In the small town of Alba, Texas, something unthinkable happened one dark night in 2008.
Sixteen-year-old Erin Caffey sat in a car outside her house while her boyfriend and two of his friends broke in.
They were carrying guns and a samurai sword.
In just minutes, Erin’s mom and two little brothers were dead.
Her dad was shot five times but miraculously survived.
Afterward, the house was set on fire.
How did this horrific crime happen?
It all started when Erin began dating 18-year-old Charlie Wilkinson.
When her parents found some inappropriate messages between them, they told her to break it off.
Erin didn’t wanna listen.
But she didn’t just get mad.
She plotted revenge.
She convinced Charlie that the only way they could be together was if her family were gone.
So with Charlie’s friend Charles and his girlfriend Bobbi, they planned a murder that would shock the nation.
Erin didn’t pull the trigger or swing the sword.
But she unlocked the door to her home.
Then she returned to her boyfriend’s car.
And patiently waited while her plans to kill her family unfolded.
Later, she pretended to be sad and shocked.
But when the others told the truth…
Everything pointed back to Erin.
She hadn’t just been involved.
She was the chief architect behind this massacre.
All four attackers were arrested the same day.
While Erin was initially treated as a kidnapping victim, investigations (especially testimonies from Wilkinson and Waid) pointed to her as the mastermind.
Erin was tried as an adult.
She accepted a plea deal of life imprisonment with parole eligibility after 43 years (when around age 59).
Charlie Wilkinson and Charles Waid received life without parole, and Bobbi Johnson received a 40-year sentence (eligible for parole after 20 years).
Now this my friends is a perfect example of why our society is so screwed up.
What am I talking about exactly?
I’m talking about how our modern secular society has decided that we don’t have the human right to execute criminals, no matter how despicable their crimes are.
The bottom line is that per the Torah, that psychopath, Erin, and her killer accomplices should all have been put to death, and they weren’t.
Why?
Because of the ridiculous belief that, as morally advanced beings, we shouldn’t go to a primitive book written thousands of years ago to dictate our code of morality.
We feel it is useless to execute criminals and do away with more human life.
One of the reasons America and the world in general are drowning in confusion, immorality, and violence is that we are under the curse of blood-guilt.
Our entire planet is soaked with the blood of murder victims who cry out from the ground for justice to be done, while their killers are allowed to live in prisons funded by our tax money.
Recall what God told Cain after he murdered his brother.
“The Lord said, ‘What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground! Now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood at your hands.'”-Genesis 4:10-11
Not executing a murderer as prescribed in the Torah violates one of God’s most important commands.
Tragically, the Christian church, with its theology that the law has been done away with, may be guilty of causing violence to the Word more than any other religious institution on planet earth.
What’s ironic is that they preach this in the name of the Jewish Messiah.
Yet, Judaism, with its overriding focus on humanitarianism, ain’t exactly guiltless either.
They seem to believe that sometimes being nice is more important than justice.
Of course, the God-denying atheists and secular humanists may be the worst of all.
They live according to the lie that Satan told Eve in the garden, “Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.”
In other words, the godless unbelievers of the world have fallen for the lie that there is no higher authority than our own natural goodness and superior intellects.
Let me close by pointing out a fundamental theological error that is present in the Christian churches.
And if you think I’m picking on Christianity, you know what, you’re right, homie.
I am, and I have to.
Why?
Because they uphold the name of God’s son to preach a lawless theology.
They have to be called out.
So let’s call out the theological error infesting Christian churches throughout the land.
Let me start by getting this clear.
If you truly believe in Messiah Yeshua, you do not need to fear eternal separation from God.
Because His Son has paid the price for you.
Even the teenage murderers I opened today’s post with will be pardoned in the next life if they REPENT and accept the sacrifice Yeshua paid on the cross for the crimes.
Yet them homies need to be executed.
That’s the point here.
Just because you’re forgiven spiritually doesn’t mean you don’t face consequences here and now.
Real love doesn’t mean ignoring justice.
It means implementing it.
When we refuse to get rid of evil (using the Torah as our guide), we’re just letting wickedness grow stronger and spread even more.
So, let’s bring this back full circle and connect back to King David.
When he ruled on the story, the woman of Tekoa told him…
He was WRONG.
He sinned.
His decision to pardon a murderer was gonna bring more trouble, pain, and even death to his own family.
And not just that.
Because he was king, his bad choices were gonna drag the whole nation of Israel closer to God’s anger.
Let those who have ears to hear, SHEMA!
You rightly quoted scripture when you mentioned Cain, but you didn’t mention that God did not kill Cain as atonement for murdering his brother Abel. God banished him, which is equivalent to life in prison. So my point is that God also chose not to kill humans who murdered as well. What say you to that fact?
Yeah, that’s a good point, Darnell.
My only answer to that is that the Cain and Abel incident occurred before the Law was given, during the pre-Sinai period.
So I guess some things change.
Another example of change occurring is that before the flood, God hadn’t permitted man to eat animal flesh.
Take a look at Genesis 9:1-6.
God blessed Noach and his sons and said to them,
“Be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth.
The fear and dread of you
will be upon every wild animal,
every bird in the air,
every creature populating the ground,
and all the fish in the sea;
they have been handed over to you.
Every moving thing that lives will be food for you;
just as I gave you green plants before,
so now I give you everything
— only flesh with its life,
which is its blood, you are not to eat.
I will certainly demand an accounting
for the blood of your lives:
I will demand it from every animal
and from every human being.
I will demand from every human being
an accounting for the life of his fellow human being.
Whoever sheds human blood,
by a human being will his own blood be shed;
for God made human beings in his image.
What I find interesting is that we’re told “all living creatures are going to fear men”.
Why is this?
It seems like before the flood, the animals had little if any fear of men.
This would also explain why Noah didn’t have any problems getting all the different species of animals to come into the ark.
It wasn’t until after the flood that, for the first time in history, God had given man permission to kill and eat other living creatures.
Look at verse 9:3.
“Every moving thing that lives will be food for you;
just as I gave you green plants before”
This verse explains that, before the flood, humans’ primary food source was green plants.
So this is another example of how God operates differently depending on the period of human history.
I do know that the Torah makes it clear that the death penalty is required of the person who intentionally takes another person’s life.
I don’t accept the Christian interpretation that “we’re not under the law” means we don’t have to obey the Law anymore
Rather, I see it as meaning we are freed from the consequences of the Law (eternal separation from God at physical death).
My apologies if this wasn’t the most coherent answer in the world.
Be blessed.