Not His Undoing | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Mar 12, 1902

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 28, No. 11.

Not His Undoing.

The last February number of Public Opinion has an article entitled, “The Undoing of Dowie.” The ground of its thought is the decision of Judge Murray F. Tuley, of the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, to compel a settlement of a claim of $200,000 made by Stevenson against Dowie. As the result a receiver was appointed, but afterward removed, as the claim was settled out of court. The Chicago Chronicle thinks that the decision of a judge so highly and universally respected ought to carry great weight, and put a check to Dowie’s success. It says: “The people of Chicago and the northwest, among whom Dr. Dowie has made an astonishing impression, have the deliberate judgment of a great and universally respected magistrate that, so far as his business methods are concerned, Dr. Dowie is a pretender and a fraud, exerting an influence as an agent of the Almighty which is to be challenged, if for no other reason, by the fact that his methods are destructive of the rights of others, and assuming to conduct his affairs and those of his dupes in contempt of human law and human ideas of honesty and justice. When business matters are removed from the sphere of law, and are made to depend upon the divine or religious pretenses of a single individual, the motives of that person must be judged by the results. In the case of Dr. Dowie it has been seen that all of his supernatural claims contributed to one end—his own enrichment. Money and property passing out of the possession of his disciples came inevitably into that of himself. On examination the genuineness of his greed became as evident as the genuineness of the renunciation of his victims.” But this will not check Mr. Dowie’s success. There are many afflicted souls who desire physical healing above all things else. Many others are looking for “signs,” as did those of old who rejected Jesus. These classes will be deceived by Mr. Dowie’s pretensions and seeming success, with but a superficial examination at best of the authority of his claims in the light of the Word. His threefold claim that he is Elijah, the Prophet like unto Moses, and the Messenger of the Covenant (the last two of which refer to Jesus Christ) ought to be sufficient to convince all Christians that Dr. Dowie’s pretensions are baseless. He is deceiving and being deceived.