Victor Tasho Houteff (Bulgarian; Виктор Ташо Хутев; March 2, 1885 – February 5, 1955) was a Bulgarian-American religious leader who was the founder of the Davidian Seventh-day Adventist organization, known as The Shepherd's Rod.
[1] Houteff was born in Raicovo, Eastern Rumelia, (modern day Bulgaria), and, as a child, baptized as a member of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.
[3] In the midst of the Roaring Twenties, Houteff journeyed west to California to be closer to Seventh-day Adventist communities, like Loma Linda.
"[4] During the 1920s, Victor Houteff, a strict Seventh-day Adventist, became a Sabbath School teacher at the Exposition Park Church in Los Angeles.
His Bible study classes in the church lasted longer and became more complex, attracting large groups of Adventists every week.
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.
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.
[5] In the preface to the manuscript that would become The Shepherd's Rod, Volume 1, he wrote, It is the intention of this book to reveal the truth of the 144,000 mentioned in Revelation 7 but the chief object of this publication is to bring about a reformation among God's people.
This subject is made clear by the use of the Bible and the writings given by the Spirit of Prophecy.The truth revealed here is of great importance to the church just now because of the foretold danger which God's people are soon to meet.
It calls for decided action on the part of the believers to separate themselves from all worldlings and worldliness; to anchor themselves on the Solid Rock by obedience to all the truth known to this denomination, if we must escape the great ruin.
A small, quiet man, he felt it his duty, as a believer in "present truth" and a Bible Christian to reach out to his Church, thinking that his doctrine would lead to conservative reforms in the denomination.
HOUTEFF"[10]The response: Dear Mr. Houteff:In harmony with your written request of January 18 for a hearing before a body of leading brethren, the Union Conference Committee has set aside Monday, February 19, for this purpose.This is to notify you that the meeting will be held at 10 A.M. on that date, at 4800 South Hoover Street, Los Angeles.This will confirm the verbal notice given you this morning by Elders C.S.
In his rebuttal of the committee's reply, Houteff complained that a number of his written statements had been taken out of context, or summarily dismissed without proper consideration.
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 (Ezekiel 9) and have a purification in his church, resulting in the 144,000 surviving.
In 1934 Houteff wrote in his publication, The Symbolic Code, Being deprived of all denominational advantages such as sanitariums, health food factories, printing presses, etc., perhaps it may be necessary for a rural location for the establishment of a combined unit to assist in carrying the message to the church until the "siege against it" shall be successfully culminated in a glorious victory when "the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this."
During the late 1930s, while visiting his family in Bulgaria, Houteff, now an American citizen, was once again run out of his native land, this time by the Bulgarian National Socialist Movement, which objected to his ministry.