The Branch Davidians: Oh, My God, They're Killing Themselves!

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Theologian Arnold laments that the FBI did not take the underlying religious issues more seriously. The pull of faith was so strong that some Branch Davidians who escaped wished they had instead been consumed by the flames. "They took that to be a big joke, all that talk about the seven seals," he says. "The seven seals was his language, and if you didn't speak that language, there was no way of showing him what he had to do."

But Jamar and other agents scoff at the notion that either scholars or family members could have succeeded in getting anyone out. "We could have spent seven months allowing this all to happen." As for the Bible experts, "they could have argued religion with him for hours and it wouldn't have done any good. You going to talk someone out of being the Messiah? It's a lot to give up."

In the end, even the fiercest critics could not deny that it was Koresh who placed 25 children in harm's way, who preyed on people who were weak and lonely and hungry for certainty. Certainty he gave them, and abundantly. He was certain of his vision of good and evil, certain of his special insight into the deepest mysteries of faith, certain of an afterlife that promised glory for those who had suffered for their souls. If he is right about that, and there is any justice in it, Koresh has not seen the last of the flames. And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.