SHEPHERD'S ROD

The 'Shepherd's Rod', is the original doctrine which followers of the Davidian Seventh Day Adventist Sect profess.

Contents

Doctrinal Overview

History

Succession

Today

References

External links

Doctrinal Overview

The Davidians are a faction of the Adventist Movement, made up entirely of disfellowshipped former members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
The name, "Shepherd's Rod," is derived from the title of a two-volume series authored by Victor Houteff, the originator of this doctrine,in 1929. In the introduction the Shepherd's Rod, Book 1, Houteff wrote,
:''"THIS publication contains only one main subject with a double lesson; namely, the 144,000, and a call for reformation. The object in view is to prepare God's people for the impending doom of Ezekiel's prophecy, chapter 9. There is no new doctrine taught, neither does it condemn the ones we have. The wonderful light between its pages shines upon a large number of scriptures which we have had no understanding of heretofore. The interpretation of these scriptures is supported entirely by the writings of Sr. E.G. White, that is termed the Spirit of Prophecy. This publication does not advocate a new movement, and it absolutely opposes such moves. It brings out a positive proof which cannot be contradicted that the Seventh-day Adventist church had been used by God to carry on His work since 1844."''
In both volumes of his work, Houteff made references to verse 9 in the sixth chapter of the biblical book of Micah:
:''"The Lord's voice crieth unto the city, and the man of wisdom shall see thy name: Hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it,"'' and Micah 7:14.
:''"Feed Thy people with Thy rod, the flock of Thine heritage, which dwell solitarily in the wood, in the midst of Carmel."''
Houteff believed that his Biblical interpretations explained such recognized points of discord within the Adventist Church such as the 144,000 and the prophecies of Ezekiel 4, Daniel 2 and 7 and Revelation 12.
Houteff further believed that he had a duty to take his doctrinal findings in message-form to the Adventist Church.

History

In 1929, Victor Tasho Houteff, a Bulgarian immigrant and Sabbath School teacher in the Los Angeles area, brought his new doctrine of the Shepherd's Rod to the Seventh-day Adventist Church. It was submitted in the form of a book also 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 from the church.
To continue spreading his message, 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 was 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'', alternatively called the ''Davidian Seventh-day Adventist Association''. The term "Davidian" refers to the restoration of the Davidic kingdom. Houteff directed Davidians to evangelize Adventists exclusively. Under Houteff's typological system, Davidians believe the Bible to be full of prefiguring types that would be fulfilled as antitypes.

