Theonomy is the doctrine that the civil law of Moses in the Old Testament (the civil laws given to Israel’s government) are applicable today. I wanted to look at the phrase “worthy of death” as it comes up a couple times in the New Testament.

Here is each instance of the phrase in the NASB:

• Deuteronomy 21:22: If a man has committed a sin worthy of death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree…
• Deuteronomy 22:26: But you shall do nothing to the girl; there is no sin in the girl worthy of death, for just as a man rises against his neighbor and murders him, so is this case.
• Acts 25:11: If, then, I am a wrongdoer and have committed anything worthy of death, I do not refuse to die…
• Acts 25:25: But I found that he had committed nothing worthy of death; and since he himself appealed to the Emperor, I decided to send him…
• Acts 26:31: “…and when they had gone aside, they began talking to one another, saying, “This man is not doing anything worthy of death or imprisonment.”
• Romans 1:32: and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.

In each instance up to Romans 1:32, it is clearly speaking of the death penalty for certain crimes. In Acts, Paul was essentially accused of blasphemy, which was a death penalty crime under the law of Israel. Paul denied it and appealed to Caesar and was shipped to Rome.

Here is the context of Romans 1:26-32:

“For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is [r]unnatural, 27 and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing [s]indecent acts and receiving in [t]their own persons the due penalty of their error.

28 And just as they did not see fit [u]to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, 29 being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, 30 slanderers, [v]haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; 32 and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.”

It says those who do not see fit to acknowledge God are given over to homosexuality, leading to murder and a long list of other sins. Then, it says that those who practice such things are worthy of death. Homosexuality and some of the sins on the list, such as murder, are crimes that receive the death penalty in the Old Testament.

Clearly, Paul was saying that the civil law of Moses was applicable and just.