NATURALLY, EVERYBODY WHO MAKES A PROMISE OUGHT TO KEEP THAT PROMISE, BECAUSE WE WOULD NOT THINK LESS OF GOD IF HE DID NOT KEEP HIS PROMISE TO US AND, AFTER ALL, HUMANS ARE MADE IN THE IMAGE OF GOD. Not Everybody Likes To Keep The Promises They Make Because They Are Merely Motor Mouths That Like To Be The Center Of Attention And, Like Politicians, Will Say Anything To Hold The Floor—Even Make False Promises. Of course, false promises are not something people like to hear, so one wonders why anyone would go to the trouble to make them, especially when it comes to God.

If you promise to God to do something that is a sin, like killing someone, should you still keep that promise? Will you be punished if you don't?

Happy Riches answers request by John Yoon

One of the difficulties most people have in understanding the Bible is that there are two covenants that need to be understood: the Mosaic Covenant and the New Covenant.

• Not that we are competent of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us; our competence is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not in a written code but in the Spirit; for the written code kills, but the Spirit gives life. Now if the dispensation of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such splendor that the Israelites could not look at Moses’ face because of its brightness, fading as this was, will not the dispensation of the Spirit be attended with greater splendor? (2 Corinthians 3:5-8)

The covenant that is called the written code (or the letter that killeth) is one that is based on what is written down and has to be complied with in order not to be outside of the law—and become a criminal. People today are criminals when they break the law of the land. In the Old Testament, under the Mosaic Covenant, people who did not comply with the laws of Israel, were effectively criminals who broke the law.

When you understand that there is a difference between the two covenants—Mosaic and Spirit—you can understand that there are two kingdoms that were created by God. The old kingdom of Israel and the new kingdom of the Spirit—the Kingdom of God.

Israel existed as a nation on Earth with the purpose of demonstrating what God requires of people in this temporal world of existence. Israel was given every opportunity to prove itself a worthy nation.

• Thus says God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread forth the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people upon it and spirit to those who walk in it: “I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness, I have taken you by the hand and kept you; I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness. I am the Lord, that is my name;my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to graven images. Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them.”(Isaiah 42:5-9)

Consequently, when we read in the Bible that people are to be killed if they violate the laws that God has put in place, this is to eradicate evil from society. Moreover, people are to be killed if they challenge God in any way that is detrimental to the well-being of those who seek Him. Also, people are to be killed if they distort God’s purpose to bring salvation from evil for humankind. But this is not a reflection upon God being unjust, rather the evil propensity of individuals that have to be cut off; just like the spot of rot in an apple, so that the rest can be preserved.

Death in the temporal world is not really an eternal matter. People who die physically are not dead, unless they have not been born again. Those who have been born again are alive for all eternity. Those who are not born again are termed “twice dead”—they are still dead spiritually at the time their physical death (Jude 1:11-13).

Leaving the womb in which they were given the opportunity to grow and become newborn breathing babies, alive and well, like stillborn children, those that enter the eternal realm unregenerate are eternally dead, even though they possess a spirit and a soul.

• And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. (Matthew 10:28 )

Those who are born again in this life are made alive in the Spirit (Ephesians 2:1; Colossians 2:13) and these are the ones who belong to the Kingdom of God. People who have been made alive in the Spirit know they have entered into life, even if other people do not believe them. In the event that a person is truly born of God, the scoffers and doubters will learn the difference, if they observe the person’s life, because a changed lifestyle will eventuate, and the fruit of the Spirit will become manifest.

• But if Christ is in you, although your bodies are dead because of sin, your spirits are alive because of righteousness. (Romans 8:10)

• Thus you will know them by their fruits. (Matthew 7:20)

• But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23 )

The Kingdom of God, the kingdom of the Spirit, has nothing to do with establishing a nation in the physical world. The Kingdom of God is about the reality of life, the truth about existence, a relationship with Lord Jesus Christ through the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Death is nothing to worry about for those who are truly born again; for they know they have eternal life—there is no doubt.

• Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God, and he who loves is born of God and knows God. (1 John 4:7)

• We know that any one born of God does not sin, but He who was born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him. (1 John 5:18)

People who are members of the Kingdom of God have no need to commit murder because this is contrary to their new nature. Those who participate in killing other humans are concerned about a kingdom in this world. Obviously, they cannot be in the Kingdom of God. If they were, they would know they have eternal life, because their spirits would have been made alive. Instead of hatred, or contempt, or any urge to eradicate another person, they would exhibit the love of God.

• Any one who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. (1 John 3:15)

Nobody who is making promises to God to kill another person is a member of the Kingdom of God. Those who are not in the Kingdom of God when they physically die, are destined for the second death. After death, we are informed, comes judgment (John 5:24) for those who have not passed from death into life.

People Claim They Make Promises But Tell Lies So Why Would They Be Believed