The Tender Mercies of the Wicked

Let us begin with the death penalty. Because we refuse to execute the dangerous people who really should be executed, we wind up having to protect the general population by locking them up, and this has drifted into the practice of locking everybody up. This creates a huge apparatus of injustice.

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The point of this podcast is pretty broad — “All of Christ for all of life.” In order to make that happen, we need “theology that bites back.” I want to advance what you might call a Chestertonian Calvinism, and to bring that attitude to bear on education, sex and culture, theology, politics, book reviews, postmodernism, expository studies, along with other random tidbits that come into my head. My perspective is usually not hard to discern. In theology I am an evangelical, postmill, Calvinist, Reformed, and Presbyterian, pretty much in that order. In politics, I am slightly to the right of Jeb Stuart. In my cultural sympathies, if we were comparing the blight of postmodernism to a vast but shallow goo pond, I would observe that I have spent many years on these stilts and have barely gotten any of it on me.

The tender mercies of the wicked, March 2, 2026. Introduction. Our criminal justice system is one that defiles both the jailers and the jailed. It affects the jailers negatively and the society the jailers represent because of its manifest injustice. It defiles the jail because we have just sentenced them to three years in a graduate school for crime, and most of them were not in a good position to start with. Now I should acknowledge at the outset that there are men in these prisons who have done heinous things and consequently are serving a life sentence with no possibility of parole and who are getting something as far better than they deserve. As will become apparent, I am not urging prison reform through the molly coddling of anybody. What I want to argue for is going to seem far more severe, but it is actually going to be more measured and just. Stick with me. If that is too much, try to stick with me. Around 2 million people are currently incarcerated around the United States, locked up in dog kennels. 2 million. That is the equivalent taken together of the populations of Wyoming, Vermont, and Alaska, but they are out of sight and out of mind. This means that we can kid ourselves and assume that of course we are being benevolent, enlightened, humane, and very modern. But I don't believe that this is how it comes out in practice. Quote. A righteous man regarded the life of his beast, but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel. Proverbs 1210. A False Savior. Our dog kennel system certainly had a noble purpose at the beginning. Consider what we call our prisons. They are penitentiaries. They are places for the recalcitrant to be housed in order that they might become penitent. We first started calling them penitentiaries at the end of the 18th century as a result of some prison reform movements. This desire, fueled by a spirit of uplift, ended up turning our criminal justice system into a false savior. The goal became fixing the prisoner by means of hard work and solitude, so that he could reflect on his misdeeds and ascend to a higher version of himself. But false saviors always let you down, and this one was no exception. The prisons before all this happened were in need of reform certainly. They were filthy and brutal. But what we've done is replace them with a gigantic system that is sterile and brutal. We didn't fix what we thought we were fixing. So before proposing an alternative, we should really take a look at the criminal penalties found in Scripture, the range of biblical penalties. The first thing to do is to take a look at the range of penalties for criminal behavior in the Bible. When we do this, one of the things that jumps out at us is the fact that imprisonment as a form of punishment is not one of them. It is entirely absent. There are jails in the New Testament, but we find out about those because this is the kind of place where apostles keep finding themselves. There are pagan jails, for example, Acts 1623, and the jail run by the corrupt hered, Acts 124. But even those don't appear as places where the restraint is the punishment. Peter is put in jail and tell his trial. Paul and Silas were not sentenced to a term in jail. It was a place to house them while decisions were being made. In their case, a decision to let them go. And this would be, in accordance with biblical law, to hold someone briefly while you figure out what to do is certainly acceptable. Quote, and they put him in ward that the mind of the Lord might be showed them, Leviticus 2412. Quote, and they put him in ward because it was not declared what should be done to him. Numbers 1534. This is entirely reasonable. If you need to hold a trial, and if the accused is a genuine flight risk, then keep him in ward is a reasonable thing to do. But only if there's going to be a swift trial. That will result in a verdict and a decision. And among the options, we do not find the idea that the accused should be sent back to prison. What do we find? Capital punishment. Most people are aware that death was one of the penalties that was lawful to apply in the time of the Old Testament. Indeed, I think a lot of people believe that stoning was the way they handled most things back then, which is wildly inaccurate. But by the same token, death certainly was one of the options for certain specified crimes. Quote, he that smite of the man so that he die, shall surely be put to death, Exodus 2112. Banishment or house arrest. Because of Abbey Ather's involvement in the revolt of Absalom, Solomon could have dealt with him very severely. He could have been executed by Solomon justly, but Solomon shows mercy on him by making him stick to his quote-unquote own fields. Quote, and unto Abbey Ather the priest said the king, get thee to Anathoth, undenign own fields. For thou art worthy of death, but I will not at this time put thee to death, because thou bearest the ark of the Lord God before David my father, and because thou has been afflicted and all wearing my father was afflicted. First kings, 2-26. He does the same thing with Shimei, who sinned grievously by cursing David as he fled from Absalom going out from Jerusalem. David asks Solomon