Fulfilment of a Grand Prophecy - Hazrat Ahmad’s Challenge to John Alexander Dowie — Page 69
Fulfillment of a Grand Prophecy. DR. DOWIE'S REACTION TO THE CHALLENGE OF HAZRAT AHMADAS. Dr. Dowie was repeatedly asked by his followers to respond to Hazrat Ahmad's challenge, yet he refrained from doing so, although he was fully aware that prayers was the method of choice in such cases where schools of thought were different. For example, when he came to Oakland, California, pastors of California confronted him in 1889. Rolvix. Harlan writes: "On January 27,1889, in the First Baptist Church of Oakland, California, Mr. Dowie makes reply to what he terms an attack upon him by the Rev. Dr. E. . C Chapman and the Oakland Pastor's union. . . . At the beginning of his reply Mr. Dowie says: "We will take the whole matter to Him in prayer that we may be in such a beautiful spirit of communion and expectancy, 73 that we shall realize his presence here today. . . . Let us expect to get an answer to a direct prayer" (p. 86). . As his followers insisted that Dowie must respond to Hazrat Ahmad, Dowie finally wrote in his publication Leaves of Healing the following: "In India, there is a Mohammedan Messiah who keeps on writing to me that Jesus Christ lies buried in. Kashmir. People ask me why do I not send him the necessary reply? Do you think that I should answer such gnats and flies? If I were to put my foot on them I would crush them to death. The fact that I merely give them a chance to fly away and survive. " (Leaves of Healing, December 27, 1903). HAZRAT AHMAD REITERATES HIS CHALLENGE "It should be borne in mind that Dr. Dowie has not given any reply to my challenge made in. September 1902 nor has he even so much as mentioned it in his paper (i. e. Leaves of Healing). . For an answer to my challenge, I will wait for a further period of seven months from this day (i. e. . August 23, 1903). If he accepts the challenge within this period and fulfill its conditions as published by me, and makes an announcement to the effect in this paper, the World will soon see the end of this contest. . I am about 66 years of age, while Dr. Dowie is about 55 years. Therefore compared to me he is still young. . Since the matter is not o be settled by age, I do not care for this great disparity in years. The whole matter rests in the Hands of Him Who is the Lord of the Heaven and Earth, and Judge over all judges and. He will decide it in favor of the true claimant. But if. Dr. Dowie cannot even now gather courage to appear in the contest against me, let both the continents bear witness that I shall be entitled to claim the same victory as in the case of his death in my lifetime. If he accepts the challenge, the pretensions of Dr. Dowie will be settled though he may try hard as he can to fly away from the death, which awaits him. Yet his flight from such a contest will be nothing less than a death which awaits him and the calamity will certainly overtake him in Zion for he must face the consequences of either acceptance of the challenge or its refusal. ". Dr. Dowie did not pay any attention to it, continued his business, and began preparing his grand visit to New York in the hope of converting thousands of New Yorkers for his church. This preparation took ten months by a team of experts planning it with extreme care and diligence. It was. Dowie's dream to succeed in New York and convert it to another Zion. Newspapers began covering his efforts in this regard with large headlines. Few such clippings are shown in the previous pages.