Analyzing Scofield

The Life and Errors of C.I. Scofield

Charles Gilbert Weston

Emma Moore Weston

Akai Tsurugi (akaitsurugi.org)

1997-01-01

CC BY-SA 4.0

Analyzing Scofield

1. Preface

2. The Story of Scofield’s Life

3. Scofield Notes Answered

4. Daniel’s 70 Weeks

5. The Real Israel

6. Origin of Scofield Heresies

7. For Further Research

1. Title Page

2. Cover

3. Table of Contents

ANALYZING
Scofield

The Life and Errors of
C. I. Scofield

THE STORY OF SCOFIELD’S LIFE
By Emma Moore Weston
Condensed from J. M. Canfield’s book
“The Incredible Scofield”

with
ANALYSIS OF SCOFIELD’S
BIBLICAL NOTES

plus
OTHER TEACHINGS ON PROPHECY
by Rev. Charles Gilbert Weston

Scriptures quoted from KJV

Preface

Why We Published This Book

After sixty-five years of ordained ministry and studying and teaching the Scriptures around the world, I am convinced that C. I. Scofield was taken in by an immense deception that he unwittingly believed and included in his Bible notes to the detriment of all who believe in them.

If the Church is to be built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Jesus Christ the Chief Cornerstone, then the presumptions and errors of the Scofield Reference Bible must be exposed. We are not his judge. But concerning the Scriptures, we are compelled to judge, 1Th 5:21. We are publishing this booklet that others might be able to know the facts as we have found them to be.

C.G.W.

Weston Study Bible

The Weston Study Bible is now on the market. Using the King James Version (KJV) text, it includes the notes Charles Weston pre- pared after thousands of hours of comparing Scripture with Scripture to show how the New Testament writers interpreted the Old Testament. This is a work of great integrity and exposes Scofield’s errors and any other heresies. It is available at Christian book stores.

E.M.W.

Introduction

It is incredible that only one book has been written about one of the most influential men in Evangelical history. That book is “The Life Story of C. I. Scofield” by Charles Trumbull, Oxford University Press, New York, 1920. In 1960, William BeVier, a Master’s student at Southern Methodist University, completed a thesis, “A Biographical Sketch of C. I. Scofield.” This has not been published, but it is found in some Evangelical school libraries and contains important information. In 1942-43, the late Arno Gaebelein wrote a series of articles for Moody Monthly, “The Story of the Scofield Reference Bible.”

Until 1984, these were the only sources offered by Evangelicals for material on the life and credentials of their most prominent Bible teacher whose notes have influenced the church and changed its direction. Thorough research was begun in 1984 by Joseph M. Canfield to compile his book, The Incredible Scofield. His information was gleaned from many sources. Genealogical data was supplied by Ruth Scofield Kennedy from a branch of the Scofield clan.

Other records come from:

University of Michigan Historical Society.
Episcopal Historical Society.
Encyclopedia of the History of St. Louis
Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis.
Kansas Historical Society.
U.S. Department of Justice, National Archives.
U.S. Census for Michigan 1869, Lenawee County.
U.S. Census for Tennessee, Wilson County.
Confederate Research Center.

City Directories, court records, newspaper articles of the period, both American and British, ship sailings, etc. Information was obtained from the papers of Emeline Papin’s Estate, Cyrus’ sister, on file in St. Louis County Courthouse, Clayton, Missouri. Some facts were gleaned from Laura Scofield Lames, another sister, St. Louis Directory, 1877, public libraries, and many other sources too numerous to mention.

Canfield did a masterful job of searching out the material for his book, which may be obtained from J. M. Canfield, 129 Kyfields, Weaverville, N.C. 28887. He gave me permission to write a condensed version.

E.M.W.

The Story of Scofield’s Life

by
EMMA MOORE WESTON

In 1833, Elias and Abigail Scofield moved to Lenawee County, Michigan to help her father operate a sawmill on the Raisin River. Their home was on a cleared farm along the river.

They had four daughters from three to seventeen years of age. Their last child, Cyrus Ingerson Scofield, was born August 19, 1843. His mother died three months later. Not long after, Elias married again.

The older sisters soon married. Emeline married Sylvester V. Papin, from a prominent French family of St. Louis, March 19,1850. He was a law student and became a clerk in the City Assessor’s office and later became head of the department. In 1855, Laura married a young dentist, William Eames. They moved to Lebanon, Tennessee. Cyrus’s sister, Victorine, was listed in the 1860 Census in Tennessee, as living with Laura and William.

Cyrus was not listed in the census records in either state. By April 1861, when Fort Sumter was fired upon, Cyrus was visiting his sisters in Tennessee. He never returned to Michigan.

Though not yet eighteen, Cyrus gave his age as twenty-one and enlisted in the Seventh Regiment of the Tennessee Infantry. In April 1862, he was listed as a patient in a hospital in Richmond, Virginia. There was no mention of a wound, so he may have become ill.

In July, he wrote to the Confederate Secretary of War asking for exemption from further duty stating that he was a minor and a citizen of Michigan. He also claimed that he had been visiting his sister in Tennessee when he enlisted, that he had never voted in the South and that his health was broken by exposure and battle fatigue. He promised that in a short time he would enter the militia in Tennessee.

On September 5, 1862, Cyrus was with the Tennessee Regiment when they crossed the Potomac during heavy fighting. A discharge was issued for Private Scofield in 1862 after one year of service. There is no definite record of where he was for the next four years.

Among the refugees forced out of the South by the war were the Lames family and Victorine Scofield. They moved to St. Louis, Missouri in 1863 where Sylvester Papin helped Lames open a dentistry office. Victorine married and settled there so that was also the place Cyrus settled. Sylvester placed Cyrus in his office in the Assessor’s Department and directed his training in law.

While working in this office, Cyrus studied to become familiar with the law regarding land grants, titles, and deeds. He got his law education on the job rather than in school. His name is listed in connection with a case in Circuit Court of St. Louis County, December term, 1866. This is the first definite date that appears in Cyrus’s life after the Civil War.

There were dinners, dances and parties in the French society and Cyrus met Leontine Cerre, a Catholic society lady. She seemed taken with the dashing young man from Tennessee. Cyrus married her on September 21, 1866 when he was twenty-four. Daughter Abigail was born July 13, 1867. Marie Helene was born in October 1869. The family then moved from St. Louis to Atchison, Kansas.

Kansas politics was viciously crooked at that time and anyone in Kansas politics was suspected of corruption. Cyrus was deeply involved in it. Some of the problems involved his brother-in-law’s interests and squatters being ejected from illegally-occupied land. Cyrus had engaged a lawyer, John J. lngalls, as legal counsel to serve the family interests. lngalls later became State Senator and had to be aware of the corruption and bloodshed. Scofield had some sort of law partnership with lngalls who seemed to sponsor him.

In 1871, Cyrus was elected Representative to the Lower House of the Kansas Legislature from the Fourth District for one term. Re-nomination from that District was blocked, so he filed from Nehama County and was elected from the Eighth District. There is no record to show he ever lived there during that period. The Atchison Directory for 1872-73 lists the same addresses as before. In June 1872, Scofield’s first son, Guy Sylvester was born.

Though Ingalls served three terms in the Senate, he was very immoral and had no concern for the truth. He recommended his friend Scofield to President Grant for U.S. District Attorney for the Federal Judicial District of Kansas. Cyrus gave up his seat in the Legislature and took the oath of office on June 8, 1873. This ex-Confederate soldier solemnly swore that he had “never born arms against the United States.”

That was rank perjury. We know he did military service in the South. Evidently in 1873, he was not concerned about perjury. However, a legal conflict of interest brought his term as District Attorney for Kansas to a sudden end in less than six months.

An article on December 14, 1873 in the Daily Times of Leavenworth suggested something was amiss in the D.A.’s office. A case was pending against ex-Senator Pomeroy, and there were hints that Pomeroy paid Cyrus to keep the case from coming to trial.

A later Daily Times item reported that Pomeroy, Scofield and Ingalls were involved in “the most infamous of all infamous political bargains ever transacted in Kansas.” The reporter suggested that Ingalls and Scofield had received pay-offs from railroad officials and settlers in South Kansas. Cyrus resigned on December 20, 1873 and was not involved in politics again.

Now there is another mysterious time in Scofield’s life. Though he was responsible for the support of a family of four, he disappeared for a period of three to five years. One acquaintance said, “Scofield had a bad reputation, and he just skedaddled out of town.” In his story of Scofield’s life, Trumbull gets around this by stating Cyrus did not like the type of life, associates, and activities related to the D.A.’s office.

Leontine Scofield had problems of her own in this period. The son, Guy Sylvester, died in December 1874, a year after Cyrus resigned from the D.A.’s office. In the Atchison City Directory for 1872-73 Cyrus’s residence is still listed there. The St. Louis Directory for 1877 lists “Scofield, Cyrus I., lawyer. Res. 3029 Dickson, St. Louis, Missouri.” This means Cyrus had written Kansas off–along with Leontine.

Mr. Trumbull’s story states that Cyrus returned to St. Louis to practice law. But the publication, The Bench and the Bar of St. Louis County shows no evidence that C. I. Scofield was ever a member of the St. Louis Bar in the nineteenth century. Mr. Trumbull’s story of a successful law practice is in question since the Court Records of St. Louis show that at one point Cyrus badly needed a lawyer of his own.

According to the court records, Cyrus had signed a note for a $200 loan, which was to be repaid within sixty days. The note also bore the alleged signatures of Emeline Papin and C. E Betts. When the borrower tried to collect on the note after sixty days, however, he was unable to locate either Cyrus’s home or office. Between closing date for the 1877 City Directory and August, the “law” office had apparently been closed.

Both Cyrus’s sister Emeline and Betts declined to pay the note. A Sheriff’s Deputy stated that a petition was served to Betts on Sept. 14, 1877, although the other defendants could not be found in St. Louis. Emeline was later served a petition in Webster, Missouri. She claimed, though, that she had never seen nor signed the note and asked to be dismissed from the suit. In preparation for the hearing on March 1, 1878, Emeline’s attorney subpoenaed Charles Bass, a teller at the Boatman’s Bank, to testify on her behalf. After that, Simpson withdrew the action against Cyrus and Emeline, leaving Betts as the sole defendant with $219.30 owed–with the interest still accruing. There is no record of payment.

Scofield must have needed funds badly. On May 28, 1877, he took out a ninety-day note for $900, again with the supposed signature of Emeline Papin. This was case 46333. Again there was no payment. Emeline denied endorsement, and Scofield could not be located. A “successful lawyer” does not “blow town” to avoid a process server. It seems probable that Cyrus forged her name. There was a hearing on May 6, 1879, but the papers noted, “Dismissed on motion of the plaintiff.” There is no evidence that the man involved ever got his $900 or that Cyrus made any effort to pay.

Another case strengthens the belief that Scofield was quite active in forgery. Case 44326 involved another note with Emeline E. Papin’s signature for $250 on June 28, 1877. Emeline admitted later that she knew this note was a forgery. Her testimony on May 10, 1878 read: “Mr. Vollmer came out to the house and handed me a letter… I understood that there was a note due and that my brother was in great danger.” It is hard to know whether she was a willing collaborator or if she was unaware her name was being used. According to the understanding in dispensational circles, Cyrus was by this time in the Kingdom and starting on the road to righteousness.

There is no evidence that Cyrus was a successful lawyer serving a respectable clientele. There were periods unaccounted for in his life at this time. It has been assumed that Leontine decided to leave Cyrus at the time and returned to Atchison. In fact, she had never left Atchison. Cyrus’s role as husband and father had been irregular ever since he entered politics. Without regular employment and income, he wandered. As Trumbull tells it, he led the life of a bachelor.

The charges in the forgery lawsuits were dropped without proper adjudication, suggesting that Scofield’s career was in the hands of someone with greater “clout” than Pomeroy or lngalls had ever known. However, that career meant Leontine, the Catholic wife, had to go. According to the Scripture (1Ti 5:8), a man who does not provide for his own household is worse than an infidel, although that did not appear to phase Cyrus; he never made any effort to clean up the black marks on his record.

The 1912 edition of Who’s Who in America places Scofield’s conversion sometime in 1879, and Trumbull indicates as much in his biography. However, the only definite dates in 1879 tend to raise doubts about what happened and when.

