John Alexander Dowie
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- For the comedian, writer, and musician, see John Dowie (humourist)
John Alexander Dowie (* 25.5.1847 in Edinburgh, † 9.3.1907 in City of Zion) was a significant Scottish clergyman in the U.S..
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[edit] Biography
Dowie was born in Edinburgh and moved to Australia as a boy but returned to Edinburgh to study theology. He was an evangelist and faith healer. 1888 he moved to United States and founded, in 1896, The Christian Catholic Apostolic Church in Zion, Illinois, with himself as First 22 Apostle. He was the founder of the city of Zion, Illinois.
[edit] Faith healer
Dowie was a believer in divine healing, and his early church was filled with the crutches, braces, and other medical devices that his followers supposedly no longer needed because they had been miraculously healed. While Dowie's ministry predated the contemporary revival of Pentecostalism, many of his followers became influential figures in the Pentecostal revival in the early years of the twentieth century.
Though Dowie did not visit South Africa, some of his followers went there as missionaries between 1904 and 1908, and established churches at Wakkerstroom and Charlestown on the Transvaal-Natal border. After the missionaries left these churches proliferated into a huge number of denominations, all claiming their origin in Zion, Illinois, which together constitute the largest group of Christians in South Africa.
[edit] Ahmadiyya Movement
The life of John Alexander Dowie is of particular significance to the turn-of-the-century Islamic reformist organization known as the Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam. In what might be termed a "bizarre" exchange that took place between Mr. Dowie and the founder of the Ahmadiyya Movement [See: The Sunday Herald--Boston, June 23, 1907, Magazine Section, page 3. For a copy, contact The Boston Public Library Microfiche department], Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, between the years 1903 and 1907, the Ahmadiyya find a "sign of God," and a "proof" of the "truth" of their founder's claim to be, "The Promised Messiah & Mahdi."
The exchange was covered by not only the Herald, but by a number of other newspapers of the United States, such as:
- The Chicago Inter Ocean, June 28, 1903
- The Telegraph, July 5, 1903
- The Literary Digest, June 20, 1903
- The New York Mail & Express, June 25, 1903
- The Herald Rochester, June 25, 1903
- The Record Boston, June 27, 1903
- The Advertiser Boston, June 25, 1903
- The Pilot Boston, June 27, 1903
- The Pathfinder Washington, June 27, 1903
- The Detroit English News, June 27, 1903
- The Democratic Chronicle Rochester, June 25, 1903
- The Burlington Free Press, June 27, 1903
- The Albany Press, June 25, 1903
- The Baltimore American, June 28, 1903
- The Buffalo Times, June 25, 1903
- The Groomshire Gazette, July 17, 1903
- The Houston Chronicle, July 3, 1903
- The Trichmond News, July 1, 1903
- The Argunaut San Francisco, Dec. 1, 1903
Dowie had claimed to the forerunner of the second coming of Christ. Dowie was particularly hard on Muslims, whom he felt that Christ would return and destroy. Ahmad, a Muslim, had claimed to be Christ in the spirit [as well as "Imam Mahdi], who would establish the "final victory of Islam" in earth. When Ahmad heard of Dowie's claim, he challenged him to a prayer duel, in the following words, which represent a small excerpt:
"If the pretender to Elijahship shows his willingness by any direct or indrect means to enter the lists against me, he shall leave the world before my eyes with great sorrow and torment. These...signs are particularly for Europe and America. Ah! That they ponder over them and benefit by them." [Herald]
Dowie replied,
"People sometimes say to me, 'Why do you not reply to this, that and the other thing?' Reply! Do you think that I shall reply to the gnats and flies. If I put my foot on them I would crush out their lives. I give them a chance to fly away and live." [Herald]
Between the years 1903 and 1907, as reported in American newspapers, Dowie's life deteriorated steadily. One scandal followed another. He fell to alcoholism. His family and friends abandoned him, and he eventually lost his mind and died in a miserable state. The Boston Herald reported:
"Dowie died with his friends fallen away from him and his fortune dwindled. He suffered from paralysis and insanity. He died a miserable death, with Zion City torn and frayed by internal dissensions.
"Mirza comes forward frankly and states that he has won his challenge, or 'prediction.'" [Herald]
The title of the Sunday Herald of Boston article is: Great is Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, The Messiah: Fortold Pathetic end of Dowie and now He Predicts Plague, Flood and Earthquake."
