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Deadly Intent
May 4, 2025 · 28 min
Humans once swarmed bloody arenas, howling in delight as gladiators slaughtered each other. Today, we consider ourselves enlightened, better than our ancestors—but have we successfully killed our a...
Series Season 9 May 4, 2025 · 28 min · Season 9
Humans once swarmed bloody arenas, howling in delight as gladiators slaughtered each other. Today, we consider ourselves enlightened, better than our ancestors—but have we successfully killed our a... ...more Show the full description Show less Humans once swarmed bloody arenas, howling in delight as gladiators slaughtered each other. Today, we consider ourselves enlightened, better than our ancestors—but have we successfully killed our a...
Series Season 9
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Authentic with Shawn Boonstra confronts life’s toughest questions head-on: What is our purpose? What is true love? Explore the depths of human existence and
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In this video 0:00 Understanding the Sixth Commandment18:04 The Moral Implications of Violence
Understanding the Sixth Commandment 0:00 The 10 commandments tell us, thou shall not kill. And today, we're gonna explore some of the ways that all of us are guilty of breaking that commandment.0:31 It was quite a few years ago now that I was over visiting the country of Rwanda, and it was about a decade after the terrible genocide, the 1 that unfolded in 19 94. So as you can0:43 imagine, most of the people were still reeling from that nightmare. A nightmare that for most of us was a world away and only briefly covered in the evening news. And, you know, I really don't know how0:54 anybody could go through something that terrible and not come out the other side with some really deep emotional scars. I mean, I was there 10 years after the fact, and I found it hard to digest some of what I1:06 was looking at. Heaps of bodies collected in crypts, blood splattered on the walls of buildings, and survivors whose limbs and facial features were brutalized by machete.1:18 At 1 point, I had a driver take me out to the countryside where a large number of Tutsis had been taken into a church building supposedly for their safety. But a bloodthirsty mob eventually caught up to1:30 them and killed them all, and the church had been left the way it was all those years later. The tablecloth over the altar was brown with human blood. There were bullet holes and blood stains1:42 on the walls, and the bodies of the victims were still on the property buried in a crypt behind the sanctuary. And and somebody asked me, would you like to go and see that? And I know this might1:54 sound strange to some of you, but I kinda wanted to see it to see if I could wrap my head around the sheer evil that took place in that location. So I motioned to my driver to see if he
2:06 wanted to come down to the crypt with me, and he quietly shook his head. No, he said. I'm pretty sure my family's down there, and I I don't wanna see that. So I asked him if he was
2:17 okay with me going inside, and that was okay. He just didn't wanna see any of it for himself. So down I went into the crypt where they had the bones of the victim stored on rough wooden shelves underground with
2:29 all the skulls on 1 big shelf and the rest of the bones respectfully arranged by type on the other shelves. And you know something, I actually held it together pretty well until I found
2:41 half of a small child's skull that had obviously been cut in half by a machete. And then I couldn't hold it together anymore. I started to cry because who can do that to a child?
2:53 I mean, obviously, it's still evil when you do it to an adult, but somehow, it just seems worse when the victim is a little kid. So how in the world can anybody wrap their mind or heart around
3:05 something this evil? The Rwandan genocide resulted in almost a million murders in about 90 days. And if that wasn't bad enough, in addition to the slaughter, countless additional people
3:17 were mutilated or even sexually assaulted. And the strange thing about it is the way that much of the world really didn't pay attention to what was happening, not until it was pretty much
3:29 over. Which makes me wonder if we have somehow managed to inoculate ourselves against evil to the point where it really just doesn't phase us anymore. I mean, let's just think about this. Even
3:40 conservative estimates say that during the time between 1900 and the year 2000, we managed to kill a little more than 200000000 people through acts of war. How would we not be
3:52 desensitized? And I guess it's also possible that we just stuck our heads in the sand during the genocide because we didn't want to believe that something that terrible was playing out in our day and
4:04 age because we've kind of convinced ourselves that those kinds of brutal atrocities only ever happened in the distant past back when human beings weren't as enlightened as we are.