When did the conversion occur? Scofield says he was converted at the age of thirty-six, and it has been assumed the event did take place sometime before D. L. Moody’s 1879-80 Evangelistic Campaign. This places the conversion sometime after his thirty-sixth birthday on August 19, 1879 and before the first meeting of Moody’s ministers in St. Louis on November 25, 1879. As late as November 6, though, Cyrus was still involved with a forgery charge, and that case’s records do not agree with the picture of a new convert trying to right matters of the past. Of course, God forgives the past and changes a man into a new creature if he is really born again (2Co 5:17), but one expects to see a change of behavior. The details of Cyrus’s conversion are not supported by public records, so we do not know the whole truth about the conversion of a man who has profoundly influenced the church.

As the forgery cases were being dismissed with unseemly haste and without fair settlement, Cyrus entered his new role as a worker at the Moody meetings. Of course, until 1879, Cyrus was close to illiterate in things Christian, so it is unclear what role he could have played in Moody’s campaign.

Scofield’s Christian service was sponsored by Reverend James Brookes, the pastor of St. Louis’s Walnut Street Presbyterian Church. As Scofield’s ideas on prophecy began to take shape, they were sparked by the teachings of his sponsor who was in turn influenced by John Nelson Darby. About 1850, Darby began publishing his dispensationalist writings in Europe, and from 1862 to 1877, he made seven lecture trips to America and Canada to promote his teachings. Brookes’s views of a failing church were also influenced by other theologians who wanted the same prophetic view taught and accepted.

Remarkably, with such limited theological background and training, as well as little real scholarship, Scofield was able to profoundly alter Christian theology. Indeed, the shape of fundamentalism, which has claimed to be Orthodox Christianity, has been determined by the influence of dubious characters like Scofield.

During this time, Friedrich A. Tholluck was teaching something more apostolic. In his study, Light From The Cross, he states his belief in a triumphant church prevailing on earth against Satan (Moody Press, Chicago, 1852.) He places the “Great Tribulation” in A. D. 70, rather than modern doomsday prophecies which foresee freeways littered with driver-less cars. The failure of Tholluck’s views to remain prevalent in this country is largely due to the activities of Darby, Brookes and Scofield.

While involved in Moody’s campaign, which remained in St. Louis until April 1880, Cyrus avoided the reality of securing an income for himself or support for his family left in Atchison, Kansas. He paid his room rent, but sent very minimal amounts of money to his wife, and only occasionally.

After the Moody meetings, Cyrus became Acting Secretary of the St. Louis Y.M.C.A. in August 1880. If he still had a law practice, it did not intrude on his Y.M.C.A. duties.

In July 1880, Cyrus joined the Pilgrim Congregational Church of St. Louis. Rev. D.C. Goodell, the pastor, was a personal friend of Brookes and apparently agreed with Brookes’s views on prophecy. The church issued Scofield a license to preach. He organized and pastored the Hyde Park Congregational Church of St. Louis, where he continued until the summer of 1882. Then someone suggested that he might be the man to fill a vacancy in their Dallas, Texas church.

On July 28, 1881, about the time Cyrus was licensed, Leontine Scofield had divorce papers drawn up, although case number 2161 was not filed until December 9,1881. Leontine charged that Cyrus had absented himself, abandoned the family, and neglected his duties. Further, she charged that he had failed to contribute to the family’s economic well-being. Scofield denied each and every allegation. The Court issued a decree for Leontine, but somehow the divorce never became final. In March 1882, Cyrus’s lawyer requested a dismissal, which was granted. The case remained in limbo.

Cyrus never disclosed that he had a wife to his congregation; in fact, be gave them the impression that he was a bachelor. In 1883, Leontine became a librarian at the Atchison Public Library. On October 1, 1883, she filed a second divorce petition, and on December 8, 1883 the divorce was granted. Divorce papers deemed Cyrus unfit for custody of the children.

It is assumed that the character of a candidate for a pastorate would be carefully evaluated. No such evaluation could have been made by the church in Dallas, Texas. Converted for less than four years at the time, Cyrus had no theological training and limited formal schooling. He had been admitted to the Bar in Kansas, but had abused that privilege. He was separated from his Catholic wife and family without the benefit of a divorce.

Scofield had received a fair amount of publicity during his political life in Kansas. His sudden disappearance at the beginning of 1874 left editors wondering. The contrast between the politician of 1873, the scalawag of 1874, and the minister of 1881 was too profound to ignore. So we find a Scofield story in the Atchison Patriot that was picked up by the Topeka paper, August 27, 1881. It follows, with the journalist’s misspelling of Scofield’s name intact:

CYRUS I. SCHOFIELD IN THE ROLE
OF A CONGREGATIONAL MINISTER

“CYRUS I. SCHOFIELD, formerly of Kansas, late lawyer, politician and shyster generally has come to the surface again, and promises once more to gather around himself that halo of notoriety that has made him so prominent in the past. The last personal knowledge Kansans have had of this peer among scalawags was when about four years ago, after a series of forgeries and confidence games, he left the state and a destitute family and took refuge in Canada. For a time he kept undercover; nothing being heard of him until within the past two years when he turned up in St. Louis, where he had a wealthy widowed sister living who has generally come to the front and squared up Cyrus’s little follies and foibles by paying good round sums of money. Within the past year, however, Cyrus committed a series of St. Louis forgeries that could not be settled so easily, and the erratic young man was compelled to linger in the St. Louis jail for a period of six months.

“Among the many malicious acts that characterized his career was one peculiarly atrocious that has come under our personal notice. Shortly after he left Kansas, leaving his wife and two children dependent upon the bounty of his wife’s mother, he wrote his wife that he could invest some $1,300 of her mother’s money, all she had, in a manner that would return big interest. After some correspondence. he forwarded them a mortgage, signed and executed by one Charles Best, purporting to convey valuable property in St. Louis. Upon this, the money was sent to him. Afterwards the mortgages were found to be base forgeries, no such person as Charles Best being in existence, and the property conveyed in the mortgage fictitious.

“In the latter part of his confinement, Schofield, under the administration of certain influences, became converted, or professedly so. After this change of heart, his wealthy sister came forward and paid his way out by settling the forgeries, and the next we hear of him he is ordained as a minister of the Congregational Church, and under the chaperonage of Rev. Goodell, one of the most celebrated divines of St. Louis. He causes a decided sensation.

“It was known that Schofield was separated from his wife, but he had said that the incompatibility of his wife’s temper and her religious zeal in the Catholic Church was such that he could not possibly live with her.

“A representative of”The Patriot” met Mrs. Schofield today, and that little lady denies, as absurd, such stories. There were never any domestic clouds in their homes. They always lived harmoniously. As to her religion, she was no more zealous than any other church member. She attended service on the sabbath and tried to live as becomes a Christian woman and mother. It was the first time she had ever heard the objection raised by him. As to supporting herself and children, he had done nothing. ‘Once in a great while, say every few months, he sends the children about $5, never more. I am employed with A. L. Gignac and Co. and work for their support and mine. As soon as Mr. Schofield settles something on the children to aid me in supporting them and giving them an education, I will gladly give him the liberty he desires. I care not who he marries, or when, but I do want him to aid me in giving our little daughters the support and education they should have.’“

If the Dallas church officials had read the newspapers there might have been a different outcome to this story. The Scripture says, “Moreover he must have a good report of them which are without; lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.” (1Ti 3:7.)

Cyrus had a terrible report with the public but was on his way to take a pastorate. He seemed to arrive in Dallas with little luggage. New books came regularly and were used in preparing sermons. If Scofield began “cramming” for ordination as early as April 1882, either Goodell with Brookes’s assistance, was doing a “snow job” among the Congregationalists or else someone not yet discovered had chosen Scofield for a ministerial role, as a step to something else.

On his first full day in Dallas, he spoke twice to small crowds. After one year, the membership was up to seventy-five, including, as new attendants, the VanWark family. Hettie VanWark and her sister joined in December 1883. Cyrus began paying attention to Hettie. Their marriage certificate is dated March 11, 1884, but Cyrus gave the date as July 14, 1884.

Scofield started cottage prayer meetings that were popular and added members to the church. His call as pastor for a one year term came October 22, 1882. In June 1883, his salary was set at $1,500 a year. His ordination to the ministry in October 1883 was conducted while he was a defendant in the second divorce proceeding, which became final in December 1883.

His ordination statement, read in part: “I hold that such faith is always accompanied by that sincere repentance which involves a change of mind toward God, and in respect of the guilt of sin.” His “repentance,” however, did not include restitution to the men involved in the forgery cases or making up for the neglect of his family.

God seemed to bless Cyrus as his church grew numerically. After four years, the church was able to assume its own support. The American Home Missionary Society offered Cyrus the position of Superintendent for Louisiana and Texas. He accepted and served for many years. It meant that he would be absent from July to October to minister at Bible conferences. He also taught classes at the Y.M.C.A. and training classes for ministerial students.

By 1888, the church had 250 more members and built a new church. Hettie was pregnant then and their son, Noel Paul, was born December 22, 1888.

A Southern Baptist minister, J. R. Graves, published a book, The Work of Christ Consummated in Seven Dispensations in 1883. It has a dispensational scheme quite similar to the one which Cyrus used later in the Scofield Reference Bible. Of course, both were similar to the writings and lectures of J. N. Darby of a few years earlier. This work of Graves was circulated in Scofield’s area. Judging from his later dispensationalism, Darby, Graves, Trotter and Kelly must have contributed a great deal.

In 1888, Scofield printed Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth to teach his classes the dispensational view. In 1856, a godly Scot named Patrick Fairbairn wrote a scripturally-based refutation of the whole dispensational business. Unfortunately, Scofield was not enlightened on the matter. The Dallas church agreed to lengthy vacation periods so Cyrus could minister wherever called, carry on the Home Missionary Society work and speak at conferences. They wanted to keep him as their pastor, so they willingly let others fill in for the five months of the year during his absence. These Bible conferences were to reshape a significant part of American Protestantism.

During this time, Scofield was the head of Southwestern School of the Bible in Dallas, the forerunner of the Dallas Theological Seminary. This school is now a major center for spreading Scofield’s views.

The heart of Scofield’s system is the teaching of prophecy that proponents claim restores “lost truth,” which has been lost since the early days of the church. These were actually the heresies lost since Cerinthus in the first century and Ribera in the sixteenth century. Darby’s dispensational schemes were promoted at Bible conferences, particularly the ones at Niagara Falls. The leadership was in the hands of James H. Brookes until his death in 1897. Later, A. C. Gaebelein took the lead but was unable to keep it going. There was “rupture over the rapture” as differing views were held.

As one early writer said, “There is not a Bible teacher or anyone else living in the world today, who has found a secret rapture in the Bible by his own independent study of the Bible itself. These teachers come to the Bible with cut and dried theories which they have learned elsewhere, and twist and torture texts to fit the theory.”

This Scofield teaching is concerned with a literal Jewish kingdom to last for a millennium. It was first brought into the early church by some Jews who still could not give up the hope taught to them by the scribes and Pharisees. The Bible does not teach it, and the disciples who had been taught it, rejected it after Pentecost. Jesus warned about it in Mt 16:6-12. Scofield’s work was calculated to promote certain ideas. We must ask ourselves if Jesus ever offered or announced himself as an earthly King or claimed David’s throne? Had he ever in any way suggested he was going to set up an earthly kingdom? He said to Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world, if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews, but now is my kingdom not from hence.” (Jn 18:36.) They could not prove him guilty before Pilate of any offense against Rome.

Philip Mauro, author of numerous books on prophecy in the 1940s, has pointed out that in the New Testament the kingdom is mentioned 139 times. But Scofield avoids comment on 118 of them because they will not sustain the postponed kingdom theory.

In 1890, Scofield started a Bible Correspondence Course which he directed until 1914 when it was taken over by the Moody Bible Institute. Tens of thousands of students scattered over the world were indoctrinated with his dispensational ideas.

Dwight L. Moody was born in Northfield, Massachusetts and in his later years made his home base there. In 1895, Moody’s home church called Scofield to be its pastor for a year which meant Cyrus had to leave Dallas and sever connections with the Missionary Society.

In January 1896, Cyrus submitted his final report for his ministry in Dallas reviewing his fourteen years there. Membership had grown from 14 to 812. The active membership was 533. He sent the report from Northfield, where he was already at work. He arrived there early in 1896, but there was no mention of Hettie or son Noel.

At the end of the year, the Dallas Church called for him to return at a salary of $2,400 a year with two months annual leave. He declined the offer as two months would not be enough time for his wider ministry. He suggested that they seek another pastor and moved his membership to the Northfield church.

In April 1897, Cyrus received word that Dr. James Brookes had died. Later Scofield wrote of him, “My own personal obligations to him are beyond words. He sought me in the first days of the Christian life and was my friend and first teacher in the oracles of God.”

