Born in Bulgaria in 1886, Houteff emigrated to the United States in 1907

Houteff was brought up in the Eastern Orthodox tradition but converted to Seventh-day Adventism (SDA) in 1919

In 1929 Houteff openly challenged SDA theology in a manifesto, "The Shepherd's Rod."

Houteff claimed that the church and its ministerial leadership had abandoned scriptural teachings and become overly materialistic and worldly

Houteff claimed prophetic status for himself, announcing that he had been selected as a messenger from God to reveal these new spiritual truths and to lead the purification process

Convinced that the end of time was imminent, Houteff assumed two related spiritual missions. The first was to unlock the secrets of the Seven Seals (contained in the Book of Revelation), which held the key to understanding the chronology of events during the end time. The second was to gather the 144,000 faithful who would renounce sin and attract others to true faith. This remnant would be delivered at the second coming of Christ when sinners would be destroyed and the Kingdom of David would be erected in Palestine.

He was formally disfellowshipped in 1934 and left the church with a small coterie of followers.

Houteff prophesied that the community at Mt. Carmel was but a temporary encampment that they would occupy for only a year. The saved remnant would soon be transported to Palestine to establish a theocratic Kingdom of David, herald the true gospel to the world, and then ascend to heaven with the return of Christ

Over the next two decades the first settlers cleared the land, erected buildings, and constructed a community infrastructure (electrical, water, street, and sewage systems)

The group also effectively limited its contact and itegration with the larger society by raising its own food, creating a community-run school, limiting external sources of news, and even printing its own internal currency.

Evangelizers sought converts almost exclusively from the ranks of Seventh-day Adventists

The group achieved a membership of fewer than 100 by the late 1930s, with as many as one third of those children.

His control over community finances, decision making, and evangelizing activities located power firmly in his hands. His power became family power when the 52 year-old Houteff, long separated from his first wife, married 17 year-old Florence Hermanson, daughter of Oliver and Sophia Hermanson.

A pattern of a tightly organized core community with a loosely integrated network of supporting families, having varying degrees of commitment to the cause, prevailed up through the beginning years of the Koresh era

Houteff's health began declining by the mid-1940s, and he died in 1955

Florence Houteff immediately announced that her husband had selected her to succeed him

Florence Houteff also sought to solidify her spiritual leadership with a prophetic revelation. In 1955 she announced that based on a revelation gained from her reading of the Bible, she had unlocked the biblical code contained in the Book of Revelation through which the timing of the second coming could be known

She proclaimed 1959 "The Year of the Kingdom," prophesying that God's earthly kingdom would be established on April 22

When April 22 passed uneventfully, most of the faithful ultimately drifted away or formed splinter groups; only about fifty members remained at Mt. Carmel a year later

Three years later the new prophet stunned the faithful with the announcement that her prophecies contained errors; thereupon she closed the new center, moved away, and finally sold all but one hundred acres of the Mt. Carmel property
 

Benjamin Roden, his wife (Lois) and their son (George) had visited Mt. Carmel briefly in 1945 and again in 1953. Working as a team, the Rodens returned to Mt. Carmel in 1955, claiming that Benjamin Roden had received a spiritual revelation that he had been divinely ordained to assume the mantle of DSDA leadership.

Beginning in 1962 the Rodens commenced a protracted period of litigation, which was finally successful, to gain control of the remaining 77 acres of Mt. Carmel. The group renamed itself The General Association of Davidian Seventh-Day Adventists (GADSA)

Roden enunciated his spiritual mission as creating moral rectitude under biblical law by instilling a Christ-like moral character in each member of the faithful. Once this mission had been fulfilled, he predicted, the second coming would be imminent

What was to become the most bitter succession struggle in Davidian history began on October 22, 1978 when Benjamin Roden died

Lois Roden immediately asserted her prophetic and family authority as the basis for laying claim to the mantle of GADSA leadership. However, as a result of political infighting accompanying the transition and her controversial doctrines, as many as half of the Mt. Carmel adherents defected. Further, George Roden was incensed at what he regarded as his mother's usurping of his birthright
 

In 1979 when he was 20 years-old, David Koresh began attending a SDA church in Tyler, Texas, and it was through a friend in that congregation that he first learned of the Branch Davidian community. In 1981 he accepted a job as a handyman at Mt. Carmel, contributing valuable carpentry and mechanical skills to the community

About seven years passed from Koresh's initial entry into the Branch Davidian community and his ascendency to undisputed leadership

He began by linking himself to two of the most important Branch Davidian families. He quickly won the favor of Lois Roden, then 67 years-old, and rumors soon began circulating that the two were lovers, rumors which Koresh took advantage of at the time but later disavowed

In 1983 Lois Roden formally allied herself with Koresh by announcing that Koresh was to be her successor and inviting Branch Davidian adherents to come to Mt. Carmel to listen to his teachings and prophecies

A year later Koresh created another important family alliance by marrying, Rachael Jones, who at the time was 14 years-old, the daughter of Perry and Mary Bell Jones. Perry Jones was one of the most senior and respected members of the Davidian community, having been one of the earliest and most devoted followers of Benjamin Roden

George Roden finally was able to organize an election for the presidency of the Branch Davidians in which he emerged victorious. He quickly sought to consolidate his power by ousting Koresh and his followers at gunpoint from Mt. Carmel, asserting his family's dominance by renaming the community Rodenville

Koresh and his few dozen followers, about half of whom were children, succeeded in obtaining property in nearby Palestine, eking out a primitive existence by living in crude shelters that they constructed

