Catholic Answers Live #12910 Is God Killing People Different Than Murder? Bible Translation and KJV Laws - Jimmy Akin
Sep 26, 2026
Jimmy Akin, Catholic apologist, author, and Bible scholar, explores whether divine judgment differs from human murder, using the striking account in Acts. He discusses how to approach mysterious biblical terms such as “Selah,” why KJV-only culture can become legalistic, and how Scripture’s prophetic meaning points toward Mary and Jesus.
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Why Divine Judgment Is Not Human Murder
- Jimmy Akin distinguishes divine judgment from human murder through authority, life’s ownership, and the physical mechanism of death.
- Humans would need to stab, shoot, poison, or strangle; God, the giver and sustainer of life, can simply stop sustaining it.
How To Read Untranslatable Biblical Words
- Unknown biblical words do not make a passage unusable; context can still reveal its category and function.
- With “selah,” readers can infer a musical or poetic role while consulting commentators and acknowledging uncertainty.
Bracket Biblical Passages You Cannot Resolve
- Bracket passages whose exact meaning remains uncertain instead of forcing a confident interpretation.
- Jimmy Akin describes keeping a background assessment of how confident he is in each possible reading.
