Victor Houteff facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Victor Houteff
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| Born | March 2, 1885 Raicovo, Eastern Rumelia, Ottoman Empire
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| Died | February 5, 1955 (aged 69) Waco, Texas, U.S.
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| Resting place | Rosemound Cemetery |
| Nationality | Bulgarian |
| Citizenship | American |
| Occupation | Author, Sabbath teacher, Davidian Seventh-day Adventist |
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Notable work
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The Shepherd's Rod, volume 1 and 2 |
| Spouse(s) | Florence Marcella Hermanson Eakin |
Victor Tasho Houteff (born March 2, 1885 – died February 5, 1955) was a religious leader from Bulgaria. He started a group called the Davidian Seventh-day Adventist organization. This group is also known as The Shepherd's Rod.
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Early Life of Victor Houteff
Victor Houteff was born in a place called Raicovo, which is now part of Bulgaria. When he was a child, he was baptized into the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. As a young man, he worked in trade, buying and selling goods.
In 1907, Victor and his brothers moved to the United States. He later said that they were forced to leave their home by a group of people. Even after moving, Houteff visited his family in Bulgaria many times.
When he first arrived in the U.S., Victor Houteff had very little money. He soon found jobs working in a hotel and a grocery store in Illinois. In 1919, he joined the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
Later, Houteff moved to California to be closer to other Seventh-day Adventist communities. In Los Angeles, he worked as a salesman, selling washing machines. He saved enough money to start his own company. His company made healthy candies, which he called "health sweets."
Victor Houteff's Adventist Beliefs
During the 1920s, Victor Houteff became a teacher at a Sabbath School in Los Angeles. He was a very dedicated student of the Bible and the writings of Ellen G. White. His Bible study classes grew very popular. Many Adventists came each week to learn from him.
Houteff focused on specific parts of the Bible, especially from the book of Isaiah. However, his way of understanding these scriptures was different from what the main Seventh-day Adventist Church taught. Because of these differences, Houteff and many of his students were eventually asked to leave the church.
Even after this, Houteff did not stop teaching. He moved his class of over fifty students to a large house near the church. There, he continued to study and teach the Bible. He tried to share his findings with the Adventist leaders in California. He believed his teachings were an important continuation of the "Three Angels Message" from the book of Revelation, which is a key belief for Adventists.
In 1929, Houteff finished writing his ideas in a book called The Shepherd's Rod. In this book, he explained that he wanted to share the truth about the "144,000" people mentioned in Revelation. He also wanted to bring about a "reformation" or positive change among God's people. He believed his book would help people understand the Bible better and prepare for future events.
Houteff did not call himself a prophet, but he believed God was using him to share a very important message with the Seventh-day Adventist Church. He thought his message would help the church return to its original beliefs. His book was published in December 1930. It caused a lot of discussion within the church. Four years later, church leaders agreed to meet with Houteff to discuss his ideas.
The Church Meeting
On February 19, 1934, Victor Houteff met with twelve leaders of the Pacific Union Conference Committee in Los Angeles. Among them were important Adventist scholars. Houteff had prepared a presentation to explain his beliefs.
However, the meeting did not go as Houteff hoped. After the first part of his presentation, the committee decided to stop the discussions. Four weeks later, the committee released their official response, which disagreed with Houteff's teachings. Houteff felt that his statements had been misunderstood or ignored.
Even though he was no longer officially part of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Houteff did not want to leave it completely. Since the church leaders had rejected his message, he decided to share it directly with the people. He had great success, and by 1934, thousands of Adventists had accepted his teachings from "The Shepherd's Rod." His message began to have a big impact on the Adventist Church, which had less than 250,000 members worldwide at that time.
In 1934, Houteff started the Universal Publishing Association. He wanted to use all possible ways to spread his message within the Adventist Church. He believed the church was moving away from its original beliefs. He saw his message as a way to solve disagreements that had come up as the church grew. The first chapter of his book, "The Shepherd's Rod," talked about the "144,000" people mentioned in Revelation, Chapter 7.
Houteff taught that God would bring a judgment upon His people, leading to a purification in the church. He believed that 144,000 people would survive this judgment. This idea of a small group of Adventists surviving God's judgment was not new; Ellen White had also mentioned similar ideas. These survivors, he taught, would help finish God's work on Earth. They would help convert other people around the world to keep God's commandments and the Sabbath. This larger group of new believers is known as "The Great Multitude" in Revelation 7:9. This entire message is often called the "Loud Cry message."
The Adventist Church did not have an official stance on the 144,000 or The Great Multitude. However, they rejected Houteff's specific teaching that the 144,000 were Adventists and that The Great Multitude were non-Adventist Christians.
Later Years and Mount Carmel Center
In 1934, Houteff wrote in his publication, The Symbolic Code, about the need for a rural place. He wanted a location where his group could have a combined center for health, food production, and printing. This place would help them share their message with the church.
The group, often called The Rod, found such a place. They built a rural community and headquarters called Mt. Carmel Center near Waco, Texas.
In the late 1930s, Victor Houteff, who was now an American citizen, visited his family in Bulgaria. However, he was forced to leave his home country again. This time, it was because of the Bulgarian National Socialist Movement, which did not approve of his religious work.
Victor Houteff passed away from heart failure on February 5, 1955, in Waco, Texas. He is buried in Rosemound Cemetery in Waco.
