Shepherd's Rod / Davidian History - Temcat's House

Shepherd’s Rod and the Davidians
setting aside their former name, "The Shepherd's Rod, " and now calling themselves "The Davidian
Seventh-day Adventist Church." At last, they were publicly an offshoot, something that Houteff had not
previously wanted to admit.
In spite of the name change, throughout the 1940s and 1950s, members of the group continued to refer
to themselves as members of "the Rod." It would not be until the multiple splinterings that occurred
between 1955 and 1962 that the various segments fully switched over to variations of the term
"Davidians."
In 1950, Houteff referred to the fact that the Rod was but an offshoot. He spoke of "an ever-increasing
family of offshoots, the most prominent of them and most tormenting of which is the Shepherd's Rod."
(V.T. Houteff, in his "1950 General Conference Special, " p. 3.) And, from the very beginning, this
offshoot began offshooting on its own. The following statement was made as early as 1934:
"The disintegrating and dividing effect of erroneous teachings has already appeared in the ranks of the
Shepherd's Rod. A substantial number of them, some of them former leaders, have because of errors
they found in 'The Shepherd's Rod' [publication], left the former leadership of V.T. Houteff and are
meeting by themselves as a separate company. This runs true to form, and is in line with the history of
preceding offshoots who have left us."-Pacific Union Conference statement, 1934.
Throughout its entire history, Houteff was his organization's biggest weakness. The doctrinal views that
he invented at its inception contained the seeds of its later destruction. The concepts he later built on
those original conjectures only added to the confusion. The underlying problem was that the poor man
was obsessed with the idea that he was infallible in thought and word. His imaginings about Scripture
were thought by him as the mind of God. His followers shared this delusion, thinking that he had the gift
of prophecy.
As Houteff himself said:
"We must conclude that the 'Rod' contains all truth, or there is no truth in it save the quotations of
truth. Therefore, if we admit one truth revealed by the 'Rod,' then we must accept it all as truth . .
Therefore we take the position that the message in the 'Rod' is free from error in so far as the idea put
forth is concerned."-V. T. Houteff, circular letter dated August 31, 1931 [Italics his].
Here was a man who claimed infallibility without limit! He asserted that, if even one of his ideas was
correct, they all had to be correct! Four years later he repeated this astounding claim (in The Symbolic
code, vol. 1, no. 8, August 15, 1935), and again in the late 1940s (Timely Greetings, vol. 1, no. 18, p. 10,
quoting an address of his given on December 7, 1947).
That one statement, alone, by Victor Houteff-repeated in print at least three times-should have been
enough to warn any seeker after truth from following such an eccentric individual. Only God and His
Inspired Scriptures are safe. The words of no one else can be as reliable.
- CHAPTER THREE -
THE FLORENCE HOUTEFF YEARS
THE ROD IN WACO, TEXAS 1955 - 1962
Among other concepts, Victor Houteff taught that he would not die, but would lead his people to old
Jerusalem and thence to the heavenly Canaan. Thus it came as quite a shock to his followers when, on
February 5, 1955, he passed to his rest at the age of 69. "It just could not be; it just could not be: Houteff
is dead and Jesus hasn't come back yet" they thought, and yet it had happened: Houteff was dead.
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