Shepherd's Rod - History

History

Victor Tasho Houteff, was born in Raikovo, Bulgaria, on March 2, 1885 and immigrated to the United States in 1907 at the age of 22. Originally Greek Orthodox, his native church requested the Bulgarian Government to expel him from the country (see 2 Timely Greetings #35). In 1929, Victor Tasho Houteff, an immigrant and Sabbath School teacher in the Los Angeles area, brought what he claimed was a new message of the Shepherd's Rod to the Seventh-day Adventist Church (see 2 Timely Greetings 35: 12-31). It was submitted in the form of a book also entitled The Shepherd's Rod. His claims were not accepted and were deemed by the leadership to contain doctrinal error incompatible with previously accepted dogma. Because he refused to recant his beliefs and insisted upon teaching them to the membership he was disfellowshipped from the church. The majority of those who accepted the message he claimed to bring were also disfellowshipped due to the leadership of the Adventist church rejecting it.

Victor Houteff founded the Universal Publishing Association in 1934. In 1935 he established his headquarters outside Waco, Texas, calling it Mt. Carmel Center. Up to 1942, his movement had been known as the Shepherd's Rod, but when Houteff found it necessary to formally incorporate so members could claim conscientious objector status, he named his association the General Association of Davidian Seventh-day Adventists (GADSDA). The term "Davidian" refers to the restoration of the Davidic kingdom. Houteff directed Davidian Seventh- day Adventists to evangelize the Adventist church exclusively. Davidians that have accepted the additional message of The Shepherd's Rod believe that 1 Cor. 10:11 teaches that the history of ancient Israel is a figure/type of what will happen within the Seventh-day Adventist Church and with the 144,000 after the church is purified by God.