JOHN ALEXANDER DOWIE
John Alexander Dowie was born in Scotland in 1847, but spent much of his early life in Australia. He was a fighter in the true sense, boldly battling the sin and compromise he found all around him - even as a young minister in Australia. In later years, particularly after his move to Chicago in the United States, he became probably the most renowned pioneer of Divine Healing worldwide, and by the turn of the century had become known to millions around the world. In his early years of outstanding success in Chicago, where the power of God was being constantly demonstrated, and hundreds were being healed of every affliction, it seemed as if the devil was summoning every demon from hell to attack and somehow bring him down. He was arrested over 100 times on trumped-up charges, ceaselessly attacked by the most prominent media men in the city, and he even suffered street-riots and attempts upon his life. (On one notable occasion, when he had been suddenly warned by a voice from God to leave his office, he narrowly averted being blown to pieces by a powerful bomb that had been planted there). Eventually, he won through, with credibility intact (in fact, greatly enhanced despite all the controversy), and became God's mosteffective champion of Divine Healing in America up to that point.

Tragically however, when the early years of constant battle were done, and a time of relative peace and prosperity settled in upon him, this daring fighter who had brought healing to America, ended up being deluded by the devil into dressing in High-Priestly robes and thinking that he was Elijah the prophet. After this, the end could not be afar off, and John Alexander Dowie died in comparitive ignominy several years later, an ill and broken man - a shadow of his former self - having lost his ministry and literally everything he owned. How one of God's greatest fighters could come to such a tragic end, is something that should be an object lesson to us all.

The quotations used here are almost all taken from the book, 'John Alexander Dowie - A life story of Trials, Tragedies and Triumphs' by Gordon Lindsay:

As with many men of God who are being prepared for a mighty ministry, God had used the early years of Dowie's Christian walk as a "toughening- up" or training period. Dowie's many struggles and pitfalls, plus the harsh spiritual 'wilderness' and obscurity of Australia, were used to mold and break him, bringing a great hunger and seeking after God. As Gordon Lindsay wrote in the Introduction to his book on Dowie, "when any man is chosen of God to be used in an unusual manner, God permits him to go through a training period, which sometimes includes trials and tribulations of the most severe nature." He said that when Dowie first set foot on American soil at the age of 41, he was almost completely unknown, but that when the healing anointing that he had received from God was recognized, and God's perfect timing came, John Alexander Dowie rose to international prominence with astonishing abruptness, as one of God's great leaders of that period. Lindsay wrote of the decline of Dowie that, "it was at that moment when he began to engage in secular activities, and departed from the simplicity of his earlier days, that his decline began."

John Alexander Dowie is described as, "a reformer who, fighting against the greatest of odds, single-handily challenged the apostasy of his time, and succeeded in bringing to the attention of the Church visible, if not to its acceptance, the message of the Gospel of healing - a message of deliverance for the whole man, body, soul and spirit... Against over- whelming opposition, a hostile press, bitterly opposed clergymen, antagonistic city officials, unscrupulous lawyers... he fought for and maintained the right to pray for the sick. Despite the fiercest persecution, numerous illegal arrests - as many as one hundred in a year - he outwitted and foiled his enemies, and succeeded in bringing to the attention of the world, the great truth that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever." (Pg 3-4). And all through this period, numerous documented, outstanding miracles of healing were taking place under his ministry.

Please remember how NEW all this was at the time. Today, the things that Dowie fought for are taken for granted throughout the Christian world, but in those days there were basically NO SUCH THINGS as healing ministries or healing evangelists. Dowie was a pioneer, an instrument of God who paved the way for what was to follow, just like many Christian Reformers down through the ages.

However, the days of needing to constantly battle gradually drew to an end, and because of his newfound success and the relative prosperity of his ministry, Dowie eventually made the tragic mistake of relaxing his guard. As Gordon Lindsay noted, "Middle age is a dangerous period and not a few succumb to the temptation at that time of life to spiritually relax (something quite different to physical relaxation). The great difference between Dr. Dowie and others was that he had become a world leader whose actions were watched by the eyes of multitudes." (Pg 195).