4:16 But here's the thing, something this awful, if we really stop to think about it, still horrifies just about everybody, at least if they take the time to think about it. And that would include
4:28 some of the perpetrators I met in a Rwandan prison. I asked some of them why it happened. How could they bring themselves to do something that horrible? And most of them, not all of them, but the vast majority
4:40 just hung their heads and said, we have no idea. Just kinda spiraled out of control. But I'll tell you this much, they all still knew it was morally wrong. And
4:52 that's really the point I want you to think about. When it comes to the 10 commandments, God's moral law, not everybody in the 20 first century still thinks they all make sense, at least not if they don't sit down and
5:03 really think it through. Things like breaking the Sabbath or taking the Lord's name in vain, it's just not something your neighbors spend much time thinking about. And if they ever did think about it,
5:15 most of them just wouldn't care. Those commandments don't make a lot of sense in their world. But, you know, it's different when it comes to the subject of murder. It seems everybody cares about that commandment because
5:27 no matter what your background, the thought of taking somebody's life seems really, really wrong. And it's easy to point to the big atrocities, the genocides, the death camps, the mass
5:39 shootings, and condemn it all. But we all know, murder isn't just a problem on a big scale. It's really a problem for all of us, at least when you think about it in terms of
5:51 what the sixth commandment actually says. Most of us know the commandment is thou shalt not kill from Exodus 20. But honestly, some of the more recent English translations capture the
6:03 essence of the original language just a little better because many of the new translations say, you shall not murder, and murder is really the heart of the
6:14 problem. You know, I've actually met some people who seem to think that all killing is always, always, always morally wrong regardless of context, including some groups I met overseas who refused to swat
6:26 mosquitoes or squash a cockroach because they think that's a violation of the commandment. Now, really, I can appreciate that level of dedication and commitment. I'm glad there are people who value
6:37 life that much, but that's not exactly what the commandment says. The Hebrew word is, and it means murder not kill, and there is a difference. Murder is
6:49 generally the product of anger or hatred, and it usually involves premeditation even if it's just a few seconds of premeditation. But killing? Well, that can be different. Like when you have to
7:01 put a sick animal out of its misery because there's no hope anymore. That would be killing, but it wouldn't be murder. You see, all murder is killing, but not all killing is
7:13 murder. And if you choose to read this commandment as killing, you run into a serious problem with the entire sacrificial system. Israel was killing sacrificial animals at God's command, and that would
7:25 mean God was commanding his people to break his own moral law. And you know, that couldn't possibly be true. And interestingly, the commandment also doesn't refer to the use of something like capital
7:36 punishment by a duly appointed government, which really gives you something to think about. Now, I wanna be very very careful because I'm not trying to take sides in the modern debate over capital
7:48 punishment, not at all. I just want to explore the data we have in scripture so that we can understand the intent of this commandment. I'm just pointing out that capital punishment was used in the Old
8:00 Testament, and it was not considered a violation of the commandment. Why? It's because it was an act of the state or in the case of the Old Testament, the governing authorities of
8:11 Israel, and it was not the product of the decision by a single individual. Now to be sure, it was still killing but not murder, And murder is the essence of this commandment. And
8:23 right now, I need to take a really quick break. So hang tight, get your thinking cap ready, and in 2 shakes of a lamb's tail, I'll be back to unpack the sixth commandment just a little bit more.
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9:06 Okay. We're back from the break. And before we get back to our study of the sixth commandment, the 1 against murder, let me ask you for a favor. If you've been watching this show for some time and you find the things we
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9:41 to keep this going. A little bit here really does help a lot. Okay. Just before the break, we were thinking about the issue of capital punishment and how God permitted it in the nation of
9:53 Israel. Of course, God's people were completely forbidden to engage in the act of murder, so we have to conclude that somehow the use of capital punishment by a legitimately formed
10:04 government is not considered murder, not in the sense of the 10 commandments. Of course, that might change if a government started using capital punishment unjustly like they did in the case of
10:16 Jesus. That really was a murder. The witnesses were liars. The late night trial was illegal, and the whole thing was politically motivated. So it's safe to say that Jesus was
10:28 murdered in violation of the commandment. And to bring it home just a little further, he was actually murdered by us because the Bible assigns moral responsibility for what happened at the
10:39 cross to the entire fallen human race. But now let's suppose that somebody murders his neighbor in cold blood. It's premeditated and the evidence is undeniable.
