The 1993 Waco Disaster—How Not to Negotiate with Apocalyptic Believers James D. Tabor, retired professor of Religious Studies, UNC Charlotte   In this three-part series James Tabor surveys what happened 30 years ago outside Waco, TX as Federal authorities violently confronted a group of apocalyptic believers who believed that David Koresh, their prophetic leader was a final messianic messenger of the book of Revelation.   Part I: Setting the Scene for a Fifty-One Day Standoff The FBI agents called to Mount Carmel center outside Waco, Texas, on February 28, 1993, can hardly be expected to have packed their Bibles. In retrospect, it would not have been such a bad idea. The news of the bloody shoot-out between agents of the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (BATF) and an obscure religious group known as the Branch Davidians, on the peaceful Sunday morning had been flashed around the world. For months the BATF had planned a “search and arrest” assault on the group based on allegations that they possessed illegal firearms materials and were possibly [...]

As you may know, a number of Volunteers devote their time and talents to the blog, making  it work, succeed, thrive, and grow.  And an important position has now opened up. We have a special need for someone who is skilled in social media of all kinds.   For some time now we have been highly fortunate to have a skilled volunteer taking on this task,, more or less behind the scenes.  She needs now to move on to other things.  Life calls! And now the blog is calling in response.  We need to expand our blog horizons and develop our potential, with the  goal of significantly increasing our membership so as to achieve our dual objectives of spreading expert knowledge about the New Testament and Early Christianity to a wider world and, concomitantly, raising more funds for charity. Our ideal volunteer would be someone experienced, skilled, and creative in posting to social media:  Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and more!  Among other things, the ability to create short clips from existing videos and post to Reels would [...]

As I said in my last post, the definitive doctrine of Purgatory did not exist before the 12th century, even though the basic *idea* had been around for a long time – the idea that even though Christ’s death brought salvation to the world, most people, except for the most holy saints, such as those who had been martyred for their faith, had still to pay for their sins.   By the 13th century Purgatory had become an actual place of torment.  Before then it was not so much a place as a condition of suffering to purge away sins. The question is how early this idea existed.  How long had Christians maintained that suffering was necessary for the sinner – even the believing Christian sinner – before they would be allowed into their eternal bliss in heaven?   The idea is not part of the New Testament, although as we will see in a later post, there are some passages that could be used in support of the view. The first place we find any reference [...]

As I indicated in my previous two posts on the Martyrdom of Perpetua, I'm interested in the question of where the idea of purgatory came from.  Ths idea of purgatory is *widely* misunderstood today; in fact, just about everyone who mentions it to me (including two days ago), doesn't know what it actually is -- including friends who have been Catholic for the entire 70 years of their lives!  (Not to mention the Protestants...) This is how I discussed the issue some years ago when I was working on my book Heaven and Hell: ****************************** Roughly speaking purgatory is a kind of third place, between heaven and hell.  The abject sinners (or those who reject Christ, or whoever you think is destined for punishment) go to hell; the righteous saints go to heaven.  But what about those who will ultimately be saved but who have not lived a good (enough) life?  They go to purgatory.   This has been the standard teaching of the Catholic church since the 12th or 13th century. The classic study of the [...]