Fulfilment of a Grand Prophecy - Hazrat Ahmad’s Challenge to John Alexander Dowie — Page 88
92. Fulfillment of a Grand Prophecy. Promised Messiah, although in our view he weakens his case by stating that Dowie "drank Scotch highballs" and "planned a band of seven 'vestal virgins' to attend hum. " For if the founder of Zion indulged and endowed himself as alleged, there might be more of paresis than of providence in his taking off. . The war of the prophets dates from the remote past and will beyond doubt go on as long as there are two of them in the field. In the times treated of by the. Bible writers, miracle competitions were held. Aaron, the successor of Moses, entered such a contest, arranged by Pharaoh. He cast down his rod before the monarch, and it became a serpent. Then Pharaoh also called the magicians of Egypt, who duplicated the trick, their rods, thrown down, turning likewise into serpents; but Aaron got the decision because his rod swallowed up their rods. After that test Aaron was the Mirza for the children of Israel's money. . Another competition among the prophets was engaged in by Dowie's predecessor, Elijah. It was a praying match, Elijah being the challenger. He kept the priests of Baal praying ineffectively to their deity, from sun to sun, that they would start the fire in an altar they had prepared, and meanwhile Elijah stood about jibing them with such remarks as "Cry aloud, for he is a god, either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is on a journey or peradventure he sleepeth and must be waked. " He then, after performing certain incantations, lit the fire in his own altar although it had been previously drenched with four barrels of water: and nothing in the narrative supports the criticism of Mark Twain that the barrels, instead of water, contained kerosene, and that Elijah touched a match to the pile. . There is biblical precedent, therefore, for the. Mirza's “defi" to Dowie; there is also precedent in experience for the going to pieces of men of Dowie's excessive activity and strenuous life. One who makes prediction and lives to see it fulfilled, of the downfall of a modern prophet, is not warranted thereby in setting himself up as another. . THE REVIEW OF RELIGIONS, February, 1907. THE END OF AN IMPOSTER. Dr. Dowie of Elijah fame has gone mad after being subjected to all the disgrace which was the result of the vast majority of his disciples renouncing him in one body as an imposter. The Truth Seeker of. New York, December 8, 1906, says: "John. Alexander Dowie, who has posed as Elijah the. Restorer and as the First Apostle of Jesus Christ, is now a raving maniac. He is a physical as well as a mental wreck, confined to his bed, and imagines himself the commander of an army, his followers, irrespective of sex, being to him 'gentlemen of the army"" The Indian Daily Telegraph writes:— "Telegrams received from Chicago state that Dr. . Dowie displayed unmistakable evidence of mental collapse on Sunday, while addressing a meeting of two hundred of his followers from Zion city. "He appeared (says the New York correspondent of the Tribune) with his hands and feet bandaged, and labored under the delusion that he had received serious wounds in a victorious battle, while his faithful general had been slain. He pictured Lake. Michigan as filled with warships, which have come to help him to wrest Zion from the rebels. The Negro attendants removed Dr. Dowie before he had finished his rambling address. "It is stated that Dowie has forgotten his own name and calls himself Jerry. He is almost helpless physically. ". Almighty God does not allow the impostors to prosper as His Messengers and the fate of Dowie shall for all ages be a most noteworthy illustration of this truth. And all this had been prophesied for him by the Promised Messiah three years before this.