Victor Tasho Houteff was originally a member of the Branch Seventh-Day Adventists, but on communicating his own reading of the Bible he declared that the teachings of the SDA needed to be reformed. He then split from the group and founded The Shepherd's Rod. The name later changed to The Davidian Seventh-Day Adventist Association.After Houteff's death in 1955 the group was taken over by his wife, but the group fell apart after her prophecy was not fulfilled. A splinter group, however, survived and was known as the Branch Davidians. Ben Roden led this fraction of the group up until his death in 1978, after that his wife, Lois Roden, lead the group.
In 1981 Vernon Howell joined the group, Lois believed that he would be the groups next prophet. In 1988 Howell gained complete control of the Branch Davidian movement, and in 1990 he changed his name to David Koresh. Koresh claimed to be the Lamb from Revelation 5, and believed that it was his task to interpret the secrets of the seven seals, and that if he could do this he would bring about the second coming of Jesus Christ.
Koresh also claimed to be "The Sinful Messiah", and in 1989 he gained complete control over the women of the Mount Carmel community. He wanted to create a new lineage of God's children from his seed. The Branch Davidians became more of a closed community after Koresh predicted that there would be an apocalypse in America. The group began the process of stock piling food and weapons in 1991 - 1992.
Complaints of child abuse reached the outside community of Waco, and on the 28th February 1993, the ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco and Fire arms) received a search warrant to investigate Mount Carmel, but Koresh refused to allow them. Some of the members of the group, Koresh's lieutenants (known as the "Mighty Men") attacked the ATF Agents with fire arms, four of the agents died and 16 of Koresh's followers were injured.
Things were getting dangerous, and in 1993 Janet Reno launched an attack on Mount Carmel, which lasted a month. During this one month siege, psychological warfare was conducted by FBI and ATF agents, determined that the cult would surrender. The siege ended when the Waco compound somehow caught fire, 83 people died including Koresh himself.
We cannot know for certain how the fire started, some theories conclude that the CS tear gas that was used by the FBI somehow caused the fire, others claim that the group barricaded themselves inside the building and set fire to it. A lot of the information about the destruction of Mount Carmel has been kept secret, it was not until 1999 that the information about the tear gas was released.
It seems clear that we may never discover the truth about the end of Koresh's Branch Davidians. But with what we do know, about their practices and so on, I'm afraid that it is almost impossible for me to conclude that the group had any redeeming features. The women in the cult were essentially abused, it almost seems that Koresh used his status as a "prophet" to pursue his own pleasures and needs rather than to be involved in any religious enlightenment. But the women who acted as Koresh's "Spiritual Wives" must have really believed in his claims, else wouldn't they have left? I think that Koresh was strange from the beginning - he was expelled from Newbold College because of his strange beliefs and was removed from the SDA because of preaching about sex and masturbation. I am surprised that anyone trusted him at all after learning about his history!
There is a lot of information about the events at Waco on the link below, there is also a list of other websites that might useful.
Natalie Watkins - 0604967
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