Moody also established the Northfield Summer Conferences for Scripture searching and heart searching. These continued for many years. Robert Scott of Morgan and Scott, a British publishing house linked with the Plymouth Brethren, met Scofield there. That played a role in Cyrus’s later life.

Friends raised money in 1898 to build a chapel on the Northfield campus for Moody’s sixtieth birthday. It was finished in 1899, shortly before Moody died. The chapel was organized as a church in November 1899 and held its first service. Cyrus Scofield was called as pastor. He remained there three more years.

In 1901, several men wanted to revive the Niagara Conferences. A[n] estate was made available at Sea Cliff on Long Island. Arno Gaebelein was at one of the first conferences. Cyrus took leave of his church in Northfield. He reported later that he and Gaebelein walked on the shore until midnight, and Cyrus told him of his plan to produce a reference Bible.

At this time, Scofield purchased eight and a quarter acres of land in the village of Ashuelot, Cheshire County, New Hampshire. He was eager to erect a building on it.

In 1901, Scofield was admitted to membership in the Lotos Club in New York City. This is an exclusive club founded by prominent New Yorkers such as Whitelaw Reid of the N.Y. Tribune and Samuel Untermeyer, the notorious criminal lawyer. Untermeyer was on the Club’s Literary Committee when Scofield’s application was presented. “The club was to promote social intercourse among journalists, artists and members of musical and dramatic professions and representatives, amateurs, and friends of literature, science and the fine arts. At least one third of the members shall be connected with said classes.” Someone must have thought Cyrus could qualify in the literary category. Scofield’s “postponed kingdom” teaching was most helpful in getting Fundamental Christians to back the international interest in the Zionist movement. Scofield kept up his Club membership until his death. The selection of Scofield for admission to the Lotos Club strengthens the suspicion that someone was directing his career by concerns remote from fidelity to the truth of Jesus Christ.

Because Cyrus was in poor health, he resigned from the Northfield pastorate. By early February 1903, he had settled affairs in Northfield and returned to take up his duties in Dallas. He still covered his summer circuit. Later that year, he realized he must either give up the church or the work on the Bible.

By early 1904, a trip to Europe was planned for research. (No mention is made of Noel on this trip that lasted nine months.) As Trumbull describes it, research there was presumably necessary for a full rounded understanding of all view points.

Mr. Scott, the Morgan and Scott publisher who first met Scofield at Northfield, took the Scofields to his home near Dorking. As Trumbull reports the story, the men discussed a publisher. Mr. Scott took Cyrus to see McHenry Frowde, head of the Oxford Bible Publishing House of Great Britain. He was interested and said he would consult Mr. Armstrong, head of the American Branch of Oxford University Press. And so it happened that the great publishing house of the English speaking world would publish the Scofield Bible.

After about two months in England, the Scofields went to Switzerland, settling at Montreux where Cyrus planned to work on the Bible. However, he was sick and unable to work for four months. Either Scofield or Trumbull slipped up on the story, though, for two pages later Trumbull reports that Scofield spent nine months at Montreux in uninterrupted labor. Gaebelein states that this illness was in 1906, although other sources have Cyrus in Michigan at that time.

Scofield had a supply of large page, wide margin notebooks purchased for the Bible work. While Cyrus was sick, Hettie cut up an entire Bible and pasted it page by page in the notebooks. Later. Cyrus put his notes beside the text.

Before that time, though, the Scofields returned to Dallas because of lack of funds. It was 1905. The church still wanted him for its pastor, but it needed more attention than he could give and work on his notes. The church called Reverend Irving Carrott as associate pastor at a salary of $1,500 yearly and retained Scofield as pastor with a salary of $1,000 a year. That hardly seems enough to support a family and pay his Lotos Club dues. In January 1906, though, the church raised the salary to $3,000 a year, and gave him his freedom to travel.

Cyrus became ill again and went to a sanitarium in Clifton Springs, New York to gain strength and to work on his notes. It appears that they went by way of New York for he wrote to Gaebelein on Lotos Club stationery dated 2 Sept. 1905: “By all means follow your own views of prophetic analysis. I sit at your feet when it comes to prophecy and congratulate in advance the future readers of my Bible on having in their hands a safe, clear, sane guide through what to most is a labyrinth.” Many believe Gaebelein had much to do with the shaping of Scofield’s dispensational prophetic views.

Miss Ella Pohle, who had helped with the Bible Correspondence Course, joined the Scofields to help with the work for the next year. By May 1906, the three went to New York City with the notebooks. While Cyrus stayed at the Lotos Club, Hettie and Ella stayed some place where work was continued on cross references. Later in May, they moved to New Hampshire to the Crestwood Camp where they stayed in tents–one large one for living and a smaller tent for working.

Scofield’s biographers do not agree on this period. Gaebelein has Cyrus going to Europe in 1904 for two years, falling ill in Montreux for four months in 1906 and arriving back in New York on May 27, 1906.

He supports this by a letter dated May 27,1906 from Crestwood Camp. If that letter is valid, ship arrivals should show one which fits the travel story. Of the eleven ships arriving that day, none fit the story.

The Bible work continued through 1906, and Cyrus was in constant contact by mail with his seven consulting editors: Arno C. Gaebelein, Henry G. Weston, James M. Gray, Arthur T. Pierson, W. G. Moorhead, William Erdman and Elmore Harris.

In September 1906, Scofield wrote to the Dallas church of his need to go to London for more study. Again the notebooks went to Europe with the Scofieids. Once more the biographers are mixed up. Trumbull states that the Scofields stayed in Europe for two years, but this conflicts with church records. Trumbull writes, “The treasures of the Oxford libraries were fully at the disposal of the man who was making himself a Bible scholar by mastering the Bible scholarship of the world…He covered the whole field of such scholarships whether friendly or unfriendly–to the Bible.” (To cover the whole field is patently impossible in the time available.) He did not give a lifetime to study as real scholars have done.

There are so many discrepancies in the stories of this trip, which brings up the suspicion that the trips were for effect and publicity. Finally, in less than one year, the Scofields were back at Crestwood Camp and were again joined by Ella Pohle. The manuscript boxes were stored in a small workshop and the work was done in a small tent. A fire burned the living quarters, but the work tent and shed and all the notebooks were unharmed.

In June, they left Ashuelot and went to Lake Orion, Michigan to do the work. En route, Cyrus went via New York and, on June 5, 1907, signed the contract with the Oxford University Press for publication of the Scofield Reference Bible. It was officially published on January 15, 1909.

Harry Ironside, a dispensationalist and pastor of Moody Memorial Church, Chicago, said, “Alas, how ready are well-meaning people to put the ministry of human teachers in the place of the Holy Scriptures and almost unconsciously begin ‘teaching for doctrines the commandments of men’ never realizing his indictment could be applied to the very system he spent his life defending and propagating.”

One wonders why Scofield’s work took seven years. His ideas had been formulated (or handed to him) early in his ministry. His teaching and correspondence course had followed along the same lines. The Plymouth Brethren, his spiritual forebears, had extensively published Darby’s writings, which he could have culled.

Trumbull said. “Scofield was concerned to find and state exactly what the Bible itself had to say on any and every point.” But there are gaping omissions. Scofield does not comment on verses dealing with divorce, family responsibilities and breaches of moral and/or civil law:

His own litany of such breaches:

1873 – false oath of office
1874 – taking bribes
1874 – failure to provide for family
1877 – fraud and forgery
1879 – failure to pay notes
1883 – divorce
1909 – adding to the Word of God

When Scofield received a request from Chicago’s Marquis Publishing Co. for information for an entry in Who’s Who in America, Vol. 7, Cyrus filled it in and returned it. In this 1912 entry, year 1912, we note the following on page 1850:

A. Misstatements or inaccuracies

1. Reared in Wilson Co., Tenn.: no contact before 1858

2. University studies interrupted: no evidence

3. Served in Confederate Army to end of war: discharged 1862

4. Decorated for valor: utterly false

5. Wedding day, July 14, 1884: correct dates are Sep. 21, 1866, and March 11, 1884. Certificates available.

B. Omissions

1. Wife: Leontine

2. Children: Abigail, Marie Helene, Guy Sylvester

3. The divorce proceedings of 1882-83.

C. Items omitted but circulated in areas of his ministry

1. Story of birth in Tennessee

2. Existence of son, Noel

3. The law practice in St. Louis, Missouri

Some readers may feel that too much has been made of discrepancies in Scofield’s stories. Some could have been through carelessness or misunderstanding, but that is not possible with this entry in Who’s Who. The story of the law practice has no support in official records. It seems that whoever prepared this data was very selective and calculated the deception. Can the system be credible if its “patriarch” uses calculated falsehood?

In Trumbull’s biography there are 38 errors in 130 pages. Some could be caused by careless editing or condensation, but there are discrepancies for which the most ready explanation is deliberate fabrication. If Scofield appeared to have a clear mind and memory in 1919, then he must be responsible for being inaccurate. What Trumbull related may be what Scofield wanted known. Trumbull, with Scofield’s assistance, used a pitchfork to do a cover up.

The Scofields moved to Douglaston, in the borough of Queens, N.Y. His only guaranteed income was $600 yearly from Dallas. How did they live, keep a son in school, buy a home, and keep up the dues in the Lotos Club? Scofield and others organized the Community Church of Douglaston. The first meeting was held May 2, 1915 in a store on Main Street leased for services. Their first social affair was a reception honoring Dr. and Mrs. Scofield on February 9, 1916, when he was seventy-three years old.

In 1917, Oxford University Press published a revised edition of the Scofield Reference Bible. The 1909 edition disappeared, and the most widely circulated issue is the one revised in 1917. The greatest change was in placing a date on each page of the text.

Scofield and Charles Trumbull met at the Southfield Bible Conference in Crescent City, Florida and were photographed together. In the winter of 1919, the two met for several days at a home that was made available to Cyrus at Crescent City. Trumbull stayed a while to interview Scofield to get material for a series of articles for the S. S. Times that appeared between May and September that year.

In 1920, the Oxford University Press issued the articles in the book, The Life Story of C. I. Scofield. These books seem to be almost unobtainable today. Trumbull was a competent and experienced journalist, but this writing differs from other writing that bears his name because of inaccuracies. The facts he wrote down do not agree with official public records.

Cyrus last attended service at the Douglaston church on May 22, 1921. In July, one month before his seventy-eighth birthday, the fierce heat of summer distressed him, and there were hours of intense suffering. The family realized recovery was impossible. He was unconscious for two days before the intense pain passed and he fell asleep for good. He passed away at 11:00 A.M. on July 24, 1921 as church bells were ringing. Cause of death: cardio vascular renal disease.

The funeral was on Wednesday, July 27 at the First Baptist Church in nearby Flushing. Several ministers spoke and praised the life and work of Cyrus I. Scofield. He was buried at Flushing.

The Scofield will, drawn up in May, was presented for probate in Queens County on August 2, 1921. Cyrus noted he had provided good and comfortable homes for his wife and son. The entire estate, estimated at $23,004, was left to Hettie and Noel. There was no mention of his first family.

Value judgments are unpopular, but we have a statement from Scofield himself that offers its own judgment: “Character is what we are. Conduct is what we do. Reputation is what is said about us. Character is what we are. A bad man does not habitually do good actions, or a good man habitually do evil actions. We all know these things.”

The most reasonable interpretation of the work of Scofield is that it is neither honest nor valid. As such, it should have the whistle blown, for it is properly outside the line of valid Christianity. It seems many evangelicals are trying to disengage themselves from what now appears to be a tottering wreck, a wreck erected by Darby, Arno Gaebelein and C. I. Scofield. The Scofield Reference Bible did, and is doing, a great disservice to the Kingdom of God.

Scofield Notes Answered

by
CHARLES GILBERT WESTON

From the Scofield Reference Bibles
1917 and 1967 editions
(Referenced as SRB 1917 and SRB 1967)

As a very young Bible school teacher I obtained books on the Christian life, principles of interpretation, doctrine and prophecy that were duly approved in “Fundamentalist” circles. Also I was given a copy of the 1917 Scofield Reference Bible. I ran into problems of squaring what they taught with what I was learning as I studied and taught the Scriptures. Now I am past 80, having studied, ministered, and taught for 64 years around the world. Many others have helped and still help me. Please hear some Scriptures bearing on biblical interpretation that must be clarified.

l Sa 2:30: “Wherefore the Lord God of Israel saith, I said indeed that thy house, and the house of thy father, should walk before me forever: BUT NOW the Lord saith, Be it far from me; for them that honor me I will honor, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.” Definitely forever does not mean unconditionally. We see God’s promises are conditioned by his person and sovereignty. Then we realize that IF a so called unconditional promise COULD be made it would nullify God’s sovereignty – an absolute impossibility. So any claim of this or that promise being unconditional is false. God says, “IF thou wilt…then will I.” There is always an IF.

