John Alexander Dowie
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John Alexander Dowie (born 25 May 1847 – 9 March 1907) was a significant Scottish clergyman in the United States of America. He was the founder of the city of Zion, Illinois, and the Christian Catholic Apostolic Church.
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[edit] Biography
Dowie was born in Edinburgh the son of John Murray Dowie, tailor and preacher. He moved to Adelaide, South Australia with his parents in 1860[1] and found employment in a grocery firm run by an uncle and became a junior partner.[2]
Around 1868 Dowie returned to Edinburgh to study theology. He was an evangelist and faith healer. He then returned to Australia and became pastor of a Congregational church at Alma, a country town around 50 miles from Adelaide. He afterwards went to Sydney and in 1876 was minister of the Newtown Congregational church. He published Rome's Polluted Springs in 1877, the substance of two lectures given at the Masonic hall, Sydney. In 1879 he also published at Sydney The Drama, The Press and the Pulpit, revised reports of two lectures given the previous March. About this time he gave up his pastorate as a Congregational clergyman. and became an independent evangelist, holding his meetings in a theatre and claiming powers as a faith-healer. Coming to Melbourne in the early 1880s he attracted many followers and was able to build a tabernacle of his own.[1] In 1888 he moved to the United States, and in 1896 founded the Christian Catholic Apostolic Church in Zion, Illinois, with himself as First Apostle.
In 1899, he announced plans for the establishment of Zion , Illinois: a city to be free from the evil influences of modern society. In 1903 he held a two-week evangelistic healing campaign in Madison Square Garden in New York City. In 1904 he conducted an "Around the World" campaign, preaching in many countries and cities of the world. In 1906 he suffered a debilitating stroke. He died in his beloved city of Zion in 1907.
[edit] Faith Healer
Dowie was a believer in divine healing, and his early meeting halls were filled with the crutches, braces, and other medical devices that his followers supposedly no longer needed because they had been miraculously healed.[citation needed] Dowie published his followers' healing testimonials in a weekly publication titled Leaves of Healing. 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.[citation needed]
Among the thousands to whom Dowie ministered healing included a cousin of Abraham Lincoln, and the niece of Bill Codey.
[edit] Influence
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.[citation needed] 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.[citation needed]
[edit] "Prayer Duel" with Mirza Ghulam Ahmad
Dowie is of particular significance to the turn-of-the-century Islamic messianic sect known as the Ahmadiyya community. Dowie exchanged a series of letters with its founder, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, between 1903 and 1907. They engaged in a widely publicized prayer duel, each calling upon God to expose the other as a false prophet. Herein the Ahmadiyya find a "sign of God," and a proof of their founder's claim to be "The Promised Messiah and Mahdi."[3] Dowie had claimed to be the forerunner of Christ's second coming. He was particularly hard on Muslims, whom he believed Christ would destroy upon his return. Ahmad had claimed to be the coming of Christ in the spirit (as well as the promised Imam Mahdi), who would establish the "final victory of Islam" on earth. When Ahmad heard of Dowie's claim, he challenged him to the prayer duel, in the following words, which represent a small excerpt:
"If the pretender to Elijahship shows his willingness by any direct or indirect 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." [4]
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." [5]
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad stated:
"Though he may try hard as he can to fly from death which awaits him, yet his flight from such a contest will be nothing less than death to him; and calamity will certainly overtake his Zion, for he must bear the consequences either of the acceptance of the challenge or its refusal. He will depart this life with great sorrow and torment during my lifetime." [6]
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 the City of Zion 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.'" [7]
"Great is Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, The Messiah: Foretold Pathetic end of Dowie and now Predicts Plague, Flood and Earthquake." [8]
[edit] References
- ^ a b Percival Serle (1949). Dowie, John Alexander. Dictionary of Australian Biography. Angus & Robertson. Retrieved on 2007-09-03.
- ^ H. J. Gibbney (1972). Dowie, John Alexander (1847 - 1907). Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 4 pp 95-96. MUP. Retrieved on 2007-09-03.
- ^ Life & Times of Dowie at Ahmadiyya Gazette
- ^ Herald
- ^ Leaves of Healing, December 27th, 1903
- ^ Ahmadiyyat: The Renaissance of Islam p.101
- ^ Herald
- ^ The Boston Herald, June 23, 1907
