A Christian Response To The Texas Death Sentence of Tanner Horner Who K*lled 7 yr old Athena Strand

Added: 2026-05-13

[00:00:00]FedEx driver Tanner her was sentenced to death yesterday for his vicious murder of seven-year-old Athena Strand. Yes, sentenced to death. Good. Do it today.

[00:00:11]Finish the job. No [music] appeal. You say, "But Chad, you're a Christian." But but but all right, let's talk about that.

[00:00:20]All right, guys. Welcome to Noise Breaks. Yes, Tanner. He killed 7-year-old Athena Strand in Texas.

[00:00:27]Sentenced to death. I'm not going to play the clip. I don't want to see his ugly mug anymore. Carry it out. Carry it out post haste. You say, "But Chad, if you're a Christian, how can you say that?"

[00:00:39]All right, I'll give you I will give you a biblical defense for capital punishment if you want it. So when people come to you and they say, "But how can you as a Christian say that you you're for some taking somebody's life?"

[00:00:52]Would you be willing? I saw somebody yesterday. Would you be willing to pull the the the lever on the gallows or inject it? Yeah, give it to me. Let's do it today. I'm ready to go. Rock and roll. And you know what? I believe God's on my side. Completely justified, completely righteous act. And I'll tell you why in just a minute. First of all, let me tell you about my friends over at Chapter. If you want unbiased help with Medicare, some of you are dealing with that right now, trying to make a decision. I want you to give Chapter a call today. Call them at 743-2810946.

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[00:02:01]Call Chapter. They're my trusted partners. And uh they'll they'll steer you right. I guarantee it. All right, let's walk straight into it. I'm not gonna flinch at all and I'm not gonna soften the edges on this because the Bible doesn't whisper on the on the topic at all.

[00:02:18]The Bible is very clear on this issue. I mean, I don't see how anybody can make an argument against capital punishment in light of this horrendous murder of this seven-year-old child. People were exposed to the audio of this and people were walking out of the courtroom weeping. They couldn't hear it.

[00:02:40]And so when you see this judgment handed down yesterday and thank God it happened in Texas and not in some of these other woke states.

[00:02:50]You see that and you said, "Well, you're going to sentence him to death." Tanner her people immediately want to split into two camps because they go from emotion or justice, outrage versus legal order.

[00:03:06]But let me just remind you that if you're a Christian believer, because that's the argument. How can you as a Christian say that you believe in capital punishment? Well, first of all, I don't start with emotion. I start with God's word. That's the foundation. It's not your public opinion.

[00:03:21]It's not political pressure.

[00:03:24]Well, Chad, does the Bible actually support capital punishment? And and I mean I mean even in the New Testament.

[00:03:32]Yeah. But let's start in the Old Testament before Israel, before the law of Moses, before Sinai, back to the covenant God made with humanity after the flood. Genesis 9:6. Whoever sheds the blood of a man by man shall his blood be shed. For God made man in his own image. It's not random. It's not primitive justice. It's divine reasoning. And why is the punishment so severe? Because human life is sacred. It ain't cheap. It's not disposable. It's sacred. It bears the image of God.

[00:03:59]Paradoxically, capital punishment in scripture is not the devalu. You say, "But but but but how can you do that?

[00:04:06]You're aren't you devaluing that life by committing capital punishment."

[00:04:12]No, it's actually the highest possible valuation of life. It says if you destroy what bears God's image, the consequence is ultimate just like God is.

[00:04:23]So that principle predates Israel. That means it's not just Old Testament law for a specific nation. It's rooted in God's design for human justice. You move into the Mosaic law and yeah, it gets even more explicit. Murder, not accidental killing, not negligence, but intentional premeditated murder carried the death penalty. Numbers 35:33 says, "You shall not pollute the land in which you live, for blood pollutes the land, and no atonement can be made for the land except by the blood of the one who shed it." So that's pretty pretty heavy.

[00:04:55]But it tells you something about justice in God's economy. That there are some crimes that are so severe that the justice requires a life for a life. And you I hear you. You say, "But that's Old Testament, Chad. Jesus changed everything." Well, did he? Let's go to the New Testament.

[00:05:13]You got John You got John chapter 19.

[00:05:16]Jesus is standing before Pontius Pilate.

[00:05:19]He's on his way to the cross. And Pilate says to him, "Don't you know I have authority to release you or to crucify you? I can turn you loose or I can execute you." Jesus Jesus doesn't say, "No, you don't have that authority." He says, "Instead, you would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given to you from above."

[00:05:42]Jesus in that moment affirms that the governing authorities possess real authority, ultimate authority, even the authority to execute. And that authority ultimately comes from God. He's literally ratifying what Pontius Pilate is saying. He doesn't give him this long diet tribe or monologue or argument about how it's not it's not fair to capital punishment and execution is not fair. No, no, he actually confirms it. You go to Romans 13, it becomes unmistakable. The Apostle Paul writes under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And he's not talking about Christian government.

