John Milton, in the opening stanza of Paradise Lost, presents his readers with a lofty goal—his desire to try and “justify the ways of God to men.” In the limited series Waco, premiering this month on the Paramount Channel, the task becomes even more difficult, given that the central character in this drama, David Koresh, is a deeply flawed, self-appointed demigod in cowboy boots, and the battle is joined not in some starry nebula in Orion’s sword but on a dusty plain in Texas.
Some reasons for this tragedy are traced back to Adam & Eve.
The GOD wannabe attitude and gullibility.
99% of Christianity=deceived by preachers on the 10 commandments validity…
and many if not most Adventists are deceived by SS teachers and/or ministers on soteriology.
Clues as to the latter are shown by how idealistic/victorious quotes of EG White are met with hostility.
The denomination is plagued with fanatics (Rom 10:2)
This is what Jesus knew would happen…
"For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect."
Matt 24:24
It would be somewhat helpful if pastors/SS teachers would give listeners some coping tools on this topic.
A presentation on Kohlberg’s stages of morality, the 4 basic needs of people (affection, acceptance ,appreciation, achievement), herd mentality, the basic propensities inherited from Adam & Eve…(God wannabe, guilt shifting, gamble, gullible, greedy) FOMO-Fear of missing out.
Too much sensational or shallow religious lingo is warping SDA members…promoting fanaticism.
Prior to the Waco conflagration, I met the physician brother of one of the women who went
to join the group. They both came from aTraditional Adventist up bringing.
It was interesting that the doctor brother could NOT understand why his sister would join
that type of group.
We do have to understand that the group was composed of SDA from a number of states.
A group not known to each other prior to joining.
I got the SENSE that it is the PURITY, the PERFECT that the 28 PROMOTE, and Ellen PROMOTES that causes these groups to form.
Shepherd’s Rod, Davidians, Koreshites. ---- ALL of these came out of SDAism BECAUSE
they were Seventh day Adventists who were BEYOND the run-of-the-mill Seventh-day Adventist. AND IF you JOINED their group, you would be on your way to PURITY, to PERFECT which THEY saw the 28 PROMOTING, and they could and would QUOTE ELLEN to back up their position.
Then there was the Brothers in Australia. Ellen was part of their instruction.
When I was in boarding school in about '59 we had a guest speaker that came around and
Promoted the Cleansing of The Sanctuary. And HIS TAKE on it was the Brain – the conscious,
the unconscious. One was the Holy Place, the Other was the Most Holy Place. And CLEANSING our Brains of Sin was the cleansing of the Sanctuary [Christ through the Holy Spirit dwells in us, and so cleansed – again PURITY, PERFECTION]. I cannot recall his name or how he got invited. But he never returned, as many other guest speakers were requested to return.
Isn’t this exactly like the SDA church in relation to the rest of Christianity? SDA’s are not run of the mill Christians…they are special. They have special revelation beyond what the Bible says. They have the truth. And this can all be quoted from the prophet that proves these claims.
Since Ellen/SDA’ism says that there will be more light, of course some SDA’s are going to be following this teaching, unfortunately. False teaching begets more false teaching.
The Books Daniel and Revelation were given to us for our encouragement In Christnot some self appointed prophet. Let us have more Christ said or did not 19th or 20 th centrury self appointed con.
Let’s put it right out there…SDAism has cultish tendencies built into its DNA. The denomination was built out of a private vision that reinterpreted failed prophecy. Private vision that could never be objectively verified. It rallied around a self understanding of its own uniqueness and aspirations of human perfectabilty that were propounded by its own prophet and her visions. It was driven by her personal charisma and the charisma of her husband.
For members to not head in that direction spiritually requires some level of cognitive dissonance, an ignoring of swaths of her writings, and the traditional theology of the denomination. If swallowed whole, it may not logically lead to Koresh and the Branch Davidians, but it does lead to real theological aberrations, and distortions of healthy faith and spirituality. I’ve seen it enough times.
I’ve finished watching 3 of the episodes thus far plus all the outtakes and interviews with survivors on the Paramount website. It’s pretty hard to watch, but very effective at portraying the characters in a heartbreaking fashion. Misguided kids, probably low self-esteem, coupled with a very charismatic predator. I found a story in one of the local papers that was an interview with a survivor, a former wife. She and her daughter (by Koresh) left the cult in time to escape the final stand. http://archives.starbulletin.com/2003/04/19/news/story3.html
I like the show a bit better than Mr. Davenport does in the review, but I’ve followed the story fairly closely as the siege went on day by day. At the time I was almost relieved the feds had decided to end it. I wasn’t aware of the actual origin of the Branch Davidians and how Koresh forcibly overtook it after the originator of the cult and David came to loggerheads as to which one was the real Messiah. The story as portrayed thus far has me on the edge of the couch watching. My heart is saying, give up, give up! while my mind is begging the story to end differently.
Hindsight and further actions by the ATF have changed my mind about the feds in this incident. The more power we give to the federal government, the greater the chance of history repeating itself.A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take away everything that you have." (from someone somewhere but not Thomas Jefferson). I do look forward to seeing if any of the side segments mention Koresh’s involvement as a SS teacher at the Diamond Head church.