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Through very exhaustive study of both sides of the argument, I support capital punishment. I choose my words wisely in that statement. Support is the key word in stated stance. It could never be easy for me to say I am for the death penalty or that I am pro-capital punishment. I am unable to unequivocally say I am for the death penalty because I cannot ever imagine being for anything which promotes death for any reason. I am unable to say I am pro-capital punishment because it would state that I am in full support of all elements within this very complex issue.

Why do I support capital punishment? I attempted to not only present both sides, but to actively wrestle with both sides that I may be capable of thinking critically with both sides of the argument in any arena. But when it came to my discovering my personal standpoint, I went to scripture to think through what my Christian worldview should and would be. Upon doing so, I came to a conclusion of support for capital punishment.

When engaging scripture in this argument, you naturally start in the Old Testament. The easiest place to start is Exodus of course. Here we find the commandment, "Thou shalt not kill" (20:13). This passage is misunderstood already. First of all we read kill, but if we study the original text, the word is actually "murder" which has a large difference to kill. Murder is a word which assigned to the individual who premeditates. This would not include a state's legitimate killing.
Well, then we understand that the Old Testament contains many other statements regarding this issue. We go to places like Exodus 21 and 22, Leviticus 20, and Deuteronomy 18 and 19. All of these say things which are supportive of the concept of capital punishment. The main argument against this from Christian critics of the death penalty is that these are things we are free from because of the New Covenant and the New Testament. "Don't bring the Old Testament into this, PC," a friend of mine said, "you know better. What about the New Covenant?" I answer that by saying, okay. Okay! Those passages are part of Mosaic law, which we are free from under the New Covenant, but we cannot just cut out the entire Old Testament. For instance, what about Genesis 9:6 and 6-8? These are instances included in Jewish law, which is eternal law. These are instances we are still bound to. Genisis 9:6 alone reads, "Whoever sheds the blood of a human, by a human shall that person's

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