus Christ and where people will point to, I mean there are several passages that people who do believe in the rapture of the church will point to. And of course, these are many of them friends of mine who hold to the authority of scripture, the inspiration of scripture, have a high view of the Bible and so this is something that brothers and sisters in Christ can dialogue about and even disagree on.

It doesn't mean that we're not in fellowship with each other, not really Christians. It's something that we want to search the scriptures on. And where people will often point is they'll look at places like 1 Thessalonians 4 where it talks about the coming of the Lord and in verse 17, Paul said, We who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so we will always be with the Lord.

And that word caught up means to steal away or to take by force. Some people might even translate that word rapture and that's where they get the idea from. The question is, is the apostle Paul there talking about, as you noted, a coming of Jesus that's separate from his second coming. In other words, is this Jesus appearing before the final judgment, before his second coming in order to rapture out the believers and then usher in a time of great tribulation, seven years, some people say, or three and a half years, you know, and then he's going to come back again to judge the whole world. My view is that here in 1 Thessalonians 4 as Paul is talking about the coming of the Lord, that's not a coming that's separate from or distinct from his second coming on the last day. And the reason I think this is because in the context, in the very next chapter, Paul begins to describe again the coming of the Lord in the context of the final judgment. He says concerning the times and seasons, brothers, verse chapter 5, you have no need to have anything written to you for you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. And so the day of the Lord, that is the day of judgment, is contemporaneous with what was taking place there in chapter 4 with this coming of the Lord.

It's sometimes referred to as the Greek word parousia, the appearing, his coming. And so I take these passages to be referring to one coming of Jesus at the end of time in order to judge the entire world. And so that's my take, but those who hold to a rapture will say, well, we think that Paul in verse 17 there in 1 Thessalonians 4 is referring to something separate, something distinct. And so that's where we got to search the scriptures and study them and think through their implications for us. Kathy, just out of curiosity, wanting to ask you, as you and your family have studied this, kind of where have you guys, what perspective are you coming from? Well, I have been brought up Lutheran and Lutherans don't really buy into the rapture. Okay. And I've heard so many people talking about it, so I'm just really confused.

Yeah. And I don't know what to make of it. I have been, the Bible verse you talked about in Thessalonians is one I've definitely looked at, you know, and there's another one in 1 Corinthians 15, 51 and 52. So, yeah, but I, you know, I've always heard that Christ will come a second time, so I thought, well, he's not going to come a third time after this, you know, so.

Yeah, I'm right there with you. And, you know, the rapture theology was really popularized in more recent times through, I think, some, you know, books that were published that really gained a lot of traction. And the reality is, I think one of the reasons why it was so popular is because people are concerned about thinking about the coming of the Lord.

I mean, you know, it gets people's attention and it should. I mean, we are called to be ready, to be vigilant, to be watchful. So often in the New Testament, you know, when Jesus talks about his coming, those are the encouragements that we receive.

So that's a good thing. But as we're being vigilant and watchful, we want to make sure that we're understanding those passages correctly. And that other text that you mentioned in 1 Corinthians 15, again, talking about the resurrection of the dead, the time of final judgment. It seems to me like in scripture where you have the language of the second coming, the language of the resurrection, final judgment, that these are all things that are happening contemporaneously, you know, at the same time. So that there isn't a separate coming of Jesus prior to these events for the church and then a later coming of Jesus. But that there's one final second coming, as you note. And as I said, this is something that, you know, there are differences on in the church, but a great opportunity for us to dig into the scriptures. And I think you're on the right track. You know, Adriel, when I was younger and I read left behind, I kept worrying that what if I'm on an airplane and the pilot is a Christian and he gets raptured?

Oh, my gosh, what happened? Yeah, that would be, yeah, that would really be bad news for you, Bill, if that was the case. And so, you know, and I don't know about you, but I certainly, when I was a newer believer, and this was actually the stuff I was brought up in as well. I mean, just add all sorts of nightmares about, you know, the rapture happening and you start to float up into the sky and then, nope, you fall down to the ground.

I think I had that dream two or three times. And it's terrifying. I think that's one of the reasons why people get so intrigued by it. You know, there's this bit of a fear factor. But again, we want to go to the scriptures and understand them rightly and then derive the comfort that we should be getting from the word of God.

Well said. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Our phone lines are open if you have a question about the Bible, the Christian life, doctrine, theology, you name it, we would love to hear from you. Here's our phone number. It's 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. By the way, we have an excellent new Bible study we'd like to tell you about today. It's all about the parables. Yeah, it's called the parables of King Jesus. And it's fascinating, you know, think about the fact that Jesus spent so much of his ministry, as he's teaching, using parables. Have you ever asked yourself the question, well, why did Jesus preach and teach in parables?

