The Cult of the Witness of the Apocalypse
The “David Branch” emerged in the United States during the next Adventist split in the mid-20th century. Adventism is a marginal branch of the Protestant faith that emerged in the 19th century. Each Christian denomination has a characteristic feature: Catholics have been building the “Kingdom of God on Earth” since ancient times, the Orthodox Church focuses on the spiritual and mystical way of approaching God, and for traditional Protestants, faith in God is expressed in actions and living according to biblical covenants. Adventists can be called “witnesses of the apocalypse.”
Their founder, William Miller, used his own method of interpreting Scripture to predict the end of the world in 1844. Followers spent their time waiting for this moment and even sold their property, only to be deeply disappointed when the Second Coming never happened. Since then, many other prophets of a similar nature have emerged, each predicting the end of the world in the coming years and calling for active preparation.
The most famous successors to Miller’s work are now known as the Seventh-day Adventists, from whom the Branch Davidians split off.
The Davidians settled with their families on Mount Carmel Ranch near Waco, Texas, and were notable for much of their history.
Heir of Cyrus the Great
David Koresh with his wife Rachel and son Cyrus
Elizabeth Baranyai/Sygma/Getty Images
That all changed when Vernon Wayne Howell became the leader of the cult and changed his name to David Koresh. David is a reference to the biblical King David, and Koresh is the biblical spelling of Cyrus the Great, the Persian king who ended the Babylonian captivity. The new David was born to 14-year-old Texas native Bonnie Sue Clark. She barely knew her father, and one of her mother’s later partners beat the boy regularly and brutally, so her grandmother took him in and raised him until he was five. The boy was troubled, had dyslexia, and did poorly, so he was transferred to a remedial class.
Koresh had his first child when he was 19, with a 16-year-old girl. However, she believed that the biological father was unsuitable and refused to see him forever. When David was 20, he found a 15-year-old girl, the daughter of the pastor of the Adventist church he attended with his mother Bonnie. They dated for two years before Koresh decided that God had chosen the pastor’s daughter to be his wife and went to his father to marry her.
The priest responded with a categorical and very harsh refusal, forbade David to approach his daughter, and from that time the parishioners began to despise Koresh for his sexual preoccupation. Therefore, in 1981, the young man went to the schismatics – to Mount Carmel, to the Branch of David. There he first declared himself a prophet. Later – Oh my God.
After an eight-year power struggle that included the use of firearms and axe blows to the head, the newly minted Isa took charge of the farm.
It is not entirely clear how Koresh combined the prophet-king David and the Messiah in himself – Jesus is considered a descendant of the legendary king, but their roles in sacred history have nothing in common. It is also incomprehensible that a person can expect Armageddon (followed by the Second Coming) and at the same time call himself the Messiah, because then the apocalypse has already come and is already over. It is pointless to analyze this nonsense from a theological point of view: the main thing in this theology was a hidden background, the content of which was quite carnal.
Royal harem
King David-Jesus, who came to power, finally managed to turn to what he loved most, sex. For this, Koresh developed a whole ideology. God allegedly revealed to him that the chosen women of the society should bear him a total of 24 children as king. These children will be the 24 elders mentioned in the book of the Apocalypse (4:4) and will rule the “David Branch” for a thousand years after the Second Coming (which will come in the very near future).
One of these chosen women was the younger sister of Koresh’s lawful wife, Michelle Jones. Information about this leaked outside the cult, and in 1992, the Texas Child Protective Services conducted an investigation of the ranch. They found no evidence of sexual intercourse with anyone under the age of 18 (the age of consent in the United States). Later, rumors circulated from Mount Carmel that children there were regularly beaten and humiliated, but again, there were problems with the evidence.
Koresh wasn’t just interested in young girls. He wrote his own “Bible” called “The New World” and it concluded that all the women in the world belonged to him.
Former cult member Marc Breol I rememberedOne day David came to him and asked: “What do you think? Now you know. I will be with you. [твоей женой] To Elizabeth?”
Elizabeth then thought: “Is he going to hand me over to David Koresh? Because if he’s willing, then I’m not.”
In general, according to the teachings of the new Davidian leader, any woman had to have sex with him before she could enter heaven. Koresh regularly chose his partners from among the ranch’s residents over the age of 12, and if they tried to refuse him, he declared that their choice was made by God himself.