"In the days of adversity, John Alexander Dowie learned to lean heavily upon God. When every other resource failed him, he abandoned his life to the mercy and graciousness of God. But AFTER SUCCESS HAD COME, when thousands of people ALMOST IDOLIZED HIM, he apparently did not feel so strongly that same need. He allowed himself to become so very busy... A fateful mistake! How many sorrows would John Alexander Dowie have saved himself had he taken the time to get the mind of God on decisions which were so all important? How many fatal mistakes men of God have made because THEY DID NOT PAUSE TO TAKE COUNSEL WITH THE LORD WHEN THEY HAD SOME VITAL DECISION TO MAKE?" (Pg 194).

As Paul Billheimer wrote, "The sands of time are strewn with the wrecks of the broken lives of many, who were once mightily used of God, but who suffered shipwreck upon the rocks of SPIRITUAL PRIDE."

In his early days in Chicago, certain people had approached Dowie with what they claimed as a "direct revelation from God" that Dowie was, in fact, 'Elijah the Restorer', the great end-times prophet. For their trouble, Dowie immediately rebuked them soundly and dismissed them from his presence, warning them never to mention such things to him again. However, the suggestion that had been planted that day kept ringing in his ears. "According to his own testimony, he tried to rid himself of it, but could not. A voice seemed to say, 'Elijah must come, and who but you is doing the work of Elijah?' Time passed. Then one day there came flooding into his consciousness a strange and intense conviction that he was indeed Elijah - the one spoken of by the prophets who was to come and restore all things. The impression came with such overwhelming power, that his entire personality became absorbed with it." (Pg 188). In June 1901, Dowie took the fateful step of publicly announcing that he was indeed Elijah the Restorer. (A claim which was immediately challenged and denounced by religious leaders all over the world).

By this time, Dowie was also heavily involved with land development. Having purchased over 6000 acres of land near Chicago, construction was already underway on what would become 'Zion City', an entire large town to be occupied by Dowie's followers, and to be run according to "Christian principles". Sadly, no-one seemed to remember that the New Testament never advocates separating ourselves from the world in this way, but rather of living IN the world, but not being OF it. Initially, Zion City was a resounding success, both financially and in every other respect. But eventually it was to lead Dowie to financial ruin, and there can be no doubt that it contibuted greatly to his overall decline. One of his great dreams was to build 'Zion Cities' all over the world - no doubt part of his supposed mission of the "Restoration of all things" - from which he and his followers would begin to exercise rulership in the earth. What fateful days these were.

For many years John's wife had been content, along with John, to live almost in poverty, trusting God. However, it has been reported that "when prosperity came to the Dowie family, she lost her simplicity of life: she bought gowns in Paris and indulged in extravagances..." (Pg 200). All of this would have been unthinkable to them only a few years earlier. "But with the prosperity that came to him in America, eventually the simplicity of his life was altered. He came to the conclusion, and apparently Mrs. Dowie abetted his proposals, that it would be to his advantage to build a costly executive mansion in which he could entertain important personages. This large edifice when finished was elaborately appointed with expensive furnishings." (Pg 201-202).

In the end, it seemed almost as though the very things that Dowie and his wife had stood against all their lives, were the very strategies that Satan now used against them, to destroy them. And to help the tragedy along,- "at the crucial time of Dr. Dowie's life when he needed help so desperately, it does not appear that his wife was a spiritual reservoir of strength that he could fall back on." (Pg 201). At times, especially during this latter period, there were those who tried to warn him of the dangers of what he was doing. But he refused to listen. Even when his daughter died tragically as a result of a fire in 1902, he hardly paused to reflect on his headlong forward momentum.

The last days of John Dowie were not particularly good. He had fought a great fight for many years in his early period, but he was defeated in the latter part of his life. As is so often the case with great Revivals or great men of God who fall from the path, the harm that they can do and the ridicule that they can bring upon the Gospel in the end, can almost undo much of the good that originally came from them. How delighted the devil must have been, not only to deceive and sideline this great man of God, but also to use him to bring ridicule upon the very truths that he had originally proclaimed so effectively. God could not afford to have John Alexander Dowie continuing in this state for much longer. He had to take him home. Dowie died still believing he was Elijah, an ill and broken man, crippled in a wheel chair. His ministry was gone, Zion City was almost bankrupt, and he had lost everything that he once thought of as his own. "How have the mighty fallen!" He died on March 9, 1907.

