LETTERS: DEATH PENALTY CLEARLY UPHOLDS SANCTITY OF LIFE

To the editor:

George Rivas, one of the infamous "Texas Seven" escapees who callously murdered a Texas policeman, said in so many words: "I deserve to be put to death. I was the escapee who initiated the gunfire against the policeman." By that statement, Rivas acknowledges a truth that is denied by many misguided people today.

I am talking about the truth that God himself teaches in his Word when he says: "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God made he man." Genesis 9:6. This "image of God," which man lost by his fall into sin, God now seeks to restore for all sinners by leading them to faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior.

All life is sacred. No human being has the right to indiscriminately take the life of another person. While the death penalty is approved by God for wrong-doers, Romans 13 makes it very plain that the government is God's ordained agent to carry out the death penalty.

The death penalty does not violate the truth that life is sacred. Rather, it establishes that principle. It is for the very reason that life is sacred that God tells us in his Holy Bible that all those who commit murder have forfeited their right to life.

For those who have committed the cold-blooded act of murder, this does not mean that the hope of eternal life in heaven is impossible. All repentant sinners can find forgiveness at the foot of Jesus' cross where the Son of God and the Son of Man laid down his sinless life as the perfect payment for all our sins and the sins of the whole world.

The REV. DAVID V. DISSEN

Cape Girardeau