Lessons from Waco

1. Gross misinterpretations of Scripture can be presented so persuasively that apparently sincere people can be deceived and led to destruction.

At the Waco compound husbands and other men evidently slept in a dormitory, with the women likewise sleeping apart from their mates. David Koresh claimed that all the women — married or unmarried — were his, and he allegedly slept with up to 19 of them. How could any married believer in his or her right mind consent to this adulterous arrangement? How could any thinking person be convinced that such a claimed Messiah had even the tiniest spark of godliness?

2. Scripture never blends worldliness with godliness.
John wrote that “the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does — comes not from the Father but from the world” — a world that will “pass away” (1 John 2:15-17).

Koresh directed a rock band at the compound and liked an occasional beer. He loved his expensive car and provided other luxuries for himself — but expected his followers to live in Puritan simplicity. Yet his devoted followers appeared to be blind to his worldliness and selfishness!

3. Paul warned Timothy of the time when people would “turn away” from truth and “be turned unto fables” (2 Tim 4:3-4 KJV).

The context speaks of people who would have “itching ears” (v. 3) — a warning especially applicable to those Seventh-day Adventists who are attracted to sensational new interpretations.

4. Genuine “new light” will always harmonize with Scripture (Isa 8:20) and, for Seventh-day Adventists, with explanations such as those found in The Great Controversy.

Wake Up America’s interpretations, like those of the Shepherd’s Rod, require rejection of chapter 15 of The Great Controversy — a chapter that applies Revelation 11:1-13 to the time of the French Revolution back in the late 1800s. Wake Up America also claims that both the leopard-bodied beast and the lamb-horned beast of Revelation 13 are still future. Seventh-day Adventists do well to notice that this claim contradicts both The Great Controversy and the teachings of the church.

Genuine new light will always harmonize with Scripture and with earlier light.

5. The increase of diverse viewpoints about prophecy and about the leadership of the Seventh-day Adventist church makes our God-given organizational structure more important than ever.

Acts 15, along with 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 2, reveals the careful organization of the early Christian church. Effective organization has blessed the Seventh-day Adventist church ever since it was organized in 1863. Some forty years later Ellen White summarized the results:

"What is the secret of our prosperity? We have moved under the orders of the Captain of our salvation. God has blessed our united efforts. The truth has spread and flourished. Institutions have multiplied. ... The system of organization has proved a grand success. ... As we have advanced, our system of organization has still proved effectual" (Testimonies to Ministers, p. 27).

This statement was written during the 1890s — the very decade in which critics of leadership were using the writings of Ellen White in an attempt to prove that the church was so apostate that it had become Babylon (see Testimonies to Ministers, pp. 32-62). In words of a strong pamphlet entitled The Loud Cry — a publication that urged members to come out of the Seventh-day Adventist church — she declared:

"In compiling this work, they have used my name and writings for the support of that which I disapprove and denounce as error. ... I have no hesitancy in saying that those who are urging on this work are greatly deceived" (Testimonies to Ministers, p. 36).

Rowland Nethaway, senior editor of the Waco Tribune Herald, wrote an editorial for the March 5, 1993 issue of his paper that told about research done on the Davidians by Phil Ammons, of Kennewick, Washington. Nethaway reported that Ammons had studied the Davidians for 19 years and had written a book on the sect. He noted, "Seventh-day Adventists have a special interest in the Davidians, Ammons said, because the cult’s sole purpose is to destroy their church. Ammons calls the Davidians parasites since they prey almost exclusively on Seventh-day Adventist members."

The hostile tone found in the publications of a few of today's independent ministries appears to reflect a similar desire to destroy the Seventh-day Adventist church. Generally these, like the Davidians, seek funds and followers "almost exclusively" from the Seventh-day Adventist membership.

6. God has given the "multitude of counselors" principle (Prov 11:14 KJV) to protect His people from unscriptural "new light."
New interpretations are to be submitted to "brethren of experience" with "a humble, teachable spirit" and with "earnest prayer." If these brethren "see no light in it" urged Ellen White, "yield to their judgment" (Testimonies for the Church, 5:293).

This principle applies equally to methods. Currently, for example, one independent ministry is rashly displaying advertisements for The Great Controversy on large billboards that also attack the Pope. Not only has the "multitude of counselors" principle been disregarded, but warnings such as the following have been ignored:
"Let not one word be expressed to stir up the spirit of retaliation in opposers of the truth. Let nothing be done to arouse the dragonlike spirit, for it will reveal itself soon enough" (Selected Messages, 3:403)

Ellen White has warned that one "indiscreet, high-tempered, stubborn-willed man" can do so much damage that "all the force of Seventh-day Adventists" would not be able to counteract his presumption and fanaticism (The Ellen G. White 1888 Materials, 2:482).

7. All through its history, the worst enemies of the Seventh-day Adventist church have come from within.
The apostle Paul, a recognized leader of the early Christian church, was severely criticized by dissidents of his day. He took much of the last four chapters of 2 Corinthians to expose these critics, calling them "false apostles and deceitful workers" (2 Cor 11:13).

The suggestion that new interpretations be submitted "to brethren of experience" was given in 1885 to deal with a pastor who thought he had new light. It appeared in a message entitled "Deceitfulness of Sin," which included this warning about dangerous enemies: "The worst enemies we have are those who are trying to destroy the influence of the watchmen upon the wall of Zion" (Testimonies, 5:294). This came three years after the 1892 warning in the Signs of the Times that "false prophets have been the most dangerous enemies Christianity has had" (July 18, 1892).

The worst enemies: those attempting to destroy the influence of the watchmen, the God-chosen leadership. The most dangerous enemies: the date-setters, the false prophets. Never in the history of the Seventh-day Adventist church have warnings such as these been more relevant!

8. The Waco tragedy illustrates the importance of administering appropriate discipline when members urge unscriptural views and when critics attack the church and call it Babylon.
When, as in Houteff’s case, the offender rejects counsel, it is vital that he be disfellowshipped.

Houteff was disfellowshipped about two years after he urged his false views about the 144,000. Vernon Howell, who later changed his name to David Koresh, was disfellowshipped two years after he was baptized. These past actions harmonize with the Seventh-day Adventist Church Manual requirement that "adhering to or taking part in a divisive or disloyal movement or organization" is reason for church discipline and possible disfellowshipping.

How glad we can be that the congregations who disfellowshipped these men did so! Had Koresh still been a member of the Seventh-day Adventist church, the fallout upon the Seventh-day Adventist church from Waco could have been a hundred times worse. Administered properly, church discipline protects the good name of the church, warns other church members of danger, and no less importantly, appeals to the erring to reform and to come again into harmony with the church.