I'll include an article on John G. Lake, famous for starting the pentacostal movement in Africa.  He studied to be a minister, but went into business instead of becoming a pastor and became rich   Later, when his wife and other family members were dying, they were "cured" by John Dowie at Zion City.   During this time Lake had a revelation that started him down the path of becoming a great faith healer in his own right.

John G. Lake
by Liz Godschalk

John Graham Lake was born on 18 March, 1870, in Ontario, Canada. And in 1886 moved with his family to Michigan. He was one of 16 children. Along with many of his brothers and sisters he developed a strange digestive disease. This disease killed eight of them, but he managed to survive.

This overexposure to sickness and sorrow sparked in him a rare and intense desire for the power of God. One day while a young man, he wrote, "God made me aware of my true need when I needed healing from heaven." As a member of the Methodist church he had only witnessed one healing.

Lake studied for the ministry in the Methodist church and in October 1891, he was appointed pastor of the church in Peshtigo, Wisconsin. But rather than be a pastor here, he chose to go into business and founded a newspaper The Harvey Citizen.

He met and married Jennie Stevens in 1893 at Michigan. This was followed by setting up a real estate business, Michigan. On his first day he made $2500 and at the end of a year and nine months he had $100,000 in the bank, $90,000 worth of real estate and a $30,000 paid-up life insurance policy. He also helped start The Soo Times paper, and he also bought a seat on the Chicago Board of Trade.

He was later hired to manage one of the country's largest insurance companies. Part of his job was to manage the company' agents. He found that in his work he preferred to talk about salvation rather than business. He told his partners that he needed a holiday. He had a wage of $50,000 a year to come back to, but chose to leave shortly after, never to return to the business. He was now in full time ministry. It was at this time he also decided to dispose of all his possessions and use the money to meet the needs of others. Later his wife also became sick with a heart disease and tuberculosis. And at this time he still had two members of the family critically ill, (cancer and issue of blood) and one an invalid for twenty-two years.

John Alexander Dowie became a door of hope for Lake. As he began to take his family one by one, he saw them get miraculously healed. It was in this time of stress that he received a revelation of the scripture in Acts 10:38. As he read how God had anointed Jesus to heal all that were oppressed by the devil - it suddenly came alive to him.

Spiritual Awakening Lake later learned a great lesson from John Alexander Dowie when he criticized some of Dowie's methods. Dowie soon told him that when he had had the vision that he has had, shed the tears he has, suffered what he had suffered and in God created a city of ten thousand Christians, then he would be competent enough to criticize.

Lake took to heart what he had heard and began to establish a work in South Africa, which lasted for decades and grew to seven hundred thousand in number in a nation of fifteen million.

His hunger for God continued to grow. After nine months of prayer, fasting and many shed tears, he was finally baptized in the Holy Ghost, whilst in someone else' house where he had gone to pray for a sick lady. His life became more powerful after this, God flowed through him with a new force. And healings were of a more powerful order. To Lake the baptism of the Holy Ghost was to give the Spirit of God such absolute control of the person that the Spirit will be able to speak through them in unknown tongues. Anything less he classified as being "covered" with deep anointings yet not sufficient enough to be called a proper baptism in the Holy Spirit. Lake had a revelation of the purpose that God had in mind for the human race. To lift people in life and consciousness to the same level that Jesus himself enjoyed. This is the same vision that stirs our hearts today. A vision of the divine reality of the salvation of Jesus Christ. The knowledge of the relationship between your soul and of the soul Christ.

