The need for discernment, accountability, and to read our Bible

The following is taken from the Star Tribune.com website. It is a painful reminder for why we need discernment, accountability to other Christians, and why we need to read our Bible.

LUCASVILLE, Ohio — Ohio executed a religious cult leader today for the murder of a family of five followers who were taken one at a time to a barn, bound and shot to death. The youngest was just 7 years old.

Jeffrey Lundgren, 56, died by injection at 10:26 a.m. at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility for the deaths of the Avery family.

The evidence against him was compelling: Lundgren, upset by what he thought was the Avery family’s lack of faith, arranged a dinner hosted by cult members. Afterward, he and his followers led the Averys one by one — the father first, young Karen last — to their deaths while the others unknowingly cleaned up after dinner.

A chainsaw was used to muffle the gunfire.

Lundgren argued at his trial in 1990 that he was prophet of God and therefore not worthy of the death penalty.

“It’s not a figment of my imagination that I can in fact talk to God, that I can hear his voice,” he had told the jurors. “I am a prophet of God. I am even more than a prophet.”

He was convicted of killing Dennis Avery, 49; his wife, Cheryl, 46; and their daughters, Trina, 15, Rebecca, 13, and 7-year-old Karen.

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