See also Jer 18:5-10, quoting 7-10, “At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; If it do evil in my sight, that it not obey my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.”

These words spoken to Israel were applicable to lsrael as a nation. It totally eliminates all so called unconditional promises and prophecies to Israel or to any nation. God is no respecter of persons or nations, but is just and fair to all alike with abundant mercy to all who call upon him in truth.

Hope was not blotted out despite the destiny prophesied for the carnal apostates. (lsa 5:1-14.) Any person who would repent could find mercy and blessing with the godly Remnant. (Isa 1: 16-20: Joel 2:32.) Furthermore, God promised a sure attainment of the promises of Ex 19:5-6 when he would make a New Covenant with the house of lsrael and the house of Judah. (Jer 31:31, 34-37.)

The Lord spoke of his Remnant in Mal 3: 16-17:“…they shall be mine saith the Lord of Hosts, when I make up my jewels.” (Heb Cegulah). The same peculiar treasure (Cegulah) as at Ex 19:5-6. The same Remnant of lsa 10:22-23, and of Hos 1:10 and 2:23, spoken of by Jesus at Jn 1:11-13, by Paul at Ro 9:23-26, and by Peter at 1 Pe 2:3, 910. These who love God continually honor the Lord of that New Covenant as the Lord taught them, (Lk 22:19-20 ) and as Paul taught, (1 Co 11:23-26) for the Promised SEED gave himself for whosoever, for the Jew first and also for the Gentiles. (Ge 22:18; Jn 3:16; Gal 3:8-16, 29; Heb 8:6-13; 9:15; 12:22-28.)

Now we have moved scripturally and in boundaries of apostolic principles so far and have stepped on the toes of some holding unintended errors.

Jesus, the Impregnable Rock of the New Covenant, may not be chipped, altered, moved, obscured or ignored without disastrous consequences. His ministry was to bring this New Covenant, (lsa 42:6; 49:8; Jer 31:31-37; Mal 3:1-2; Mat 24:35,) bringing the fulness of divine revelation. (Jn 8:47; Dt 18:18-19; Acts 3:22-23.) Moses’ great prophecy emphasizes that Christ would bring the fulness of the Word of God. Heb 12:1-2 is comparable to Moses’ prophecy.

In Dt 18:18, God says. “I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.” Then Peter declares that whoever will not hear HIM shall be destroyed from among the people. (Ac 3:23. ) And Paul says, “If any man teach otherwise and consent not to the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, he is proud, knowing nothing, destitute of the truth; from such withdraw thyself.” (1Ti 6:3-5.) Consider: Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Any omission or variation of his word is a departure from the Truth and the Way, and we fear, from the Life itself. (Col 2:8-9; Tit 1:9-11,14; 1Ti 3:3-4,7; 2Ti 4:2-4.)

The list of Scripture passages that are ignored, resisted, twisted, shaded, perverted, brushed by or veiled by diversionary notes is a testimony against its content in the preaching and Bible teaching of this 20th century, including the creeds and dogma on which it may seek to justify itself. Men today, as the Pharisees did, are doing these things to Christ.

When men preach a doctrine that finds no room for a full clear presentation of Mt 13:36-43 or of Acts 3:22-23, then they are committing that very sin. And when they build a doctrine that has no room for the full meaning of 2Pe 3, Ro 8:18-23 and 2Th 1:6-10, then they have built a false doctrine for itching ears. When men begin to see the truth in God’s word and realize that to confess it would cost money, job, esteem or leadership, and fail to take a stand for truth, then they too have joined the Pharisees with their vested interest. Every sin mentioned here is rampant in our time.

I have often spoken against the Scofield Reference Bible notes as being an abomination and advised students against using a Scofield Bible lest their minds be affected because of the evil heresies it contains. Such statements must be substantiated or the person who makes them repudiated. Some persons are so wedded to the error and so blinded by it, that they will receive no teaching, but Jesus said, “Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things that I say?” (Lk 6:46.) “Not everyone that saith to me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.” (Mt 7:21.)

True Bible study takes time and labor and careful faithful attention to what a writer is saying without trying to make him say what we want him to say. Teaching in the Old Testament was veiled and much could not be understood until the Messiah came. The New Testament writers remove the veil for us. They taught the whole revealed will of God. Many teachers today are teaching doctrines the Apostles did not teach and some which they thoroughly condemned.

The dispensational scheme that Scofield picked up from others divided time into seven dispensations during which time man is tested, he said, in respect of obedience to some specific revelation of the will of God.

He lists seven periods of time:

1. Innocence – creation to the Fall. (Ge 2:16-17.)

2. Conscience – from the Fall to the Flood.

3. Human government – from the Flood to Abram

4. Promise – Abram to the giving of the Law on Sinai.

5. Law – Sinai to the Cross of Christ.

6. Grace – from the death of Christ to the judgments in Revelation.

7. Kingdom – the last of the ordered ages – the time Christ will restore the Davidic kingdom and reign one thousand years.

This is Scofield teaching, not the Bible. He gives no scriptural authority for there is none to be given. These divisions are arbitrary and they all overlap. God made a promise in Eden of a Coming One. Adam had a conscience for he hid after he disobeyed. No one can be saved apart from God’s grace in any age.

In the Bible, the word oikonomia means stewardship, i.e., “Give account of thy stewardship.” (Lk 16:2; 12:3; Col 1 :25.)

INSTEAD, God dealt with his people by Seven Covenants:

1. Edenic – a charge and a test. (Ge 1:26-31.)

2. Adamic – the entry of sin required a hope and a discipline. (Genesis.)

3. Noahic – a new start and promise of the SEED of a woman. (Ge 6:3, 9:1-17.)

4. Abrahamic – a series of revelations to Abraham make up the Covenant (Ge 12:1-3; 13:14-17: 15:1-21; 17:1-27; 18:1-53; 21: 1-13; 22:1-18.)

5. Mosaic – this Covenant was written and dedicated with blood. (Ex 19:1-9; 20:1-22; 24:1-18; Dt 5:2-5.)

6. Davidic – 2Sa 7:10-17; 1Ch 17:9-15; major portions are found in Psalms 16;22; 89:3-4, 34, 37; 110:1-4.

7. The New Covenant in our Lord. (Mt 25:26-28; Lk 22:20; Jn 12:47-50; 14:6; Heb 1:1-3; 2:1-4; 4:16; 5:9-10; 12:22-28; Ro 14:9; 10:9: Ac 2:33; Eph 4:8; 1Ti 2:5.) (From The Seven Covenants by Charles G. Weston.)

When Albertus Pieters wrote about the Scofield Bible in 1938, he said it was one of the most dangerous books on the market.

Scofield’s Basic Errors

1. He disregards the witness, the doctrines and the examples of interpretation of the Old Testament that are given us by the apostles in the New Testament.

2. He usurps apostolic authority by contradicting their clear teaching and so setting himself above them.

3. He makes false statements exactly opposite to known facts to support his false doctrines.

4. The greatest reigning error of this century is his teaching that promises a millennial kingdom on the earth after Christ returns for his church. (cf. Ro 8:18-23.)

5. That the church was not foreseen and that the prophets never prophesy of the church. (Isa 54:1; Hos 1:9-10; 2:23; Gal 4:2130; Ro 9:22-26 and 1Pe 2:9-10.)

The leaven of these teachings has permeated everywhere, even where his notes are unknown. For proof to back up my accusations see the following:

SCOFIELD note (SRB 1917, 1967) from the Introduction to THE FOUR GOSPELS: “All (gospels) record Christ’s offer of Himself as King.”

ANSWER: That statement is plainly false. Nowhere does Jesus ever suggest in the faintest way that he is waiting for popular or national approval to establish his kingdom or to be an earthly king. Jn 6:15, “When Jesus perceived that they would come to take him by force to make him a king, he departed…” His offer of the kingdom is the same he made to Nicodemus at the beginning of his ministry, “Except a man be born again, he cannot SEE the Kingdom of God,” Jn 3:3. Also Jn 3:14-16. Take it and be saved; neglect it and be lost.

SCOFIELD note (SRB 1917, 1967) on Mt 4:17: ” ‘At hand’ is never a positive affirmation that the person or thing said to be at hand will immediately appear, but only that no known or predicted event must intervene.” The verse reads “From that time, Jesus began to preach and say, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

ANSWER: Scofield is speaking pompous nonsense. Mk 1:15 reads: “The time is fulfilled for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent ye and believe the gospel.” The Scripture gives us plenty of examples as to what the term at hand means. In Mt 26:46, Jesus said, “He that betrayeth me is at hand.” And while he was yet speaking Judas came and kissed him and betrayed him. ‘At hand’ means something within your reach. So the Scripture uses it continually.

SCOFIELD note (SRB 1917, 1967) on Mt 4:17: “When Christ appeared to the Jewish people, the next thing, in the order of revelation as it then stood, should have been the setting up of the Davidic kingdom. In the knowledge of God, not yet disclosed, lay the rejection of the kingdom and the King, the long period of the mystery-form kingdom, the worldwide preaching of the cross and the out-calling of the church. But this was as yet locked up in the secret counsels of God.” Then he gives Mt 13:11,17 and Eph. 3:3-10.

ANSWER: The first statement – “When Christ first appeared to the Jewish people the next thing should have been the setting up of the kingdom,” is the error of the Pharisees, that Christ should appear as a mighty warrior conquering the world for Israel and setting up such a kingdom on earth. Scofield’s notes reveal this as his understanding of the kingdom. He declares that is what should have been according to the revelation to that point. Nothing could be further from the truth. That is absolute heresy. Israel, clinging to this false hope, lost everything in A.D. 70. Scofield falsely assumed that the Davidic Covenant prophesied an earthly enthronement of Christ upon the throne of David with Jews ruling over all.

The first year of Christ’s ministry is given in the first four chapters of John. In Jn 3:1-2, we read, “There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, the same came to Jesus by night and said unto Him, ‘Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.’” Who came? Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, a member of the Sanhedrin. He came by night to talk with Jesus alone.

The Sanhedrin knew that Jesus was a teacher come from God. What then was on their minds? The Messiah! They were looking for the kingdom. They knew the prophecy that Messiah should come 490 years or so, after the commandment to rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple. It was now time for Messiah to appear. That is why they sent inquirers to John the Baptist and why Nicodemus has come to question the Lord.

Jesus answered him, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? Jesus answered, Verily, verily I say unto you except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.” (Jn 3:5-7.) That was the beginning of Jesus’ ministry and at its very beginning he is preaching the kingdom. What kind? A kingdom with a sword-rattling, warrior Messiah? No way! A Messiah who will be lifted up as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life. (Jn 3:14-15.)

“You mean that Jews cannot see the kingdom of God unless they are born again?” Nicodemus, you are Jewish flesh, a member of the Sanhedrin, a Pharisee. Your Mosaic religion, Abrahamic descent, your Jewish flesh with all its pride, none of it can get you into the kingdom of God–only the new birth.”

This is the kingdom that Jesus preached from the beginning of his ministry, but Scofield twists things up to make it appear Jesus was preaching the Pharisees’ earthly kingdom.

Look at the second statement where Scofield says, “In the knowledge of God, not yet disclosed lay the rejection of the kingdom and King.” Scofield thereby denies great and clear prophesies where the rejection, crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and enthronement of Christ in glory are all set forth. (lsa 53; Ps 2; Ps 16:8-11, Ps 110:1-4) Was he totally ignorant of these wonderful prophecies?

The third statement reads: “The long period of the mystery-form kingdom, the worldwide preaching of the cross and the out calling of the church. But this was as yet locked up in the secret counsels of God.” (Mt 13:11,17; Eph 3:3-10) Using mystery in this context defines it as something beyond our knowing in this age. Jesus spoke to this age in Mt 13:11, saying, “…it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven” and Mark says “… unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God…” (Mk 4:11.) The prophets caught the reality of the Messianic, that is, the Christian, age. For example, in 1Pe 1: 12, “Unto whom it was revealed…” Also David, (Ac 2:25-31) and Moses, (Ac 3:22-23) concerning Israel. And Peter and Paul. (Ac 3:24 with 26:22, 23) Christ unveiled the mysteries of the kingdom for this age.

