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GALACTIC NEWS FROM THREE ANGELS
#14
WORSHIPING AT WACO
Her story is found just in a book appendix . . . and
it’s some of the toughest reading I’ve ever done. Diana Ishikawa — and
that’s not her real name — was a disciple of the late David Koresh in
the ill-fated Waco compound. Just weeks after the Branch Davidian empire
went up in flames, she agreed to be interviewed by Christian writer Richard
Abanes, co-author of a book entitled Prophets of the Apocalypse.
I thank God she’s alive today, but several things hurt almost beyond description.
First, she became one of the many “wives” of this cult leader. Diana was
Number Six, and the first girl to become pregnant by Koresh. As he spun
his mad theologies about the daughters of Moab and the “Bride of Christ,”
and how he alone should possess all the women in his flock, this 20-year-old
girl finally agreed to give herself to him. Most of his other “wives”
were much younger; in fact, in a rare moment of humor she admits: “I was
the old lady of the bunch.”
The thing that hurts on a rather personal level — and of course, we all
mourn the loss of the 86 cult victims — is that this young girl, Diana
Ishikawa, was seduced into the Davidian nightmare right out of my own
Adventist church family. David and Debbie Bunds: also former Seventh-day
Adventists. Mark Brault, an Adventist. Many sincere Christian people,
men and women who loved to read their Bibles and pray, went down this
dark and fatal road.
Knowing this, it makes it difficult to pick up a Bible today and return
to the very book of the Bible that seemed to cause such confusion to these
religious devotees. Because David Koresh did a lot of reading from the
book of Revelation. He expounded doctrine to his Waco flock from its 22
chapters. He was a King James Version-only kind of teacher. David Bunds
told these same interviewers later:
“He delivered [doctrine] well. He’s charismatic. He speaks with authority.
He talks like he really knows what he’s talking about. He can quote the
Bible profusely. He will barrage you. He’s probably ten times better than
the most elite Jehovah’s Witness. . . . He can quote entire chapters,
especially from the Old Testament prophecies. He’ll quote entire chapters
of Isaiah just right off the top of his head. He’ll barrage you and just
overwhelm you.”
The present-tense references in this segment help us
realize that the interview happened while the Waco standoff was still
going on. But here is a group of people who were devoutly religious. In
a sense, they were doing what these three Angels in Revelation chapter
14 are talking about: they were worshiping. They were thick into worship
in a way, friend, that you and I have probably never experienced. Worship
was a 24-hour-a-day, no-holds-barred commitment for David Koresh and his
followers.
What does this all mean? Well, we look back to that April 19, 1993 fire,
and we realize that there’s such a thing as true worship, and there’s
such a thing as false worship. Friend, IT IS NOT ENOUGH TO WORSHIP. And
even these precious people, these well-meaning, devoted Bible students,
fell into a blinding and fatal trap of worshiping WRONG.
It’s risky to look again at the message of Angel Number Two, and realize
that in the sweaty, marathon nighttime study sessions in Waco, Texas,
David Koresh probably read this same verse. But let’s trust in God to
protect us as we study His sure Word. Here’s that message, found in verse
8:
“Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great, which made all the nations drink
the maddening wine of her adulteries.”
Well, of course we can look back now and realize that
Waco itself is a fallen legacy of ashes and death. But I’m sure that Koresh
told his followers that Babylon was what they had come out OF, that the
Adventist Church, and the other Christian churches where he’d recruited
them . . . that those churches were Babylon — and thank God, he, David
Koresh, a.k.a. Vernon Howell, a.k.a. “The Lamb of Revelation” had come
along just in time to rescue them.
Well, let me tell you something. I’m not here today to try to defend my
church or your church — or to attack the Branch Davidian saga — as being
Babylon or NOT-Babylon. Obviously, none of us would ever think we were
dwelling in Babylon. We’re sure we’re all right, that our faith movement
is part of the New Jerusalem. But what a sobering thing it is, for all
of us, across the board, to read these three invitations to worship God,
the Creator of heaven and earth. And to also read a warning, a get-out-now!
alarm against staying in a system that is devotedly worshiping . . . but
worshiping wrong.
