Editing Branch Davidians (section)

== Relationship with Seventh-Day Adventists ==
The [[Seventh-day Adventist Church]], the main church in the [[Adventist]] tradition, rejected [[Victor Houteff]]'s teachings and revoked his membership in 1930.

Houteff then went on to found the Davidian Seventh Day Adventist Association (an offshoot which is also known as the [[Shepherd's Rod]]). The Branch Davidians are an offshoot of the Davidians and they are also a product of a schism which was initiated by [[Benjamin Roden]], after Houteff's death and in light of Florence's (Houteff's wife) usurpation of power.

Florence believed that she was a prophet. But her prediction of the demise of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, which according to her should have occurred forty-two months after Houteff's death (1959) failed to materialize. Likewise, Ben Roden believed that he was a prophet as well as a rightful heir to the leadership of the Davidians.

While they were still formally members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, the Branch Davidian leaders demanded a reform of the church and when their demand was met with opposition (by both the Seventh-day Adventists and the Davidians), they decided to leave that denomination and at the same time, they widely distanced themselves from the Davidians.

The Seventh-day Adventist Church deprived both the Branch Davidians and the Davidians of their membership in the denomination, in spite of this fact, the Branch Davidians actively continued to "hunt" members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and encourage them to leave it and join their group. The Seventh-day Adventists were reportedly "apprehensive" about the group's views because Branch Davidians claimed that they were the "only rightful continuation of the [[Adventism|Adventist message]]", based on their belief that Victor Houteff was the divinely selected prophet and the successor of [[Ellen G. White]]. Both the Davidians and the Branch Davidians claimed that Houteff was their spiritual inspiration, as the founder of the Davidians. The Seventh-day Adventist Church issued warnings about the Branch Davidian sect's views to its members on a regular basis.<ref>''Armageddon in Waco: Critical Perspectives on the Branch Davidian Conflict'' by Stuart A. Wright, p. 22</ref>

=== Schisms within the Branch Davidian sect ===
There is documented evidence (FBI negotiation transcripts, during the standoff, with Kathryn Shroeder and [[Steve Schneider (Branch Davidian)|Steve Schneider]] with interjections from Koresh himself) that David Koresh and his followers did not call themselves Branch Davidians.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://digital.library.txstate.edu/bitstream/handle/10877/1958/507.pdf?sequence=1|title=United States Department of the Treasury: Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms (Tape #126 Transcription)|website=Digital.library.txstate.edu|date=March 13, 1993|access-date=January 13, 2019|archive-date=June 24, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190624204503/https://digital.library.txstate.edu/bitstream/handle/10877/1958/507.pdf?sequence=1|url-status=dead}}</ref> In addition, David Koresh, through [[forgery]], stole the identity of the Branch Davidian Seventh-day Adventists for the purpose of obtaining the New Mount Carmel Center's property.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Waco Untold, How David Koresh Stole the Identity of The Branch Davidians|last=Mitchell|first=Douglas|publisher=Ten Strings Publishing|year=2018|isbn=978-0-9998026-0-1|location=US}}</ref>