Posted on 02/07/2020 7:00:30 AM PST by FourtySeven
A Texas man who murdered five family members, including his 7-year-old and 9-month-old daughters, apologized to his in-laws and thanked his father and Jesus for turning around his life before he was executed Thursday evening.
Abel Revill Ochoa, 47, was denied his last appeal an hour before his execution by lethal injection 18 years after he shot his wife, Cecilia, two daughters, Crystal and Anahi, his father-in-law, Bartolo, and his sisters-in-law Alma and Jackie with a handgun. Alma was the only one who survived. He shot his eldest daughter, Crystal, four times, the Houston Chronicle reported
“ I would like to thank God, my dad, my Lord Jesus savior for saving me and changing my life,” he said, while strapped to the gurney in Huntsville, according to the Chronicle. “I want to apologize to my in-laws for causing all this emotional pain. I love y’all and consider y’all my sister I never had. I want to thank you for forgiving me.”
In August 2002, Ochoa grabbed the 9mm handgun from his bedroom after smoking crack he had bought with money borrowed from his wife that morning on the way home from church.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
About 15 years too late and FAR too "humane". Bastards like this should face a firing squad, with the first round being all blanks, so a second round is required. I'm sure he wasn't so humane when he gunned down his family, drugs or no drugs.
“I think often God subjects us to greater punishment here for our sins “
Indeed, as Jesus paid for our sins in His Body on the cross- and lived until that righteous punishment was exhausted, then He willed His Spirit to depart so He could finish the work for the dead faithful. We ( if we receive gods grace, undeserved favor in the exchange made possible by Jesus, then we can and are adopted into the family as sons and daughters and bothers and sisters of Christ-rather than face the righteous judgement of God the .
I consider the punishment born by Jesus in my stead to far outweigh any discipline or justice man could ever meet out for violation of man’s law.
Most importantly, the family of the victims cannot forgive him for the actual murders;l they can only forgive him for what he did to each of them (pain and suffering over the loss of loved ones). Only the victims themselves and God may forgive him for what he did to the victims (which is why murder is the ultimate sin).
He does, however, appear to have met the requisite conditions for forgiveness:
-- he has admitted his crimes and accepted responsibility;
-- he has asked for forgiveness (I presume also to the victims who of course cannot respond); -- he has made amends as best as humanly possible and through his execution.
True forgiveness is yet to be judged.
And we all have I am sure, some in reality, some in our minds, all still is sin according to Christ. Change your thinking. It makes a difference in how we live.
Don’t get me wrong, a pacifist I am not, but it is about attitude as well as action.
Jesus washes hands as well as hearts.
No prayers for murderers. Not now, not ever.
Crack Kills
The morale of the story is stay drug free, most of the crimes we see committed are due to substance abuse, it’s the worst global epidemic of all time, but the profits are too good and punishment too light.
So we live in this diseased condition as a society.
Hey, wow that was deep...
Divine Justice goes beyond human understanding.
That God would have forgiven Hitler for what he did had he asked and called upon the Lord to do so makes mankind feel incredulous.
“Good” people go to hell daily by the tens of thousands. “Bad” people go to heaven daily as well.
+1 to everything you said.
The unforgiving heart will find no forgiveness from God when their bell tolls. That is a promise too!
Matthew 6:14-15
Hmmm... Moses was a murderer, as were Samson and others. David ordered the death of his top general after he impregnated the general’s wife. All through the Bible you find people that committed heinous crimes and sins, and yet God was able to use them to fulfill His will.
I have no problem with this person facing the death penalty for his crimes, but I also pray that his repentance was real. God doesn’t even want murderers to go to Hell. He wants ALL men (and women) to come to repentance - that is why Christ died.
No prayers for murders. Never, ever.
Then that is something you will answer to God for. If Jesus could even pray for the people that crucified Him, but you can’t pray for murderers, it seems to me that you need to become more like Christ (which is something we all should be striving for).
I must admit, I am SHOCKED (and very pleased) by the comments here!
Almost all of them accept the repentance (if real) of the criminal and the forgiveness of sin by Jesus.
I have found that in many cases this is one of the hardest concepts to understand.
How can this child murderer be forgiven?
As you know, God has forgiven ALL the sins of man, past, present, and future. All that is required by man is to repent and accept that forgiveness by accepting Jesus as his Lord and Savior.
Similarly, Matthew 19:30 But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.
In the eyes of Jesus, if you were saved as a child, went to church, worshiped the Lord your entire life, you are no more worthy of forgiveness than this child murderer, maybe even less so. But in any case, your reward is the same.
May God bless the many believers here on FR. Thank you Lord for your divine forgiveness of our sins as we are all sinners. I pray this in the name of Jesus Christ the Lord. Amen
As will you, and always remember; thou shalt not kill.
I hear you. But, Jesus and the scriptures clearly define the correct course of action. Several things come to mind- by the standard you judge others, you will be judged; let him w/o sin cast the first stone.
Note How Jesus did not absolve the repentant thief of his civil penalty for crimes against the state/society, he still paid with his life, but the Lord indeed told him that he would be with Him in paradise ( Abraham’s Bosom).
Two separate issues at stake.
As I sit typing well armed trained and able to defend my family’s life liberty and happiness.... But I have no intent to do unlawful violence to anyone.
In his sermon last week, my preacher mentioned that there was a supreme court decision that covers this. It seems that Andrew Jackson offered a Presidential pardon for a man who had robbed and injured a postal carrier. He had been sentenced to death. It was not a full pardon though, just a commutation of the death penalty. The convicted man would still have to spend 20 years in prison for his crimes. The convicted man refused it.
It went all the way up to the supreme Court, and the court ruled that if the man had refused the pardon, and did not present it as accepted to the court, the court could not take cognizance of it. I looked it up on the supreme Court website, and the details were as described. Like you mentioned above it was a transaction that had to be both given and accepted in order to be valid.
The point being made was about the Grace of God. The Gift is freely offered, but unless you take it, you get no benefit from it. I thought the point was well made and apt.
This case is a great argument FOR the death penalty.
Sometimes the fear of certain death is the only thing that causes people to finally seek God before it is too late.
The Gift is freely offered, but unless you take it,
The “forgiveness transaction” is not as simple as you conclude:
For example, many of us had to go through the process of forgiving someone who has passed on but it is too late. It is important to forgive on our side but how much sweeter it would be if it were complete.
Now in relation to God, it is also much sweeter if it is complete.
No criticism intended my thoughtful friend. Just using this to correct a address a modern-day misunderstanding of forgiveness, that being that one person can forgive what the perpetrator has done to someone else. Cheers!
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