Succession

Victor T. Houteff died in 1955, and his organization was fractured by dissension caused by the many claimants to his position as the spiritual head of the Davidian Seventh-day Adventist movement. The leading claimant was Benjamin Roden a businessman from Odessa, Texas. Roden called on Houteff's widow Florence, the vice president of GADSDA to step aside and let him take over. Samuel Licayan, Andrew Johnson, the self-named Ben David and Fred Steed were also contenders for Houteff's office.
Florence Houteff established herself as head of the DSDA movement and formed an Executive Council of Elders. Conducting in-depth studies of the Bible, and her late husband's Shepherd's Rod Message, Mrs. Houteff and her Council came to the conclusion that the Forty-Two Months period prophesied in Revelation 11:2 would begin in early 1956 and end in 1959, at which point in time, the Adventist Church would be purified by the events foretold in Ezekiel 9. Then, she further taught, a Davidic Kingdom would be set up in the state of Israel followed by the fulfillment of Biblical prophecies concerning the final harvest of the earth, and the ingathering of the great multitude mentioned in Revelation 9.
Believing that the end of time was imminent, Mrs. Houteff and her council began a campaign to evangelize across the U.S., Canada, the West Indies, and western Asia. The campaign included publicity stunts such as equipping cars with signs that read, "Hear Ye The Rod," a catchy reference to the Shepherd's Rod Message. The cars also were outfitted with loudspeakers which blared the Rod Message in sermons to passersby.
As a publishing organization, the GADSDA, under Mrs. Houteff's direction, printed massive amounts of doctrinal literature which was meant for dissemination in the Seventh Day Adventist Church.
In 1957, Mrs. Houteff sold most of the property which had comprised the Mount Carmel Center, established by her husband in Waco, Texas. She and about eight hundred of her followers, moved to Elk, Texas where they purchased 942 acres, twenty miles east of the town, and formed what she styled, "The Mt. Carmel Center." At this time her publications were urging all believers in the Shepherd's Rod Message, (known as Davidians) to forsake their property, homes, and possessions, and assemble at Mt. Carmel Center to await the soon return of Jesus Christ, in His Second Coming.
In 1958, Elder Martin James Bingham, ordained minister, former secretary to Victor Houteff, one of the original founders of the first Mt. Carmel and the generally acknowledged number three in the GADS Association published in his small periodical, The Timely Truth Educator, an issue now known as, The Last Mile Home, in which he refuted Mrs. Houteff's forty-two months doctrine, pointing out that since the "Gentiles," mentioned in Revelation 11:2 were not currently "treading the city of Jerusalem under foot," the forty-two months could not have begun.
During the 1950s, Jerusalem was occupied entirely by only the Israelis and the Jordanians, both native races, with some claims to the land of Palestine. According to the late Elder Bingham, "This is a simple, self-evident fact-that the Gentiles must OCCUPY Jerusalem for the duration of their final forty-two months of treading, or ruling the city-is the one and only key to our correct understanding when these forty-two months begin."-The Last Mile Home, pages 12,13.
M.J. Bingham continued to voice his doctrinal opposition to Mrs. Houteff's teachings, in his monthly publication, The Timely Truth Educator, using the Bible, and her late husband's own teachings against her. He pointed out that, according to the Leviticus, or Davidian Constitution, Mrs. Houteff and her Executive Council of Elders had no authority to act unless a general session of the Association was first called, and a successor to the presidency chosen.
Mrs. Houteff had never claimed the Presidency of the Association which her husband had held. Instead, without convoking a plenary session of the General Association, she simply remained the vice-president, and ruled with the aid of her picked council. Brother Bingham now took her to task for not following the constitutional guidelines of the Association, which she herself had assisted in drafting.
Dubbing himself, "A 100% Shepherd's Rod Believer," M.J. Bingham continued to agitate against Mrs. Houteff's prophecies, rebutting her doctrines, in numerous publications, letters, and sermons, until 1959 when time proved her incorrect. She and 850 of her followers were left high and dry, in a profound disappointment which rivaled that of the Millerite Movement, a century before.
In 1962 Florence Houteff decided to disband the GADSDA. She and what remained of her Executive Council divided the assets of Mt. Carmel Center amongst themselves and left Texas. Ten years later, Mrs. Houteff, then in her early fifties, re-married and re-joined the Seventh-Day Adventist Church.
Pastor Bingham refused to abandon the Davidian Seventh-Day Adventist movement, a movement whose structure he had spent most of his life in building. With former members of GADSDA from the West Indies, Australia, Canada, the U.S. and Indonesia, he formed an Executive Council, and called the still loyal members of the old Association to a session in Los Angeles, California. H.G. Warden, a former Adventist minister, was elected vice-president. The Davidian Seventh-day Adventist Association was formed. It existed from 1962-1965. Then, Elder Warden and most of the council abandoned the DSDA, and as it began to splinter into factions. Don Adair, a former protoge of Elder Bingham, formed The General Association of Davidian Seventh-Day Adventists. Other Davidian theologians followed his lead, creating their own groups and developing their own variations of the Shepherd's Rod doctrine. It was thus left to Pastor Bingham to place together the fragments of the DSDA, which, during the next twenty years of his life, he proceeded to do, traveling across the U.S., Europe, and the West Indies to teach the Shepherd's Rod Message.
In 1970, Pastor Bingham moved the Davidian Seventh-day Adventist Association east from California. Its headquarters is now located near Exeter, Missouri at Bashan Hill, and is today led by Pastor Bingham's widow, Mrs. Jemmy E. Bingham.
The DSDA espouses a rigorously conservative view of Christianity in general, and of the Shepherd's Rod Message in particular. They are also believers in the Living Spirit of Prophecy as explained by V.T. Houteff in Tract 6 of the Shepherd's Rod.

Today

In the 21st century, Davidian groups continue to base the summary of their beliefs on Houteff's statement that,
:"The Shepherd's Rod contains either all Truth, or there is no Truth in it."^[1]
Many still believe his message to be the last till the establishment of the Davidic kingdom.
All of the existing Davidian groups claim to be proprietors of Houteff's legacy, while others, like the Branch Davidians that gained notoriety during the Waco Siege in 1993, believe that they will continued to receive "new light," or inspiration from God.
Leaders of some Davidian associations include Don Adair, Tony Hibbert, Norman Archer, Wanda O'Berry, and Jemmy Bingham.

References

1. an unpublished letter of interest 10SC7 p. 11 par. 1

External links

★ Mt. Carmel Center, Salem SC (Adair)

★ DSDA association Mountaindale NY (Hibbert)

★ Shepherd's Rod Information Center NC

★ Universal Publishing Association Waco TX (Excutive councel

★ Shepherd's Rod Davidian SDA Web Center

★ Fundamental Beliefs of Davidian Seventh-day Adventists

★ Advance Truth Laymen's Movement

★ The Branch Davidians/Shepherd's Rod—Who Are They? from the Biblical Research Institute; by George W. Reid