His Ministry
John Lake was a strong, rugged character with a loving and winning personality. He was about six feet to six feet two inches tall, and weighed about two hundred pounds. He had clear grey eyes and a hearty laugh. In 1901 Lake and his family moved to Zion City, but three years later left again. On 19 April, 1908, he and his family left Indianapolis for a five year missionary stay in South Africa. Here he founded the apostolic Church and was elected president, with one 125 white and 500 native congregations eventually organized. He returned to the United States in 1912, after his wife died unexpectedly of a stroke.

He never returned to Africa after this. John G. Lake had a deep love for his family. One of the greatest blows to him was the loss of his wife while he was on the mission field. In 1913, he married Florence Switzer of Milwaukee and fathered another five children - giving him a total of twelve children. Then in 1914 he took his family and moved to Spokane, Washington. Here he purchased some rooms in an old office building. Lake transformed these offices into the Divine Healing Institute. This was a place for healing and a place where you could learn how to apply God's healing power to your everyday life. A place where miracles happened.

He saw many miracles in these rooms. One in particular was that of Mrs. Teske, who at thirty-five years of age had developed a fibroid tumour: "A twisted mass of muscle and sinew, arteries and veins, teeth and hair. The most disorganized twisted and jumbled mass that is possible."

This tumour was thirty pounds in weight, that would equal the size of four seven and a half pound babies. One day she could no longer stand, nor sit, and out of her agony she cried out to Jesus for healing. The power of God came on her and she began to twist and crunch, and within three minutes she was totally healed. The tumour had utterly vanished.

Lake had a right concept of God as a loving Father. He also had compassion, holiness, boldness, vision, humility, faith and prayer. All of these points play a part and they are all needed.

John G. Lake died in 1935, he was sixty-five years old.

His Nature and Lifestyle
He never refused to answer the call of one who was sick, nor did he turn them away. Even to the point that he went to a strange city in Africa planning to get some rest. Once they knew he was there they brought the sick, the blind, and the crippled. His compassion went out to them and God strengthened him in his time of need.

Mrs. Lake was also a versatile woman. She never knew when he would bring someone home or give away their groceries. This did not bother Mrs. Lake, she also had a love for His people.

He was very bold when he talked on the things of God. In a conference in Africa they were discussing the tremendous influence of the native medicine men Ôwitch doctors". Lake said to them, "Why don't you cast the devil out of them and get people delivered from their power." Lake reminded them of the scripture "greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world".

He was also called to pray for a man in Johannesburg, South Africa. They had locked him away as he was in delirium tremens (disorder due to heavy drinking) as he had already tried to over power four young men, almost killing them. But again Lake stood on the promise, greater is he that is in you, and soon this man was delivered and on his knees weeping and praying, he had become human again.

He was a faithful man, like all the other men of God. And God supplied his every need. One day he came home and his son told him they had no food, that they had just given the last of it to the younger children. His response Ôlet us pray" and before breakfast the next day a vehicle came with food for them.

He was a man who refused to compromise. Nothing would sway him from the word of God.

Lake was a very humble man, he always gave God the glory, it was His power in him that did the things he did. He said "his soul was not big enough to carry the wonder of God, nor his heart subdued enough. it was an anointing of power".

Lake was also a man of prayer. He spent time on his knees praying but also like to walk and pray. This was his favorite way of communing with God.

The anointing is given for service, go out and use it, let it use you to destroy the works of the devil. Then you can run and pray, and pray as you run.

Lake had an all round message and understanding of the word. he not only taught on healing, but on every subject needed to build a good, balanced Christian life. His sermons were twenty to thirty minutes long and he would take a point and develop it with living and real illustrations. They were driving, fearless messages. And yet, in ministering to the sick, he had a marvelous compassion and tenderness.

In finishing I just want to share a vision given to John G. Lake while pastoring in Portland, Oregon.

"In answer to a cry from Lake's heart, the angel took the Bible and opened to the book of Acts. He called attention to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, and then proceeded thorough the book pointing out the great, outstanding revelationsand phenomena in it. Then the angel spoke these words:

"This is Pentecost as God gave it through the heart of Jesus. STRIVE FOR THIS. CONTEND FOR THIS. TEACH THE PEOPLE TO PRAY FOR THIS. For this, and this alone, will meet the necessity of the human heart, and this alone will have the power to overcome the forces of darkness."

