LECTURE FOCUSES ON KORESH'S TEACHINGS

Since the fire that ended the lives of dozens of Branch Davidians and their leader David Koresh, government officials have been pointing fingers at each other trying to pin the blame of the inferno on someone.

Craig Nessan, pastor of the St. Mark Lutheran Church in Cape Girardeau, places the blame on the misleading nature of Koresh's teachings.

On Thursday night, he delivered a lecture entitled "When Faith Turns Fatal: David Koresh and Misreadings of Revelations."

"Several labels have been attached to the persona of (Koresh) since the tragedy of April 19," Nessan said. "Among those have been psychopath, paranoid and megalomaniac.

"I choose to lean toward the theory that he perhaps suffered from acute narcissistic personality disorder."

Nessan said that there are numerous "world view" religions that share the Branch Davidian's apocalyptic view of religion, but they fall short of carrying their beliefs to the extreme to which Koresh did.

"In the last six years alone, there have been three waves I know about right here in Cape Girardeau where people have predicted and prepared for Armageddon," Nessan said. "This notion of apocalyptic reasoning has been alive and well since the early days of the New Testament."

Koresh rose to power among the Branch Davidians in 1987. In 1990, Koresh changed his name from his birth name, Vernon Howell.

"He chose his name very deliberately," Nessan said. "David was after the Israeli king, from whose line the Messiah would arise. Koresh is from Cyrus, the Persian king, Savior to the Israeli exiles from Babylon."

Nessan said that there are three common characteristics of world-view religions.

"First they must believe that a magical connection can be made between the scriptures and modern-day events," Nessan said. "They draw events from contemporary history to parallel those foretold in the Book of Revelations."

Second, there is a sense of dualism in world-view groups. They believe that they are the forces of God, representatives of good, defendants of truth; they are opposing the forces of Satan, representatives of evil, defenders of lies, according to the speaker.

"Koresh's followers felt that they were the defenders of truth, battling the evil forces of the government," Nessan said. "This feeling becomes absolutistic when people believe that they will sacrifice their lives or take the lives of others to be true to God."

The final component is the charismatic leader, as Koresh was to the Davidians.

"A person like Koresh is personable, intelligent, self-confident and has an aura of assurance about him," Nessan said. "(Koresh) told his followers that he was the Lamb of God; that it was his responsibility to open the Seven Seals."

But Nessan said that the most tragic element of the whole situation was the misinterpretation of the Book of Revelations.

"So many people will read Revelations and ignore the historical context of the book," Nessan said. "Only when it is put in that context should the book be taken literally."

The book was written sometime between 200 B.C. and 400 A.D., during a time of Jewish/Christian apocalyptic writings.

"The Christians were being persecuted by the Romans when the book was written by a man named John, in a Roman prison," Nessan said. "Revelations was supposed to give hope to the Christian faithful in prison and to those who were dying for their religious beliefs."

Nessan said that the primary references in Revelations are to persons and places at the time the book was written.

"Every period since then has experienced many of the calamities of the first century famine, death, pestilence, wars," Nessan said. "And as long as those things continue to happen, there will be people who will continue to extrapolate, enumerate and predict the end of the world.

"The potential for the misuse of Revelations is great," Nessan said. "Especially for those who do not understand its origin."