[00:06:16]He's talking about the Roman Empire, which is not exactly a model of moral purity. Romans 13:4, for he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer.

[00:06:29]And then he gives this phrase, he does not bear the sword in vain.

[00:06:33]So that's not symbolic language. The sword in the Roman world was the instrument of execution. Paul is saying the state has been given authority by God to enact justice including capital punishment as a means of restraining evil and upholding order. That's New Testament. And it's also post-resurrection theology.

[00:06:52]And people push back and they say, "Well, what about mercy? What about grace? What about Jesus saying turn the other cheek?" Okay. Well, you need to rightly divide personal ethics from civil justice. First of all, Jesus command to turn the other cheek was was about personal retaliation.

[00:07:07]wasn't just the role of government individually.

[00:07:11]We forgive institutionally the state punishment punishes. So I can pray for the soul of a guy named Tanner her who committed this atroc atrocious murder against this seven-year-old little girl.

[00:07:23]I can pray for his soul. Even the Apostle Paul says, "Turn such a such a one over to Satan so that he may be redeemed in the day of our Lord Jesus."

[00:07:34]But that doesn't change the fact that institutionally the state has the right to punish. You blur those lines.

[00:07:41]You get chaos. That's not compassion.

[00:07:43]It's chaos.

[00:07:45]If the thief on the cross hanging next to Jesus says we're receiving the due reward of our deeds. He says that in Luke 23. He acknowledges that his punishment execution is actually just.

[00:07:58]Jesus doesn't correct him, does he?

[00:07:59]Instead, Jesus offers him grace, salvation, and eternity. this day will you be with me in paradise.

[00:08:07]Nobody's complaining on the cross saying we don't deserve this. That moment right there, there's so much truth in that moment. Earthly justice can be carried out and divine mercy still be extended.

[00:08:18]Those two things aren't enemies. They just operate on different planes. Now you bring that into the present day in this situation. You got this judgment handed down in Texas. Immediately the conversation becomes emotional and political and reactive. But you as a believer, as a Christian, you got to step back and ask, was justice upheld according to the truth? Was sanctity of life taken seriously? Was due process followed? Because the scripture doesn't celebrate death. I want to be clear on that. Ezekiel 33:11 says, "God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked wicked." That's not about cheering execution. It's about recognizing the weight of justice in this fallen world.

[00:08:59]And the truth we don't want to say out loud is if there's no ultimate consequence for the most severe evil, then justice itself starts to collapse.

[00:09:08]Because victims like Athena Strand, they matter.

[00:09:12]Innocence, they matter.

[00:09:16]And when their lives are taken unjustly, justice demands a response that reflects the seriousness of that loss. We need more of it in this society. I contend we need more of it. And it needs to happen quickly, not caught up in the court of appeals where taxpayers you say, "Well, I want him to spend the rest of his life in prison." I don't really want to pay for that. And it's not biblical.

[00:09:41]It's not biblical. I've just proven that.

[00:09:45]See, every single one of us, you can look at another man's sin and say, "He deserves death." Let me remind you, every single one of us stands guilty before God. And it might not be a civil crime, but we have sinned. And the wages of sin is death. So if God applies strict capital justice to all of us, none of us would be able to stand under that.

[00:10:06]But what he did in Christ was he satisfied that justice through Jesus at the cross. You see the ultimate expression of both justice and mercy.

[00:10:16]Justice because sin is punished. Mercy because Christ takes that punishment in our place.

[00:10:24]And it's our responsibility as believers to uphold justice in a world that God has placed us in and proclaim mercy through the gospel that saves souls. So I don't apologize what scripture affirms and I don't lose compassion in the process. When the culture rages around us, when emotions are running hot, when narratives are flying around, here's where I anchor myself. God values life so deeply that he demands justice whenever it's taken away. God ordains governing authority to restrain evil.

[00:10:56]God offers mercy to every sinner who turns to him.

[00:11:01]And those three truths right there don't contradict each other. They reveal.

[00:11:06]They reveal who God is.

[00:11:10]And he is both just and merciful. He is holy and compassionate. He is righteous and redeeming. That's the framework. So, it's not about your politics or your outrage. It's about the truth. And I just gave it to you.

[00:11:22]God have mercy on his soul. God have mercy on this family that has experienced uncomparable loss, tragedy in Texas. And may justice be swift and may be may it be carried out expediently. And I believe that. All right, guys. Make sure you hit subscribe, hit like, let me know down in the comments what you think about this. And uh tune in for Before the Noise as well as the Chad Prather show. Thanks for joining us for this episode of Noise Breaks. God bless you.

[00:11:54]Bye.

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