I remember a line from a marvelous old book entitled The Knowledge of
the Holy, by A. W. Tozer. He says this in the preface:
“It is impossible to keep our moral practices sound
and our inward attitudes right while our idea of God is erroneous or inadequate.
If we would bring back spiritual power to our lives, we must begin to
think of God more nearly as He is.”
That’s an incredible thought, isn’t it? If we have
wrong concepts of God, our worship will be wrong. Never forget that in
the Old Testament, Babylon was a worshiping place. They did worship. Daniel
chapter three tells the unforgettable story about the great image Nebuchadnezzar
set up on the Plain of Dura. And . . . very next thing, he wanted to force
the entire kingdom to bow down and worship that image. It’s a crucial
Babylon story, with huge implications for those of us who read Revelation
here in the 21st century. More about that tomorrow. But when the Word
of God tells us that Babylon is a fallen power, it’s referring to the
fact that false worship is involved. Bowing down is involved . . . but
to the wrong authority.
Here’s just a bit more from Dr. Tozer, and this is from Chapter One of
his book, which bears this title: “Why We Must Think Rightly About God.”
“What comes into our minds when we think about God
is the most important thing about us. The history of mankind will probably
show that no people has ever risen above its religion, and man’s spiritual
history will positively demonstrate that no religion has ever been greater
than its idea of God.”
So friend, what is our protection today? I could tell
you here to simply listen to me: that I would define God for you, that
I would tell you what Babylon is, and how to get out of it. “Stick with
me,” I could say . . . and that would be the exact same formula for death-by-fire
that David Koresh used.
Part of our protection is found just one verse earlier, in the message
from the first Angel. “Worship God,” the Angel says. “Fear God. Worship
the Creator. Give glory to the Creator.” The great mistake at Waco was
when devotion shifted away from God, and came to be directed toward a
human being. In Babylon, the object of worship was that great golden image
standing 90 feet high; actually, Nebuchadnezzar was seeking worship for
himself, and using the image just as a symbol to direct the worship of
the masses toward him. For David Koresh, the same goal: worship of self
instead of God. He was the Seventh Angel, the Living Prophet of God, the
Lamb of God, the re-embodying of Christ. And he accepted worship, both
sexual and spiritual.
So friend, this is the challenge we face on October 3, 2002. To keep worship
focused and centered on God.
You know, just as David was crafting this script a few weeks back — in
fact, he was writing the last sentence I just shared — his secretary brought
in the mail and put it on his desk. With a letter from Thomas Nelson Publishers:
E-Quake!, the envelope teaser announced. “Unlocking the Book of Revelation,”
by Pastor Jack Hayford. Brand new videos that explore the same messages
you and I have been cautiously digging into these past three weeks.
Now, is that safe? Does Pastor Hayford know what Babylon is, and what
true worship is versus false? He’s just a mere man, and I’m a lot more
“mere” than he is, believe me. How safe can we be in our study?
Well, we all have the same security system as we study: a relentless focus
on the worship of God. God the Creator of heaven and earth. And the worship
of Jesus Christ, who is the proper, and the only, subject of the book
of Revelation. In fact, Pastor Hayford’s letter has an explicit commitment
regarding “the author’s faithfulness in drawing the listener back to the
true focal point of the study — Jesus.”
Are you worried here in these last days that you, too, might be led astray,
that there’s a Waco tombstone out there with your name on it? Do you get
afraid sometimes that, in all the confusion of religious theories about
Revelation, you might end up marching INTO Babylon instead of out of it?
Friend, if your focus is on Jesus Christ, and if your commitment in worship
is to fall on your knees before God the Creator, then YOU DO NOT NEED
TO HAVE THAT FEAR! Take comfort from the wonderful Good News, the saving
news, that comes for all of us at the conclusion of the Third Angel’s
Message:
“This calls for patient endurance on the part of the
saints who obey God’s commandments and remain faithful to Jesus.”
And that’s it. Obedience to God the Creator. And remaining
faithful to Jesus. That’s true worship. And that’s everlasting security.
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