DO 2859 4/93

(Dad & Mama's initial comments upon hearing about the Waco tragedy:)

1. THIS TRAGIC ENDING OF THE BRANCH DAVIDIANS shows the System still has burnings!—Not at the stake, but the more modern way. It shows they're not afraid to still do it! They're not ashamed to torture & burn what they consider heretics! The System is just as cruel as ever, just as cruel as the Roman Empire or any of them! I'm amazed they would have the gall & the nerve to do such an awful thing! Even if the FBI didn't set the fire, the gassing was awful enough! And even if the Davidians themselves set the fire‚ it was the American government which forced them into it.

2. So they decided to burn'm alive! It shows you what the U.S. government is like—they have no shame, no fear—to go ahead & do something like that right before the eyes of the whole World! And they've done that before. They did it to a Black commune called MOVE in Philadelphia in 1985. They meant to burn just their house, but instead they burned down the whole neighbourhood, leaving 250 people homeless!—An entire block of homes! The mayor of Philadelphia really got it for that, & the police did too.

3. Boy oh boy‚ what the System is guilty of! They wanted that compound to burn! It's just the same as burnings at the stake! And whether the FBI set the fire or not, they precipitated it! (Mama: They didn't even get the fire department there until the whole place was almost burned to the ground.) Yes, using as an excuse that "there are explosives in there & it would be too dangerous for the fire department to come."

4. Well‚ they've robbed the Devil of his victims, who have now gone to be with the Lord instead of having to go to court & to jail. (Mama: What a testimony against the System! I'll bet they're all in their huddles now in their secret chambers at the very highest levels trying to figure out how to cover it all up.) Yes, trying to figure out what kind of excuses to give. And through it they're sending a warning to the other cults: "If you don't give up, we'll burn you down, too!"

5. But it's going to backfire on them! People believe what they want to believe. Many‚ of course, will think the government did it with justification & that the Davidians deserved it‚ but I think (at least I hope!) that most Christians will be horrified at it! It's a warning to Christians of what extremes the System will go to in order to suppress minor religions. (Mama: I wonder if Christians have gotten to the point yet where they can be outraged at this atrocity, because a lot of the Christians are still fighting the cults.) Well, they're going to reap what they're sowing.

6. I'm so glad the Lord took Koresh! He was so merciful to him. Thank the Lord, it seems like He's taken most of them quickly. (Mama: They've endured so much torture. If they'd gotten out of there, they would've had to endure months & months more in jail & hearings.) You can bet the government's not going to take the blame, it's too horrifying! They'll say the Davidians set themselves on fire & that they committed suicide. (Mama: In fact, we just heard a report to that effect, that they've already blamed it on the Branch Davidians.) And you can bet your boots they're going to try to hush up those survivors & not give them a chance to tell the truth! I hope Koresh's attorneys will be attorneys for the survivors. But the System befriends itself, & many attorneys are part of the System, unless they're unusual, like ours. (Mama: Thank the Lord there are still some courageous, idealistic men & women who are willing to make the sacrifices necessary to fight for just causes.)

7. If the government will stoop to such dirty tricks, think of what our enemies might try—shooting, psychological warfare, gassing, maybe even burning! As far as we know, no one spoke out loudly against the torture the authorities were inflicting on those poor people—physical, mental, emotional & psychological!—Cutting off their basic necessities, depriving them of sleep & privacy & peace of mind by flooding them with lights day & night, & barraging them with constant horror noise—the squeal of animals being slaughtered, the buzzing of dentist drills, the shrieking of sirens, the droning of Tibetan chants & all kinds of evil noises! That kind of thing can drive you insane!

8. That should come under the classification of "cruel & unusual punishment" that the U.S. Constitution forbids! It was sound torture‚ noise torture!—And yet nobody even objected. (Mama: The government obviously condoned it, & it was probably a test to see how much they could get away with. If the public accepted that, then that meant they could keep going & do even more!)—And worse! They did the same thing with Noriega‚ & that's why the priests in the Vatican Embassy in Panama finally persuaded him to leave. They couldn't stand it any more!

9. Well, I'm sure somebody must've finally said something against the government's tactics, but the news media doesn't publicise that part. The AC news media has gotten to be so much one voice now, especially in defending their new U.S. administration. And especially when the government is doing what the ACs want them to do, the news media is not going to speak out against them or publicise the voices who do. The Branch Davidian members who came out earlier have never been able to give their inside story of what it was like in the first attack, although they were there! It shows you how the AC media can hush things up. They sure don't want their government blamed for it. Both attacks were an atrocity, & the government will never dare take the blame! It's too atrocious! Too horrible! It's a good example of what we can expect from that AC-controlled government.

