Fulfilment of a Grand Prophecy - Hazrat Ahmad’s Challenge to John Alexander Dowie — Page 81
Fulfillment of a Grand Prophecy 85. THE DUNNVILLE GAZETTE, Friday, June 7, 1907 "A MESSIAH IN INDIA". All the way from Qadian, Gurdaspur, India, comes a pamphlet addressed to the Gazette, entitled" Divine Judgment in Dowie's death or the. Fulfillment of a Grand Prophecy. " Our circulation in India is not extensive, and the receipt of this pamphlet consequent-ly was a surprise, which was increased by a perusal of its contents. The subject matter of the pamphlet is described as an extract from the April number of the Review of Religions, published at Qadian in the interest of. Muhammadan faith, and to give an account of the life and teachings of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, who calls himself as the Promised Messiah. It is this. Ahmad who claims that, following an attack by. Dowie in 1902 on Mohammedanism and a prediction of its impending overthrow, he gave out a prophecy That Chicago Elijah would leave the world before him in great sorrow and torment. . Dowie was at the height of his power, controlling vast wealth, possessing the unbound confidence of thousands of followers, apparently enjoying perfect health, and several years younger than. Ahmad, so that the latter and his adherents may be pardoned for taking some credit for the accuracy with which the prophecy was fulfilled a few months ago. . But Ahmad does not ask people to accept him as the Promised Messiah on the strength of the accurate fulfillment of his prediction regarding. Dowie alone. The marvelous claim he makes is thus set forth in his own words: "I am the True. Messiah who was to come in the last ages; thus has Almighty spoken to me. I do not claim to be the Promised Messiah simply by my own assertion, but Almighty God who made the earth and heaven has borne witness to the truth of my claim. The evidence of God ha been manifested in hundreds of heavenly signs shown in my support. I say it truly that Almighty God has poured his grace upon me in far greater abundance than upon the Messiah who has gone before me. In the looking glass of my person the face of God is revealed to a far greater extent than in that Jesus' person. If these are simply my own assertions, and there is no other authority for them, I am a liar: but if. Almighty God bears witness to my truth, no one give the lie to me. Thousands of times I should say times without number-has He borne witness to the truth of my claims. ". It would be interesting to have some details of the evidence to which Ahmad refers, but beyond the fulfillment of Dowie prediction, and of other predictions of somewhat general nature regarding the plague and earthquakes, the pamphlet is silent. . Ahmad said to have recently predicted another series of disastrous earthquakes, without specifying their exact location, also other calamities of a terrible nature, which he says would have been put off or a while had he not come to give warning of them. If Ahmad confines his prophecies to those of the character appearing in the pamphlet, he is on fairly safe ground, and can build up quite a reputation as a seer, but a trifle more exactness in the matter of places and dates would help him a lot with those of us who are inclined to be skeptical regarding his claims. "