C I Scofield
- Can He Be Trusted?
By
Dr. Ken Matto
Cyrus Ingerson Scofield – (8/19/1843-7/24/1921) – Creator of the Scofield
Reference Bible of 1909, revised notes in 1917 and 1967.
In the front of his Bible, he claims the degree of D.D. Doctor of
Divinity which would have been an earned degree back then but there is not one
seminary in America that claimed him as a student.
No one knows where he obtained that DD, he just claimed it and that was
it. The fact that in 1892 he began
calling himself Doctor Scofield without producing any Doctorate degree from any
Seminary or University is the least of his devious activities. Even the details
he gave in his story of conversion are proven to be fabricated, including the
time, place and other particularities, thereby placing doubt on the whole story.
Since Scofield was so popular, don’t you think a seminary would use him as a
bragging right? In 1875 he was
introduced to Samuel Untermeyer who was head of the American Jewish Committee
who was also a lifelong communist.
He and Untermeyer held memberships in the Lotos Club in New York which was a
literary club.
There can be little doubt that Untermeyer acted as a liaison between Scofield
and the British Zionists at Oxford University, who were far more influential in
promoting Zionist propaganda to the American evangelical movement, which really
fast-tracked after WWII and the founding of the nation-state of Israel.
The
purpose of Samuel Untermeyer and those associated with him had to find a way to
get Fundamentalist Christians into an international interest in the Zionist
Movement, which was one of Untermeyer’s life-long projects.
The Scofield Bible was the conduit to bring Zionism into the churches
while the average Christian was unsuspecting of the intent these theological
deviates were placing upon them.
Here
is the commentary from the 1967 Scofield Bible on Genesis 12:3:
And
I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee
shall all families of the earth be blessed.
(Genesis 12:3)
“and
curse him that curseth thee” This was a warning literally fulfilled in the
history of Israel’s persecutions.
It has invariably fared ill with the people who have persecuted the Jew-well
with those who protected him. For a
nation to commit the sin of anti-Semitism brings inevitable Judgment.
The future will remarkably prove this principle.”
As
you can see the con is in because Genesis 12:3 was not speaking of either the
ancient nation of Israel or the modern counterfeit nation of Israel.
It was written about Abraham and those who would be in his spiritual
lineage throughout history.
And if ye be Christ's, then are ye
Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.
(Galatians 3:29) Abraham
lived about 600 years before Israel became a nation when they left Egypt in 1447
B.C. The modern nation of Israel is
not made up of Semitic people but they are Sephardic and Ashkenazi which are
basically European. The Sephardic
Jews lived in the Iberian Peninsula in the 15th Century and after
their expulsion they set up communities in Southeastern and Southern Europe.
The Ashkenazis lived in the region of Poland, Germany, and Northern
France. Both of these groups had
set up communities in other areas also.
Genesis 12:3 is speaking of Christians which make up spiritual Israel and
not the physical Jews unless they become saved and then they become part of the
eternal Israel. Now back to
Scofield.
Did
Scofield meet the qualifications for a leader in the church?
His friends and colleagues have tried to hide the fact that he was
married twice, had two daughters with his first wife and was divorced by her
owing to how he treated her and their daughters. Scofield began courting his
future second wife Hettie van Wark before the divorce was finalized and they got
married only three months after the papers were signed in 1883.
Scofield went to jail for six months on a forgery conviction in 1880. He
had stolen his mother-in-law’s last $1,300 one year after his supposed
conversion.
One
of Scofield’s first suspicious moves involved in producing his Reference Bible
was to take an unnecessary trip to the British Isles for research. He
immediately sought out the controversial scholars Westcott and Hort in London.
They guided him in how to alter the King James Bible so that it would be
compatible with the dispensationalist teachings he was recruited to promote.
Scofield preferred the Revised Version of the Bible, which was largely the
product of his mentors Westcott and Hort and was based on corrupted manuscripts
born in Alexandria, Egypt and espoused by the Vatican.
However, he knew that if he coupled his
notes with the RV they wouldn’t sell very well because the KJB far surpassed the
RV in popularity. So he used the KJB, but in many areas where the two versions
differed doctrinally, especially where his doctrine was concerned, he placed a
footnote giving a supposedly more correct rendering, which almost always agreed
with the RV.
In July 1901, Scofield joined the first of a new series
of annual Bible conferences in Sea Cliff, Long Island, New York. There he met
Arno C. Gaebelein, Bible teacher and editor of “Our
Hope” magazine. Scofield told Gaebelein about his plans to publish a
reference Bible, and Gaebelein volunteered to help him find financial support.
In 1902, the Dallas church which was the First
Congregational Church now renamed The Scofield Church called Scofield back as
pastor. He accepted, thinking he would have more time for his Bible project. But
his attention was divided, so he left the church for Europe in 1904 to work on
the Bible.
While in England, he met the head of Oxford University
Press who became enthusiastic about the project. A year later, Scofield returned
to America, signed a contract with Oxford University Press, and returned to
pastoring his Dallas church.
Several consulting editors helped Scofield with his
reference Bible of 1909. They included Gaebelein; James M. Gray, president of
Moody Bible Institute; William J. Erdman, Presbyterian minister and author;
Arthur T. Pierson, author and editor; William G. Moorehead, president of Xenia
Theological Seminary; Henry G. Weston,
president of Crozer Theological Seminary; and Elmore Harris, president of
Toronto Bible Training School. The Bible was officially published in January
1909 as the Scofield
Reference Bible. Scofield then published a revised version in 1917.
Today Oxford University Press still
publishes the Scofield
Reference Bible.
Scofield was one of the founding members of the Philadelphia College of the
Bible in 1913 which is now Cairn University.
I guess they didn’t want the word “Bible” in it anymore.
If you look at their website you will see the same Mobius in their name
as is on the New King James Version.
It is also found on the new age
book “Aquarian
Conspiracy” by Marilyn Ferguson. It
is on the logo of “The Institute of Trans-Personal Psychology.”
Constance Cumbey, author of The
Hidden Dangers of the Rainbow and a notable authority on the New Age Movement,
said, "The emblem on the cover of the New King James Bible is said to be an
ancient symbol of the Trinity. The old symbol had gnostic origins. It was more
gnostic than Christian.”
Satanic jewelry carries the gnostic Mobius.
It represented 666.
Would you want your
child studying Christianity at a university that took “Bible” out of its name
and replaced it with a satanic Mobius?
I know I wouldn’t. So this
is just a brief summary of Scofield.
A saved person would not get involved with what he got involved with.
So the next time you use and flaunt your Scofield Reference Bible, keep
in mind there is more evil behind it than good!
Might I suggest an excellent resource for your library – A book entitled “The Incredible Scofield and His Book" by Joseph Canfield.