Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
This book unambiguously opposes capital punishment as the immoral act of "the killing state." Millard Lind notes that there are utilitarian reasons to oppose capital punishment such as the observation that it does not deter crime, that it cannot be justly implemented, and that it is expensive. But these reasons, though important, become idolatrous if they supplant Yahweh's justice and personal concern. Lind traces Yahweh's saving action and steadfast love for Israel and the world from Moses to Elijah to Jesus and shows how they are to be emulated on the societal level by obedience to convenient law. This leads to his conclusion that capital punishment is to be opposed because from the perspective of the God revealed in the Bible--determined in Lind's view by the careful reading of the text he has attempted here--capital punishment is simply wrong.