What happens if a church leader goes bad and the members are deceived? What if they go along with a jihad-like action?
A table of links to the chapters is a the end of this chapter.
Charles Russell leaned back in his chair and studied the chart spread out on his desk. Three months of research had been condensed to one page. His theory was correct. The cults had many things in common, all too many to ignore. Each had started with a very few members. They had grown, matured, become dogmatic and had ultimately come to a fatal confrontation with civil or military forces. Charles noted that in almost every case the leader could have avoided the fatal confrontation. Most could have avoided it by just a little prudence, by toning down the rhetoric, by not offending the authorities. Koresh knew the ATF was coming in time to flee. He had time to back off. He chose to stand and fight. Like many other apocalyptical leaders he predicted a confrontation, possibly as a ploy to cement the group together, it was them against the outside world. Koresh may have actually needed the confrontation to keep the group intact! Russell was convinced none of the leaders really wanted a confrontation but in each case but when the confrontation came, the leader was either blinded or bound by his own rhetoric. When the leader believed what was intended for consumption of the masses he was condemned to fail. Some of the names were familiar, Joseph Smith, Jim Jones, others were obscure. In every case, the leader was killed but the cult continued in spite of the leader’s death; even in the case of Jim Jones where a very large number of the followers died with him. Smith’s death made him a martyr. And Smith’s following greatly increased after his death. A new leader always rose to fill the vacancy and inherit what had been passed on to him, generally one of greater power. “But what if the leader could survive the confrontation and inherit the position of greater power, or maybe appear to come back from the dead?” he mused, running the possibilities through his mind. “Jesus did that and look at his following.” What about a modern day resurrection? He smiled and closed his notes for the evening. As he dropped into bed the plan formed in his mind. He would achieve what others had failed to do.
An Table of Contents – Links to Chapters.
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