SCOFIELD note (SRB 1917) on Mt 6:33: “The kingdom of God is to be distinguished from the kingdom of heaven.” Part (4), The kingdom of God … is chiefly that which is inward and spiritual; while the kingdom of heaven is organic, and is to be manifested in glory on the earth.” Scofield implies that one does not enter the kingdom of heaven by being born again, this is required only for entering the kingdom of God. See also Scofield note (SRB 1917, 1967) and (I Co 15:24 part 4)

ANSWER: Such a view causes more problems. Jesus said, “Except ye be converted … ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” (Mt 18:3) “Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (Jn 3:3) The kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven are one and the same.

SCOFIELD note (SRB 1917, 1967) on Mt 11.11: “John Baptist was as great morally, as any man ‘born of woman,’ but as to the kingdom he but announced it at hand. The kingdom did not then come, but was rejected, and John was martyred and the King presently crucified. The least in the kingdom when it is set up in glory … will be…in the fulness of power and glory. It is not heaven which is in question, but Messiah’s kingdom.”

ANSWER: Scofield here, as often, makes anti-christian Israel sovereign over God, as if their opposition spoiled God’s plans and purpose and the kingdom had to be postponed. What impossible nonsense! (Cf. Isa 46:10)

SCOFIELD note (SRB 1967) on Jn 18:36: “‘My kingdom is not of this world’ – this verse has erroneously been taken to mean that Christ was disavowing that his kingdom would be established on earth.”

ANSWER: Read Eph 1:19-23, which shows this Scofield teaching is utterly false. This is God’s description of Christ’s present exaltation. It is described again in Php 2:9-10; 1Ti 6:15-17 and Mt 28:18.

SCOFIELD note (SRB 1917, 1967) on Mt 11:28: “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” “The new message of Jesus. The rejected King, now turns from the rejecting nation, and offers, not the kingdom, but rest and service to such in the nation as are conscious of need. It is a pivotal point in the ministry or Jesus (1917).

ANSWER: Mt 11:28: “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest, take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” How beautifully these words fit together with the very beginning of Jesus’ message. These blessings are for those who are born again, finding rest in the loving care of Jesus.

“In old Israel when the Jews said the Shema, it was their formula for taking the yoke of the kingdom.” (Life and Times of Jesus, pg. 267, par. 3, by Edersheim). “Take my yoke” in Jewish context meant entering the kingdom. Jesus never changed his message.

Scofield overlooked verse Mt 11:27. Jesus said, “All things are delivered unto me by my Father.” Also Mt 28:18: “All authority is given unto me in heaven and in earth.” He is speaking of his kingship. (Ps 2:6-7; Ac 13:33. What is he saying? “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest unto your souls.” You will have entered the kingdom that cannot be moved. l am able to care for you. All things are delivered into my hands. Scofield says the new message, “The rejected King now turns from the rejecting nation and offers, not the kingdom but rest and service to all who are in conscious need of his help,” (1967). In Mt 12. Jesus healed a man deaf, blind and possessed of the devil. “And all the people were amazed and said, Is this not the son of David, the King?”

If he had withdrawn the offer of the kingdom, why would the kingdom be so much on the people’s minds? But the Pharisees said, “This fellow does not cast out devils but by Beelzebub, the prince of devils.” What disturbed the Pharisees? These people were getting the idea that Jesus was indeed the king. They didn’t like it. So they smeared the name of Jesus, saying he was possessed of the devil.

Jesus said, “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself cannot stand. If Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself, how then shall his kingdom stand? If I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges, but if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then The Kingdom of God has come unto you.”

Casting out devils manifested authority over Satan’s realm. This must indeed be the Messiah, the people thought. “Is not this the son of David’?” How that disturbed the Pharisees with their idea of a warrior king. They didn’t want anything like this. The kingdom was not waiting to come. It had not been postponed to the millennium. It was there and in action then and if they could believe and accept it, they could be born into that kingdom. Jesus never changed his message. They did kill the King, but three days later God gave him his eternal throne. Rev 1:4-6 is the present kingdom. (Cf. Mt 28:18; Ps 16:8-11) We know he arrived in heaven because he sent the Holy Spirit back. (John 7:39; Ps 110: 1-4)

SCOFIELD note (SRB 1917, 1967) on Mt 3:2: “The kingdom of heaven … signifies the Messianic earth rule of Jesus Christ.” (1917) “The kingdom of heaven will be realized in the future millennial kingdom” (1967).

ANSWER: That is heresy! Jesus told Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world, if my kingdom were of this world then would my servants fight.” His kingdom is of the new creation. Peter in Acts 2:22-26 and Paul in Acts 13:22, 33, 47, their first recorded sermons, make it clear that the Davidic Covenant is fulfilled with its accompanying Messianic Psalms, 2 and 110:1. Paul comments on 110:1 at 1Co 15:24-26, showing Christ in his present session working from his heavenly throne conquering every enemy. There is no honest teaching that would bring that throne to earth for the Father says it is in heaven and the Son is to sit there UNTIL he puts all enemies under his feet. Ps 110:2 indicates he has enemies in Zion.

Those wedded to the millennial heresy seem to be capable of any atrocity against the Word of God to try to support that teaching, even if Scripture has to be flatly contradicted to fit it.

SCOFIELD note (SRB 1917, 1967) on Mt 8:11-12: HE HAS NO NOTE on these verses, “And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom shall be cast into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

ANSWER: These verses are Jesus’ tremendous prophecy of the fate of Israel at his Second Coming. Scofield ignores it and teaches just the opposite elsewhere. These Scriptures show all the evil persons burning in hell fire and all the saved ones in the glory of God’s kingdom. (cf. Lk 13:24-28) Scofield flatly denies this and the words of Mt 13:37-43. He says, No, the millennium comes next and the judgment pictured here is one thousand years later. In all these contradictions, he is contradicting him whom he calls Lord. “For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.” (Mt 16:27) The final day of judgment is at the end of this age–the end of all things of this fallen creation.

SCOFIELD note (SRB 1917, 1967) on Ro 11:1-6, last paragraph: “That the Christian now inherits the distinctive Jewish promises is not taught in Scripture. The Christian is of the heavenly seed of Abraham and partakes of the spiritual blessings of the Abrahamic Covenant, but Israel as a nation always has its own place, and is yet to have its greatest exaltation as the earthly people of God.”

And SCOFIELD note (SRB 1917, 1967) on Ro 11:26, last paragraph: “According to the prophets, Israel regathered from all nations, restored to her own land and converted, is yet to have her greatest earthly exaltation and glory.”

ANSWER: This is the millennium of the Pharisees, not of the Bible. It contradicts the plain prophecies of Jesus himself. Israel’s only hope is Ro 11. Paul says they were cast away because of unbelief but verse 23 says, “If they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in: for God is able to graft them in again.” See lsrael’s end as in Jer 23:39-40; 24:910; 29: l0-11 and Isa 65:1-15. Israel after the flesh is not an heir of God and never, ever will be. Israel is cast out. 1Co 15:50, “Flesh and blood cannot inherit.” Gal 4:21-30 says. “Shall not be heir with….”

See also 2Th 1:6-10: “…And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and the glory of his power: when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe.”

See also Lk 17:26-27; Mt 24:35-39: “As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it also be in the days of the Son of Man. They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.” Why not believe the Lord’? Oh, but that millennium.

See also Lk 17:29-30: “The same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.”

If the flood takes away all the unsaved in this one day, where does a millennium come in? Only those in the ark are saved. There are no others left. Scofield has no note on this. He cannot give an honest comment for it would ruin his teaching, such as in his note on Mt 3:2: “The prophetic aspect, the kingdom is to be set up after the return of the King in glory.”

You cannot ignore any Scripture and pretend honesty in interpretation. Jesus has all power. What more could be given him? He is above all now. ( Mt 28:18: Eph 1:20-21)

In Lk 19:11-27, Jesus teaches by parable, about his kingdom because the Jews supposed it should immediately appear. But, in verse 12, he taught them he must leave and go to a far country to receive his kingdom and after that return; but his citizens hated him, and sent a message after him, saying, “We will not have this man to reign over us.” Upon his return he would judge his servants and his enemies. The parable illustrated his judgments of his servants, good and bad. He said, “But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me.” (v. 27.)

“Oh no,” some would say. “We have a greater revelation. After he comes again he is crowned king and the kingdom is set up and those, who would not have him, now see him in his glory and believe in him and with him reign over the Gentiles for a thousand years.”

Now, that is something indeed! Isn’t it amazing what can be done by just a little art of interpretation?

Mt 13:47-50 gives the parable of the net cast into the sea, in which good and bad fish are drawn in and sorted. The bad are thrown away. “So shall it be at the end of the ‘aion’ age: the angels shall come forth and sever the wicked from among the just, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.” This is an ignored text, as some prefer to teach the opposite.

In Ps 110:1, Jehovah, the Father, says to the Son, David’s Lord, “Sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool.” In 1Ch 29:23 we see David’s throne: “Then Solomon sat on the throne of the Lord, i.e., of Jehovah as king instead of David his father.” The same throne, not a make do, nor a special throne just for Jesus, but the throne of Jehovah in each case, and now Jesus sits upon it in heaven. It is God’s throne and kingdom, and God has promised that Jesus would be there forever. (1Ch 17:14.) The same throne at 1Ch 28:5; 29:23 and 2Sa 7:5, 16 is also called David’s throne forever. So it is one eternal throne over one eternal kingdom of God and of Christ, which was shown on earth in type form as David’s.

But David in Hebrew means, The Beloved, and is the name of Christ at Eph 1:6 and at several prophetic references, including Eze 34:23-24; 37:24-25; Isa 55:3-4: Ps 89. God has exalted Jesus to sit upon that throne forever. And Jesus took that throne at his Resurrection.

If it is “forever” then why does the Psalmist prophesy “till I make thine enemies thy footstool?” That is a set time, the time of the struggle with evil, the measure of this age with its gospel work and mercy For whosoever will. John in Rev 1:9 calls it “His kingdom and patience.” Peter speaks of the time measure and its work in Ac 2:29-36; 3:20-21. It is 2Pe 3:8-10. David says in Ps 110:2. “Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies.” It is now and it will end at his coming, for this session of his reign will bring every enemy into submission, and that from his heavenly throne, not after he comes back to earth, but definitely before. (1Co 15:24-26 and verses 50-54) The early church, the reformers, Calvin, Luther. Melancthon, Ridley, Arminius, Latimer, Whitefield, John and Charles Wesley and Spurgeon all saw this truth. Eph 1:19-23 shows the Scofield teaching utterly false. This is God’s description of Christ’s present exaltation, described again in Php 2:9-10 and 1Ti 6:15-16 and Mt 28:18.

SCOFIELD note (SRB 1917, 1967) on Dt 30:3: “It is important to see that the nation (Israel) has never as yet taken the land under the unconditional Abrahamic Covenant, nor has it ever possessed the whole land.”

ANSWER: The conditional physical land promise to Moses and the nation, (Ex 3:8, 17; Lev 18:28) was completely fulfilled. (Jos 21:43,45) “And the Lord gave unto Israel all the land which he sware to give unto their fathers; and they possessed it, and dwelt therein. There failed not ought of any good thing which the Lord had spoken unto the house of Israel, all came to pass.”

The unconditional land promise to Abraham’s SEED was a different promise. The Apostle Paul defined this different promise in Gal 3:16, saying God made promises to Abraham concerning Abraham’s SEED that the promises were to the single descendant, Jesus Christ, in whom all the nations would be blessed, (Ge 22:17-18); the same to Isaac, (Ge 26:4) and to Jacob, (Ge 28:13-14.) Scofield very conveniently HAS NO EXPLANATORY NOTES on these Scriptures. Many modern Bible translations have furthered Scofield’s Abrahamic Covenant error by changing SEED from the singular (Christ) to the plural “descendants” and thus have substituted the many physical descendants as heirs to the promises in place of the one true spiritual inheritor, Jesus Christ! This is a crucial error of immense import. Paul further develops the meaning of SEED to include all those who are one in the Body of Christ. (Gal 3:26-29; Ro 12:5.) The promises of the land and of multiplying the SEED are fulfilled forever in the saints of the Body of Christ who have, do now, and will occupy his Kingdom in this present age. (Heb 11:8-16.)

SCOFIELD note (SRB 1917, 1967) on Lev 23:24: “…these trumpets, always symbols of testimony, are connected with the regathering and repentance of Israel after the church, or pentecostal period is ended.”

