CAMPBELLTON, New Brunswick, July 25, 2023 – One of the more disheartening things I’ve read in a long time is an online comment by a self-identified Christian who was begging God to reinstate the death penalty for a certain crime.

God hears those prayers, but he answers them by holding them against whoever’s praying them.

God does not want us praying for the death of someone or cheering on those who are being executed. The death of those we think deserve execution is not the time to be pointing fingers and hurling insults, as was done to Jesus during his execution. God does not condone such displays of hatred, and he rewards them accordingly.

Our response to people who do things we believe are worthy of death is TO PRAY FOR THOSE PEOPLE, not ask God to kill them. As born-again believers, we haven’t received God’s Holy Spirit to pass judgement over others; we’ve received it to lead by example, in this case to lead by praying for those who do things worthy of death.

If we don’t pray for them, who will?

Praying for people who’ve committed atrocities doesn’t mean we condone what they did. When we pray for them, we acknowledge the separation between their horrible deed and their God-made immortal soul. We pray for the salvation of their soul. We pray for them to turn back to God while there’s still time. We pray for their conversion. That’s the job description of Christians.

The world may feel justified in stating “kill ‘em all and let God sort ‘em out”, but we know that every soul is precious to God (he made each one himself), so we pray for the soul even as we condemn the deed. We make a firm separation between the soul and the deed.

Making this separation is what helps us to pray for the soul. I might have trouble praying for a man who raped me, but I have no trouble at all praying for his soul lovingly made by God. If I consider the rapist not as a rapist but as someone with a God-made soul who turned from God and committed rape, I am better able to pray for that soul, as I see it fully separate from its atrocious deed. I see the soul as something precious and worth praying for.

At a state execution, it is the body that is condemned, not the soul. No authority on Earth can condemn a soul. Only God can pass judgement on a soul.

As difficult as it may be to see past a crime (particularly when committed against ourselves or our loved ones), we need to remember to separate the soul from the deed and to pray for the soul’s conversion and ultimate salvation. Some of God’s most courageous warriors are converts living on death row.