Editor’s note: The CRC Synod has referred to the churches for study a committee report on Capital Punishment. That report, as I pointed out in the May, 1979, OUTLOOK (p. 6), labors especially to overthrow, mainly with practical arguments God’s injunction Genesis 9:6, “Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God made He man.” It is finally arrogant enough to “doubt that God could present as a reason for the death penalty the fact that man was made in the image of God” (Agenda, p. 320) and to flatly state that such killings “are not something either God or man can posit as a goal or establish as a plan” (p. 921). Rev. Norman Jones is a pastor of the Hope Reformed Church (of the Reformed Church in the United States, the “Eureka Classis” of the old German Reformed Church). He sent us this testimony as he gave it before the committees of the South Dakota Legislature on Feb. 15, 1979. His testimony may be helpful to our members and churches as they study this matter.

Mr. Chairman & Honorable Members of this committee:

I am Norman Jones. I am speaking for myself, my denomination (The Reformed Church in the U.S.) and for historic Christianity of every major branch.

My testimony deals with some of the basic religious-philosophical issues in the doctrine of capital punishment. I know there are those who want to avoid such a discussion—but I submit to you that you cannot help but face such underlying questions as: What is the nature of human life? Where does the state get its authority? What is justice and the meaning of crime and punishment? To duck these issues is simply to swallow the philosophy of pragmatism and sentimentalism which are substitutes for justice. The twentieth century is probably the most pragmatic, the most sentimental, the most anti–justice century in human history and at the same time the most bloody and most inhumane.

Capital punishment rests on the following bases:

1. Civil government is God-ordained and rests on His sovereign authority; and His moral Law is the unchangeable law for mankind who are created in His image and likeness. This was the original faith of our founding fathers and it was the basis of American jurisprudence. Our coins still testify to that original faith: “In God we trust.” Our own state constitution reflects this fundamental conviction when it states “Under God, the people rule.” We must emphasize “under God.” St. Paul declared by divine inspiration: “Let every person be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God” (Rom. 13:1).

2. The function of civil government is to administer God’s law and God’s justice. The Laws of God are given in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. They constitute the perfect system of justice because their Author is perfect. For sinful man to change or reject that order is the height of presumption and arrogance; it is to say that man is wiser and more just than is his Creator.

In the Old Testament there were about a dozen crimes that were punishable by death. This law of capital punishment was first enunciated to Noah after the mass capital punishment of the wicked world by God in the waters of the flood. God declared to Noah and to the human race which was to follow him: “I will surely require your lifeblood, from every beast I will require it, and from every man . . . whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed, for in the image of God he made man” (Gen. 9:5, 6). This basic principle of justice undergirds later Old Testament law. God’s law is unchangeable and God’s system of justice for man is unchangeable. The Son of God declared: “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill (confirm)” (Matt. 5:17). St. Paul reaffirmed the state’s just use of the sword (not prison) when he declared: “If you do what is evil be afraid; for it (the state) does not bear the sword for nothing; for it (the state) is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath (God’s wrath) upon the one who practices evil.”

The same holy apostle said on another occasion, when falsely arrested: “If I am a wrongdoer, and have committed anything worthy of death, I do not refuse to die” (Acts 25:11). He was more concerned about upholding God’s justice than having his own life spared—a truly God-fearing attitude.

3. Capital punishment is the only punishment that justly values the worth of human life. Any lesser punishment cheapens the life of the victim, making it worth only the X number of years of the murderer’s life spent in prison. God says in His Word that “blood pollutes the land and that no expiation can be made for the land for the blood, that is shed on it, except by the blood of him who shed it” (Numbers 35:33). God holds the state responsible for carrying out His justice. The modern pragmatic, humanistic view of punishment is simply a substitute for justice. It replaces the concepts of moral responsibility to obey law and punishment for failure to comply with concepts of sickness and rehabilitation which are medical concepts, not juridical concepts. 4. The question of deterrent is a subsidiary issue. The basic question is justice. C. S. Lewis, in his essay “The Humanitarian Theory of Punishment,” observes, “When you punish a man to make him an example to others you are admittedly using him as a means to an end, someone else’s end. This in itself would be a very wicked thing to do.”

Common sense dictates that if a man’s life is his most precious possession, the death penalty is the greatest deterrent to him against committing crimes which will cost him his life. If the death penalty is the supreme penalty for the supreme crime then it must also be the supreme deterrent.

The issue before this committee is simple: Which view of man, government, authority and justice shall you accept: 1) the historic Christian viewpoint based on God’s Word or 2) the current sentimental, humanistic, pragmatic viewpoint? The latter viewpoint is not fair to the victim, to the murderer, or to society. It has produced the most violent generation in the history of our country and a staggering crime price tag for the taxpayers.

Thank you.