10:52 In fact, for the sake of argument, let's say there's never been a bigger smoking gun. We know the suspect is guilty beyond any shadow of a doubt. And let's say the law
11:04 explicitly says that the penalty for cold blooded murder is execution. And this guy knew that before he committed the crime, and he chose to do it anyway. Now, again, it's
11:15 really important to remember that I'm not debating any current issue. I'm not trying to start a debate here. We're just exploring the context of the Bible because the very best way to understand the Bible
11:27 is always to read the whole thing and gather all of the data. Could you really call a state execution like that a murder? Well, the answer would be no, because God
11:39 clearly permitted capital punishment. And in passages like Romans chapter 13, you'll find God telling his people to obey the government as long as they're not asking you to compromise your
11:51 commitment to God. Speaking about government, here's what Paul actually wrote. He says, for he, the government, is God's servant for your
12:03 good. In in in other words, God favors organized societies governed by law. But if you do wrong, it continues, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain,
12:15 for he is the servant of God. So in other words, the state's appropriate and judicious use of force, well, that's not considered murder, not in the sense of the commandment.
12:27 Now I've got to say that when I read this, it does kinda rub my fur the wrong way because, I'm a radical opponent of people who use force to get what they want. I think that's clearly immoral
12:38 and so I'm not exactly happy with big coercive governments. But in the case of a state using punishment to deal with actual crimes, well, like it or not, that's actually got
12:50 biblical sanction. What this kind of suggests is that maybe murder can be defined as the hostile taking of a life by someone who does not have the right to do
13:02 it. It's not an act of the state and it's not the act of a legitimate court. So if it's the work of someone without appropriate authority, the Bible defines that as murder. Why? Because
13:14 you and I do not own the gift of life, or maybe to be more accurate, we do not have the power of life. That's a right that belongs exclusively to the author of life who
13:26 is God, the creator. In Deuteronomy chapter 32, we find God making this statement, and you'll find it down in verse 39 where God says, see now
13:38 that I, even I, am he, and there is no God beside me. I kill and I make alive, I wound and I healed, and there is none that can deliver out of my hand. So in other
13:49 words, God alone has the keys to life, and what you're doing when you deliberately kill somebody is claiming something for yourself that really only belongs to God. When
14:01 you choose to take a life, you're putting yourself on God's level, kind of staking a claim to his throne when you are clearly not the life giver. And then we find this
14:13 statement over in Genesis chapter 9 where God explains why he finds murder to be so heinous. It says, whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be
14:25 shed for God made man in his own image. Now, there's the very heart of the issue. You and I were made in the image of God. Every single 1 of us was meant to be a unique
14:36 display of God's character. None of us by ourselves reveal the nature of God completely or exhaustively. And yet as imperfect as you are, you are still
14:48 an expression of who the creator is. And if somebody decides to just wipe you out, if they decide that your life is not valuable, then what they're doing is shutting down a unique and
15:00 valuable exhibit of the character of God, a unique exhibit that's irreplaceable. And it's not up to you to decide if someone else is doing a good job of representing the creator.
15:12 It's not up to you to decide if somebody else is important or not. And, you know, I really think it's a sign of a failing civilization when life becomes cheap, when the matter of killing
15:23 people starts to feel somewhat normal. It's a problem that's existed for a really long time, and it's easy to point to the past, to people like the Romans, and we condemn their love of
15:35 violence and killing in the arena, and then we pat ourselves on the back because we're not feeding people to the lions or cheering for a gladiator when he stabs his opponent. But are we really
15:47 any different morally speaking? The other day, I I was reading this horrific account of an execution that took place in France in the year 17 57. And I know
15:59 that sounds like a really long time ago, but I've been tracking my own family tree back to about that time. And I realized, it's really not that many generations between now and the 17 hundreds.
