🛖 Zion • The Church That Created a Christian UTOPIA

This ranks as one of the most craziest church backstories you'll ever hear.

The city of Zion, Illinois was founded in 1901 as a religious utopia to establish a theocratic society to be the Kingdom of God. The Christian Catholic Church (as it was known originally) and city of Zion was founded by Dr. John Alexander Dowie, who became a popular evangelist and faith healer after setting up a little brown hut near the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago. After witnessing several doctors unable to help patients, he claimed to be able to pray over them with divine healing. With his followers multiplying, he bought a large amount of land north of Chicago for 6,000 of adherents. Zion was a church-owned city. It prohibited unclean pork, smoking, and alcohol. It owned all the businesses, banks, healing homes, and schools. The Bible was the official textbook.

Then things got weird. Dowie claimed to be the spiritual return of Elijah the prophet. Due to his eccentric popularity as a forerunner to Christ's second coming, he made enemies with Miza Ghulam Ahmad of Islam (who claimed to be the coming of Christ in spirit). Ahmad challenged Dowie to a "prayer duel" where God would take the life of the false prophet. Dowie dismissed the challenge, despite Ahmad adding a death prophecy.

After only a few years, Dowie started to fall apart. He endured financial trouble, his family left him, and he suffered a stroke. His chief lieutenant, Wilbur Glenn Voliva, rescued the city from bankruptcy. Voliva introduced rules against anyone who didn't belong to the church, then dictated flat-earth doctrine in the schools. He previously stated he would live to be 120 years old due to his diet of Brazil nuts and buttermilk, but died at 72. After his death in 1942 and the tabernacle burning down, the church dissolved and the city was no longer under theocratic reign.

A small remnant church was reorganized years later. Under its current pastor, it was renamed Church Community Church (keeping the CCC acronym). After visiting the church, I found no mention of Dowie. Nowadays, CCC looks like any other type of conservative Bible-believing, non-denominational church (though they love Ray Comfort and John Piper from those I overheard).

The only HINTS of the past is the Biblical street names. Elisha, Enoch, Ezra, and Ezekiel just to name a few.

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▶️ Timestamps:
0:00 Zion

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🎵 Music:
Track: Infraction - Alright
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Oqifn2PxhE

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Видео 🛖 Zion • The Church That Created a Christian UTOPIA канала 52 Churches in 52 Weeks