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Zion City Roots: From Dowie to the AFM
The AFM and the broader South African Zionist movement share a common origin in the divine-healing ministry of John Alexander Dowie and his Christian Catholic Apostolic Church at Zion City, Illinois. This page traces that lineage from Zion City to the formation of the AFM in 1908.
Zion City and John Alexander Dowie
John Alexander Dowie founded the Christian Catholic Apostolic Church (also known as the Christian Catholic Church in Zion) and established Zion City just north of Chicago, Illinois, in the late 19th century as a model religious community. The town strictly prohibited pork, alcohol, tobacco, and drugs, and it served as the headquarters of Dowie's church. Dowie's central emphasis was divine healing through faith.
The Zion message reaches South Africa
Dowie's movement reached South Africa in 1904, when his emissary Daniel Bryant established the first Zion congregation. Among the early recruits were Pieter Louis Le Roux — a former Dutch Reformed missionary and disciple of Andrew Murray — and Daniel Nkonyane of Wakkerstroom. These figures continued to evangelise and lead Zion congregations after the early Zionist missionaries' work in the region.
Pentecostalism and the birth of the AFM
When the American Pentecostal missionaries John G. Lake and Thomas Hezmalhalch arrived in 1908, Le Roux and most of his Zion (Christian Catholic) followers accepted the Pentecostal message, which merged Pentecostal Spirit-baptism with Dowie's faith-healing theology. The Zion Tabernacle in Bree Street, Johannesburg, became the headquarters of the new Apostolic Faith Mission, and Le Roux went on to serve as AFM president (1913-1943). A visible inheritance from the Zion movement is the AFM practice of baptism by triple immersion.
Described factually and respectfully from documented sources. Corrections welcome.