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The Prodigal Son
John Alexander Dowie
John Alexander Dowie (1847–1907). Born on May 25, 1847, in Edinburgh, Scotland, to John Murray Dowie, a tailor and lay preacher, and Ann Macfarlan, John Alexander Dowie became a controversial evangelist and faith healer who founded the Christian Catholic Apostolic Church and Zion, Illinois. His childhood was marked by poverty and illness, but he showed early piety, reading the Bible cover-to-cover by age six and converting at seven after hearing a street preacher. In 1860, his family migrated to Adelaide, Australia, where Dowie worked in his uncle’s shoe business and later as a clerk, rising to a firm handling $2 million annually. At 21, he returned to Edinburgh to study theology, ordained as a Congregational minister in 1872, pastoring at Alma, Australia. His outspoken style led to conflicts, prompting resignations from churches in Manly (1873) and Newtown (1875). By 1878, he left Congregationalism, embracing divine healing after witnessing recoveries during a plague, founding the International Divine Healing Association in 1886. Moving to the U.S. in 1888, he built a following in San Francisco before settling in Chicago in 1890, capitalizing on the 1893 World’s Fair to grow his ministry. In 1896, he established the Christian Catholic Church, emphasizing healing, and in 1901, founded Zion, a theocratic community banning alcohol, tobacco, and medicine. Proclaiming himself “Elijah the Restorer” in 1901, he ruled Zion autocratically, amassing wealth but facing legal battles, including fraud suits he overcame. His books, like Zion’s Conflict with Methodist Apostasy (1900), and Leaves of Healing magazine spread his teachings. Married to cousin Jane Dowie in 1876, he had three children—Gladstone, Jeanie (died 1885), and Esther (died 1902). Extravagant campaigns, like a failed 1903 New York crusade, and financial mismanagement led to his 1906 deposition by deputy Wilbur Voliva after a stroke. Dowie died on March 9, 1907, in Zion, saying, “The time has come when I must obey God rather than man.”
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In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the idea that as believers, we should not be slaves to Satan, sin, disease, death, or hell. The preacher tells a story of a prodigal son who had strayed from his father's teachings and lived a life of indulgence and sin. When the son returns to his father, expecting to be treated as a hired servant, the father instead embraces him with love and forgiveness. The preacher highlights that in God's house, there are no slaves, only sons and daughters, and encourages gratitude for this truth.
Sermon Transcription
He sees him coming along the weary way, no longer with servants attending, no longer in rich robes, but ragged, poor, in worn-out sandals. He comes along the highway with the scent of the swineherd, and the stain of the flesh parts upon him. Creeping along, sick, sore, and weary, he says, Oh, if I could but be one of my father's hired servants, is it he? Can that be? Oh, God, can that be he, who wept only a few months ago, so strong, so happy, so bright, with the world all before him? Can that be? It is, it is he. Will the father reject? Will the father not see? I gave you your fortune, and you have tainted it all in riotous living. Stay away. No, no, the father saw him afar off, and he ran to tail this snake, and he kissed him, not heeding his stupidity and his rag. The father interrupted the prayer of the prodigal, after that son had confessed to sin, and asked if he might become a slave. In the father's house, there are no slaves in our father's house, and so the father would not listen to that cry, make me as one of thy hired servants. We are all sons and daughters of Jehovah God, the Almighty. There are no slaves in God's great house. Thank God for that. Why then should we be slaves to Satan, and to sin, and to disease, and to death, and to hell? The father took him, and kissed him. He told the servants to bring the vessel, and the signet ring that made him controller of his father's estate. He told them to get out the musical instruments of the dancers, and to make merry and be glad. Spread the feet, for this my son would stay. Praise to me, praise to mother, praise to purity, praise to God, and he is alive again.
The Prodigal Son
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John Alexander Dowie (1847–1907). Born on May 25, 1847, in Edinburgh, Scotland, to John Murray Dowie, a tailor and lay preacher, and Ann Macfarlan, John Alexander Dowie became a controversial evangelist and faith healer who founded the Christian Catholic Apostolic Church and Zion, Illinois. His childhood was marked by poverty and illness, but he showed early piety, reading the Bible cover-to-cover by age six and converting at seven after hearing a street preacher. In 1860, his family migrated to Adelaide, Australia, where Dowie worked in his uncle’s shoe business and later as a clerk, rising to a firm handling $2 million annually. At 21, he returned to Edinburgh to study theology, ordained as a Congregational minister in 1872, pastoring at Alma, Australia. His outspoken style led to conflicts, prompting resignations from churches in Manly (1873) and Newtown (1875). By 1878, he left Congregationalism, embracing divine healing after witnessing recoveries during a plague, founding the International Divine Healing Association in 1886. Moving to the U.S. in 1888, he built a following in San Francisco before settling in Chicago in 1890, capitalizing on the 1893 World’s Fair to grow his ministry. In 1896, he established the Christian Catholic Church, emphasizing healing, and in 1901, founded Zion, a theocratic community banning alcohol, tobacco, and medicine. Proclaiming himself “Elijah the Restorer” in 1901, he ruled Zion autocratically, amassing wealth but facing legal battles, including fraud suits he overcame. His books, like Zion’s Conflict with Methodist Apostasy (1900), and Leaves of Healing magazine spread his teachings. Married to cousin Jane Dowie in 1876, he had three children—Gladstone, Jeanie (died 1885), and Esther (died 1902). Extravagant campaigns, like a failed 1903 New York crusade, and financial mismanagement led to his 1906 deposition by deputy Wilbur Voliva after a stroke. Dowie died on March 9, 1907, in Zion, saying, “The time has come when I must obey God rather than man.”