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During the siege of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, television news commentators struggled to avoid chuckling when they reported that cult leader David Koresh promised to reveal to mankind the meaning of the Seven Seals in the Apocalypse (Bible book of Revelation). But the Watchtower Society's second President Joseph Franklin Rutherford had already done that in his book Light (Volume 1, pages 73 and following). Koresh is mentioned, not to imply that Rutherford fell into the same category, nor to connect Jehovah's Witnesses with the heavily armed and violent Branch Davidians, but rather to point out the similarity in claimed authority. Despite occasional disclaimers to the contrary, these leaders both expounded on Scripture as if they had been specially chosen by the divine Author as His representative. Both taught as if their authoritative word would finally put an end to scholarly speculation about the meaning of obscure passages in the Bible. Beyond the Seven Seals, Rutherford went on to teach that the seven angelic trumpet blasts in Revelation chapters 8-11 foretold resolutions HE presented to conventions held between 1922 and 1928, and that the pouring out of the seven bowls of God's wrath in Revelation chapter 16 foretold proclamations HE presented at conventions (Light, Vol. 1, pages 105-227; Vol. 2, pages 19-60. See, for example, Vol. 1, page 106 and Vol. 2, page 21).
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