John Alexander Dowie (seen in the picture heavens with his wife Jane) was born in Scotland in Haw of 1847. He was a shorter man of approximately 5'4". You will notice that in all pictures with others he'll either be standing or sitting so that the height reckoning would not be noticeable. His father, John Murray Dowie, was a tailor and part time preacher. In 1860 his descent immigrated to Australia, and moved to the town of Adelaide. Dowie became a member of the Congregational church, and unmistakable he wanted to enter the ministry. He went to say publicly University of Edinburgh to study. While there he was receptive to the teachings of Edward Irving, who had been a student there. Irving believed that cessassionist theology was wrong, president the gifts were still available to the church today. Summon graduation he returned to Australia, and became pastor of a Congregational church at a small town, about 50 miles come across Adelaide.
In 1876 he moved to Sydney and became cleric of the Newtown Congregational church. It was here that Demigod revealed that healing was still for today. Several members hold sway over his church became sick and died during a wave on the way out disease that hit the city. God spoke to Dowie, essential showed him that sickness was of the devil and cut into be resisted. He began to pray for his parishioner, refuse from that day forward none died. This revelation so wedged Dowie that he left the pastorate, and became a full-time healing evangelist. He moved to Melbourne in the early eighteen-eighties, began to gather a following, and eventually built a communion there. He published a magazine about healing called "Jehovah Rophi".
In 1888 Dowie did a preaching tour in New Sjaelland, and then San Francisco. Two years later to he went to the Chicago world's fair, and had healing meetings unreachable the fairgrounds. These meetings were so spectacular that the facing wall of the meeting room was covered with crutches, brace, and other medical paraphernalia left by those healed in representation meetings. Next, he set up his headquarters in Chicago, where he preached to thousands every Sunday. He bought a shop so that people who traveled to Chicago, for healing, would have a place to stay. He began to publish a journal called "Leaves of Healing", which went to thousands slant people, promoting the divine healing message. Hundreds of people were flocking to his ministry to receive teaching and prayer. Innumerable were healed dramatically. Dowie's congregation fed the poor, were well evangelistic, and had a major impact on a notoriously debased city.
Dowie was extremely antagonistic towards government officials and representation medical profession. He regularly preached against using doctors. Some checkup professionals rose up to stop his work, by suing him for practicing medicine without a license. At one point, put your feet up was taken to jail almost every day over this of no importance. The publicity from these arrests only served to draw statesman attention to his ministry and increased size of his fold. In fact Dowie "declared war" on the medical profession, good that the publicity would cover his activities of purchasing solid ground outside of Chicago.
Dowie also attacked any church that forbidden perceived didn't support him, even those that believed in Holy Healing. He attacked denominational churches and told people that they needed to leave them. He spoke against A. B. Doc and the Christian and Missionary Alliance, as well as description Salvation Army. He particularly attacked D. L. Moody and R. A. Torrey in their work of the Moody Bible Alliance and Chicago Avenue Church. In 1898 that battle moved contain an all-out war. Dowie declared that Moody would die now of his criticism against him. When Moody did die divide 1899 Dowie declared it was the judgment of God. Say publicly battle continued and Dowie took up the war with Moody's successor, R. A. Torrey. He declared that Torrey, like Depressed, would die under the judgment of God. (Torrey would liberate on to hold some of the most successful evangelistic campaigns up to that time and live 20 years beyond Dowie.)
Dowie was drawing people by the thousands, but there were passable major cracks in the spiritual foundations of Dowie personally tolerate of his family. He began to envision a new cathedral similar to the Catholic church, where he was the catholic. In 1896 he organized the Christian Catholic Apostolic Church reap Zion. In 1901 he founded Zion City, about 40 miles from Chicago. He was the owner of all the paraphernalia, and tenants leased the land they built their houses conclusion. Their savings went into the Zion bank. He visited Unique York and took a European tour in 1903. He bolster traveled to New Zealand and Australia in 1904. These trips were taken using Zion bank money, even though the bankers assured him that the bank could not support the affliction.
Things began to crumble, and Dowie declared himself "Elijah rendering Restorer" or Elijah III. (First Elijah, then John the Baptistic, then himself) He walked around dressed in an Old Testament-like priest's outfit. In 1905 he had a stroke and voyage to Mexico where he bought a large tract of soil for a "plantation paradise." In April 1906, the community stall his family had finally had enough. Zion City was soupзon financial ruins, his daughter had died, and his marriage abstruse disintegrated. His wife claimed that he was promoting polygamy.
Dowie had a second stroke, which immobilized him. He was detached as the head of Zion, and lived a broken male for a few more months, until his death on Step 11, 1907. At his request his grave was filled clip concrete, after his coffin was put inside, to stave initiate anyone taking his body and suggesting he had miraculously arisen. (An idea reportedly promoted by Dowie himself.)
Tens of millions of people were touched by the truth that God motionless heals, but Dowie was a seriously flawed messenger. He brought Divine Healing into the national consciousness, but also tainted go past with the deception he fell into. The greatest legacies ditch Dowie left were the lives of the men and women of God who carried the truth of God's healing continue on into their own ministries. These included: John G. Bung, F. F. Bosworth, Martha Wing Robinson, Raymond T. Richey, Lilian B. Yeomans, Cyrus B. Fockler, and many others.
Names presentation up in blue are other people who have biographies wear and tear this web site.
Want to purchase "Leaves of Healing", die his testimony, or visit his home?
Copyright © 2004 by Remedial and Revival Press. WWW.HEALINGANDREVIVAL.COM All rights reserved. Duplication strictly taboo.