There's a lot of people that are confused about this. But one of the things that this study is going to help you do is understand why Jesus taught in parables and then some of the specifics about the parables that are unpacked. It's a 10-week study. And what I love about the study is it highlights the fact that this isn't just information. These parables that Jesus is giving, he's not just teaching us lessons about gardening and whatnot. No, actually what he's doing is he's ushering in his kingdom through this verbal proclamation, through these parables. Also, there's a serious element of judgment in the parables, of hardening, of blinding.

And so it's so important for us to come before the word of God, to come before the scriptures and to ask God for understanding as we dig into these parables. And we think that this resource is going to help you with that. And you can get it over at corechristianity.com for a donation of $20 or more. The best way to find it is go to corechristianity.com forward slash offers. That's corechristianity.com forward slash offers.

And look for this new study called the parables of King Jesus. We'd love to get that in your hand. You can also call us for that resource or any one of the resources we have at 833-843-2673.

That's 833 the core. By the way, one of the ways you can ask a question is by going to our YouTube channel. And you can watch Adriel live in the studio every day at 1130 a.m. Pacific time. And you can also message us through YouTube. Here's a YouTube question from one of our listeners named Patrick. He says, what does the Bible say about the death penalty? Yeah, and there are all sorts of, well this is just a great question because there are all sorts of debates that are happening about the death penalty, about whether it's legitimate, whether it should ever be exercised.

A couple things here that I'll say. One, there were capital crimes in the Old Testament. God's people during the time of the theocracy in Israel, the civil law that he gave to them, there were crimes, sins that could be committed that would result in death where you were liable to this judgment, to capital punishment.

So you do see it in scripture. And also when we come to the New Testament specifically, it seems to me like when the apostle Paul talks about the civil government and those authorities, he says they do exercise the sword. And right there it seems like he's referring again to capital punishment.

And it doesn't seem like he's talking about it in a sense that they're doing so illegitimately, but that this is just a part of what they do in terms of the carrying out of justice in society. I'm thinking of Romans chapter 13 where Paul says in verse one, Let every person be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad.

Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval. For he is God's servant for your good, but if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. So this seems like the Apostle Paul is just talking about how things were at that time.

And he's encouraging essentially, right? We want to be people who live in ways that are in line ultimately with God's law and doing good in society. And when we don't, when we break laws, and especially very serious ones, we're subject or liable to judgment. Now, it's interesting, because in the Old Testament, God made it very clear that an individual who was subject to capital punishment, you couldn't be punished in this way except on the basis of eyewitness testimony.

It couldn't even be one. It had to be multiple witnesses. And so there was this attempt, if you will, to safeguard, as you can imagine, the judicial process. And so what I'll say is it's clear in scripture that capital punishment was practiced both in Israel under the Old Covenant, and it seems like it's one of the things that civil government does, but that's not to say at all that the way it's practiced all the time today is always right. In fact, we've seen, I mean, there have been stories of instances tragically where an individual is wrongly accused or they're punished and they were innocent. And so this is something that requires a lot of wisdom, and I think the scriptures do have wisdom for us here in this area. But it's also something that just having to deal with this question, right, this is not how the world that God made is supposed to be. I think of the words that Jesus speaks to the religious teachers when they're asking him about divorce, and he says, you know, from the very beginning, it wasn't supposed to be like this. But there are these things that we do because of your hardness of heart, because of sin. And so, you know, having this discussion, talking about these, the reason we have to talk about these things is because of sin, because of the fallenness of the world. We know that in the new creation, this isn't going to be a reality.

It's something that we're not going to look at anymore, and I think that's important for us to take into consideration as well. And so I appreciate that question, and again, those are a couple passages of scripture that you might want to dig into a little bit further. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Our phone lines are open if you've got a question about the Bible or the Christian life. In fact, we're going to be recording a second Core Christianity program today. We're going to be doing that shortly after the live program ends, so you can call us for the next 35 minutes or so at this number, 1-833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. Let's go to Roy in Marshall, Texas. Roy, what's your question for Adriel?

Yes, sir. My question is, in the Book of Exodus, when God led the children of Israel out of Egypt, he instituted the Passover. Then we go to the New Testament, and Christ's disciples are observing the Passover. The Christ instituted the communion, and when you go to the Book of Corinthians, Pastor Paul talks to the Corinthians about how to behave himself with the communion. So did they stop the Passover, or that meal he was talking about, was it like a potluck dinner that the people had started, or what happened with the Passover as far as the Christians in the New Testament?

