Branch Davidians - Doctrines

Doctrines

While the SDAs, the Davidians, and The Branch hold many fundamental beliefs in common with most Christian denominations, there are a few additional doctrines which give each of them their distinct identities and names. The ones which the SDAs, the Davidians, and the Branch groups hold in common are:

1. Saturday is the 7th day of the week, and, thus, the Sabbath of the Bible. That it is both a memorial of creation and a sign of sanctification, a sign of the believer's rest from his own works of sin, and his entrance into the rest of the soul which Jesus promises to those who come to Him.
2. Jesus Christ is to soon personally return to earth to gather together his elect and take them to heaven for 1000 years, after which he will return with them to this earth to dwell with them for eternity in his kingdom.
3. The non-immortality of the soul. That is, the dead have no consciousness, nor being.
4. There shall be a resurrection of both the just and of the unjust. The resurrection of the just will take place at the second coming of Christ; the resurrection of the unjust will take place 1000 years later, at the close of the millennium.
5. There is a sanctuary in heaven in which Christ is ministering on behalf of mankind.
6. There is an investigative judgment going on in the heavenly sanctuary that began on October 22, 1844 to determine who will come forth in each of the resurrections, and who will be translated without seeing death at the second coming of Christ. That said judgment began with the records of those who had died, and would eventually pass to the living.
7. That the "mark of the beast"(Rev. 13:16–18) will be a universal decree enforcing the commandments and doctrines of men in opposition to those of the Bible, being primarily Sunday laws (Blue laws).
8. The believer should recognize his body as the temple of the Holy Spirit, and thus the believer will be led to abstain from all intoxicating drinks, tobacco, and all other narcotics, and from unclean meats – vegetarianism being the optimal dietary practice.
9. One identifying feature of the church is the presence of the Spirit of Prophecy. Though the SDAs believe that the said gift was manifested in a special way through Ellen G. White, they have not acknowledged any one as having the gift since she died in 1915.

The doctrines that distinguish the Davidian and Branch reform movements from the mainline SDAs are:

1. The Davidian and The Branch messages both teach that the gift of prophecy is so important in the church that the president of the association must be endowed with it. Though the Davidians recognize that Victor Houteff possessed the said gift, they teach that no one will come with that gift again until the "special resurrection" at which time both Ellen White and he will take up their work again. However, The Davidian and Branch groups hold different views to Houteff's teaching on the matter. Unlike the Davidian belief stated above, the Branch believe that the gift of prophecy was given to Ben Roden after Houteff's death became part of the Branch.
2. The church will be purified by the removal of the "tares", fitting her for the final work of evangelism.
3. After the purification of the church, the saints will return to the promised land where Christ will establish his kingdom wherein the 144,000, those who follow the Lamb "withersoever He goeth", shall stand with Him on Mt. Zion, and bring in "a great multitude, which no man could number", and there "receive the forces of the GentiIes." The kingdom there will exist for a short period of time as a final witness to the world before Christ comes in the clouds of heaven to take the great multitude of living and resurrected saints with him for 1000 years, during which time the saints will determine the degree of punishment due the unrepentant.
4. Total abstinence from all flesh foods, in preparation for the return to the Edenic state of the kingdom.
5. All of the Biblical feast days and practices the early church kept, and which were taken away from her in the centuries following the death of the apostles through the influence of pagan thinking supplanting the simplicity of the Gospel will be restored to the church, include the true keeping of the Lord's Supper. The Branch teaches that the time has come for the restoration of those feasts, the Davidians don't.

The doctrines that distinguish the Branch from the mainline SDAs and Davidians are:

1. The judgment of the living began in the heavenly sanctuary in 1955.
2. Daily worship should be kept at the 3rd and 9th hours of the natural day, in harmony with Christ's intercession in the heavenly sanctuary. This includes partaking in the Lord's Supper.
3. The family is the literal image and likeness of the Godhead. The feminine aspects thereof being understood to be the Holy Spirit and Holy Ghost.