As the angel was departing, he said: PRAY. PRAY . PRAY. Teach the people to pray. Prayer and prayer alone, much prayer, persistent prayer, is the door of entrance into the heart of God.

(c) Anointed for Revival, 1995, Brisbane, Australia.
Internet:
Reproduction is allowed as long as the copyright remains intact with the text.
 

APRIL 8, 1998: The April issue of the journal Pediatrics includes an article on faith healing and child mortality. Intended to encourage legislative action to force parents to seek medical attention for their children, the article focuses on incidents in which members of the Church of Christ, Scientist and three small radical evangelical groups used religious belief as the reason for withholding treatment. In each case, a child died. The authors of the article argue that the issue is not religious freedom but child abuse. As pediatricians make the case for legal restrictions, it may be useful to recall that this debate has been going on, with remarkably little change, for well over a century.

At least since the Civil War, people whose theologies have varied widely have regarded "the prayer of faith" as God's way of healing, drawing sharp criticism from their contemporaries. None was more colorful than a healing evangelist named John Alexander Dowie, who a century ago insisted that his thousands of followers relinquish all medicine as a prerequisite for his prayers. He recorded the harsh response of the medical establishment in a book called "Zion's War Against the Hosts of Hell [the medical establishment] in Chicago". Then as now, the nation's papers debated people's right to choose faith over medicine. As now, the issue was particularly sensitive when children died.

Dowie courted opposition and relished a fight. Less colorful but equally adamant were virtually all early Pentecostals and various other turn-of-the-century evangelicals who believed that healing was in the atonement and theirs for the asking if they only had sufficient faith. On the surface, it proved difficult to distinguish between Christian Scientists who denied the reality of disease and Pentecostals who "took their healing" by faith and disregarded or denied symptoms. Most members of Pentecostal denominations no longer expect healing without medical intervention. On the edges of Pentecostalism and evangelicalism, however, are sizable constituencies who strain at the boundaries. Independent healing evangelists attract large followings, urging parents to believe in God for miracles for their children. Charismatics and Pentecostals support a thriving industry of reprinting the most radical turn-of-the-century advocates of healing by faith alone. For most Protestants who have historically objected to medicine in the name of religion, religious practice is a way of life, not an exercise in which to engage in crisis. For the faithful among them, supernaturalism pervades the mundane realities of daily living, and trusting God in all circumstances is the best one can do for one's child. To them, charges of child abuse seem absurd. At issue, rather, is the right of parents to order their family lives by their understanding of religious faith.

Media naturally focus on the drama of parents who seem to opt to allow children to die of curable illnesses. But to fail to view these decisions about medicine as part of a worldview saturated in religious belief and palpable faith is to fail to understand what energizes these people. Their point of view is widely shared in the parts of the world where Christianity is growing most rapidly, where the first instinct, whatever the problem, is prayer.

Christian Scientists bear the brunt of the criticism. Rejection of medicine in the name of faith has historical roots that are much broader, although few have so diligently lived up to them for so long as have the Christian Scientists. Most Americans find it hard to comprehend a dichotomy between prayer and medicine, yet there is growing awareness of the spiritual dimensioons of wellness.

The Public Religion Project
919 North Michigan Avenue Suite 54
Chicago, IL 60611-1681312/397-6400
prp-info@publicreligionproj.org
 
 

The Ellen G. White Web Site
Visionaries and Prophets of the 1700's and 1800's

Other Visionaries of the 1800's

In the 1800's America abounded with "prophets" of every description.

In the 1830's an epidemic of visions spread through the Shaker communes as young girls "began to sing, talk about angels, and describe a journey they were making, under spiritual guidance to heavenly places." Frequently those afflicted "would be struck to the floor, where they lay dead, or struggling in distress, until someone near lifted them up, when they would begin to speak with great clearness and composure." (The People Called Shakers, pp. 152-153)

? Jemima Wilkinson, who in 1790 founded the religious community of Jerusalem in western New York was known for her visions, religious dreams, and prophesying.

