It is interesting to note that the introduction of a "gap" between New Testament events and the end of time, introduced by Seventh-day Adventists is greatly developed by Branch Davidians. A initial reading of the New Testament would leave the reader with the impression that the writers of the New Testament believed they were living in the Last Days, hence references to the "Last Days" are simply descriptions of what the writer saw happening in their own time. However Seventh-day Adventists argue that prophecies of the Bible show the "Last Days" didn't begin until 1844, hence any reference to the Last Days in the New Testament must be a reference far into the writer's future, not to the writer's own time. Branch Davidians take this form of Biblical interpretation to its logical conclusion, identifying any prophecy not fulfilled in Christ to still be awaiting fulfillment. The prophecy of the sending of the Spirit in Joel is typical. Joel 2 not only speaks of "your sons and daughters will prophecy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions" (Joel 2:28), but also "the sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD" (Joel 2:31). Seventh-day Adventists would separate these two prophecies, the first pointing to Pentecost (but also to the Latter Rain at the end of time) and the latter to the end of the world. Similarly Branch Davidians point to other prophecies from the Old Testament, some of which were fulfilled at Christ's first coming, but others remain to be fulfilled.
Taking those remaining prophecies, they are able to put together a description of another Messiah to come, the Messiah ("Annointed") called "Cyrus" described in Isaiah 45, who will bring in the Latter Rain ("you heavens above, rain down righteousness; let the clouds shower it down" Isaiah 45:8a).
Seventh-day Adventist Christians generally have a big bang harvest approach. That means that Jesus comes down, and takes all the good guys back to him. End of harvest story. Ben Roden, continuing on from Houteff, taught that as the ceremonial harvest rites were done in stages, so the harvest would also be done in stages.
The harvest rites of Leviticus 23 are, roughly in order:
| Passover | The first few grains of wheet |
| Pentacost | The first fruits of the harvest which were waved before God. |
| Tabernacles | The final harvest. |
Since Revelation calls the 144,000 firstfruits, Roden equated them with the Pentacost harvest. The Wavesheaf were the Passover harvest (only a very, very few) while the great multitude which no man can number (Revelation 7) were the rest of the good guys.
Roden said that before the second coming, these other groups had to be harvested.
| Wavesheaf | Find and gather the 144,000 |
| 144,000 | Face the beast, evangelize the world (Rev. 14) |
| Great multitude | Those gathered in by the 144,000. |
The feast days showed all of this and Roden believed keeping them was better than keeping nonChristian (originally at least) holidays. Whereas SDAs taught that the Roman Catholic church chaned the Sabbath to Sunday and thereby fulfilled Daniel 7:25 (changing times and laws), Roden pointed out the times and laws mentioned in Daniel 7:25 were plural. The Sabbath is but one time, and one law. Roden said that the Roman Church changed the feasts to their own. e.g. Passover became Easter etc.
Finally about the BRANCH. Roden felt the scriptures mentioning the BRANCH were escatological in nature, and therefore did not point to Jesus Christ. He believed the BRANCH was a modern day David, who would deliver God's people.
George Roden is currently housed in a mental hospital for the criminally insane in Texas. He split a man's head open with an ax - killing him.
There are very few (if any) on-line resources for teachings from Ben and Lois Roden, however Mark Swett who runs the Branch Davidian Resource Centre web site has nearly 30 cassette tapes of her Bible studies.