Upon the death of Victor T. Houteff in 1955, his organization, the General Association of Davidian Seventh-day Adventists, was fractured by dissension caused by the many claimants to his position as the spiritual head of the Davidian Seventh-day Adventist movement. The most aggressive of these claimants was Benjamin L. Roden of Odessa, Texas. Roden called on Houteff's widow Florence, the vice president of GADSDA to step aside and let him take over. Samuel Licayan, Andrew Johnson, self-named Ben David and Fred Steed were also contenders for Houteff's office. All were amateur theologians whose ambitions came to naught, and from whom, since then, little has been heard.

Florence Houteff firmly estabalished herself as head of the DSA movement and formed an Executive Council of Elders. Conducting in-depth studies of the Bible, and her late husband's Shepherd's Rod Message, Mrs. Houteff and her Council came to the conclusion that the Forty-Two Months period prophesied in Revelation 11:2 would begin in early 1956 and end in 1959, at which point in time, the Adventist Church would be purified by the events foretold in Ezekiel 9. Then, she further taught, a Davidic Kingdom would be set up in Israel followed by the fulfillment of Biblical prophecies concerning the final harvest of the earth, and the ingathering of the great multitude mentioned in Revelation 9.

Believing that the end of time was imminent, Mrs. Houteff and her council began a massive campaign to evangelize across the U.S., Canada, the West Indies, and western Asia. The campaign included publicity stunts such

In 1957, Mrs. Houteff sold most of the property which had comprised the Mount Carmel Center, established by her husband in Waco, Texas. She and about eight hundred of her followers, moved to Elk, Texas where they purchased 942 acres, twenty miles east of the town, and formed what she styled, "The Mt. Carmel Center." At this time her publications were urging all believers in the Shepherd's Rod Message, (known as Davidians) to forsake their property, homes, and possesions, and assemble at Mt. Carmel Center to await the soon return of Jesus Christ, in His Second Coming.

In 1958, Elder. Martin James Bingham, ordained minister, former secretary to Victor Houteff, one of the original founders of the first Mt. Carmel and the generally acknowledged number three in the GADS Association published in his small periodical, The Timely Truth Educator, an issue now known as, The Last Mile Home, in which he refuted Mrs. Houteff's forty-two months doctrine, pointing out quite simply that since the "Gentiles," mentioned in Revelation 11:2 were not currently "treading the city of Jerusalem under foot," the forty-two months could not possibly have begun.

During the 1950s, Jersalem was occupied entirely by only the Israelis and the Jordanians, both native races, which some claims to the land of Palestine. According to the late Mr. Bingham, "This

M.J. Bingham continued to voice his doctrinal opposition to Mrs. Houteff's teachings, in his monthly publication, The Timely Truth Educator, using the Bible, and her late husband's own teachings against her. He pointed out that, according to the Leviticus, or Davidian Constitution, Mrs. Houteff and her Executive Council of Elders had no authority to act unless a general session of the Association was first called, and a successor to the presidency chosen.

Mrs. Houteff had never claimed the Presidency of the Association which her husband had held. Instead, without convoking a plenary session of the General Association, she simply remained the vice-president, and ruled with the aid of her picked council. Brother Bingham now took her to task strongly for not following the constitutional guidelines for the Association, which she herself had helped to draft.

Dubbing himself, "A 100% Shepherd's Rod Believer," M.J. Bingham continued to agitate against Mrs. Houteff's prophecies, rebutting her doctrines, in numerous publications, letters, and sermons, until 1959 when time proved her incorrect. She and 850 of her followers were left high and dry, in a profound disappointed which rivaled that of the Millerite Movement, a century before.

Though her group largely melted away, Mrs. Houteff and a core following remained at Mt. Carmel, trying to evangelize the world with what remained of their message.

In 1962 Florence Houteff decided to disband the GADSDA. She and what remained of her Executive Council divided the assets of Mt. Carmel Center amongst themselves and left Texas. Ten years later, Mrs. Houteff, then in her early fifties, re-married and re-joined the Seventh-Day Adventist Church.

Pastor Bingham refused to abandon the Davidian Seventh-Day Adventist movement, a movement whose structure he had spent most of his life in building. With former members of GADSDA from the West Indies, Australia, Canada, the U.S. and Indonesia, he formed an Executive Council, and called the still loyal members of the old Association to a session in Los Angelos, California. Pastor Bingham did not seek to lead this new Council, instead H.G. Warden, a former Adventist minister was elected vice-president. The Davidian Seventh-day Adventist Association was formed. It had existed for but a short time, from 1962-1965. Pastor Warden and most of the council abandoned the DSDA, and it began to splinter. Don Adair, a former protoge of Pastor Bingham, formed, The General Association of Davidian Seventh-Day Adventists and other would be prophets, followed his lead. It was thus left to Pastor Bingham to place together the fragments of the DSDA, which, during the next twenty years of his life, he proceeded to do, traveling across the U.S., Europe, and the West Indies to teach the Shepherd's Rod Message.

In 1970, Pastor Bingham moved the Davidian Seventh-day Adventist Association east from California. Its headquarters is now located near Exeter, Missouri at Bashan Hill, and is today led by Pastor Bingham's widow, Mrs. Jemmy E. Bingham.

The DSDA espouses a rigorously conservative view of Christianity in general, and of the Shepherd's Rod Message in particular. They are also believers in the Living Spirit of Prophecy as explained by V.T. Houteff in Tract 6 of the Shepherd's Rod.