? John Starkweather, a Millerite, and the assistant pastor of Joshua Hime's Chardon Street Chapel, had what some critics described as "cataleptic and epileptic" fits that greatly embarrassed his more subdued colleagues. He was eventually expelled from the chapel when his spiritual gifts proved to be contagious.

? John Alexander Dowie, born in 1847, claimed divine inspiration, believing himself to be the second Elijah. In 1901 he founded Zion City, a Christian Community, where Dowie "would allow no liquor, pork, tobacco, or drugstores." Calling itself a theocracy, Zion City maintained a well-disciplined community. Dowie believed this movement would usher in the millennium. It was claimed that he performed hundreds of miraculous cures. The devotion and enthusiasm of his followers were unbounded. Money flowed in freely. Like Mrs. White and Mrs. Eddy, he was dogmatic and arbitrary. His word was law. He required an austere religious life.

THE STRANGE HISTORY OF PENTECOSTALISM

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JOHN ALEXANDER DOWIE

One of the most influential centers in early Pentecostal history was THE CITY OF ZION, founded in 1900 by JOHN ALEXANDER DOWIE (1847-1907). Though Dowie himself did not accept the Spirit-baptism with tongues theology, he is called "the father of healing revivalism in America" (Harrell, All Things Are Possible, p. 13). His latter days miracle theology helped pave the way for Pentecostalism, and Pentecostal theology did quickly permeate his institutions even before his death. Many influential Pentecostal leaders came out of his movement. His magazine, Leaves of Healing, had a worldwide distribution and a vast influence. Dowie taught that healing is promised in the atonement and insisted that those who sought faith healing give up all medical care. He viewed druggists and physicians as instruments of the devil. When his own daughter was severely burned after accidentally knocking over an alcohol lamp, he banished one of his followers for trying to alleviate her pain with Vaseline. He refused to allow her any medical treatment and she died in that condition. Many others who came to his faith cure homes died of their illnesses without any medical attention. In 1895 he was charged with manslaughter and neglect by the city of Chicago and convicted, but the higher courts ruled that the conviction was unconstitutional. He required that his followers give up the use of all pork products. He ruled his City of Zion with an iron hand and was noted for financial irresponsibility and a love for personal luxury. In 1901 he claimed that he was Elijah the Restorer, and in 1904 he "told his followers to anticipate the full restoration of apostolic Christianity and revealed that he had been divinely commissioned as the first apostle of a renewed end-times church" (Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements, p. 249). In the last few years of his life he was accused of sexual irregularities, he suffered a crippling stroke, and his Zion City was declared bankrupt. For six months before his death he lay in a state of total despondency.

In spite of Dowie's heretical doctrines and unscriptural ministry, he prepared the way for Charles Parham and his equally unscriptural Pentecostalism. The Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements notes that many of the most famous Pentecostal evangelists went out from Zion (p. 368) and dozens of Parham's followers at Zion joined the Assemblies of God at its formation in 1914. In fact, three of the original eight members of the AOG general council were from Zion City (p. 370). Those who arose from Zion City to become influential in the Pentecostal movement included F.F. Bosworth, John Lake, J. Rosewell Flower, Daniel Opperman, Cyrus Fockler, Fred Vogler, Marie Burgess Brown, William Piper, F.A. Graves, Lemuel Hall, Martha Robinson, Gordon Lindsay, and Raymond Richey. Influential Assemblies of God minister Gordon Lindsay, editor of Voice of Healing, wrote Dowie's biography and gave him credit for influencing "a host of men of faith who have had powerful ministries."

Divine Healing
Australasian Medical Gazette,20 April 1904.

Zion City was a religious community founded by Pentecostal divine healer John Alexander Dowie, near Chicago, Illinois.  A group of his followers lived on Kangaroo Island.

Why might they have chosen to practise their own form of healing as well as their own form of religion?  What is the attitude of the author of this piece to 'divine healing'?