The population of Mt. Carmel dwindled to probably no more than two or three dozen, and in the struggle for control over the Branch Davidians Koresh now enjoyed the loyalty of the majority of the community. Further, George Roden was unable to sustain the economic viability of the Mt. Carmel community as the Davidians owed over $65,000 in back school district and county property taxes. Finally, prior to her death Lois Roden had sought enforcement of the earlier 1979 injunction against George, an initiative later renewed by Koresh's faction

In a desperate effort to assert spiritual supremacy, Roden challenged Koresh to a spiritual contest to raise from the dead a 85 year-old Davidian, Anna Hughes, who had been buried twenty years earlier at Mt. Carmel. Koresh declined the challenge and instead seized the opportunity to seek criminal prosecution of Roden for disturbing the grave site

On November 3, 1987 Koresh and a group of armed followers invaded the Mt. Carmel center seeking a photograph of Hughes' remains that would serve as evidence to prosecute Roden. A gun battle ensued between Roden and the Koresh group in which Roden was slightly wounded. In the subsequent legal proceedings attempted murder charges against Koresh and his followers were dismissed. Roden, however, was incarcerated for violating earlier restraining orders and for continuing to file profanity-filled legal suits and motions

In most respects, economic arrangements at Mt. Carmel reflected patronal organization. Families were important units in maintaining as families

Koresh attempted to expand the economic resource base by organizing and coordinating several small businesses. The community operated an automobile repair/renovation enterprise, Mag Bag, and a gun and gun-accessory business

Through the weapons business, which was primarily operated by Paul Fatta, Davidians purchased gun and hunting-related products through the mail and sold them at gun shows. These products included military-style food pouches, guns, ammunition, gun accessories, camouflage jackets and pants, backpacks, knives, and handgrenade
casings mounted on plaques for display

Like his predecessors, upon assuming group leadership David Koresh sought to legitimate his spiritual authority by linking his personal biography to a historical spiritual lineage. He went further than his predecessors in symbolizing his spiritual status by legally changing his name from Vernon Howell to David Koresh in 1990. "Koresh" is the Hebrew for "Cyrus," the Persian king who defeated the Babylonians five hundred years before the birth of Jesus. His first name, David, asserts a lineage directly to the biblical King David, from whom the new messiah will be descended. By taking this name, David Koresh was thereby professing himself to be the spiritual descendent of King David, a messianic figure carrying out a divinely commissioned errand

He taught that his messianic role was crucial to human salvation because Christ had died only for those who lived prior to his crucifixion. This formulation made Koresh's mission was necessary to permit the salvation of all subsequent generations

Koresh offered a route to salvation, by following him as he carried out the opening of the Seven Seals. Koresh believed that it was his special mission to open the Seven Seals, cryptically described in the New Testament Book of Revelations, which is the prelude to the end of the world

Koresh taught that the world had already entered the period of tribulation (preceding the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and the period of the millennium) that was a prelude to the final cleansing of the earth. Following this process the earth would be transformed into an eternal, divinely ruled abode for humankind. In his early prophecy, Koresh instructed that the Branch Davidians would migrate to Israel where they would begin converting the Jews; this would trigger international tumult and a war that would eventuate in an invasion by the American Army. These events would signal the beginning of Armageddon, and Koresh would be the cleansing angel who would prepare the earth to receive the New Jerusalem

It was in his "New Light" doctrine that Koresh departed from the Davidian and the earlier Adventist traditions. Drawing on the Book of Revelation, Koresh asserted that in his role as a messiah he became the perfect mate of all the female adherents. Central to his messianic mission, Koresh taught, was the creation of a new lineage of God's children from his own seed. The children created through these unions would erect the House of David and ultimately rule the world

There were several interrelated developments in particular that moved the Branch Davidians away from patronal clan toward prophetic movement organization. The first was an active recruiting campaign orchestrated by Koresh that led to a significant influx of converts who were personally attracted to Koresh. Second, life at Mt. Carmel assumed an increasingly more communal quality. Third, implementation of Koresh's New Light doctrine made personal loyalty to Koresh more important than family loyalty

Koresh was able to recruit from the ranks of active SDAs despite the sanctions that would follow from the SDA

One significant contrast between the Koreshian and previous eras was that Koresh apparently was able to attract young adults to the group due to his own youthful, countercultural demeanor and his musical and automotive interests. Converts point to Koresh's biblical knowledge more than any other single factor in explaining their own attraction to the Branch Davidians.

Koresh began to prepare for an apocalypse that he increasingly concluded would occur in America rather than Israel, the group began adopting survivalist tactics such as stockpiling large amounts of dried food and MRE's (Meals ready-to-eat) used by the military, weapons and ammunition, and a large storage tank of propane gas.

Portraits of daily life by Branch Davidians who lived at Mt. Carmel during the Koresh era suggest that devotional activity was at the center of community life.

The single most significant restructuring of the Davidian community during the Koresh era occurred in conjunction with his New Light doctrine. About three years after marrying Rachel Jones in 1984, Koresh began taking "spiritual wives" from among the young, unmarried women in the group. It appears that in most cases Koresh received the blessing of the parents either before or after the relationship commenced. Koresh later expanded these relationships to include the wives of male Branch Davidian adherents.

As a result of the conversion campaigns, a substantial proportion of the Mt. Carmel residents were recent converts who looked to Koresh as their personal spiritual leader. The leader-follower relationship was further strengthened as new converts took up residence at Mt. Carmel and the community moved toward communal organization. Perhaps most importantly for his charismatic authority on an ongoing basis, Koresh led daily Bible studies during which he unlocked spiritual mysteries for his followers, creating a compelling sense that the group was in the midst of revelatory activities which would culminate in end-time events.