Death Penalty In Canada

Should Canada reinstate the death penalty for murder? Reinstituting the death penalty is not optional. If Canada wishes to prosper and flourish under God's blessing, we must reintroduce the death penalty. The foremost reason for the death penalty is God's mandate. Other reasons include the practical deterrent that the death penalty constitutes and, as a comparatively minor reason, the economic sensibility. I would also argue that the death penalty still applies to crimes other than murder and that our current penitentiary system is unnecessary and unbiblical.

To understand the death penalty, we must understand why murder is such an infamous crime in God's eyes. Many people would say that murder is so heinous because it is the theft of person's
These are laws that are universal and apply both pre and post old covenant. All men are born with the inner knowledge that these actions are wrong, even though they attempt to “suppress the truth in unrighteousness” (Romans 1:18). This is why Cain realized that “it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me” (Genesis 4:14). He fully realized that his deed of murder, the first the earth had witnessed, was worthy of death, even though this was hundreds of years prior to the first official institution of the death penalty after the flood. Some will take this incident, where God protects Cain's life, and use it as an argument against the death penalty, along with similar scenarios such as occurred with King David. However, we must realize that, though God has the power to waive earthly punishment, we do not. There are many possible reasons for the waiving of Cain's just punishment, not the least of which is the fact that the earth's population was very small, and couldn't afford to lose one of it's members at this time. Similarly with David; David was the King, and though worthy of capital punishment, his life was spared as he was in a critical position of
As this form of justice existed prior to the Old Covenant, the argument that the New Covenant supersedes the death penalty is invalid. As well, the New Testament confirms the prescription of the death penalty. Paul states in Acts 25:11, when before Festus, “If... I am guilty of doing anything deserving death, I do not refuse to die.” Paul acknowledges the validity of capital punishment, even post Old Covenant. Opponents of the death penalty also use the actions of Jesus in regard to the adulteress in John 8. However, we must realize two facts about this case. One, the Pharisees were clearly trying to trap Jesus between Roman and Jewish law. If Jesus had given his consent to the execution, he would have broken Roman law. Had he denied the validity of capital punishment, he would have broken Jewish law. Secondly, and more importantly, Jesus knew that the case had not followed proper prescribed practices. If, as the Pharisees claimed, “this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act” (John 8:4), there must have been a man involved. Jesus sees through the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and artfully removes himself from the horns of a dilemma that he had been placed on. This scenario is by no means a valid argument against the death penalty.