Branch Davidians
A painting of the Branch Davidian flag
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| Founder | |
|---|---|
| Benjamin Roden | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Branch Davidian Seventh Day Adventists | |
| Mount Carmel | 12
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| Scriptures | |
| Isaiah 9:7, Ezekiel 9, Hosea 1–2, Micah 6:9, Micah 7:14, Matthew 20, Revelation 7:6, Revelation 13, Revelation 14 | |
The Branch Davidians (also known as "The Branch") are a religious group that originated in 1955 from a schism in the Davidian Seventh-day Adventists ("Davidians"), a reform movement that began as an offshoot from the Seventh-day Adventist Church ("Adventists") around 1930. Some of those who accepted the reform message had been removed from membership of the Seventh-day Adventist Church because of their supplemental teachings. Today, the original Davidian Seventh-day Adventists and the Branch Davidian Seventh-day Adventists are two different and distinct groups. The doctrinal beliefs differ on such teachings as the Holy Spirit and His nature, the feast days and requirements, and who had the prophetic office since Victor Houteff's death. From its inception in 1930, the reform movement believed themselves to be living in a time when Bible prophecies of a final divine judgment were coming to pass as a prelude to Christ's Second Coming.
In 1993 the ATF, FBI, and Texas National Guard raided one of their properties for suspected weapons violations. Once the Branch Davidians met the raid with gunfire they were laid siege for 51 days. The siege ended with a raid which resulted in the deaths of the Branch Davidians' leader, David Koresh, as well as 82 other Branch Davidian men, women, and children, and four ATF agents.
In 1929 Victor Houteff, a Bulgarian immigrant and a Seventh-day Adventist Sabbath School teacher in a local church in Southern California, claimed that he had a new message for the entire church. He presented this message in a book, The Shepherd's Rod: The 144,000—A Call for Reformation. The Adventist leadership rejected Houteff's message as contrary to the Adventists' basic teachings and disfellowshipped Houteff and his followers. However, there was some controversy over the method the leadership took to disfellowship Houteff.
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