John Alexander Dowie

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John Alexander Dowie

John Alexander Dowie (born May 25, 1847 in Edinburgh - † March 9, 1907 in Zion (Illinois) ) was an important Scottish Congregationalist and spiritual healer in the United States who, in anticipation of the end times, founded the theocratically led city of Zion City in 1901 , Illinois founded.

Life path

Dowie emigrated to Australia in 1860 . There he was from 1875 in Newton, a suburb of Sydney , preacher of the Congregational Church . A formative experience was a serious epidemic and Dowie had to abdicate more than forty times within a few weeks. During this time Dowie developed a strong inclination to prayer that resulted in many surprising healings. Dowie was u. a. a thorn in the side when parishes turned people into tools of their own denominations. He criticized this clearly and harshly, which brought him some hostility.

Thereafter returned to Edinburgh to study theology . He was an evangelist and faith healer. In 1888 he emigrated to the United States and founded the Christian Catholic Apostolic Church in Chicago in 1896, initially with 22 apostles . With the establishment of the self-sufficient city of Zion City, Illinois in 1901, he created his own theocracy and took the position of General Overseer . In the same year he claimed to be the prophet Elijah prophesied at Malachi 3:23 and considered himself the 5th angel of Revelation . Dowie has long been considered one of the richest men in North America, and Zion City grossed about $ 15 million in 1902. To promote his community, he traveled by private train to New York City in October 1903 and performed as a spiritual healer at Madison Square Garden . In 1905 he suffered a severe stroke and was increasingly exposed to criticism from the people of Zion City, who accused him of financial exploitation. He died in 1907, abandoned by his wife and children.

Faith healer

Dowie believed in faith healing, and many of his followers carried crutches, braces, and other medical supplies that they supposedly no longer needed because they had been miraculously healed. While Dowie's work preceded the current Pentecostal revival, many of his followers had significant influence on the Pentecostal movement in the early 20th century. A Pentecostal healing evangelist who referred to Dowie several times was the American spiritual healer William Branham , who also saw himself as the prophet Elijah of the end times and even went so far as to claim that John Alexander Dowie had prophesied his appearance as the 7th angel of Revelation .

Travel and Mission Achievements

Dowie tried on several trips to promote his teachings and to find recognition as Elijah. In 1900 and 1904 he also held evangelism events in Switzerland . Following Dowie's first stay in Switzerland, a “Christian-Catholic Zion Church” was formed in Zurich, to which the preacher of the Baptist congregation in Zurich and some of his followers converted. In 1907, the message of the Pentecostal movement reached this Dowie congregation in Zurich, starting in Los Angeles .

Gerrit Roelof Polman (1868–1932) was the founder and leader of the Dutch Pentecostal movement and joined the Salvation Army in 1890 . Together with Arthur S. Booth-Clibborn, the head of the Salvation Army in the Netherlands , Polman left the Salvation Army in January 1902 to work with Dowie. He went to America with his wife to study at Dowie's Ministerial Training School in Zion City. They returned to Amsterdam in January 1906 to build a similar community in the Netherlands. Polman started a church with about 25 visitors.

Zion City

In anticipation of the end times , Dowie founded his own city "City of Zion" in Illinois , on Michigan near Chicago , in 1901 , in which his followers were to live sinlessly in anticipation of the return of Jesus Christ. With the name he alluded to the "New Jerusalem" in the Bible. Business was established in cooperatives. The Tabernacle, the central church of the Christian Catholic Apostolic Church, was completed in 1902 and has a capacity of 8,000 believers. A large hotel, the “Zion Hotel”, was built for the many visitors. Dowie lived in a house known as the Shiloh House. The Zion Project went bankrupt in 1905. The city remained under theocratic administration until 1935. Today the city has about 20,000 inhabitants.

Christian Catholic Apostolic Church

The community, founded in 1896, is said to have 3,000 members in the USA and Canada today.

About the goal of the Christian Catholic Apostolic Church:

"Let me put it simply and plainly. The purpose of the Christian Catholic Church in Zion is to smash every other church in existence. "

“Let me put it very simply. The concern of the Christian Catholic Church in Zion is the destruction of all other existing churches. "

literature

  • Gordon Lindsay: John Alexander Dowie - A Life Story of Trials Tragedies and Triumphs. Christ for the Nations, 1980, ISBN 0899859852 .
  • Eduard Hug : Elias the Restorer. A brief discussion and rejection of the sayings of Dr. John Alexander Dowie and his "Zion". Zurich no year (special print from the Swiss Evangelist )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Carol Sonnenschein, Zion City, Illinois: A Case Study of Commitment within a Religious Utopian Community , Master Theses 1990
  2. ↑ Roberts Liardon: God's Generals. Why they succeeded and why some failed. Adullam, Grasbrunn 1999, ISBN 3-931484-10-6 , pp. 25f.
  3. ↑ Roy Weremchuk, THUS Saith the Lord? , Deutscher Wissenschafts-Verlag, Baden-Baden 2019, p. 505 f.
  4. ↑ Roy Weremchuk 2019, p. 507.
  5. ↑ Roy Weremchuk 2019, p. 199
  6. ↑ Paul Schmidgall:  POLMAN, Gerrit Roelof. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 26, Bautz, Nordhausen 2006, ISBN 3-88309-354-8 , Sp. 1196-1199.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )
  7. ↑ http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/us/A0853448.html
  8. ↑ http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/society/A0812093.html
personal data
SURNAME Dowie, John Alexander
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Scottish Congregationalist in the United States
DATE OF BIRTH May 25, 1847
PLACE OF BIRTH Edinburgh
DATE OF DEATH March 9, 1907
Place of death Zion (Illinois)