10. "The Lord hath given & the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the Name of the Lord."—Job 1:21. If the Davidians breathed in the smoke, they probably went quickly. In fact‚ that's how most people die in fires, from smoke inhalation, not actual burning. (Mama: I guess that's the mercy of the Lord. They endured so much‚ they really went through a lot of torture, so thank the Lord He took them.) They would've had to endure a lot more if they'd survived. Thank You Lord that You took them instead of letting the Devil have them. Frankly, I believe the Lord probably let this accident happen in order to deliver them.

11. What the media would love to say & the government would love to claim is that the Davidians set themselves on fire. (Mama: Yes, so they could exonerate themselves from their original attack by saying they were trying to save them from a mass suicide!) They've got all their answers planned out: They're saying it was non-flammable gas, it couldn't possibly catch on fire or explode! They're saying it was non-toxic, that it couldn't possibly hurt anybody that much. They're saying they actually saw some of the Davidians setting the fire. And since the FBI were the only ones at the scene, who was there to argue with them?—Only a handful of those "evil, crazy people" who managed to survive their onslaughts‚ who have been "brainwashed" & whom no one would believe anyway. The government is such a liar! Tear gas can ignite fires, & tear gas can poison & even cause death! And why would the Branch Davidians want to be burning themselves to death?—If they wanted to die, they could have much more easily used firearms‚ they were all supposedly such good marksmen.

12. Well‚ we were praying the Lord would solve the situation‚ & I guess this is the way He chose to do it. Thank You Lord that their ordeal is over. Thank You Lord they've gone to be with You, Jesus! Praise the Lord! Thank You Lord! (Mama: I guess even if David Koresh thought he was Jesus, the Lord will somehow straighten that out & He'll still accept him, don't you think?) I think they certainly sound like they loved the Lord. (Mama: I guess they'll just go to a place where the Lord can train them the right way.) I'm not going to worry about that, I'm sure the Lord's taking care of them. They're certainly in a place a lot better than where they were. I'd certainly trust God more than Man. I just pity the ones who are still alive, who are going to have to suffer Man's injustice. They're probably going to be sorry they didn't burn with the rest!

13. Thank God their ordeal is over! I'm sure they're in a happier place than they were. The Lord loves His people, & God can take care of the FBI. They're going to regret this. (Mama: Maybe some Christians will say that God was judging David Koresh & his followers because they got so off the track & thought he was Jesus, if reports to that effect can be believed.) Well, that's quite possible. Nevertheless, I don't think just being wrong doctrinally is a mortal sin.—If so, there are going to be an awful lot of church people who'll go to Hell! Ha! (Mama: But calling yourself Jesus, if indeed he did, is a little more than just being wrong doctrinally, don't you think? That's a pretty big mistake!) Honey, let's leave that up to the Lord. I wouldn't blame the people that he's deceived, & I don't think he necessarily deliberately deceived them. I think he was probably deluded himself by misinterpretation of the Scripture. Thank the Lord, the Lord's been good to us, we're preaching the Truth & we're doing the right things, not stacking up arms & shooting government agents!—Which shows that that type of behaviour certainly doesn't pay off!

14. At least some people are calling it a mistake, a mishap, but I think most Americans are pretty hard-hearted & will be glad they got rid of the cult & the problem. (Mama: And the dumb Christians probably still won't get the point! They're so against cults themselves, they don't have any idea that they're the next prey. They hate the cults almost more than anybody & are some of their most vicious attackers.)

15. I think it was the Lord's mercy on the Davidians, to take them quickly & save them from having to go to jail‚ & the children from being put in ungodly foster homes. He took them out of that whole mess quickly. They probably died of smoke inhalation without it having to be too painful. Thank You Lord that You let them be snuffed out quickly, like a candle, caught up to be with You, where they won't suffer any more! Thank You Lord that the roasted corpses the government agents will find are nothing but their old earthly dust, & they've gone on to their heavenly bodies! Thank You Lord! We believe it!

16. The Lord is going to judge the whole World on their attitude toward this event!—Whether they're sorry & feel bad, or whether they just think it was "good riddance of bad rubbish." I'm sure the vast majority of people were glad it happened. Well‚ I am too, but for different reasons. I believe the Lord let it happen & let them go through the fire to be with Him, so He could comfort them.—And also so He could straighten out David Koresh's Biblical interpretation, so he won't lead any more people astray.

