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The Seventh Day Adventists are a denomination of Christianity that recognize Saturday as the "Sabbath," and follow similar practices to that of Evangelical Christians.
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Victor Houteff, a devout Seventh-Day Adventist, wrote a manuscript called, "The Shepard's Rod" which detailed his intepretations of end time prophecies. It was widely criticized among Adventists.
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After being disfellowshipped by the Adventists, Houteff created his own group called "The Shepherd's Rod."
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A 100+ acre piece of property was purchased for the use of the group. A compound was built that housed more than 100 people.
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The death of Victor caused a major shift in the Shepherd's Rod group, causing multiple mini-groups to split off on their own.
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Benjamin Roden, a member of the Shepherds Rod, started to claim that he was receiving messages from God about the end times.
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After taking a leadership role following her husbands death, Florence Houteff predicted that the end times would begin and end between November of 1955 and April 22, 1959. During this period, Ben Roden, not believing in Florence, broke away from Shepherds Rod and Formed the Branch Davidians.
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The predicted events never occurred and The Shepherds Rod lost all credibility. At this point, the Branch Davidian ideology started to increase in popularity.
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After Roden's death in 1978, the title of leadership was passed around between a few different people. His wife, Lois, immediately became leader. When she died, it was passed to George Roden, and then finally to David Koresh.
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David Koresh joined the Branch Davidians in 1981 at 22 years old. Later on in 1983, he began to spread words of prophecy, that he was to father the second coming of Jesus.
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A fire had broke out at the compound of Mount Carmel, causing significant damage. Roden, who believed it was Koresh who started the fire, kicked him and many other out of the compound.
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In 1989, George Roden was convicted of 1st degree murder after he killed a Davidian who claimed to be the messiah. After Roden's conviction, Koresh and his followers were able to gain control over the Mount Carmel Compound.
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During this period of time, Koresh began his teachings of the revelations he received about the end times. One of these revelations was that he had to father 24 children, all coming from women that lived within the compound. Many of these women were married with children already. These children were supposedly going to be the 24 ruling elders after Christs return. Later on, Koresh would be charged with multiple cases of rape and child abuse.
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In early 1993, there was an attempted FBI raid on the compound for the illegal manufacturing of machine guns. This resulted in a 51-day siege, where the FBI and hostage rescue teams attempted remove Koresh from the compound and other members. Koresh and over 70 others were killed as a result.
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The death of Koresh marked the end of the Branch Davidians.