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Question: If by killing 100 innocent people you could save 100,000 lives would it be alright?

Answer: Before I answer this question, this might be a good time to mention that when you have a question it helps us answer it if you give all the details that you can. Sometimes we are given only a short phrase, and since we do not know the background it makes it hard to know for sure what we are talking about. We do thank you for your questions and comments. We are getting these from different parts of the world.

This question seems to reflect what we see happening in the world today, with people blowing up innocent people, not just soldiers, to accomplish their cause. Every night we hear on the news how innocent men women and babies are murdered in the name of some cause. Terrorists seem to think of killing innocent people as a "necessary evil." However, nothing could be farther from the truth than this philosophy. I believe it is a trick of Satan for people to think of themselves as having the ability to make decisions like this. These people are deceived and will wake up in hell not heaven, if they do not repent and receive the LORD Jesus as their Savior.

First, it is never right to take the life of even one innocent person for any reason! Many in the United States have used the above reasoning for taking over a million innocent lives a year by abortion. They say we need to keep the population down, and a way to do this is by encouraging abortions. How warped human thinking can become when people do not accept the Word of God as the final authority for our actions. The Bible makes it clear in many places it is wrong to kill the innocent: "Keep yourself far from a false matter; do not kill the innocent and righteous." (Exodus 23:7a) God provided cities of refuge for people to run to in the event that they had killed someone accidentally so the people would not put them to death for killing someone they did not mean to kill. "lest innocent blood be shed in the midst of your land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance." (Deuteronomy 19:10a) However, if someone did kill an innocent person they were to be killed for this crime.

When nations or individuals murder the innocent they have to answer to God. Look at these passages: "Moreover Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another... (2 Kings 21:16a) "Surely at the commandment of the LORD this came upon Judah, to remove them from His sight because of the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he had done, and also because of the innocent blood that he had shed; for he had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, which the LORD would not pardon." (2 Kings 24:3-4) "And shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan; and the land was polluted with blood. Thus they were defiled by their own works, and played the harlot by their own deeds. Therefore the wrath of the LORD was kindled against His people, so that He abhorred His own inheritance. And He gave them into the hand of the Gentiles, and those who hated them ruled over them. Their enemies also oppressed them, and they were brought into subjection under their hand. (Psalm 106:38-42)

Do you think, America and other nations, that have sacrificed so many innocent babies through abortions in their lands, can somehow think that God will spare them? No, we will be judged for our sins of sacrificing our children on the altars of pleasure and convenience, just as God judged Israel for sacrificing their children to idols. For more on this please look at our article on, The Bible and Abortion.

Secondly, if anyone is thinking, "Well, what about innocent people who get in the crossfire in warfare? This is different, because a soldier is not going out trying to kill innocent people, even though this does happen sometimes. Soldiers who knowingly attack the innocent, will incur the wrath of God, and often their own nation in time.

Then there is the thinking of terrorists today that seems to be: "If we can kill enough people to obtain our goal, God will be pleased with us." Those who think this way, are deceived, the only "god" they are pleasing is the Devil.

Jesus is our Supreme example and His Word is our final authority and this is what He said to his disciples when they wanted to know if they could call down fire on some people. "And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, 'Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?' But He turned and rebuked them, and said, 'You do not know what manner of spirit you are of. For the Son of man did not come to destroy men's lives but to save them.' (Luke 9:54-56) Our job as Christians is to be like Christ, and that is to give the message of and salvation in love to the entire world.

I do not know for sure if this answers your question because I am not sure of the context that you were asking it in, but if you or anyone else has more questions on this or other subjects we will do our best to answer them from Scripture. Just remember please to give us the background to your question.

Thanks,

Gary T. Panell

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Keywords: kill, killing, murder, homicide, innocent, moral, morality