And SCOFIELD note (SRB 1917, 1967) on Lev 23:27, last lines: “Historically the fountain of Zec 13 was opened at the crucifixion, but rejected by the Jews of that and succeeding centuries. After the regathering of Israel the fountain will be efficaciously ‘opened’ to Israel.”

ANSWER: Scofield speaks above as if he were God. But Lk 13:2528 says, “When once the master of the house has risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door saying, Lord, Lord open to us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence you are … depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves shut out.”

SCOFIELD note (SRB 1917, 1967) on Lk 13:28: HE HAS NO NOTE HERE. What could he say that would not contradict Jesus?

Jesus also gives the parable of the tares in the field that shall be destroyed first at his coming at the harvest at the end of the age: (Mt 13:37-43; 13:47-50) No second chance. The end of the age will bring every person to his eternal destiny.

Any doctrine that clearly contradicts a plain, clear statement of Scripture, be it prophecy or the words of Jesus, cannot be true, no matter how many Scriptures are quoted in an attempt to prove otherwise or that contradict Moses’ statement in Ac 3:22-23: “Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me, him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you … Every soul which will not hear that prophet shall be destroyed from among the people.”

God said upon condition of your disobedience, “I will make Jerusalem a curse to all nations of the earth.” (Jer 26:4-8) Those pinning their hopes on an earthly city will be cursed along with her. There is no salvation at all for the earthly city, as Gal 4:22-30 plainly teaches.

The book of Revelation is a book of signs and symbols; if a few verses in chapter 20 about a thousand year period contradict Jesus, Peter, Paul and Moses, something is wrong with the interpretation of the passage. Scofield is the arch heretic of all church history and his notes have influenced, and in some cases have controlled, a large portion of church thinking for this century.

These strong words may draw blood, but the Scripture warns, “Cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord deceitfully and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood.” (Jer 48:10) There is much good material in the Scofield 1917 notes, and more in the 1967 edition, but the old heresies are still there. No poison pill is all poison, only enough to kill you.

SCOFIELD note (SRB 1917, 1967) from Introduction to THE FOUR GOSPELS part 1: “…the mind should be freed from presuppositions, especially the notion that the Church is the true Israel.”

ANSWER: Scofield asks you to free your mind from the truth of the biblical teaching of the Church and swallow his false teaching. Listen to Paul, (Ro 2:28-29): “For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men but of God.” See also Ro 9:6b-8: “They are not all Israel which are of Israel. Neither because they are of the seed of Abraham, are they all children; but, in Isaac shall thy seed be called.” That is, “They which are the children of the flesh, these are NOT the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted for the SEED.” (cf. Hos 1: 10; Ro 9:24-26)

G. Campbell Morgan, in 1943, two years before he passed to be with the Lord, wrote to a correspondent concerning the union of Israel and the church: “I am quite convinced that all the promises made to Israel are found, are finding and will find their perfect fulfillment in the church. It is true that in time past, in my expositions, I gave a definite place to Israel in the purposes of God. I have now come to the conviction, as I have just said, that it is the new and spiritual Israel that is intended.” (Letter to Rev. H.F. Wright, New Brunswick, Victoria. From A New Heaven and a New Earth, Archibald Hughes, Presbyterian and Reformed Press, Box 185, Nutley, N.J.)

SCOFIELD note (SRB 1917, 1967) on Mt 28:18-20: The Great Commission. He gives a dissertation concerning the name of the Trinity, but nothing about the exalted authority of Christ or the command to go and teach all nations to observe whatever he commanded his disciples. Nothing about Christ backing them up and being with them all the days.

ANSWER: Then what do these notes amount to? They are an extensive diversion to turn your mind away from the real meaning of the passage, for Scofield is against these teachings having anything to do with the Church of Jesus Christ.

Look at the Great Commission: “And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.” (Power here is Greek – authority). “All authority is given unto me.” ALL AUTHORITY. There is no other. “Go ye therefore, and teach (or disciple) all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and, lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world.” Whatever he commanded his disciples, all nations were to be taught to keep and obey. Then he said that he would be with them to the end of the world. A literal rendering would be, “I am with you all the days, even unto to the end of the age.”

This word has come to us, and Jesus has commanded us to keep all the commandments that he gave his disciples when he was with them. Shall we send back word to the Lord that we are not about to do so on the authority of Scofield?

SCOFIELD note (SRB 1917) on Introduction to 2 Corinthians: (This outrageous heresy has been removed from the 1967 Scofield Bible. However, millions of copies of the 1917 Bible are still being used around the world so I am including this note from p. 1230.)

“It is evident that the really dangerous sect in Corinth was that which said, ‘And I of Christ.”’ He puts in parenthesis, (1Co 1: 12) and continues,”They rejected the new revelation through Paul of the doctrines of grace, grounding themselves, probably, on the kingdom teachings of our Lord as a minister of the circumcision, (Ro 15:8) seemingly oblivious that a new dispensation had been introduced by Christ’s death. This made necessary a defense of the origin and extent of Paul’s apostolic authority.”

ANSWER: What made it necessary? Some people said, “I am of Christ,” and they were wrong? Is PAUL the one who has the new revelation for this dispensation? This completely rejects all the teachings of Christ and acceptance of his death. Scofield says his teaching as a minister of the circumcision had been blotted out by his death. His teachings had been kingdom teachings, which according to Scofield, are postponed until his hypothetical millennium and they were oblivious to Paul’s new revelation.

See 1Co 1:10-17. Paul says, “It is reported to me that every one of you is saying, I am of Paul. I am of Apollos and I of Cephas and I of Christ.” Then, he points out it was not Paul or Cephas who died for them, but Christ. Paul, Apollos, Cephas are only those who helped, but Christ is the center. Then concluding, he says, “All things are yours, whether of Paul, or Cephas or life or death or things present or things to come, but all are yours and ye are Christ’s and Christ is God’s.” (1Co 3:21-23.) Paul rebukes them for some things, but he never rebukes the ones who said, “I of Christ.” In that you are right, you are of Christ.

Scofield is saying that Paul is the mediator of the new covenant. That the new dispensation begins with Paul. That he reveals the gospel. That Jesus was only teaching law. Scofield makes that clear in his notes (SRB 1917, 1967) on Mt 5:2-20 where he claims, when you look closely, that Jesus taught law and that it was not our privilege or duty to keep all his words. Here we have heresy of the first water. Jesus, over and over in his discourse to the disciples in the upper room, emphasizes the necessity of keeping his commandments because they are the will and Word of God. Scofield says, “No, put it all away.”

This is major heresy. This is what Paul says to withdraw yourself from. Scofield takes the death of Christ as the turning point of the dispensation, whereas Jesus took the coming of John Baptist as the turning point. (Lk 16:16. Satan deceived Scofield.)

See Heb 2:1-4: “Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed, lest at any time we should let them slip. For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward: How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will.”

Where did the gospel begin? “…which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, [not by Paul, but by the Lord] and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him,” –the twelve plus Paul, for Paul heard him also. The source of the gospel is not Paul, as Scofield teaches. The gospel of grace came by our Lord Jesus Christ. “The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” We all agree that anyone who gets saved gets saved by the grace of God, forgiveness of sins, and the regenerative work of God through the Holy Spirit, and only then. But when this has taken place, it will manifest itself in obedience. Note Heb 5:8-9: “Though he were a son, yet learned he obedience through the things which he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation, unto all them that obey him.” Now that’s clear. In 1Jn 2:4, we read: “He that saith I know him and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar and the truth is not in him.”

SCOFIELD note (SRB 1917, 1967) on Mt 5:17: “Christ’s relation to the law of Moses may be thus summarized: 1. Christ was made under the law. 2. He lived in perfect obedience to the law. 3. He was a minister of the law to the Jews, clearing it from rabbinical sophistries, enforcing it in all its pitiless severity upon those who professed to obey it.”

ANSWER: “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments, for his commandments are not grievous.” (1Jn 5:3.) Even the Ten Commandments could not be called grievous, that a person should be true to God and not depart to idols. That was not grievous, or that one should honor God and not take his name in vain. Was that a painful commandment, or to honor his father and mother, to keep the Sabbath day of rest, to refrain from lying about his neighbor, or not to commit adultery, or not to covet things that were not his own? Are these things pitiless? Scofield speaks as if they are. He speaks of Christ as being a minister of the law to the Jews clearing it from rabbinical sophistries and enforcing it in all its “pitiless severity.” My Bible says the law was added because of sin, but grace did much more abound, cf: Jn 8:1-11 I don’t see anything pitiless about God dealings with the Jews. Certainly, there is none in the Sermon on the Mount.

SCOFIELD note (SRB 1917, 1967) on Jn 14:6: “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth and the life; no man cometh to the Father but by me.” Scofield HAS NO NOTE on Jn 14:6.

ANSWER: Scofield denies Jn 14:6 elsewhere by teaching that Israel is still God’s people, walking with the Father, but at Christ’s Second Coming they will then accept Christ. See 1Jn 2:22-23, “Who is a liar but he who denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son. Whosoever denieth the Son. hath not the Father.” See also 1Jn 4:1-6.

SCOFIELD note (SRB 1917) on Mt 13:47 last lines: “He sees the redeemed of all ages, but especially his hidden Israel, yet to be restored and blessed.”

SCOFIELD notes (SRB 1917, 1967) on Rev 3:21 and 2Sa 7:16: These notes advocate that we are not to assume ‘the throne of his father David,’ is synonymous with ‘my Father’s throne,’ or that the ‘house of Jacob’ is the Church composed of both Jew and Gentile. (cf. 1Ch 29:23: Ps 110:1; Ac 2:29-35 of the throne and 1Ch 17:14.)

ANSWER: See Lk 1:32-33. “He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest, and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.” One throne forever, all others are destroyed. Ac 3:22-23 describes the house of Jacob.

SCOFIELD note (SRB 1917); Ro 4:2-6: “Paul speaks of that which justifies man before God; faith alone, wholly apart from works.”

ANSWER: False, for works of obedience are the fruit of faith, Jas 2:14-26; 1Co 9:25.

SCOFIELD note (SRB 1917, 1967); Ac 7:38: “Israel in the land is never called a Church (SRB 1917).” “A better translation would be ‘the congregation’ (SRB 1967).”

ANSWER: He is against the church being in the Old Testament; see 1Ch 28:8; 29:1,10, 20; Dt 23:1-8, Israel the Church of God, Ac 7:38. The Church in the wilderness – ekklesia is Greek for Church. This appears over eighty times in the Old Testament. Qahal, Hebrew for Church, appears 133 times and is translated congregation. Edah, a synonym for Qahal, appears over 120 times. The Old Testament Church was a type of the New Testament Church. (Dt 23:1-8; Heb 9:7-10, 15, 23, cf. Ex 24:4-8) All are now New Testament. (Heb 12:22-24; Eph 2:11-22) Qahal equals Church in Salkinson’s Hebrew New Testament. Congregation is not merely a better translation. It is synonymous with Church. It is the Church in the land.

SCOFIELD note (SRB 1917, 1967) on 1Co 14:1: “Tongues and the sign gifts are to cease, meantime they are to be used with restraint.”

ANSWER: Scofield spins his prohibition to cease out of thin air. Nowhere do the Apostles, who gave us instructions for this age, call for a ceasing of the gifts of the Spirit. “Wherefore, brethren, covet to prophesy. and forbid not to speak with tongues.” (1Co 14:39.)

God set the ministry gifts in the Church: apostles, prophets, gifts of healing, helps, governments and diversities of tongues. These gifts of the Spirit were to empower the Church to carry out the Great Commission.

Lennard Darbee makes a thought provoking comment in Tongues the Dynamite of God: “Unlike ancient Israel, the Church no longer kills the prophets, it simply ignores them, and it is not so much the neglect of the fruits, but rather the contempt of the gifts that hamstrings the Church of our day. Does God go to great length describing the gifts of the Spirit–of which he would not have us ignorant, line them up like ninepins and then with love for a bowling ball, do away with them? We are to desire spiritual gifts.” (pp. 26-27.)

Three chapters, 1 Corinthians 12, 13 and 14, give instructions for the Church about the value and use of the gifts of the Spirit.

SCOFIELD: This note on Mt 5:2-12 (SRB 1917) was also removed from the 1967 Bible. “For these reasons, the Sermon on the Mount in its primary application gives neither the privilege nor the duty of the Church. These are found only in the Epistles.” Scofield explains that these words mean very little to you. They are reserved for a future kingdom.

