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On the 10th of October 2007, France ratified Protocol 13 to the European Convention on Human Rights, which prohibits the use of the death penalty in all circumstances. According to the Word of God, this decision is an unhuman one because it annuls the value of human life. In continuation I will present you the position and the truth of the Word of God.
The General Secretary of the Council of Europe, Terry Davis said in regards to this event:
The abolition of the death penalty in Europe is the pinnacle of our progress in the defence of human dignity and human rights. The European Day against the Death Penalty will help us to make progress towards the day, in a not too distant future, when the death penalty will be eradicated throughout the world.
Let us see what God has to say at this subject:
Man’s life has an inestimable value. Even from the beginning of the Bible, in the first book, in Genesis, God said:
Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed, for in the image of God he made man. (Genesis 9:6)(NASB)
Because man is made according God’s image and likeness, and because he has God’s image, that’s why man’s life has a very, very big value, that cannot be paid with any money and treasures. The price of the taken life can be paid only with the price of the one who had taken it. God is the One who gave life and He asks its price to be respected. He doesn’t take down it’s price. The evil is that people came to take down the price totally, to annul it, not to put value on the life of the neighbor.
God protects the life of the murderer who commits an unpremeditated murder. Since they were in the wilderness, on their way to the promise land, God had put in order some rules and commandments towards the protection of man’s life and the penalty of the murderers. But, it is interesting that the rule begins with the protection of the murderer who commits the murder without having any anterior intention to kill. Here is how the Word of God writes:
Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan, then you shall select for yourselves cities to be your cities of refuge, that the manslayer who has killed any person unintentionally may flee there. “The cities shall be to you as a refuge from the avenger, so that the manslayer will not die until he stands before the congregation for trial. The cities which you are to give shall be your six cities of refuge. You shall give three cities across the Jordan and three cities in the land of Canaan; they are to be cities of refuge. These six cities shall be for refuge for the sons of Israel, and for the alien and for the sojourner among them; that anyone who kills a person unintentionally may flee there.”(Numbers 35:10–15) (NASB)
After he was judged and examined thoroughly, if it was proved that the murderer hadn’t had intentions and he wasn’t an enemy with the victim, he was let to live in the city of refuge until the death of the high priest and then he could go back to his city. The city of refuge was a place where it was assured the protection of the murderer and all that he and his family needed to live there.
The murderer can be put to death only according to the testimony of the witness. Because the human life has a very big value, no one can be punished with death unless after it has been examined thoroughly and it has been decided that man’s guilt surely. The Scripture says:
If anyone kills a person, the murderer shall be put to death at the evidence of witnesses, but no person shall be put to death on the testimony of one witness. (Numbers 35:30)(NASB)
The murderer can not pay back the price of the taken life except with the price of his own life. In the continuation of the same chapter, God forbids totally to men, relatives, etc. to take a ransom for the taken life of the victim.
‘Moreover, you shall not take ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of death, but he shall surely be put to death. (Numbers 35:31)(NASB)
The country and the society who lets the murderer unpunished will bear grave consequences.
So you shall not pollute the land in which you are; for blood pollutes the land and 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)(NASB)
Does the abolition of the capital punishment protect or violate man’s rights? Terry Davis said:
The abolition of the death penalty in Europe is the pinnacle of our progress in the defence of human dignity and human rights.
The abolition of the death penalty is evident that “protects the rights” (if we can say this ) of the murderer. How is it with the rights of the victim then? What does this decision communicate about the value of the unguilty victim’s life?
Translated by Djugostran Felicia