Dear Pastor Gallups, "As a Christian and a pastor, what do you believe about the death penalty? Do you think it is really a deterrent to crime?" U.Y. - Pace

Dear U.Y.,

It is undeniable that the Word of God prescribes the death penalty for certain crimes. The penalty is to be administered by the governing authorities that are ultimately accountable to God for the integrity in which they carry out this awesome responsibility. (See Leviticus 20).

Some will argue that in the Ten Commandments, the command, "Thou shalt not murder" would prohibit a people from exercising capital punishment. This is simply not so. Judicial executions were not prohibited. In fact, the same law, which included within it the Ten Commandments, also carries clear provision for the death penalty for certain offenses.

Capital punishment is absolutely a deterrent to crime. When it is administered consistently, swiftly and fairly, people do think twice before invoking this sure penalty upon themselves. If nothing else, it certainly ensures that the person committing the crime never commits another such crime.

It does NOT work as a deterrent if murderers, rapists, terrorists and thugs know that the "death penalty" will probably never really be invoked upon them and that they have an endless maize of appeals and legal maneuvers at their disposal. As it stands today, society most often has to pay for the horrible effects suffered by the victims of the crime, then we pay for the criminal's legal defense, then we pay the enormous expense of incarceration in a prison. Often we pay for an "education", unbelievable medical costs and pricey "rehabilitation programs." Society is triple penalized because of someone else's lawlessness and godlessness.

The death penalty that bothers me the most though U.Y., is the one that people invoke upon themselves when they reject the salvation of God offered through Jesus Christ. That penalty is eternal. I pray that everyone reading this today is born-again through the blood of Jesus Christ - who died that we might have LIFE!