Chapter 5

BIRTH PANGS: THE PENTECOSTAL MESSAGE FORESHADOWED

By the early nineties the groundswell of religious fervor was beating hard against the beaches of the world. The cumulative effect of English and American spiritual awakening had entered into literature, politics, business, styles and international diplomacy. The Pax Britannia had reached its zenith, wealth was increasing, science exploding into new fields. Ministers like Boston's A.J. Gordon and 's R.A. Torrey were confidently predicting the imminent of the Lord. 1

1. Introduction American Perfectionism entered the twentieth century convinced of the return of the Lord. Missionaries were going out to scores of new fields; the Student Volunteer Movement had shifted into high gear. Everywhere arose the urgent cry: 'Now is our chance. Let us strike together to see the world evangelized. One last effort and the way that the new age was about to dawn.' Keswick adherent, Arthur Tappan Pierson, writing in 1900, contended: 'The study of.. .last things, particularly the approaching end of the age, has taken on new interest of late.' 'There is', he con• tinued, 'a general consensus of opinion that we are now on the threshold of... [a] ... crisis unparalleled in the history of the Church.'2 While adherents were not universally agreed on the nature of the final crisis, most had come to articulate their vision of the impending end of human history in premillennial terms. Convinced by recent events that evil had gained a stranglehold on history, they came to feel that divine interven• tion alone could bring about a just resolution. Discerning the signs of the times, they perceived that God was calling forth a restored church. Freed from the impossible and mistaken notion that their task was to convert

1. F.S. Murray, The Sublimity of Faith: The Life and Work of Frank W. Sandford (Amherst, NH: The Kingdom Press, 1981), p. 74. 2. Pierson, Forward Movements, p. 409. 116 The Everlasting Gospel the world for Christ, they focused on their true mission: to proclaim the gospel to the nations as a witness; and to call a nominal Christendom to put on her bridal garments in preparation for the marriage supper of the Lamb. In this atmosphere of highly charged expectancy, several would step forward, feeling that they had been called by God to playa decisive role in this cosmic drama. In this chapter, I examine the claims of three such figures: John Alexander Dowie, Frank Weston Sandford, and Charles Fox Parham.

2. John Alexander Dowie The best known and, in many respects, most interesting is John Alexander Dowie. Born in Scotland and raised in Australia, Dowie immigrated to the in 1888. He claimed to be Elijah the Restored, and the First Apostle of a restoration church. He founded both Zion, a utopian community located forty miles north of Chicago, and the Christian Apostolic Church. His success seemed to know no limits. By 1906, Zion was a bustling city of 8,000 residents and the church boasted a world-wide following of 200,000 members. But Dowie's meteoric rise proved to be a flash in the pan. One year later he was dead, his city in financial receivership and his church hopelessly divided. Attention here will first be directed to the man, and then to his message.

The Development of an Elijah Personality Dowie has been described as 'a man born to command and incapable of following'.3 At the height of his power, Dowie's physical appearance was unimposing. At age fifty, he was a small, overweight, balding man with bowed legs and a flowing beard. But the force of his personality was such that few could escape the power of his presence. In private he was a perfect gentleman. He radiated confidence, sincerity, trust, and understanding. Seeker and skeptic alike were captivated by his warm smile, penetrating gaze, and listening ear. On the other hand, in the pulpit, dressed in long flowing liturgical robes, he would rail against the evils of his day and denounce a spineless Christianity for its failure to stand up to the forces of Satan. So compelling was his power that his

3. J.M. Buckley, 'Dowie Analyzed and Classified', The Century Magazine 64 (October, 1902), p. 928. Another investigative reporter concludep that Dowie could 'no more follow than a fish can walk' (J. Swain, 'John Alexander Dowie: The and his Profit', The Century Magazine 64 [October, 1902], p. 936).