Can God Be Charged with Murder?
by Terry Wane Benton
with the help of Copilot
The biblical answer is "No," and Scripture gives multiple reasons why.
The Bible consistently teaches that God cannot be guilty of murder, because murder is the unlawful taking of life, and God, as the Creator and Judge of all life, has the absolute right to give life and to take it. Let’s walk through the biblical logic step by step.
Murder is the unlawful taking of life
The command is: “You shall not murder” (Exodus 20:13).
This command is given to humans, not to God. It forbids humans from taking life that does not belong to them. Since humans cannot create life, they are not allowed to take life except in cases of justice against crime (Genesis 9:6; Romans 13:1-7).
All life belongs to God
Therefore, He cannot unlawfully take what is His.
“I kill and I make alive… and there is none that can deliver out of My hand” (Deuteronomy 32:39).
God explicitly claims the right to give and take life. People may not like that God is God and they are not, and that He has the right to give and take life from humans, and does not give humans the same right, but humans are not in charge of all of the universe, time, and eternal justice. Man cannot reduce God to his own limitations.
“The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away” (Job 1:21).
Job does not accuse God of wrongdoing — he worships God instead. He admitted that he did not understand God’s reasons for allowing his suffering, but in the end, he realized that he did not need to know all that was in God’s rights of infinite knowledge and power. He learned not to charge God foolishly. He was overcompensated eventually for his suffering.
“The earth is the LORD’s, and the fullness thereof” (Psalms 24:1).
If all life belongs to God, then God taking life is not murder — it is ownership and justice, and in some cases, it may be even the most merciful thing for the greater good. It is merely moving souls or spirits to different locations as He sees best. We cannot judge God by our limited knowledge.
God is the Judge of all the earth
And judges have the right to execute justice.
“Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Genesis 18:25). Abraham’s rhetorical question assumes the answer: Yes — God always acts justly.
A judge who executes a criminal is not a murderer. Likewise, when God executes judgment, He is not murdering — He is judging. A baby, like David’s baby that died, is judged by God to be best moved to a better served location, sometimes for his own good, sometimes for the ultimate good of others. God sees what we cannot see. It was best for David not to have this particular child, and best for the child for reasons only God could judge.
God cannot sin
Therefore, He cannot commit murder.
“God… cannot lie” (Titus 1:2).
“In Him is no darkness at all” (I John 1:5).
“The LORD is righteous in all His ways” (Psalms 145:17).
If murder is sin, and God cannot sin, then God cannot commit murder.
When God takes life, Scripture calls it justice — not murder.
Examples:
- The Flood (Genesis 6–8)
- Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19)
- Firstborn of Egypt (Exodus 12)
- Nadab and Abihu (Leviticus 10)
- Uzzah (II Samuel 6)
- Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5), etc.
In every case, the inspired writers treat God’s actions as righteous judgment, not wrongdoing.
“He judges the world with righteousness” (Psalms 9:8). He is equipped to handle judgment since He knows the truth about all motives and does not miss any facts, while our atheist friends do not know all the facts. They judge what they don’t know. God judges from an all-knowing angle.
Humans may not take life because they are not God
“Vengeance is Mine; I will repay, says the Lord” (Romans 12:19). God reserves the right of life and death for Himself. Humans are forbidden to take life because:
- We are not the Creator,
- We are not the Judge,
- We do not own life,
- We do not possess perfect justice,
- We do not have the power to bring back life or move souls from the realm of the dead to heaven or hell. God does.
The clearest summary verse
“The LORD kills and makes alive; He brings down to the grave and brings up” (I Samuel 2:6).
This is stated as a truth, not an accusation.
I believe God can see the future because He has demonstrated this ability through many prophecies. He prophesied the fall of Babylon, the fall of Jerusalem more than once, the fall of Nineveh, Tyre, and Sidon, the timing of the Messiah, the place of His birth, the fact of His rejection and death, the piercing of His hands and feet, the resurrection, and the fall of Jerusalem again. Such demonstrations show that He knows what we cannot know. Therefore, He is not a man to be held to rules forbidding His execution of judgment that gives life, takes life, or moves lives to different locations (earthly realm or spirit realm).
I had a dog once that we kept in a fence for his own good. Someone might think we should let the dog roam freely, but too many dogs get run over by traffic. They wrongly perceived us as terrible owners, but our dog knew we loved him, was happy with our love, and cared not at all that someone judged us as terrible owners. I loved my dog, and he loved me. The fence limited his range of movement but protected him in ways critics might not understand. I knew more about the dangers on this road than my critics did. This comparison doesn’t begin to do justice to my dog-ownership wisdom and to God owning the universe and all our souls. We are the sheep of His pasture (Psalms 100). It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves. He knows all the things that His critics cannot fathom. He owes His critics nothing, and He owns them and all lives.
Is it wrong for humans to judge God as a murderer? Yes. Scripture teaches that humans are not qualified to judge God. The Bible gives multiple, explicit reasons why humans cannot sit in judgment over God — including judging His actions as murder.
