After his ideas were rejected, Houteff and his followers formed the group that became known as "Davidians" and some moved onto land outside Waco, Texas.

That same year, Benjamin Roden, a follower of Houteff, proclaimed what he believed to be a new message from God and wrote letters presenting it to Davidians.

[1] He signed these letters "The Branch" believing that to be the new name Jesus had taken to reflect a new stage of his work in the heavenly sanctuary.

After the failure of Florence's prophecy of apocalyptic events on or near April 22, 1959, she dissolved the Davidian Association in 1962 and sold all but 77.86 acres of the New Mount Carmel property.

[3] In 1981, a young man named Vernon Howell, later known as David Koresh, came to Mount Carmel and studied biblical prophecy under Lois Roden.

It was not until 1987, after Lois died, that Koresh filed a document claiming to be the president of the Branch Davidian Seventh Day Adventist Association.

Carmel center, engaging in a shootout with George Roden that eventually resulted in Koresh's group occupying the land.

These actions are regarded by Branch Davidians who remained loyal to Lois Roden as an act of identity theft against them.

Seventy-six members of Koresh's group, including many children, died in a fire that erupted during the siege on April 19, 1993.

[10] In 1942, he renamed the group the General Association of Davidian Seventh-day Adventists – 'Davidian' which indicated its belief in the restoration of the Davidic Kingdom of Israel.

Convinced that an apocalypse would occur in 1959, a date which is not found in her husband's original writings, Florence and her council gathered hundreds of their faithful followers at the Mount Carmel Center, the group's compound which was located near Waco, for the fulfillment of the prophecy which is written in Ezekiel 9.

[11] The anticipated events did not occur, and following this disappointment, Benjamin Roden formed another group which he called the Branch Davidians and succeeded in taking control of Mount Carmel.

[citation needed] As an attempt to regain support, Roden challenged Howell to raise the dead, going so far as to exhume the corpse of a two-decades–deceased Davidian in order to demonstrate his spiritual supremacy.

Although Howell's group claimed that it was trying to obtain evidence of Roden's illegal activities, its members did not take a camera with them.

[11] This practice later served as the basis for allegations that Koresh was committing child abuse, which contributed to the siege by the ATF.

[23] On February 28, 1993, at 4:20 am, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms attempted to execute a search warrant relating to alleged sexual abuse charges and illegal weapons violations.

The FBI took command after the deaths of federal agents, and managed to facilitate the release of nineteen children (without their parents) relatively early into the negotiations.

Officially, FBI agents were only permitted to return any incoming fire, not to actively assault the Branch Davidians.

In all, four ATF agents were killed, sixteen were wounded, and six Branch Davidians died in the initial raid on February 28.

The bulk of these claims were dismissed because they were insufficient as a matter of law or because the plaintiffs could advance no material evidence in support of them.

Others, once led by Clive Doyle, continue to believe Koresh was a prophet and await his resurrection, along with the followers who were killed.

[39] On February 28, 1993, the day of their initial confrontation with the ATF, a similar flag made of fringed satin was visible hanging in a front window of the compound.

But her prediction of the demise of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, which according to her should have occurred forty-two months after Houteff's death (1959) failed to materialize.

The Seventh-day Adventist Church issued warnings about the Branch Davidian sect's views to its members on a regular basis.

[50] In addition, David Koresh, through forgery, stole the identity of the Branch Davidian Seventh-day Adventists for the purpose of obtaining the New Mount Carmel Center's property.