Page 302 - Lunacy and the Age of Deception

atonement, yet he also died after being stricken with cancer. In the year 1942, at the age of 72,
Dowie’s successor confessed that he too had misappropriated church funds for his own personal use,
and had committed “other serious sins.” There were numerous charges of sexual misconduct relating
to Dowie and to Voliva, and it seems likely that it was to this that Voliva was referring. Voliva had
previously proclaimed that he would live to be 120 years old, based upon the promise of God in
Genesis 6:3. Nevertheless, he fell 48 years short of that goal.

Aside from Dowie suffering the horrific tragedy of his 21 year old daughter Esther being horribly
burned by an overturned lamp that was fueled by alcohol, and Esther subsequently dying, Dowie lost
his young daughter Jeanie to sickness 17 years earlier when he was in the midst of his healing
ministry and claiming great success at healing others.
[End Excerpt]

After Rowbotham's death, Lady Elizabeth Blount founded the Universal Zetetic Society which
attracted thousands of followers, published a magazine entitled The Earth Not a Globe Review and
remained active well into the early part of the 20th century. After World War I, the movement
underwent a slow decline, but it was revived in 1956 as The Flat Earth Society.
[Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Rowbotham]

The Flat Earth Society maintains a website where one can find a picture of Wilbur Glen Voliva,
leader of both the Zion, Illinois religious community and the Flat Earth Society, under the section
on past leaders.

Wilbur Glen Voliva

This is the inauspicious genesis of the flat-Earth movement in this present day. If you have embraced
the flat-Earth arguments and want to see where many of them originated, you can find them set forth
in Rowbotham’s book Earth Not a Globe.

http://sacred-texts.com/earth/za/index.htm

Rowbotham claimed that the Sun is less than 4,000 miles distant from the Earth, and all the heavenly
bodies, including the stars are no further than 6,000 miles away. Thus, the distance from the Earth
to the Sun is claimed to be less than the distance from Houston, Texas to Anchorage, Alaska.
Rowbotham also claimed that the Moon does not reflect the Sun’s light, but is “self-luminous.”
Sadly, Samuel Rowbotham cited the Bible as supporting evidence of his many ridiculous claims.