In 1992, the Branch Davidians began purchasing not only rifles, which were legal in Texas, but also grenades in large quantities. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) became interested in the activity and soon sent agents to the ranch.
Siege and fire
ATF agents attempt to infiltrate the Branch Davidian site on February 28, 1993.
United States Government
On February 28, 1993, an ATF detachment approached Mount Carmel. The agents planned to serve only a search warrant, but, suspicious of who they were dealing with, they donned helmets and body armor and grabbed assault ladders. The ATF Sheep were protected from the air by three Texas National Guard helicopters; their original role was to distract the cultists. They took up positions at the windows, armed, and prepared to respond.
It is not known who opened fire first, but at the beginning of the battle Koresh was wounded in the arm and stomach. The Davidians managed to wound one agent, but the rest took up positions around the farm and began firing at the windows as several assault teams approached the walls. They managed to get inside, one dead and one wounded. The agents soon found a weapons room whose contents exceeded all expectations. A fierce battle raged around: the sectarians were not afraid of close combat, but killed comrades regularly fell around, although even professional soldiers were not always ready to shoot from a distance of several meters.
Eventually, ATF agents realized that their initial assessment of the situation was wrong and withdrew. Security forces realized that they were not dealing with rural war players, a criminal gang, or a typical religious sect. A well-armed and trained terrorist organization similar to the Taliban (a banned organization in Russia) had established itself on Mount Carmel. The agents attempted to open fire outside the farm, but soon ran out of ammunition. During the day, four people were killed, 16 were injured, and five sectarian fighters were killed on the other side.
Tank near Mount Carmel Farm, 1993
FBI
As a result of the search operation, the FBI took over the siege. At first, Koresh agreed to leave the farm in peace with the cult if his call was broadcast on the radio, but he was deceived. Later, negotiators managed to convince the sectarians to release 19 children aged between 5 months and 12 years, and to keep 98 people in the buildings. At this point, the negotiations stalled: Koresh said he could not surrender to the authorities until he finished writing religious works. Bible scholars involved in the negotiations objected to this: the Apostle Paul wrote his letters from prison, and nothing prevents Koresh from doing the same.
After a week of siege, two groups emerged within the FBI. The first called for stopping this nonsense by storming the farm with tanks. The second wanted to negotiate further, at least to save the children. As a result, they decided to combine both approaches: federal agents had endless discussions with Koresh about God, faith and law, and M3 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles and M1 Abrams tanks circled the farm. They did not open fire to kill, but systematically crushed outbuildings, sectarian cars and barricades, and also regularly drove over the graves of the dead Davidians.
Armageddon “according to Koresh”
Fire at Mount Carmel Farm during the attack, 1993
Shelly Katz/Getty Images
The besieged were cut off from electricity and running water, water tanks were destroyed, and loudspeakers blared pop music, jet plane noises, Buddhist chants, and rabbit death cries at all hours. The tactic worked, and Koresh eventually allowed some of his followers to leave the farm, but only 11 men remained.
On April 19, the final assault began in the form of a combined arms operation. Engineering vehicles cleared the passages, sappers mined the walls, and soldiers threw tear gas and grenades into the holes. The Dawudians tried to stop the armored vehicles with large-caliber rifles, but failed. It was believed that the gas would sooner or later “extinguish” the sectarians with smoke. This did not happen.
Around noon, the dilapidated complex of buildings went up in flames in three places at once. Some believe it was done by FBI agents angered by the resistance, but the FBI stated that the Davidians set fire to the buildings themselves to avoid surrender. Either way, only nine people survived the fire, and Koresh was not among them. 76 people died (86 during the entire siege), including many women and children. David himself and his followers committed suicide.
This event was a shock to America, where the right to hold even the most peculiar religious beliefs was considered inalienable. The Mount Carmel siege inspired Timothy McVeigh to carry out the deadliest terrorist attack in U.S. history (until September 11, 2001) when he bombed a government building in Oklahoma City in 1995, killing 168 people.
Since then, the Branch Davidians have become a vivid example of how dangerous cults can be.
What are you thinking?
Source: Gazeta
Barbara Dickson is a seasoned writer for “Social Bites”. She keeps readers informed on the latest news and trends, providing in-depth coverage and analysis on a variety of topics.