ANSWER: That is rank heresy! Jesus says you will not get into his kingdom unless you are busy keeping his words. 1Ti 6:3-5 says “If any man teach otherwise and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the doctrine according to godliness,” (That, believe me, is the Sermon on the Mount). “He is proud, knowing nothing but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings. perverse disputings by men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth… From such withdraw thyself.” Scofield calls Jesus,”Our Lord,” but says it is not your duty or privilege to keep his sayings.

Peter quotes Moses in Acts 3:22-23, as he has told the people of Israel, “to repent and be converted that your sins may be blotted out … For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren like unto me, him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you. And it shall come to pass that every soul which will not hear that prophet shall be destroyed from among the people.” Peter’s preaching is quite different front Scofield’s notes. Which one is the heretic?

A Final Word

There are many more errors in the Scofield notes. He was untaught in the Scriptures before being converted. He was pushed forward and licensed to preach in three years. He pastored and traveled for the Missionary Society and was very busy for years. But in 1901, he told Gaebelein he was thinking of producing a reference Bible. In 1904, he made a trip to England (to the birthplace of John Darby’s Dispensationalism) for research. In 1909, the Bible was put on the market with advertising puff extraordinaire. It was swallowed by the Evangelical world and many Bible schools.

It was an absolute impossibility for one man to do the study and research necessary to annotate a whole Bible in seven or eight years. He had to use other men’s material and the notes indicate that he must have used work firm John Nelson Darby, James Brookes and J R. Graves whose beliefs were similarly close to the Plymouth Brethren.

We have his own statement in the letter he wrote to Gaebelein, “By all means follow your own views of prophetic analysis. I sit at your feet when it comes to prophecy and congratulate in advance the future readers of my Bible on having in their hands a safe, clear, sane guide through, what to most is a labyrinth.” It is noticeable that he avoids notes on subjects where his personal life did not square with the Scriptures.

His followers have a picnic using the captivity promises of the prophets to bring Israel back to Palestine, “Now being fulfilled before your eyes.” They ignore Isa 10:22-23; 65:1-15; Gal 4:21-30 and deny the words of Jesus, Mt 8:10-12; Lk 13:24-29; etc.

I love the Jewish people and deeply desire to see them accept Jesus as their Messiah and be born into his Kingdom, but I cannot go beyond Scripture in showing the future of antichrist Israel as a nation. I feel that this Dispensational teaching is giving them false hope and in holding to it they could lose everything as their ancestors did in A.D. 70.

Charles Gilbert Weston

Daniel’s 70 Weeks

by
CHARLES GILBERT WESTON

Taken from cassette tapes and notes from
The Weston Study Bible by EMMA MOORE WESTON

Daniel’s mind was troubled and his soul shaken by what he read in the scrolls of Jeremiah the prophet. Jeremiah prophesied a return from their 70-year captivity in Babylon. That was good, but there were other terrible prophecies that he did not understand. God said that he would visit them to perform his good word toward them in causing them to return from all nations where he had driven them and give them “an expected end.”

But Jeremiah saw two baskets of figs, some very good and some so bad that they could not be eaten. These represented people. God would give the good figs a heart to know him (Jer 24:7), and they would be his people and he would be their God for they would return to him with all their heart.

But the bad figs would be removed to all the kingdoms of the earth to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse in all the places where he would send them. Jeremiah took a bad vessel out and broke it before the elders of the people so it was beyond repair and told them that God would do just that to this people and city. (Jer 24:8.)

Daniel put on sackcloth and ashes and gave himself by prayer and fasting to seek God. In deep distress and repentance, he prayed.

“Then Gabriel was caused to fly swiftly and touched me about the time of the evening oblation and informed me. Now, Daniel I have come to give thee skill and understanding … Now therefore understand the matter and consider the vision. I have come to show thee and give thee understanding.” (Da 9:21-23) What matter? What vision? The vision that Jeremiah gave him of what was to take place when the Messiah would come.

“Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and the holy city to finish the transgression and to make an end of sin and to make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in everlasting righteousness and to seal up the hidden prophecy and to anoint the most Holy. From the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.” (Da 9:24-25) A day for a year is the proper method of interpretation for the time measure present here. In these verses the calculated days equal 483 years. In the first seven weeks of years (49 years) they had a job to do in rebuilding the city.

Who could ask for anything more specific? Now they can know when he is coming and have time to prepare. The scholars knew it was time for Messiah to come when the rumors went through the land that angels had announced his coming at the birth of Jesus.

They had thirty more years to wait before Jesus walked down to the Jordan to be baptized. As he went up out of the water, they saw a dove descend on him and a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son in whom I am well pleased.” (Mt 3:17) This was the end of the 69th week, which fills the 483 years before Messiah should come. It is marked by the end of the time and by the special name, The Prince. The Father identified him as “David” (Strong’s #1732): the Hebrew form of the English “the beloved.” The literal Greek is, “This is my Son, the Beloved, that is the prophesied David:” (Ps 89:3 and 26-37: Isa 55:3-4; Jer 30:5-9; Eze 34:23; 37:24; Hos 3:5; Eph 1:6 and Col 1:13) God publicly identified and gave witness to Messiah-King explicitly as his elect Prince of David’s line:

“After threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that should come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end shall be with a flood and to the end of the war desolations shall be determined.” (Da 9:2427) (“The prince to come to destroy” is a parenthetical statement, for it does not fit into the things that were to be done in the 70th week.) “He shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease and for the overspreading of abomination he shall make it desolate even until the consummation.”

This 27th verse of Daniel 9 has been wrongly interpreted. “He shall confirm the covenant with many.” Some say, “The Antichrist will make a treaty with the Israelis to bring peace in the Middle East. He breaks the covenant in the middle of the week and then we have the great tribulation.” That isn’t what it says. “He shall confirm the Covenant with many for ONE WEEK.” Confirm means to prevail; it is a military word – one side wins over the other side. He causes the Covenant to prevail for SEVEN years. What Covenant? “Well, the Antichrist comes and he makes the covenant.” Where did they get the Antichrist? Jeremiah says nothing about an Antichrist. A New Covenant is to be made with Israel by Messiah, the Prince, and he forgives their sins and writes his word in their hearts. It is the New Covenant and it is Messiah who makes it.

All time and eternity hang upon this seven year Visitation. Seventy weeks of years (490 years) are determined to accomplish the six prophecies, not one of which was done in the sixty-nine weeks (483 years). All six prophecies are fulfilled in the 70th week. If the 70th week was postponed, then all awaits to be fulfilled. Then the 70 means nothing. And Calvary? And Pentecost?

See Da 9:24: One week of seven years contains fulfillment of the objectives stated:

1. “To finish the transgressions.” Finish, kala (Strong’s #3607 Heb) restrict, hold back, to restrain sin, starts with the work of John the Baptist. (Mal 4:5-6; Jn 1:23)

2. “To make an end of sins.” Chatham (Strong’s #2856 Heb): seal up, fill up, referring to Mt 23:13-36; 1Th 2:15-16 and Ro 9:22-29. “The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isa 53:6b)

3. “To make reconciliation for iniquity.” Kaphar (Strong’s #3722 Heb). See Jn 3:15-17; Ro 5:8-11; 2Co 5:17-21 and Heb 10:5-17; 7:18-19 and 8:6-13. Reconciliation as Eze 45:15, 17. “Christ died for us.” (Ro 5:8b)

4. “To bring in everlasting righteousness.” As Isa 51:5-8; Ro 3:2126; Php 3:7-11; 1Co 1:30 and Eph 2:1-10, “to declare his righteousness.” (Ro 3:26)

5. “To seal up the vision and prophecy.” Chatham (Mt 5:17-18; Eph 1:9-13; 2Co 1:18-20; Col 1:12-23; 2:8-17; 1Jn 5:10-12; 4:16 and Gal 1:8-12)

6. “To anoint the most holy.” After Mt 3:13-17 and Heb 2:9-10 came the anointing in Ac 2:22-36, v. 33. This is pictured in beautiful type in the anointing of Solomon (1Ki 1:32-40) with 1Ch 28:1 to 29:22-23. “Yet have I set [anointed] my king upon my holy hill of Zion.” (Ps 2:6, Cf. Isa 28:16 with 1Pe 2:4-6; Ac 4:11; 13:32-39; Rev 2:26-27; Heb 12:22-28 and 1Ti 6:15-16)

This week is the dawn of the Son of righteousness, (Jn 12:47-50; 8:12; lsa 59:20; Ac 3:22-26; Lk 19:41-44) and the focal point of the Covenants of promise, of typology and of prophecy, (Mt 5: 17-18; Ac 3:24; 26:22-23; 26:6-7; 1Pe 1:9-12; Col 2:9-17 and 1Co 10:1-11.) This one week is the historical, chronological, moral and redemptive fulcrum of all the ages of the human race.

All events in Da 9:24 occurred in the seven years AFTER the 69th week with no break. Study Jeremiah chapters 29 to 31 where these events are foretold and about which Daniel inquired.

“He shall make the Covenant to prevail for one week.” Gabriel was speaking of the prophecy of Jer 31:31-37, not just any, but “THE COVENANT,” a new one with God’s laws written in their hearts. He will forgive their iniquity and remember their sins no more. (Da 9:2127) Once the Messiah came, he was given one prophetic week of seven years to see it through.

At the end of the 69 weeks, God publicly identified Messiah, the Prince. (Mt 3:13-17) The 69 weeks (seven plus threescore and two) began in 457 B.C. with the decree of Artaxerses, (Ezra 7:11-13) and were fulfilled in A.D. 27, 483 years later. (cf. Lk 3:22-23.)

The New Covenant is to be confirmed for seven years. The seven years began in A.D. 27 and ended in A.D. 34, three and one half years of Christ’s earthly ministry, then Calvary. Israel betrayed and crucified her King in the midst of the week. He was cut off, but not for himself. “For the transgression of my people was he stricken.” (Isa 53:8c) Then there were three and one half years of Christ’s ministry, exclusively to the Jews, from his throne by the Holy Spirit – thus ending the 490 years.

Some teachers read the prophecies that were given during the captivity about their return, as if they should now be brought back to Israel. They take those promises and say, “You see, God said he is going to bring them back and they are coming back now.” That is not the way to handle Scripture. You have to take the context and their point of view. God says that at the end of the captivity in Babylon is when the promises are to be fulfilled. Not in A.D. 20th century.

“I know the thoughts I think toward you, saith Jehovah. Then shall ye call upon me and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you, and ye shall seek me, and find me when ye shall search for me with all your heart. And I will be found of you, saith the Lord, and I will gather you from all the nations, and places where I have driven you, saith the Lord, and I will bring you again into the place where l caused you to be carried away captive.” (Jer 29:11-14) The context shows he is talking about the Remnant who would serve him.

But from verses 17 to 19, the word to the ungodly majority is, “Behold, I will send upon them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and I will make them like vile figs that cannot be eaten they are so evil … And I will deliver them to be removed to all the nations of the earth and will make them a curse and an astonishment and a hissing and a reproach among all the nations where they are driven: Because they have not harkened to my words, saith the Lord.”

Two things are involved here. One – the destruction of the apostate group, two – Jacob’s trouble. God offers them no hope whatever. The salvation of Jacob out of it. That’s the Remnant which became the Church of Jesus Christ. The ones that sought and found the Lord. See Ro 9:21-29.

The great work of God in Christ Jesus in the seven-year Visitation, was when God in person came down from the ivory palaces into a world of woe, took upon him the form of a servant, humbled himself and became obedient unto death to bring the New Covenant for all mankind. It is the greatest thing that ever happened in time or eternity; nothing could be greater. That is the Covenant it is talking about. It is explaining Jeremiah and the vision and hope that he laid before the children of Israel upon their return to the land in order to be there to receive the Messiah at the end of the 69 weeks. In spite of the fact that he was meek and lowly and coming to his people offering salvation, peace, love and a now life, they would not receive him, but rejected, condemned and crucified him. The reception God got from mankind was beyond understanding. The prophet said he came to set judgment in the earth and bring light to the Gentiles. He would not fail or be discouraged until he had accomplished his mission and that agrees with the comment that he would cause the Covenant to prevail. It is a warfare with all hell set against God in the flesh to destroy him and try to break this plan of God for the salvation of mankind. In spite of everything the devil could do against him, he was not discouraged. He went all the way to Calvary and down to hell and took captivity captive and is seated at the right hand of God, having wrought eternal salvation for us. He purged our sins and became the mediator of the New Covenant. He had brought the Covenant – a wonderful thing. The Messiah is mentioned in the 24th verse explicitly as fulfilling the law and as sealing up prophecy and as being anointed and bringing reconciliation for sins, salvation and everlasting righteousness.