to deal with him as a bit of unfinished business, and Solomon does this by restricting Shimei to Jerusalem. Quote, and the king sent and called for Shimei, and said unto him, build thee an haven house in Jerusalem, and dwell there, and go not force thence any wither. For it shall be that on the day thou ghost out, and passeth over the Brooke Kidron, thou shall know for certain that thou shalt surely die, thy blood shall be upon thy own head. First kings, 2-36 and 37. There is a variation on this in the institution of the cities of refuge. If a person were guilty of manslaughter, not premeditated murder, he could flee to one of the six cities of refuge, and he had to remain there until the death of the high priest. Verse 356, this was not punishment of the offender directly, but rather was a method that God was using to tap the breaks on the practice of the blood avenger. And the expression cut off from among the people appears to be one that can cover a range of penalties, but banishment or exile would certainly be among them. Flogging, another penalty significantly less severe was flogging. While this is objectively less severe than most of the other options, it strikes the modern lightened mind as being simply brutal. It is an old school approach to the problem. Quote, The controversy between men, and the common judgment, that the judges may judge them, then they shall justify the righteous and condemn the wicked, and it shall be if the wicked man be worthy to be beaten, that the judge shall cause him to lie down and to be beaten before his face, according to his fault by a certain number. Forty stripes may give him, and not exceed, lest if he should exceed and beat him above these with many stripes, the nighbrothers should seem vile under thee. Deuteronomy 25, 1-3, finds for the sake of restitution. When the crime was a crime involving property destruction or loss, the penalty was restitution plus interest. Depending on the nature of the object lost, the restitution amount could vary. If the thief busted himself, it could be the replacement cost plus twenty percent, the vitica 6-1-5. There were times when it was double, Exodus 22-4, or it could go up to four or fivefold restitution, Exodus 22-1. So the person responsible for the loss was not only to make up the principle, but also for the loss of time and all the opportunity costs. In this system, the finds applied went to the victim of the crime and not to the state. Quote, if a man shall steal a nox or sheep and kill it, or sell it, he shall restore five oxen for a nox and four sheep for a sheep. If a thief be found breaking up and be smitten that he die, there shall no blood be shed for him. If the son be risen upon him, there shall be blood shed for him, for he should make full restitution. If he have nothing, then he shall be sold for a theft. If the theft be certainly found in his hand alive, whether it be ox or ass or sheep, he shall restore double. If a man shall cause a field or vineyard to be eaten, and shall put it in his beast, and shall feed in another man's field, of the best of his own field, and of the best of his own vineyard, shall he make restitution. If fire break out and catch in thorns, so that the stacks of corn or the sanding corn or the field be consumed therewith, he that kindled the fire shall surely make restitution. If a man shall deliver unto his neighbor money or stuff to keep, and it be stolen out of the man's house, if the thief be found let him pay double. If the thief be not found, then the master of the house shall be brought unto the judges to see whether he put his hand unto his neighbor's goods, for all manner of trespass, whether it be for ox, for ass, for sheep, for raiment, or any manner of lost thing, which another challengeeth to be his, the cause of both parties shall come before the judges, and whom the judges shall condemn, he shall pay double unto his neighbor, Exodus 22, 1 through 9. In slavement for the sake of restitution. But there were other times when the thief had no resources for making the needed restitution. Since the only resource he had was time, he was enslaved for a time, until such time as the victim was fully restored. Keep this principle in mind as we will look at again when we get to my proposal. Quote, If the sun be risen upon him, there shall be blood shed for him, for he should make full restitution. If he have nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft. Exodus 22, 3. A proposal. Let us begin with the death penalty. As we refuse to execute the dangerous people who really should be executed, we wind up having to protect the general population by locking them up, and this is drifted into the practice of locking everybody up. This creates a huge apparatus of injustice. Quote, Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of man is fully set in them to do evil. Ecclesiastes 8-11. The death penalty should be applied to violent criminals. Murderers, Exodus 21-12. Repuson kidnappers, Exodus 21-16. Abortionists, Exodus 21-22, and so on. For all crimes of fraud, theft, or property damage, there should be no imprisonment, simplicity. Upon conviction, the criminal must pay restitution to the victim, plus whatever extra amount is assigned by the court. If he has a rich uncle who pays for him, he goes free. If the theft was high-handed and impudent, he goes free after a flogging. Because public flogging strikes us as the inhumane run this thought experiment. Just one thousand men serving time for a property crime of some sort, which punishment they consider to be more inhumane. Twenty strokes, or three more years. If the criminal does not have the wherewithal to make restitution, he goes to a prison that is a factory of some sort. His tenure there is determined solely by how fast he can make restitution. He has the option of sending one third of what he makes to support his family outside. Another portion reimburses the state for his upkeep. The remainder goes to the victim. The overtime is encouraged, and all the proceeds from this overtime work goes to the victim. When the victim receives the full amount of restitution, plus the additional amount assigned by the court, the prisoner goes free. If you are enjoying these videos and would like to support this channel and the work of Canon Press, join up at Canon Plus. Just click the link, create an account, and have a look around.