Abstract
David Koresh, the 33-year-old self-proclaimed “messiah” of the Branch Davidian Church—a separativist Adventist sect—believed that he was an “anointed” messenger from God, chosen and inspired to reveal to his followers and to the world the meaning of Revelation and 2,500 years of Jewish and Christian apocalyptic prophecy. He also believed that it was his job, as the slain Lamb and thus the interpreter of the seven seals of Revelation, to reveal the time and manner in which the end of the world would occur. Koresh and his followers fervently believed that they were living in, indeed, helping to usher in, the biblically prophesied millennial age.
I am He that Liveth, and was dead; and behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of Hell and of Death.
Rev1:18, KJV
But now, he that has a purse let him take it, and likewise his money, and he that has no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one.
Luke22:36, RSV
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Notes
Michael Riley, Richard Woodbury, Julie Johnson, and Elaine Shannon, “Tragedy in Waco,” Special Report, Time, May 3,1993.
Jill Smolowe, “February 28: Sent into a Death Trap?” Special Report, Time, May 3,1993,33.
James D. Tabor and Eugene V. Gallagher, Why Waco?: Cults and the Battle for Religious Freedom in America (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995).
See also James Lewis, ed., From the Ashes: Making Sense of Waco (Lanham, Maryland: Rownan & Littlefield, 1994).
Tabor and Gallagher, Why Waco? 53-54.
Stephen L. Harris, Understanding the Bible: A Reader’s Introduction (Mountain View, California: Mayfield, 1985).
Gorden Melton, Encyclopedia of American Religions, (Detroit, Michigan: Gate Publishing, 1994).
Survival into a New Earth (New York: Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, 1984), 2.
Leonard Barret, The Rastafarians (Boston: Beacon Press, 1988).
William F. Lewis, Soul Rebels: The Rastafari (Prospect Heights, Illinois: Waveland Press, 1993).
Grace Halsell, Prophesy and Politics: Militant Evangelists on the Road to Nuclear War (Westport, Connecticut: Lawrence Hill, 1986).
ABC News Special, “Waco: The Decision to Die,” with Peter Jennings, April 20,1993.
Gordon Melton, Encyclopedia of American Religions.
Tabor and Gallagher, Why Waco? 33-38.
Ibid, 38.
Ibid, 38-39.
Ibid.
Ibid, 40-41.
Ibid, 41.
Ibid, 42.
Ibid, 42-43.
Ibid, 43.
Thomas Robbins, Cults, Converts, and Charisma (London: Sage, 1988).
Tabor and Gallagher, Why Waco? 12.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Militarization of Law Enforcement,” presentation, Soldier of Fortune Convention, Las Vegas, Nevada, September 29, 1995.
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© 1996 Philip Lamy
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Lamy, P. (1996). Messiah. In: Millennium Rage. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-6076-4_7
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