17. He must have been a real soul-winner! Apparently a lot of people who met him said they got won or nearly got won after talking to him.—Even some 10:36ers. I must say, he was certainly a sacrificial lamb & they sure put him through the fire. It's funny‚ that expression came to me when I first heard about it & was praying—"sacrificial lambs." Their bodies were taken that their spirits might be saved.

18. Thank You Lord that You took them out of that hell that the Devil was giving them! The Devil tried to put them through some real hell before they left with all that noise-making & persecution they were getting‚ & finally actual fire! But that was all the Devil could do, destroy their bodies.—The Lord took their spirits! So they're with Him now, thank the Lord, & they'll never have any more of that kind of torture again!

19. Don't tell me this modern civilisation doesn't have its torture! All that noise-making was torture, even playing Tibetan chants, of all things! They were just doing everything they could to annoy them, it's horrible! The System sure fulfilled what Koresh prophesied about them, & what they'd go through before they died. I consider they were martyrs, God bless them!—And He has, He's taken them where their enemies can't torture them any more. And those evil people who were responsible for the deaths of so many people in such a fiery way will be tortured by their own consciences from now on!—And Hell!

20. They're trying to humiliate Christians as much as they can. They put the survivors in chains. There must be a standard order out by the ACs that any Christians that are arrested should be put in chains, like they did to Jimmy Bakker. "These dangerous criminals, we've got'm all chained up now!" They call the compound a "crime scene" & say David Koresh was a criminal.

21. I believe the story of one of the survivors who said the FBI tanks started the fire! He said the tank that was knocking down the front door & busting the windows knocked over a kerosene lamp in the room above, & that's what started the fire. Of course, the FBI agents swear that they had snipers that saw Koresh's people lighting fires at both ends. They're such liars, they'll say anything to save themselves. I wouldn't be surprised if it was their own FBI men who set those fires, if that was the case!

22. The FBI had a battering ram hitting their front door‚ tearing it down, then smoke came out of the top story‚ right above where the battering ram was doing its work. It seemed like the FBI had done some kind of damage & set the place on fire! And sure enough, out came the flames! The place was just a tinderbox, all cheap wooden construction.

23. The nerve of that FBI man to say the Davidians had an escape & they could have gone down into that buried bus, & that it was "nice & cool down there!" Can you imagine an inferno like that burning over your head? They're such liars! Any engineer could tell you that couldn't be. The heat was so tremendous from up above, it would have burned them alive down there, or sucked out all the oxygen & suffocated them. (Peter: It was interesting that Koresh's lawyer said that the tanks had also damaged the back of the building so much that nobody could get out!) That's the way the flames were blowing, so nobody could get out the back, & they'd made a total mess of the front. So they were trapped!

24. Imagine, they had no lights, & they'd put up bales of hay in front of all the windows & doors for protection from the gunfire & the elements‚ & they were using lanterns for light. What a set–up! There's no way they could have prevented a fire. And the FBI weren't trying in any way to stop the fire once it started. They waited until the place was nearly burned down to send for the fire trucks! I think they wanted to do that. I think they wanted to get rid of them, the whole bunch! (Peter: A nice convenient way to burn up all the evidence.)—And save the money that all the court cases would have cost if they'd come out. A couple of people suggested that the FBI was running low on its budget for this project so they just wanted to end it quickly.

25. It was good to hear somebody sticking up for them—those dear attorneys! Even though Koresh & his followers are with the Lord, somebody's got to defend them now, so God bless those lawyers! That was wonderful to hear somebody telling the truth, when all the rest of them are lying. Even Clinton came out saying, "It was Koresh's fault. He killed those children, we didn't do it!" Those politicians will say anything to get themselves off the hook!

26. Did you see that poll in which 73% of the American public thought it was the best thing to have done? It shows you how hard-hearted the Americans are! I think the average American was glad it was over & glad they burned'm all up & felt "he deserved it," blaming it on Koresh. No matter what you guys do, remember, they'll all be blaming it on me!

27. Well, they're going to get theirs one of these days, except they will be ashes under our feet.—Mal.4:3; Rev.3:9. That Philadelphian Prophecy was the most amazing thing! (See ML#695.) Imagine, three different prophets who didn't even know me, prophesied that over me in three different places! The first time was when I was praying, lying prostrate on the floor, & a young man laid his hands on my head & prophesied the passage to the church of Philadelphia. Another time when I was just visiting a preacher who was showing Fred & me his church, another totally unknown guy walked up & gave the exact same Scripture. And then I was kneeling & praying in some other church, another meeting, & another guy walks up & says the same thing! Three places, three totally unknown strangers‚ the same exact message!

