Brother Sewell: Please give your views on capital punishment from a Bible standpoint. Is there any scripture in the New Testament to defend capital punishment as it exists to-day? T.B. Holloway.

    Capital punishment is contrary to the teaching of the New Testament, so far as Christians are concerned; and for this very reason we do not think that Christians should take any hand in running human governments or the destruction of human life, either in war or by human courts of law. We here give a passage from Jesus on the subject: "Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." (Matt. 5: 43–45) This passage, carried out, would forever keep children of God from engaging in putting even their bitterest enemy to death. Then Paul says says by the Holy Spirit: "Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good." (Rom 12: 19–21) These passages show beyond controversy that Christians cannot engage in nor encourage capital punishment. The governments of this world are built and run by human wisdom; and if they want to practice capital punishment, that is their responsibility. But there is not a line nor a word in the New Testament that can be legitimately used for the defense of Christians' engaging in it. But we here give a prophecy from the Old Testament that forever kills out any thought or claim for Christians to do any such work as that is: "And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. (Isa. 2: 3–4) This prophecy is about the church of God, the kingdom of Christ, and shows emphatically that Chris-/1241/tians, the followers of Christ, shall turn from all violence and study war no more. It shows that Christianity will lift people out of all cruelty, out of the study of the destruction of human life in any shape or form, and lead them to the service of the Lord and into the great principles of peace, and cause men to labor to lead all men into saving of their souls. Jesus did not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. (Luke 9:56.) All Christians are required to follow his example.