ABSTRACT
The theological expressions of the Branch Davidian movement have always been extraordinarily dynamic, even as they retained a focus on the biblical book of Revelation and associated texts. Rooted in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, the Branch Davidians, whose origins date to the mid-1950s, both maintained and intensified the Adventist hope for the Second Coming of Jesus and the transformation of the world that his return would initiate. Although that millennialist expectation formed the theological bedrock of the Branch Davidians and their precursor group, the Davidian Seventh-day Adventists founded in the early 1930s by Victor Houteff, a series of charismatic teachers who led the movement each gave the basic message that Jesus’ return was imminent his or her own twist. In proposing their distinctive understandings of the Second Coming they were all aided by the general Adventist expectation that ‘Present Truth’ or ‘New Light’ could be articulated in the present by a prophetic figure.
