Developing the background necessary to understand the
content of this topic will necessarily require laying some foundations. What we
will actually be looking at is the creation of an entirely new and radically
different system of theology from that which was held traditionally by the true
Christian church for nearly two millennia. Because of its dramatic impact on
traditional Christianity the entrance of the Scofield Reference Bible meds to
be examined both historically as well as revealing its cause and effect. Let us
begin our research with some facts which preceded its publication and entrance
into the Christian community. The system
of theology which laid the groundwork for Scofield’s annotated version of the
King James Bible was originally introduced by John Nelson Darby (1800-1882). Darby promulgated his theology based on the
dividing of the Scriptures up into seven dispensations, economies or eras.
Without detailing the content of each dispensation we will name them here:
Innocence (before the fall), conscience, human government, promise, law, church
(also referred to as grace), and kingdom. These evolving eras as was supposed
were to change the manner in which God related to man in each successive
dispensation. Darby later added a secret “rapture” to his theological scheme to
occur at the end of the church age and before the tribulation and the kingdom
age. Some reliable sources say the secret “rapture” concept was initiated by a
Scotish woman named Margaret McDonald who was alleged to have had a vision and
revelation that the event would occur. Darby had communication with McDonald
shortly after her vision was alleged to have occurred. From there Darby spread
his teaching through Scotland and England and it came to be known as
“Darbyism”. Continuing to aggressively
propagate his doctrine he made at least five trips to America. He was able to
establish followers in the East and Great Lakes area. His newly contrived doctrine and teaching
resulted in the genesis of the Plymouth Brethren (it’s origins being in
Plymouth, England) assemblies and was also embraced by the evangelist D. L. Moody.
Eventually a seminary was established in Moody’s name known as the Moody Bible
Institute. Of course, the teachings of
Moody including dispensationalism and ultimately the added emphasis of a
Zionist world view were adopted into the curriculum.
This
brief background leads us to Cyrus I. Scofield who was originally trained in
law but later, alleging a conversion, became interested in theology and
preaching. He was greatly influenced by
the writings of Darby and adopted a form of dispensational theology. By 1908 he had taken the King James Version of
the bible and added numerous footnotes at the bottom of pages, in-between
verses and in chapter introductions. In addition to the dividing of the
Scriptures into eras and economies he conceived the existence of several
covenants in the evolution of this new theology. Of principal note originally was the concept
of a covenant which God made with Abram (become Abraham). It was perceived by Scofield as immutable,
unconditional and unfulfilled. Scofield
had communication with an extremely wealthy attorney and Zionist Jew in New
York named Samuel Untermeyer. A word is necessary at this juncture concerning
the new and emerging world Zionist movement set in motion in 1895 by Theodore
Herzl who had founded the World Zionist Federation. The movement was well underway with one of
its central goals and purposes being the reestablishment of a national homeland
for the Jewish people. Untermeyer was very much on board with the movement and
in his association and communications with Scofield perceived that the basic
Zionist friendly concepts set forth in Scofield’s writings could be utilized in
the promotion of the Zionist goals. Untermeyer had Zionist connections and
among them was the Oxford University Press in England owned by zealous Jews.
Untermeyer arranged for the original publication of the Scofield Reference
Bible in 1909 through his connections with Oxford Press. There was significant
financial backing for publication, advertisement and distribution and the
Scofield Reference Bible was an immediate success. The plain English notes gave the reader the
perception that they could now better understand the content of the Scriptures.
Scofield gained significant financial rewards from his contrived version of the
Bible. Scofield died in 1921 but Oxford owned the copy write to the work and it
has been subsequently republished and revised at least four times still showing
Scofield as its editor and displaying an ever-changing editorial committee in
an attempt to provide credibility to the text of notes and annotations.
This
provides a brief history of the publication and emergence of a contrived and
altered fabrication of the Word of God which has been dramatically used to
alter the theology and world view of literally tens of millions of Christians
and create a Zionist friendly subculture in America over the past one hundred
years. The dispensational doctrines of the pretribulational “rapture” of the
church, the confused translation of Daniel’s “seventy weeks”, and the teaching
a future millennial kingdom for national Israel has pervaded the major seminaries,
international Bible study fellowships, multiplied millions of evangelical
Christians and even reaching into the traditional denominations as well as the
Catholic Church. It is a contrived and extremely successful distortion of the
Scriptures and has corrupted the world view of all of its adherents who have embraced its teachings in some measure. We will
need to continue with additional
segments of this discourse. This is only an introduction providing history and
background. We will need to examine
somewhat thoroughly the essence of the teachings contained in the Scofield and Oxford Press notes as well as the
theological errors and confusion generated through an entire Christian
subculture in America and no doubt to some extent abroad. I am recommending
that you visit my blogsite for further blogs and an introduction to my two
books.
theseprophets.blogspot.com Also I would recommend that you obtain copies of
the books available at Amazon.com,
BN.com and other major book sellers.
The Israel
Deception and These Prophets and the Revelation.
David Lance
Dean
theseprophets@gmail.com
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