19 Facts About Victor Houteff

Victor Tasho Houteff was a Bulgarian-American religious leader who was the founder of the Davidian Seventh-day Adventist organization, known as The Shepherd's Rod.

Houteff would, on several occasions, return to visit his family, many of whom now live in the US Victor Houteff arrived in the US virtually penniless.

Victor Houteff soon found work as a hotelier and grocer in the state of Illinois.

Victor Houteff encountered opposition to his interpretation from the established Seventh-day Adventist Church; and, eventually, Victor Houteff and a large number of his Bible class were disfellowshiped.

Victor Houteff persisted, moving his class of more than fifty students to a large house across the street from the church, where he continued to study and teach.

Victor Houteff attempted to interest the Adventist California Conference in his Biblical findings, which he believed were really a continuation of the Three Angels Message of Revelation 14.

In 1929, Victor Houteff completed his doctrinal studies and submitted them in the form of a book entitled The Shepherd's Rod.

Victor Houteff held similar views to Ellen White's in not directly calling himself a prophet, preferring to call his work a call for reformation.

Victor Houteff was a believer in the doctrine of Justification by Faith.

Victor Houteff's book, published on December 4,1930, caused a great stir in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, evidenced by the fact that four years later, Houteff was given a hearing by twelve of the Adventist Church's leaders.

Brother Victor Houteff agrees to discontinue the propagation of The Shepherd's Rod, so far as he can control same, in the Pacific Union Conference, during the time this investigation is being made.

On February 19,1934, in Los Angeles, California Victor Houteff began his presentation to the Pacific Union Conference Committee of twelve.

Victor Houteff further argued that in Graf's response nothing was mentioned about the interpreted main points of the very first study as per the Agreement outline.

Later Victor Houteff wrote a small booklet explaining his views on the meeting.

Victor Houteff's Message began to have a considerable impact on the Adventist Church, which, at that time, counted less than 250,000 members worldwide.

Victor Houteff viewed the Adventist Church as backsliding from the beliefs upon which it had been founded a hundred years before, and saw his message as a method of solving the many doctrinal disagreements which had arisen as the Church expanded in the 1900s after Ellen G White's death.

Victor Houteff's teachings are inclusive of a message intended directly to the Seventh-day Adventist members, in which God will have a judgment upon his people and have a purification in his church, resulting in the 144,000 surviving.

In 1934 Victor Houteff wrote in his publication, The Symbolic Code,.

Victor Houteff died of heart failure at Hillcrest Hospital, Waco, Texas on February 5,1955.