Leviticus 20:27

"A man also or a woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones; their blood shall be upon them."

It seems strange that this verse should appear here instead of being placed in Leviticus 20:6, and some critics affirm that it is displaced. This, of course, is not impossible, and we might add that it is valid Scripture no matter where it is placed in the text. We notice it here, where we find it. The sin of consulting practitioners of the occult arts is seen in their violation of the first commandment of the Decalogue. It was a turning away from God to the "black arts" of human history which have never flourished in an enlightened nation. The resurgence of this false "science" today is a mark of the DECLINE of our culture. The stars do not control human destiny, the stars were created for the glory of God and are beneficial to mankind, as the servants of men, and not as the arbiters of men's destinies!

The prohibition here was a religious law, and it is appropriate enough that here where God's plea for the "separateness" of His people was being emphasized, the chapter should close with a final warning against all false religion. After all, it was primarily the religion of Canaan that fueled their passions and engrossed the nations thereof in the debaucheries of paganism.

REGARDING CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

It is an accurate measure of the foolishness of mankind that states and nations seek to abolish the death penalty. Do such "do-gooders" among our statesmen fancy that they are better than God, or that they know better than God, how the savage criminals of mankind should be treated? What is so bad about the death penalty? It does not touch the life after resurrection, and the condemned always have the opportunity to turn to God and to seek and to find the forgiveness of their sins in the eternal sense, if they so desire. If the good of the criminal is sought, what better way is there to bring him to repentance? Besides that, none of the Divinely-imposed penalties in the Bible are set forth as being designed to help the criminal. On the other hand, they were designed to help SOCIETY and to protect the social order against the proliferation of the crimes thus penalized.

"God instituted the death penalty. God is just and righteous, and He applied the penalty with unsparing severity."[12] The apostle Paul approved and endorsed capital punishment by declaring that, "He that beareth the sword, beareth it not in vain," (Romans 13:4), and also affirming his acceptance of it even for himself (in case it was deserved) (Acts 25:11). In our society, the officer's carrying the sword (the gun) has been reduced almost to vanity by the super leniency of soft judges and misguided "do-gooders" who are trying to help the criminal rather than to PROTECT the society which criminals threaten.

Regarding murder, the capital penalty for that crime antedates the laws of Moses, God giving the death penalty for it, not as an option but as an order from heaven itself: "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man SHALL HIS BLOOD BE SHED: for in the image of God made he man" (Genesis 9:6). Sure, states have imposed their own mild, silly, and unreasonable penalties instead, but with what result? The earth is now filled with murder. Does anyone get the idea that perhaps God knew what He was talking about, after all? Our own country tried abolishing the death penalty, but it soon became apparent that no organized society can survive without it. So, one by one, the states are reinstituting it. Societies must either dispose of their murderers, or their murderers will dispose of that society.

The very limit of arrogant snobbery and ignorance is seen in the efforts of the "sob-sisters" found in every society who would equate the legal execution of a vicious criminal with "murder" as condemned in the Bible. They should know that there are two different words in the Hebrew Bible which are rendered "kill," the same being [~ratsach], meaning "to commit murder," and the other [~harag], meaning "to slay," "to put to death" (legally). The latter is NOT forbidden in the Word of God, but commanded! The first, "Thou shalt do no murder," is, of course, forbidden in the sixth Commandment of the Decalogue. So, the same Scripture that says, "Do not kill" in regard to murder, also unequivocally orders the execution of condemned criminals.

"In California, a man raped a girl and murdered her escort, but a great crowd gathered at the governor's mansion and paraded at the penitentiary protesting the execution of the death penalty! What about the girl? She is a totally irrational lunatic committed for life. The girl's parents? They believe in capital punishment."[13] Oh, but the death penalty does not deter crime?! Ridiculous! Of course, it deters crime, and prevents crime. Many murderers, rapists, etc., are repeaters, and the death penalty would stop all repeaters from committing any more crimes at all. What is needed is not some silly sentimentalism about the condemned but, respect for the rights of SOCIETY to be PROTECTED from lawless and vicious men.

When unscrupulous gangsters and murderers overthrow a government and get in control, the first thing they always do is to invoke the firing squad, as Castro did in Cuba, and run it fourteen hours a day for years at a time! It is men like that who are coddled, glorified, protected, and sobbed about by the silly opponents of capital punishment. Capital punishment is of GOD, not of men; let it therefore be honored as the Divine precept which it surely is!