The Branch Davidians are a religious group originating from the Seventh-day Adventist Church. From its inception, the group inherited Adventism's apocalypticism, in that they believed themselves to be living in a time when Christian prophecies of a final divine judgment were coming to pass.Sound like they wanted to poice to come in...it make david "right" They are best known for the 1993 siege of their Mount Carmel Center near Waco, Texas, by the FBI and the BATF, which resulted in the deaths of eighty-two of the church's members, including head figure David Koresh. However, by the time of the siege, Koresh had encouraged his followers to think of themselves as "students of the Seven Seals" rather than Branch Davidians, while other Branch Davidian factions never accepted his leadership.

History
In 1929, Victor Houteff, a Bulgarian immigrant, claimed that he had a new message for the Seventh-day Adventist Church. It was submitted in the form of a book entitled "The Shepherd's Rod". His claims were not accepted and were considered divisive by the leadership because he pointed out what he saw as their departures from basic church teachings and standards. Therefore, he was disfellowshipped (excommunicated) from the church.

In 1935, Houteff established his headquarters outside Waco, Texas. Up to 1942, his movement was known as the Shepherd's Rod, but when Houteff found it necessary to formally incorporate so members could claim conscientous objector status, he named his association the Davidian Seventh-day Adventists. The term "Davidian" refers to the restoration of the Davidic kingdom. Houteff directed Davidians to focus exclusively on converting Adventists. Under Houteff's heavily typological system, Davidians believed prophesy to foretell a cyclic series of events, described as a spiral, with history returning to prophetically foretell events but each time, advance in terms of cosmological progress.

In 1955, after Houteff's death, a split of this movement formed the Branch Davidian Seventh-day Adventists, headed initially by Benjamin L. Roden. "Branch" refers to the new name of Christ. The group established a settlement outside of Waco, Texas, on the property previously occupied by the Davidian group. In 1977, Benjamin Roden's wife Lois claimed to have a message of her own, one element of which was that the Holy Spirit is feminine in gender, causing much controversy in the group. When Ben Roden died the next year, their son George tried to assume leadership, claiming that he was the rightful prophet of the group, but she beat back his attempt.

In 1981 Vernon Wayne Howell (later renamed David Koresh) joined the group as a regular member. In 1983 Lois Roden allowed Howell to begin to teach his own message, opening the door for him to build a following before their split in early 1984. Lois also faced dissent from Canadian Charles Pace. There was a general meeting at Mt. Carmel of all Branch Davidians over Passover 1984 and the end result was that the group split into several factions, one of which was loyal to Howell. At this time George Roden forced Howell and Pace to leave the property.(He is forced out once. do you think he wanted to go through that again?
Howell took his followers to Palestine, Texas, while Pace went to Gadsden, Alabama. But by 1988, George Roden's support had dwindled, and while he was in jail for contempt of court, Howell took charge of the disputed land in his absence. Meanwhile, Lois Roden had died in 1986, and her will appointed Irmine Sampson, Teresa Moore, and the New York group to republish her literature.

In 1990 Howell changed his name to David Koresh, invoking the biblical Kings David and Cyrus. Koresh centered his teachings around the Seven Seals and his ability as the "Lamb" to open them. Koresh supported his beliefs with detailed biblical interpretation, using the Book of Revelation as the lens through which the entire Bible was viewed


Whaco religious cults are as bad when they are here, or in the middle east.