Rev. John Alexander Dowie

Catholic Apostolic Church

1847 ~ 1907

John A. Dowie was born in 1847. He was a sickly child, and at the age of thirteen his family migrated to Australia. At the age of twenty he decided to enter the ministry, and began to prepare for the university. In 1875, he moved to the Sydney surburb of Newton. There, he became convinced of the practical message of divine healing.

In 1878, Dowie left the Congregational church, and launched an independant ministry. First in Sydney, and later in Melbourne. In 1888, Dowie and his wife, and their two children migrated to the United States. After two years of healing evangelism, which took him to many parts of the country, Dowie established a base of operations in Evanston, Illinois in 1890. In 1893, he began conducting services in his spacious Zion Tabernacle. In 1895, Dowie organized his followers into the Catholic Apostolic Church.

Being intensly evangelistic, he stressed consecration and holiness. In 1901, he reasserted his retorationist hopes. In 1904, he told his followers, which numbered approximately six thousand people, to anticipate the full restoration of Apostolic Christianity. Dowie's endtime expectations, his message of divine healing, and his restorationist vision made him an important forerunner of the modern Pentecostal movement. Many of his followers accepted Pentecostal views. Some, became prominate leaders in a movement that regarded itself as an endtime restoration. Most Pentecostal leaders with roots in Dowie's Restoration movement, affiliated with the Assemblies of God. Some, however, more committed to thorough restorationism, moved on into the Oneness movement.