Fulfilment of a Grand Prophecy - Hazrat Ahmad’s Challenge to John Alexander Dowie — Page 25
Fulfillment of a Grand Prophecy 25. CHAPTER 3. THE PRAYER DUEL – A CHRONOLOGICAL PRESENTATION. John Alexander Dowie – A Brief Life Sketch. John Alexander. Dowie was born in Edinburgh,. Scotland in 1847. . His family moved to Australia in 1860. He began working at his uncle's shop as a shoe salesman. . He had a bad temper and once during a disagreement he threatened to hit his uncle with an iron rod, who promptly left the shop to protect himself. Dowie did a few odd jobs here and there as a clerk, and in 1867 he moved back to. Scotland for further studies. He studied theology and some other subjects for two to three years. As his father could not afford to continue funding him, he was asked to return to Australia. In 1872, he came back to Australia and began a job search in the Church. Finally, he was accepted in a. Congregational church in Newton, a quaint city near Sydney. Later, he moved and became a minister at a Melbourne church. In 1878, he organized the International Healing Association. . He was arrested many times during his stay because of his extreme protests against the wickedness that, according to him, abound in that area. In July 1888 he moved to the United States and arrived in the San Francisco area. He began his healing activities here; initially he was given a warm welcome, but later he began calling all those who helped him apostates. He extensively traveled up and down the West Coast and, passing through. Utah, he arrived in Evanston, Illinois. This is where he began his ministerial work in a small wooden hut near the World Fair facilities. In 1896, he formed his own Church, naming it as the. Christian Catholic Church. He had an enrollment of five hundred followers. In 1895, he established the Central Zion Tabernacle. In 1897, he was arrested over a hundred times for protesting against alcohol use and practicing medicine without a license. . Gradually, he bought large parcels of land some forty-two miles north of Chicago while, at the same time, keeping the attention of the media in his controversial pursuits in Chicago. On New. Year's Eve, he gathered all his followers to an allnight service at the Central Zion Tabernacle. As the clock struck midnight, Dowie drew the large curtain twenty-five feet high and twenty-five feet wide that was hiding the blue print of the new city he would found. The blue print was of a piece of land six thousand six hundred acres in area along the bank of Lake Michigan, the future City of Zion. . From this point on, he began to progress with leaps and bounds. . During the next seven years, Dowie's life was a roller coaster with extreme peaks and severe falls, the likeness of which has seldom been recorded in the history of humankind. Dowie enjoyed the media limelight for a twelve-year period, yet the. Chicago Evening American reported the following on the day Dowie died, March 9, 1907: "When John Alexander Dowie passed away, his death ended the most spectacular and remarkable career that modern times have known. Gigantic success and tragic failures punctuate his life. Here are some of the remarkable works and reversals that marked. Dowie's career: