1959-1993
Cult Leader

Davidian Foundations.

Vernon Wayne Howell was born on 17 August 1959. In 1968 he and his mother joined the Seventh-Day Adventist Church (established in 1863). Adventists consider themselves to be the true people of God, awaiting Christ's imminent return and attempting to understand all parts of the Bible that foreshadowed that return. Dissatisfied with their teachings, Howell eventually moved on to the Branch Davidians. An energetic and charismatic man, he taught that the Seven Seals of Rev. 6 provide the only hope for salvation. By 1985 he came to believe that he was God's prophet chosen to deliver the Adventists from error, a doctrine they rejected. This increased Howell's sense of alienation. He saw himself as a modern Cyrus the Great, the Persian king who defeated Babylon and is called God's Messiah in Isaiah 45:1. Because he was able to explain the Seals, and Rev. 5 says that only the Lamb...