16:12 The man they executed in France was a hopeful regicide, a man who attempted to kill the king and so he got the death penalty. But there were 2 disturbing facts that really got my attention as
16:24 I read this historical account. First of all, the execution was just unbelievably cruel, unnecessarily so. I won't go into a lot of detail because some of you wouldn't be able to
16:35 sleep. I mean, I've got a pretty strong stomach and I found it sickening. I mean, I'll give you a little summary. They started by using hot pinchers to pull away pieces of his flesh, then they poured irritants into those
16:47 wounds, and then they burned the hand he used to hold his knife, and then they got horses to draw and quarter him, and that's really just the tip of the iceberg. And honestly, that's the nice version of
16:59 what they did to this guy, and I won't keep describing it. All I'll tell you is this, it went on for hours. And from what I could tell, he survived all the way to the
17:11 very end. And that's disturbing because it's a reminder of how unbelievably dark and cruel human beings can be. It was like the near scientific methods the ancient Assyrians used to be sure
17:22 that their victims survived torture as long as humanly possible. And as I read this, I found myself asking, was this really a matter of the state handing out an appropriate punishment,
17:35 or was it just an open display of bitter revenge and cruelty? And when it comes to that kind of cruelty, I think it really is murder because it's fed by sinful passion, not by
17:46 any sense of justice. I'm reminded of Ezekiel chapter 33 where God tells us that he does not take pleasure in the death of the wicked, which means you and I shouldn't be doing that
17:58 either. And, of course, we also have the Bible's vivid prediction found in Revelation chapter 13 where it tells us the state will eventually begin to use capital punishment the same way the Romans
The Moral Implications of Violence
18:10 did, to get rid of God's people, which is a cause for concern and a reason for you and I to keep fighting to preserve religious liberty at any cost.
18:21 Back in the medieval period, the church fell into some pretty bad behavior because we married the power of the state to the church. And so the state started to punish people for matters of conscience, which would,
18:33 again, be murder. It's not justified. But you know something, that's not even the most disturbing part of that story I was reading. But I've gotta take a quick break right now. So when I come back, I'll tell
18:45 you the other part that I found really, really hard to accept. And don't worry, it's not graphic. You're safe to listen. But it does say an awful lot about the condition of humanity. I'll be right back
18:57 after this.
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19:31 You know, it's kinda hard to believe, but it wasn't actually the cruelty of that execution in 17 57 that I found to be the most disturbing. What troubled me more was the sheer size of
19:43 that crowd. Tens of thousands of people made their way to the city to watch this knowing full well it'd be like 95 percent torture and only about 5 percent execution. People
19:55 scrambled to rent rooms that had windows overlooking the town square so they could get a good view. And if I remember this correctly, there are actually written accounts from people who failed to book a room in time, and
20:06 they were really disappointed they wouldn't be able to see this from their own window. Now that makes me wonder, what in the world is wrong with us? Why is it that so many
20:18 of us are entertained by pain and suffering? Why did the Roman circus never fail to bring a crowd? Why did so many executions right here in the United States become festivals for the people who
20:30 attended them? I mean, people would actually bring their whole family to a public hanging, and they'd even bring a picnic lunch. Back in 19 36, less than a century ago, something like
20:42 20000 people turned out for what would be the last state sanctioned public execution in this country. People really, really wanted to see it because, well, the executioner
20:54 was a woman, and that seemed kind of novel and exciting. So what is it about our broken humanity that finds pain and suffering to be entertainment? I mean, we
21:06 try to tell ourselves that we're different than our ancestors, that our generation is enlightened because we don't have an arena where condemned prisoners fight to the death, and we don't have public
21:18 executions, not anymore. But that doesn't mean that you and I don't share our ancestors appetite for violence. All you really have to do is watch a few movie trailers and ask
21:29 yourself, what is the entertainment industry actually selling? How do they generate desire to watch their movie? It's usually 1 of 2 things, maybe both, but it's
21:41 almost always sex or violence. So is it possible that you and I have the same perverted appetite as our ancestors, but we just prefer our violence to be acted
21:53 out? I mean, we tell ourselves that what we like is different from what people used to like. We even tell the audience that nobody was actually harmed in the making of this film. But the
22:05 reason we have to do that is because the violence is so incredibly realistic. And I'm not just pointing fingers at other people, because if I'm really honest, I'd have to admit that