... According to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald, the infant daughter of a farmer died recently at Kangaroo Island.  She was 11 months old, and had been ailing for about nine months ... The parents did not give the child medicine.  It was stated at the inquest that they did not believe in the use of medicine, but in Divine healing.  The father said that once he believed in doctoring, but found no relief resulted from such treatment, and now he believed wholly and solely in Divine healing ... Kangaroo Island is the stronghold of the Dowieites.  Dr Gladstone Dowic is reported to have stated that hundreds of children afflicted similarly to this case recovered in Zion City without the use of medicines ...

Quite another version of the mortality rates in Zion City was given recently be one who had visited the cemetery in that place, and who reported that the death rate was something over 35 per 1000, and a very large proportion of the deaths being of infants under one year.  Doctors'medicines and instruments are, therefore, not entirely responsible for a high rate of infantile mortality.

MINGLING CHURCH AND STATE IN ZION
Wednesday, April 16,1986 Source: By Stephen Chapman.
Section: PERSPECTIVE Memo: (Column)
Copyright Chicago Tribune

"Glorious things of thee are spoken, Zion, city of our God," says the hymn.  But these days unglorious things are spoken about Zion, Ill., to the effect that its municipal government takes its "city of God" status a bit more literally than the U.S. Constitution allows.

The dispute arose when Robert Sherman, a Buffalo Grove resident who runs the state chapter of American Atheists, spotted the city seal on Zion's water tower: a cross, a dove and a crown and scepter, with the motto "God Reigns." Investigating, he found it on everything from police uniforms to street signs.  "I felt like I was in a theocracy," reported Sherman, who is not inclined to understatement.  "If you want to be a cop, a fireman or a paramedic in Zion, you have to wear the central symbols of the Christian religion on your sleeve."

It turns out the seal was designed by the city's founder, a Pentecostal preacher named John Alexander Dowie who evisioned Zion as an outpost of his brand of believers.  It incorporates the main elements of the emblem of Dowie's Christian Catholic Church, the city's largest denomination.  Sherman complained to the city council.  But Mayor Howard Everline, a self-described "born-again believer," says there will be no compromise: "We'll fight as far as we have to.  We're not going to change."

But Zion probably will have to change--as it should.  The 1st Amendment ban on an establishment of religion forbids any government from endorsing any religion or sect.  The government must be "neutral in matters of religious theory, doctrine and practice," said the Supreme Court in 1968.  "It may not be hostile to any religion or to the advocacy of non-religion; and it may not aid, foster or promote one religion. . .

The issue is not whether Zion may endorse a particular religion or sect: The Constitution says it may not.  The only question is whether the seal constitutes an endorsement of Christianity in general or of the Christian Catholic Church in particular.

Mayor Everline says it isn't, that by keeping the seal, Zion is simply preserving a symbol of its "heritage." If the seal were an historical artifact with no religious motive or resonance, it would be permissible, like the motto "In God We Trust" on our currency.

But the religious symbols on the seal amount to more than that.  "It's a struggle between Satan and God," insists the mayor, who says he has gotten letters of support from Christians all over the country taking the same point of view.  A group of what he calls "Christian activists" from Chicago has offered to organize a march to Zion in support of the seal.

What accounts for this outpouring of support?  The only likely explanation is that some Christians think their religion ought to be endorsed by the government, regardless of the Constitution.

It's absurd to believe any "Christian activists" would get involved if the fight were merely one to preserve the quaint historical heritage of an obscure Illinois town.  And if it weren't for the potent religious character of the seal, it's hard to imagine Zion's "born-again" mayor would be willing to do whatever is necessary to keep it.

The propriety of a city's deploying explicit religious symbols is in dispute only because most Americans find these symbols congenial.  If they were not--if the Zion city govennnentwere to adopt a seal advertising its allegiance to the Prophet Mohammad or Sun Myung Moon or Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh --the obnoxious character of the act would be plainer.

But the fact that the religion being endorsed is that of the majority doesn't make the endorsement any more legitimate.  Constitutional prohibitions are meant to prevent majorities from denying the rights of minorities.  The purpose and effect of the seal are to certify Christianity, if not the Christian Catholic sect, as the preferred religion of Zion.  It is a disparagement of those who believe differently, an insult to the Constitution and a blow to religious tolerance.