Fulfilment of a Grand Prophecy - Hazrat Ahmad’s Challenge to John Alexander Dowie — Page 87
Fulfillment of a Grand Prophecy. THE TRUTH SEEKER, New York, June 15, 1907 "The War of the Prophets". Now that Dowie's dead and buried, his claims repudiated, and none so hard up for an objurgation as to swear by his heard as that of a prophet, the squabbling over his property, his reputation, and his moth-eaten mantle seems indecent even to those who have always regarded him as an imposter. The following occurred in the newspaper dispatches last week: "Chicago, June 2- Accompanied by a band which cost $30 and hour, Wilbur Glenn Voliva, practically deposed from Zion by the Federal Court, today held a revolutionary meeting in a tent just outside the court, the courts laying enjoined him from holding a meeting in Zion Court. It was expected that the tent meeting would be livelier than ordinarily, but. Gladstone Dowie, the 'unkissed' son of the former prophet, suddenly took the reins in his own hands and put an unexpected crimp in the Voliva plans. "The Voliva faction has been indulging in many bitter personalities regarding Mrs. Dowie, widow of the prophet and mother of Gladstone. . This has become unbearable, and it was learned that similar attacks were to be chief entertainment at the Voliva meeting today. Gladstone, served notice upon Voliva and his adherents that if any more attacks, open or in secret, were made upon him or his mother the case would be carried into the courts, Voliva, who has come to have some respect for the Federal Court, headed the waning, and his meeting today, while well attended, was unusually tame, because its fire had been drawn. . Many curious persons from Chicago and the towns surrounding Zion attended the meeting, expecting something sensational, but were disappointed. " "In the city proper, where General Lewis, under the wing of the Federal Court, is holding forth as the legitimate successor of Dowie, the day was quietly spent with the customary religious services in the tabernacle. Voliva threatens to take his followers and build up a new Zion, preferably in some Southern state, but little heed is given the threat, and his 91 followers are rapidly deserting and rallying to the. Lewis standard. The courts are assisting the new overseer in putting Zion on a business basis, and with the removal of Voliva it is expected the people will settle down and regain their former prosperity. ". Old Dowie himself was too much of an egotist to spend any thought on the crows that would caw over his refuse when he was dead. . It is diverting to turn from the scene above described to a publication issued by a rival prophet on the other side of the globe, namely, Mirza Ghulam. Ahmad, who is drawing a bunch of Mohammedans after him at Qadian, Gurdaspur, India. The publication is a pamphlet entitled "Divine Judgment in Dowie's Death: or, The Fulfillment of a Grand. Prophecy. ". We have previously alluded to the prophecy in the above title. The late Dowie looked upon Mohammed as the prince of imposters; he not only prophesied that. Mohammedanism would be destroyed by Zion, but from day to day prayed God for the time when the crescent should disappear. This coming to the knowledge of the Indian Messiah, he spread broadcast a challenge to Elijah II, to meet him and "pray to God that of us two whoever is the liar may perish first. " The Qadian man predicted that if Dowie accepted the challenge "he shall leave the world before my eyes with great sorrow and torment. " If. Dowie declined, the Mirza said, the end would only be deferred; death awaited him just the same, and "calamity will soon overtake Zion. " That was the. Grand Prophecy: Zion should fall, and Dowie die before Ahmad. . It appeared to be a risky step for the Promised. Messiah to defy the Restored Elijah to an endurance test, because the challenger was by fifteen years the older man of the two, and probabilities, in a land of plagues and fanatics, were against him as a survivor; but he won out. . The argument he makes for the fulfillment of his prophecy that God would effect the decease of Dowie is cogent enough to convince the follower of the