I have recently posted a series of eight blogs at my
blogsite exposing the theologically corrupted Scofield Reference Bible. The information in those postings begins to
reveal the background and origins of dispensational theology the dominant
paradigm for today’s Christian Zionism.
A brief review is necessary here to avoid confusion for those who have
not read the blogs or studied the issues to any significant degree. As with any other discipline, theological
systems originate through the initiatives of men who pursue the study of
appropriate source materials. In the
case of theology the source must be the Scriptures themselves with little
reliance on outside sources such as commentaries which may or may not be
accurate. The reason for this is simply that the content of the Word of God
must be spiritually discerned and the verification of accuracy must be
supported by the content of various texts of Scripture. Every conclusion
reached must meet the test of verification through the entire content of
Scripture and not just from isolated verses. Taken out of context many things can
allegedly be ‘proved’ with the use of Scripture. This is illustrated with the
enemy’s temptation of Jesus at Matthew 4:6.
Jesus responded to his quotation of Psalms 91:11-12 with a higher
principle of truth, i.e. ‘Thou shall not
tempt the Lord thy God.’ (Deut. 6:16)
With
that having been said let us review the relatively recent emergence of
dispensational theology as a dominant paradygm in much of evangelicalism. John
Darby (1800-1882) developed his theological concepts at a young age. By 1830 or
shortly thereafter he had promulgated his dispensational theory. It consisted of dividing the progression of
Scripture from Genesis to Revelation into seven distinct dispensations (eras or
economies) in which God’s dealings with man was allegedly progressively
changing. We will name those divisions here: Innocence(before the fall of
Adam); Conscience (from the fall of Adam to Noah); Human Government(from Noah
after the flood to Abraham); Promise (from Abraham’s calling to the Exodus from
Egypt); Law (from the giving of the law at Mount Sinai to Christ);
Grace(alleging to cover the period of the church up until the insertion of a
total rapture of the church); Kingdom (allegedly restoring the kingdom to the
natural posterity of Abraham, i.e., the Jews) . The seventh phase of his scheme
was to encompass the millennium in which he asserted Israel will dominate the
world for 1000 years with Christ reigning on his throne from earthly Jerusalem.
The basic tenets of his theology required a removal of the church from the
earth at the occurrence of a pretribulational ‘rapture ‘. This was a necessary event for the
establishment of a kingdom on the earth for he saw the Scriptures as projecting
two kingdoms; one in heaven for the church and one on the earth for Israel. He proceeded to spread this teaching in
England, Western Europe and also through several trips to America. It became
known as ‘Darbyism’ and was the foundation for the Plymouth Brethren movement.
This was derived from its home base in Plymouth, England. Darby was very
academic and a prolific writer even translating his own version of the Bible.
He was also a gifted speaker and was able to convince many concerning his brand
new system of theology.
It was
completely adopted and popularized within a few decades by C. I. Scofield in
the Scofield Reference Bible (first edition 1909). From this early edition
containing numerous footnotes, chapter headings and insertions it was very
Zionist friendly. That is to say the concept of a future kingdom dispensation
(the millennium) was promised and promoted as sure for Israel. The dividing of the church from Israel was
made dominant throughout the Old Testament through various ‘covenants’ and consummated
in Revelation at the end of the age. Scofield received the endorsement for
publication through a Zionist Jewish attorney in New York who had connections
with Oxford University Press in London.
Oxford was owned by Zionist Jews and they sought to gain an inroad
within Christian America. They financed and promoted the Scofield Reference
Bible and owned all publication rights. C. I. Scofield was handsomely rewarded
financially and his reference bible was launched. With the backing of unlimited
financial resources it went through several revisions at least three of which
were after he died in 1922 while still showing each time that C. I. Scofield
was its editor. it sold multiplied millions of copies and was introduced into
most of the major conservative seminaries and Bible schools in America
affecting literally tens of millions of people who would hold the Bible to be
the inspired and infallible Word of God. The preachers and teachers that were
the students in these institutions became very effective in spreading
dispensational theology throughout America and even Europe. The 1967 revision
contained 6500 word changes in the original text of the King James
Version. Along with the massive Zionist
friendly notes it was thus completely transformed and corrupted both in the
text as well as interpretation by application of the notes. This became the new
paradygm for understanding the Scriptures throughout most of evangelical
Christianity and it has endured for over one hundred years. It is a system of
theology which had no president in church history from the time of Christ up
until about one hundred and fifty years ago when John Darby introduced Dispensationalism.
Obtain my books The Israel Deception
and more recently Christian Zionism and the Scofield Reference Bible
David Lance Dean