28. I think the reason the AC media have put Koresh's lawyer, Dick DeGuerin, on their shows was to try to discredit him. People believe what they want to believe. Their minds are made up. Thank God, I hope the Lord's people believe the Truth. Bless DeGuerin, Lord‚ & help him to stick to his guns & contradict all that propaganda!

29. The U.S. government is stumbling all over itself to whitewash the whole thing! They're such liars! They're deliberately & obviously trying to cover up & whitewash & excuse themselves, because what they did was horrible!—Damning those people to a fiery death! With all that tear gas & smoke & windows blocked & fallen beams from the tanks ramming—knocking in the walls, knocking down the stairs—those poor people were trapped inside & couldn't even find their way out! The government is just lying when they say the Davidians started that fire themselves. It's ridiculous!

30. They can tell any kind of lies they want to hide their perfidy. It shows that it's already an anti-Christ government with all the horrors pictured in Revelation already in progress!

31. The System can do anything! They've got the guns & they're cruel! It's a time of Tribulation & they can do anything they want to, except what God prevents. They're going to try to crush that whole thing & the memory of it so there won't be people still sticking up for the Davidians.

32. (Mama: The tragedy in Waco couldn't have been a more vivid picture of the Tribulation! It's like a forecast of things to come.) Yes, "Just go in there & torture them first & then burn'm alive!" I mean, they couldn't have tortured them any more! (Mama: Yes, they cut them off from the press, from the outside. They cut off even their basic amenities‚ like their electricity‚ & their tanks even smashed the children's bicycles & toys!) And when they cut off their electricity, they cut off their water too, because they had their own water system run by pumps from a storage tank. You can imagine how horrible it was, & they couldn't go outside to go to the toilet. (Mama: It's incredible how many people stuck by Koresh & didn't turn & backslide. Even knowing how strong people can be in their faith, I'm still amazed how they stuck under those kinds of circumstances.) Well, it's sure a big sample of the Tribulation!

33. Those Waco people certainly must've been doing something right, or they wouldn't have gotten so much persecution! Frankly, I think David Koresh was a little off his rocker, because a lot of the things he said don't even make sense. It's amazing that people would even go for that kind of guy, but I think he was well-meaning. He just had his own interpretation of the Scriptures, like a lot of other preachers do.

34. The faces of those evil demons that kept excusing & alibiing the government's actions were sort of flat. It's hard to express it, but they gave you a totally worldly, cruel feeling. It shows you how demon-possessed men in government like that can be, so totally cruel & without feeling.

35. The government was totally cruel & heartless! Even the Davidians' lawyers were astonished at how the government went ahead & just pushed through their attack & caused the disaster. No matter how you look at it, the government caused it!—Whether the Davidians deliberately set the fires & committed mass suicide, or whether it was an accident caused by the tanks, whatever it was, the FBI caused it! It started suddenly right over that tank that was shoving itself into the building. That was the first thing I thought of, that the tanks were causing the building to catch fire.

36. The whole American culture is violent & built on violence!—Their government‚ their crime, their wars, everything. It is the most violent nation on Earth, yet they've got themselves so fooled they claim to be the most peaceful‚ democratic nation on Earth. They're so churchy, so self-righteous, such hypocrites! The church people promote the violence.—The wars & harsh government & cruel treatment of any religious groups that aren't like them.

37. The enemies of David Koresh—the FBI, the AC media‚ Clinton, etc.—all look like snakes‚ & they are snakes! They're children of the Devil, the Serpent, all liars, like their father the Devil!—John 8:44. Boy oh boy, the Tribulation is here! Talk about a police state! Where could those survivors possibly be tried, in what court, where there wouldn't be irresistible pressure on the judge or the jury from the government?—Everybody from the president, the FBI & law enforcement officials pressuring them to convict them. Where could those people ever get a decent trial? And the survivors are now chained & guarded & treated as common prisoners, jail birds, criminals! Who's going to take their word against the government's? The U.S. has already got an Antichrist government, & that's Clinton!

38. Thank the Lord, we can see the Lord too in all of this, & He's working! Lord, just one with Thee is a majority. "And though this World with devils filled should threaten to undo us, we will not fear for God hath willed His Truth to triumph through us!"

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family