Cyrus Ingerson Scofield (1843-1921)
There are many controversies surrounding the life of Scofield, and questions regarding his integrity have never been adequately answered. However, the key issue in this article is to do with his popularising of the Dispensational viewpoint.
Scofield was a disciple of James Brookes (minister of Walnut Street Presbyterian Church, St. Louis) who was influenced by J.N. Darby, and Scofield in turn was a major influence on D.L. Moody (and it was Scofield who officiated at his funeral).
Scofield took the text in 2 Timothy 2:15 about ‘rightly dividing the word of truth’ to indicate that there were divisions within Scripture that were to be rightly discerned. This was the foundation to his understanding of the different dispensations in Scripture. The Moody Bible Institute and Dallas Theological Seminary gave their support to the book Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth that Scofield wrote, thus giving it a major boost. (And since those early years the book has been often reprinted.)
The influence of the Scofield Bible (Scofield Reference Bible (1917); The New Scofield Study Bible (1984)) cannot be underestimated. The ‘genius’ of it was that the way to interpret the Bible was actually now written within its own pages. There was no need for an add-on book, the whole system was self-contained.
The following quotes will illustrate the influence of the Scofield Bible:
The most important single document of all fundamentalism… which has been the normal religious diet of many millions of readers. Its name itself makes clear what it is, a private interpretation… Both serious biblical scholarship and the established traditions of the major churches were alike ignored.
The Scofield Reference Bible became the Bible of fundamentalism, and the theology of the notes approached confessional status in many Bible schools, institutes and seminaries established in the early decades of this century.
The Bible itself sold phenomenally. In the USA alone by 1945 there had been some 2 million copies that had been sold.
Scofield’s seven dispensations
Although there are differences between the Dispensations in the original Bible of 1917 and the revised work in 1984, the underlying shape remains the same. Here I outline the newer list:
- Innocence (Gen. 1.28)
- Conscience or Moral Responsibility (Gen. 3.7)
- Human Government (Gen.8.15)
- Promise (Gen. 12.1)
- Law (Ex. 19.1)
- Church (Acts 2.1)
- Kingdom (Rev. 20.4)
To state that these are divisions imposed on Scripture I hope is clear. (The clear division in Scripture is between the Law and the Prophets and Gospel that came through Christ. We read that ‘all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John’ (Matt. 11:13). But in the Scofield division, Jesus is ministering under the dispensation of law!)
In Dispensationalism the Gospels are for the Jew, so for example the Lord’s Prayer and the phrase ‘forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us’ is not applicable to the church as it is based on ‘legal ground’. The Letters then are for the church age, and the age of grace will end with the apostasy of the church. When the church age ends in failure and apostasy it will be replaced by a revived national Israel who will enjoy the blessings of the final kingdom dispensation. In making the divide between Israel and the church Scofield can even insist that Israel is the wife of Yahweh, while the church is the bride of Christ.
The end of the church era (or dispensation of grace) will be the apostasy of the church, with the confusion of a false unity based around the papacy. The Babylon of Revelation takes two forms: an ecclesial-Babylon and a political Babylon, with the latter eventually destroying the former (Rev. 17:15-18).
There are obvious contradictions to Scripture in the system developed, but this work has shaped the way for those who follow. Writers such as Hal Lindsey (the next person I will look at), particularly with the encouragement of the foundation of the state of Israel in 1948, have seen in this step the clear fulfillment of Scripture, and developed an expectation of a revival among Jews and the imminent return of Christ.