22:17 I love a western. But some days, it kind of bothers me that I really like them. I mean, think about it. What's the average plot in your average western? Somebody does something really
22:28 horrible like butcher a man's family, and for the next 2 hours, he hunts down the perpetrators and he executes them 1 by 1, and we cheer for him when he does it. Now in 1 sense,
22:40 I suppose it's a plot that kind of reassures us. It tells us that good people eventually win and that justice will prevail. But still, if I'm honest, I'd have to admit that my human nature also
22:52 likes the revenge of it. And you and I both know the movie industry is getting more and more graphic with each passing year. The violence on the screen is no longer just suggested. It's demonstrated
23:04 with ever more violent and sadistic images. And it's obvious that filmmakers are only doing this because it's what we demand. We're willing to pay for this. And I guess that's
23:16 what really bothers me. They make these movies because we want them. And don't even get me started on the horror genre. Once upon a time, movie makers subscribe to something known as the
23:28 Hays Code. You might wanna look that 1 up. They used to say that visual depictions of cruelty were forbidden. In fact, the code said brutal killings are not to be presented in detail. Then
23:40 it went on to say that movies should not even show capital punishment. So apparently, somebody's moral compass was telling them way back in the day that the potential for entertainment to degrade our moral standards
23:52 was really serious. And if you read the whole code, I think you'll be absolutely appalled by how much we've changed. The very fact that we felt the need to put moral guardrails around
24:03 the entertainment industry tells me that we quietly know the truth about ourselves. There's a part of us that kinda loves violence and killing, and that's a startling development for people originally made in the
24:15 image of God, the 1 and only giver of life. I am fearfully and wonderfully made, the Psalmist wrote. And if you think about it, that creation would include your sense of
24:27 pain. Pain is a useful tool to keep you from doing things that damage your body. But at some point after the fall of humanity, there was something dark and broken in our hearts that realized we could actually weaponize
24:39 pain against other people. We could use it to get what we want and even derive some kind of satisfaction by watching other people suffer. Human beings made in the image of God began to
24:51 amuse themselves with an attack on someone else's life, and that's a massive reminder of just how far short of God's glory we really have fallen. I'll be right back after
25:03 this.
25:07 Dragons, beasts, cryptic statues. Bible prophecy can be incredibly vivid and confusing. If you've ever read Daniel or Revelation and come away
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25:36 Alright. I've pretty much run out of time, so I'll wrap this up. I know that out of all the commandments, the 1 against murder probably gives me the biggest visceral reaction because it underlines how warped we really
25:48 are. When you take a life, you're declaring that somebody else is worthless. When you casually remove them from the human race, it's an open declaration that you don't think that person matters.
26:00 And if we're going to take the Bible seriously, we'd have to admit that in reality, the act of murder begins long before you pull the trigger. Never forget what the Bible tells us in first John chapter 3. Everyone
26:12 who hates his brother is a murderer. And I suspect that John was probably basing that on something Jesus said during the Sermon on the Mount. You have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall
26:24 not murder, and whoever murders will be liable to judgment. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. According to the Bible, just hating somebody,
26:36 clinging to resentment is an act of murder. Why? Because when you actively hate someone and you make it known, you begin to chip away at the value of that person's life. The act
26:48 of murder is just the final step in destroying that other person. And it's no small matter that Jesus called the devil a murderer in John chapter 8. It's a sober reminder
27:00 of who's been guiding our thoughts about the value of human life. Of course, that that doesn't mean you have to like everybody or even include destructive people in your day to day life.
27:11 That's not exactly the same as hating those people. It's perfectly fine to protect yourself and your family and to turn those destructive people over to God who always deals with these folks far more fairly
27:23 than you will. You know, it should really worry us that our generation seems to value life so poorly because I'll promise you this, your human life is not
27:35 unimportant to God. Now, maybe you've been beaten down by other people. Maybe somebody's hatred has stolen your peace of mind. Maybe you've lost somebody at the hands of a killer. I I don't know. But I
27:47 do know this, all of that bothers God even more than it bothers you, and he has promised to set the record straight. He says he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more.
27:59 Thanks for joining me. I'm Sean Boonstra, and this has been Authentic.
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