The Branch Davidians

Movement·Founded 1955 CE·Dissolved

Judaism → Christianity → Catholicism → Protestantism → Seventh-day Adventism → The Branch Davidians

ArchiveWaco History, Baylor UniversityArchiveHandbook of Texas, Texas State Historical AssociationThe recordInterim Report to the Deputy Attorney General, John C. Danforth, Special Counsel, 21 July 2000

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Overview Belief 3How to Live 1Practice 1Stories & Scripture 1 You × The Branch Davidians Discussion
Rite of The Branch Davidians

The Sabbath, from Friday sunset.

Kept in the Adventist way: work down, meal ready, and then study. Under Koresh the study sessions ran for many hours at a stretch, and the FBI negotiation tapes are full of participants trying to explain to agents that this was ordinary.

⏱ weekly, from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset◌ the whole community
Add to My Beliefs →
What happensWork stops at sundown on Friday; Sabbath is kept with worship, singing and study, and the study is the substance of it
What it needsA King James Bible, a concordance, and hours
What it aims atTo keep the fourth commandment as written, and to work through the prophetic sequence together
Understanding it — context, not catechism: how this rite is held

The Sabbath at Mount Carmel would have been recognisable to any Seventh-day Adventist: work down at Friday sundown, a prepared meal, worship, and then hours of study. The community farmed, ran a small vehicle business and educated its children on site. Under Koresh the study sessions lengthened enormously, sometimes running most of a day, and attendance was expected. It is worth saying plainly that for most of the sixty-four years between Houteff's arrival and 1993, the Sabbath at Mount Carmel was the ordinary rhythm of a small agricultural religious community and nothing more.

The same ground, other faiths

rites that share this one's ideas
M Maimonides — the Rambam. Judaism · figure Meet them →
Nahj al-Balagha. Islam · scripture Open the book →
The Torah is binding as given. Orthodox Judaism · core tenet Go deeper →
Command, example, necessary inference. The Restoration Movement (Churches of Christ) · scripture Open the book →
The instrument is a matter of expedience; the pattern is not. The Christian Churches and Churches of Christ · core tenet Go deeper →
A Bible printed by a state, and a land law written like scripture. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom · scripture Open the book →

The conversation

argument stays attached to the rite it is about All discussion →

Sign in to open the first thread. Everything here is attributed.

Where next

The Branch Davidians's Practice roomback up one layer Propose a change to this riteone button — it routes to the review pool

Numbers count Panfaith activity only — never real-world adherence.

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