Hey, Roy, thank you for that question. I can tell, brother, that you've thought about this. I love that you're bringing together all these different passages of Scripture. And you're going to the right ones, 1 Corinthians 5, where it talks about Christ, our Passover, and the institution of the Lord's Supper in the later chapters of 1 Corinthians. The first thing I'll say is we have to think about what the Passover was. The Passover was commemorating God's deliverance from the land of Egypt.

This was an annual feast celebration that the children of Israel were obligated to participate in. It was a part of their worship. Now, those feasts under the Old Covenant were pictures of what was to come, types and shadows, signposts, leading us forward to the reality that would be Jesus Christ. And that's exactly what Paul told the Colossians in Colossians 2, verse 16.

Let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. So when we look at these Old Testament types and shadows, whether it was the sacrificial system under the Old Covenant in the temple, the priestly offerings, or these meals, the Passover meal, these feasts, they're pointing forward to something else, something greater, a greater reality.

And the reality that they're pointing forward to is Jesus. And that's what Paul says in Colossians chapter 2. And so Christ is, through his sacrificial death for his people, the fulfillment of the Passover.

And that's why Paul says in 1 Corinthians 5, verse 7, Cleanse out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us, therefore, celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. And right there, again, he's saying, look, these things, you know, the bread, the unleavened bread there under the Old Covenant, you know, pictures of these greater realities, let's celebrate the feast. Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed for us. Now we benefit from the Lord's Supper, gathering around the table of the Lord. And so we celebrate the feast not with the leaven of malice and evil, which, it's interesting, when you go to the later chapters of 1 Corinthians, in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and chapter 11, when Paul begins talking about the Lord's Supper, it seems like the Corinthians were celebrating the Lord's Supper with some malice, with some evil. He rebukes them in chapter 11, verse 17, and following instructions, I do not commend you, because when you come together, it is not for better, but for worse. So he's encouraging them, when you take the Lord's Supper, you need to do it in a way that's honoring to the Lord, with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth approaching the Lord's table. And so the fulfillment of the Passover meal under the Old Covenant is Jesus' sacrificial life, death, and resurrection, and we participate in that reality through the Lord's Supper, not through an annual festival in the Christian church that really was a type and shadow for the Old Covenant. Now we take the Lord's Supper, we have the reality, we have the substance which belongs to Christ.

God bless. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. We've been getting a lot of calls today on the subject of the last days and the rapture. Just want to remind you, we have an excellent Bible study on the book of Revelation, which you can find by going to corechristianity.com forward slash studies. Again, corechristianity.com forward slash studies, and look for our Bible study on the book of Revelation. Let's go to Jacob calling in from Iowa. Jacob, what's your question for Adriel?

Hello, yes. I believe that we will be raptured according to the Bible, that we will be raptured before the tribulation. And I have, I know some people that believe that we will be raptured after the tribulation, so post-trib. How do I, I mean, not really come bad, but what information or what Bible verses would I complete, would be a good way to show them that it will be pre-trib, as I believe the Bible shows us?

Jacob, can I just ask you a quick follow-up question? You said pre-trib as I believe the Bible shows us. Is there a passage that you're referring to specifically where you think, he's talking about a pre-tribulational rapture of the church? One would be, I can't think of the reference, but the Bible says that two will be in a field, and one will be taken, and one will be left behind. That obviously means that there will be people there, and I mean, and I just heard a lot, especially from my pastor, that it is pre-trib and not post.

Okay. Yeah, well thank you, one, for your question. You know, we were talking about the rapture a little bit earlier, and I said there are differences of opinion here. It seems to me, and this is not to, you know, drive a deeper wedge, but it seems to me that when scripture talks about the experience of the church of Christians here in this world, that it is an experience of tribulation. I mean, Jesus himself said in John chapter 16, before he left his disciples, in this world, you will have tribulation, but take heart. I have overcome the world. So this sense that we as believers, right, we're going to be spared from tribulation, from difficulty, from persecution, that's not the case at all.

I mean, we see it all over. Daniel chapter 7, for example, talks about the saints struggling, being persecuted, tribulation. You see this throughout the book of Revelation, and the passage you were referring to about, you know, two being in the field, one being taken, another left, I would say actually the one who's taken there in the context probably refers to judgment, not to rescue.

And so it's really important that we look at those passages a little bit closer, and I appreciate your question. God bless. Thanks for listening to CORE Christianity. To request your copy of today's special offer, visit us at corechristianity.com and click on offers in the menu bar, or call us at 1-833-843-2673. That's 833-THE-CORE. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this program, and be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's Word together.