In studying millenarian movements many theories have attempted to explain the behavior of past groups who believe the end of the world is soon approaching. Historically, these accounts have been brought to light mostly by second-hand accounts. Yet these movements have continued until the present day, allowing us to collect information about similar millenarian movements through current observations, and comparing them with the societies, events, and people who led these movements in the past. As the year 2000 approaches, the words millennium, antichrist, and Armageddon have become commonplace in our every day lives. While this happening, we are made aware of this shift in our cultural conciseness and compare current movements to past theories of millenarianism in order to better understand the place these beliefs hold in our culture. The fateful events that revealed David Koresh to the world are exciting because the Waco disaster was similar to historical events and enhanced our understanding of what is known about millennial groups. The harshness of the events that occurred there are worth noting for more than their sensationalism. (A)The Waco events demonstrated how our government reacts to movements it sees as threatening to the social norm, and resulted in such dire consequences as to suggest that all the studies that have been done on millenarianism up until now are not considered deeply enough. (B)The available literature on the Waco events also suggests that the prophet status held by David Koresh in relation to the group was powerful enough to overcome societal pressures to conform to more acceptable beliefs. (C)Finally, the Waco believers ultimately had a marked political effect that draws more conservative believers to hold fast to their millennial beliefs. Waco movement had political impact- gained suspicion from government, had power to arouse fear- Why?***Second point to discuss. Such as: the role of prophets in the ___ m...