“He shall confirm the Covenant with many.” (v. 27.) Why not the whole nation? The nation as a whole rejected him and his Covenant. Yet he was able to make it prevail for seven years – with many. What Jesus began to do and to teach took him as far as Calvary and the Resurrection. After that he poured out the Holy Spirit on the believers at Pentecost.

Then he ministered from his throne through his followers for three and a half years until Stephen was stoned, the church scattered, and the gospel was taken to the Gentiles. It was the fulfillment of Da 9:27. Christ confirmed the Covenant and caused the sacrifice and oblation to cease. (Heb. 10:1-14, esp. v. 9) “He taketh away the first that he may establish the second.” The New Covenant could not be confirmed except by the taking away of the Old Mosaic Covenant. It had to be done by the crucifixion of the Messiah. He took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross in the midst of that week and that did away with the sacrifice and oblation. When the veil was rent in twain in the temple, the fulfillment was absolutely precise. It had to be done in that week after the introduction of the Messiah at the Jordan when God identified him for exactly who he was. He was to make the Covenant prevail for seven years and that he did precisely.

Some teachers put the fulfillment at the end of this age and then they go to Thessalonians and find the Antichrist and bring him back to Daniel 9. Isn’t that marvelous? How can you break the 70th week off and put it at the end of this age when God fulfilled it then?

This idea was first suggested by Francisco Ribera, a Jesuit priest of Salamanca, who about A.D. 1585 published a commentary on Babylon and the antichrist that taught that Daniel’s 70th week was in the future. Ribera put a big rubber band on the 70th week and extended it to the end of this age. His purpose was to counter the Protestant Reformation and to set aside the Protestant teaching of the time that the papacy was the antichrist. He put the first chapters of the Revelation in the first century. The rest he put in a three and one half year period at the end of time. A Jewish temple would be rebuilt by an antichrist who would deny Christ, pretend to be God and conquer the world. Imagination is a wonderful thing!

Clarence Larkin has admitted that the material he got for his prophetic charts came from Francisco Ribera. Thousands of sincere ministers have used these charts – not dreaming where the facts presented came from or for what purpose they were intended. The damage Ribera did to the Christian church with this concocted teaching is beyond calculation!

The 70th week has to follow the 69th – three and one half years until he was cut off, then the rest of the week he ministered through his servants from heaven. Judgment waited as God gave Israel time to repent. They had until A.D. 70 before God totally destroyed – completely wiped out the people – and made the country an uninhabited desolation for fifty years.

Titus, the prince of the people who would come (Romans), and his soldiers who were gathered out of all nations of the empire, destroyed Jerusalem and the people. He was doing the bidding of Christ. The Remnant that accepted Christ left the city in obedience to Mt 24:15-22 and Lk 20:21, and escaped safely, but wrath was poured upon Christ rejecting Israel. (1Th 2:14-16; Mt 23:32-36.) Wrath fell only upon the disobedient and it came upon them to the uttermost. (See the Destruction of Jerusalem in The Weston Study Bible appendix.)

All scholars agree that in Daniel the divine time measure is a day for a year. (Eze 4:6.) The 70 weeks began in 457 B.C. and concluded in A.D. 34. The prophecy has already been fulfilled.

The Real Israel

The Teaching of Romans 11
by
CHARLES GILBERT WESTON

Moses gave a great prophecy of Christ, one like himself who would give to Israel all of God’s word. If any man would not hear that prophet, God would require it of him. Peter quotes it as in fulfillment in this age, “And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people.” (Ac 3:22-23.) lsrael is the people from among whom they are to be destroyed. If the Apostles were here today, who would believe them?

The name Israel has several usages. To many, it has only one meaning. The first Bible usage is in Ge 32:24-29. Jacob was in a tight spot. He was on his way home with his wives, his children and his flocks – a helpless little group moving along. His brother, Esau, who had sworn to kill him for cheating him, was coming to meet him with four hundred men. Jacob sent his family ahead, group by group, in a way calculated to soften Esau’s heart. He stayed behind to pray and found himself wrestling with an angel of the Lord. As dawn came, the angel said, “Let me go.”

Jacob said, “I will not let you go except you bless me.”

The angel asked his name. Jacob told him his name, which means supplanter, one who supersedes another by trickery or treachery. The angel said, “Thy name shall no more be called Jacob, but Israel – an overcomer, for as a prince thou hast power with God and with men and hast prevailed.” The angel blest him there.

He had left Esau as Jacob, the cheat. He met him as Israel, a prince with God. Esau came peacefully, and they met as brothers. The angel of the Lord gave Jacob his own name. In Isa 49:3-4, Israel is the name of Christ, the one who overcame and purchased our salvation and brings us unto this experience to be called Israel, also to be overcomers.

Jacob’s flesh descendants are called the children of Israel.

When the kingdom was divided the northern nation was called Israel; the southern nation was Judah.

The name Israel can also be applied to rank sinners. (Nu 25:6-14)

The godly Remnant within Israel was the true Israel. Elijah cried out to God that he alone was left serving God, and the Lord said, “l have seven thousand who have never bowed the knee to Baal.” They were his true people who had resisted the temptation to bow to the idol and were overcomers. The rest had all failed. God had given them the name as something to live up to.

Apostate Israel is still called Israel even though they forfeited the right to use it. In Isaiah 1:2-4, the Lord grieves, “Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth … I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evil doers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they have gone away backward.” He still calls them Israel showing them the terrible depths to which they have sunk. Their descendants crucified Christ.

God left a Remnant of true overcomers and a remnant of the apostate Israel. Some say, “You can’t find that in the New Testament.” Oh yes, you can. Look at John 7:19-20: “Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keepeth the law? Why go ye about to kill me? The people said, Thou hast a devil: who goeth about to kill thee?” See John 8:32, 41, 44a: “I know that ye are Abraham’s seed: but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you. I speak that which I have seen with my Father: ye do that which ye have seen with your father. They said, Abraham is our father. Jesus said, If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham. But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham. Ye do the deeds of your father. They said, We be not born of fornication: we have one father, even God … [Jesus said] Ye are of your father the devil and the lusts of your father ye will do.”

There are two Israels mentioned. “Israel which followed after the law of righteousness hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but by the works of the law.” (Ro 9:31-32.) Israel which followed after the law is the very opposite of the elect Remnant of grace. (Ro 11:5, 7-10) “Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it; and the rest were blinded.” Ro 11:7, 16b, 17a. “If the root be holy, so are the branches, and if some of the branches be broken off….”

Natural branches were broken off and wild olives were grafted in. One must identify the broken branches as a group. “Well, because of unbelief they were broken off.” (Ro 11:20.) The Israel of God is noted in Hosea: “In the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, ye are the sons of the living God.” (Hos 1:10; 2:23.) “I say to them which were not my people, thou art my people, and they say, Thou art my God.” The prophecies of Hosea identified by Paul show the true Israel is the Church at Ro 9:22-26. Notice Peter’s use of Joel 2:32 as to where salvation is found: “In Zion and Jerusalem shall be deliverance … and in the Remnant whom the Lord shall call.”

Did the Remnant of Israel lose the name Israel by being true to God’? Not according to the prophets. (lsa 54:1-13; Gal 4:22-30; 6:16; with Ro 9:22-26.) “Ye in time past were not the people of God … but now have obtained mercy … are now THE people of God.” Not A people. (1Pe 2:10a)

Is there any hope for the broken off branches? Yes, indeed. The hope they rejected in unbelief is still offered to whosoever will. If they will believe in that Rock of safety, a true foundation stone, (Isa 28:16); he who died for them, (Isa 53), he who came at the appointed time, (Da 9); then they will come out of carnal Israel into the salvation and glory and life of the Israel of God, into the living Body and Church of Christ that is New Covenant Israel.

The present and closing age of grace will soon make an end of this opportunity of salvation, and sadly many of Christ-rejecting Israel will have waited too long. (Mt 8:10-12; Lk 13:25-29) “There shall be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out.” Does this sound like setting up a kingdom? But look at this verse: “So all Israel shall be saved.” “Yes, look, which Israel is that?” The Bible is very explicit, that out of old Israel only a Remnant would be saved. (Isa 10:22-23; cf. 5:1-14; Ro 9:27; Mt 23:32-38 and 8:10-12.) The same Old Testament tells of the “All Israel” that is saved. (Isa 45:17, 25) It is “in the Lord.” Isaiah points out the one as descending into hell, the other “IN THE LORD.” SAVED. Has the word of God been ineffective? The answer is NO. There are two Israels; the one foreknown of God before the foundation of the world is the one God has always been pointing to by promise, by typology, by prophecy, in song, poetry, prose, with its gates open by day and night for whosoever will. Let the weary and thirsty come and drink of eternal mercy, love and life. Amen. Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise. (Gal 3:29)

But the prophet said the nation of Israel would be restored. That is true, read about it in Ezekiel 34. It tells of Christ coming to the lost sheep of the house of Israel in a great gathering, sifting and restoration. He gathers the wheat into his garner and the chaff goes into the fire. It was a great restoration, (Isa 53:6) and reformation. (Heb 8:613; 9:10-15; Mal 3: I-3, 16-18 and Jn 1: 11-13. ) The New Covenant was the charter of the restoration, because the nation was lost under the Old. (Jer 31:31-32; cf. Dt 28:15) But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of thy God to observe to do all his commandments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day, that all these curses shall come upon thee.” Did you ever read these curses and terrible, awesome judgments in Dt 28? Even so, they broke his Old Covenant and they rejected the New. “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.” (Jer 8:20.) Heart breaking words about Israel apart from Christ.

The proud Pharisees were well acquainted with the term all Israel. They were quite sure that it meant the natural descendants of Abraham through Jacob, that is, themselves. The warnings of Scripture were not for them. They had no need to be saved or born again. They had Abraham as their father. (Lk 3:7-9; Jn 8:39-48) The all Israel of lsa 45:25, “In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified.” “All thy children shall be taught of the Lord,” Isa 54:13 is the same as that in Ro 11:26-27. Pertaining to it Paul quotes Isa 59:20-21: “All Israel shall be saved.” “There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. For this is my Covenant with them,” and Paul paraphrases the obvious, “When I shall take away their sins.” Isaiah is telling of what happened at the first coming of Christ. Peter preaching to the Jews in the temple declares the fulfillment of the same prophecy at Ac 3:25-26. Isaiah spoke of the new Israel upon whom God poured out his Holy Spirit and in whom Christ had planted God’s word. (Cf. Isa 60:21 and 61:1-3.) The Deliverer certainly cleansed New Covenant Israel of all sins for only thus could they be filled with God’s Spirit.

When quoting, “The gifts and calling of God are without repentance,” (Ro 11:29) some intonate this as a final dictum meaning, “even though they are enemies, God called Israel his people so they still are and cannot be lost.” Actually, it would rather mean, If God called you, then make sure you work out your calling, for God will certainly have an accounting with you. But read 1Sa 2:30; Jer 18:1-12: “They said … we will walk after our own devices,” 19:1-11 and Ro 11:22. “Behold the goodness and severity of God: on them that fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, IF thou continue in his goodness, otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.” These references should sober our thinking. See also Heb 2:1-3.

They are not all Israel who are of Israel. Neither are they Israel because they are children of Abraham for in Isaac shall thy seed be called. They of the promise are counted for the seed. If you are Christ’s, then are you Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise. In Christ all the families of the earth shall be blest. We are not children by a fluke, but we are heirs by immediate translation. The true Israel is not the type but the reality–the Church of Jesus Christ. They of the flesh do not serve God in Christ Jesus or obey his words.

Paul is talking to his Gentile brothers in Galatians, “Now we, brethren, as Isaac was are the children of promise.” Isaac was the Covenant one. lshmael in despising Isaac was cast out of the fellowship. Paul gives teaching of Christ by type found in Ge 21:1-12; Gal 4:19-31. Two women, two sons, two Jerusalems, two peoples. Hagar and Ishmael represented carnal Israel; Sarah and Isaac represented Christians. Nevertheless, “Cast out the bondwoman and her son, (the Jews) the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.” Apostate Israel even though they crucified the Lord of Glory is still called Israel and in Isaiah 1:9-10, they are called Sodom and Gomorrah. But Isaiah says, “Though the number of them be as the sand of the sea a remnant shall be saved.” (Isa 8:14; 28:16)

The Church is also called Israel. (Hos 1:10; 2:23) Scofield declares these refer to flesh Israel being restored, but that is exactly opposite of the teaching of the Apostles Paul and Peter. Hosea speaks of rejection of carnal Israel, “Ye are not my people and I will not be your God.” And in talking to the Gentiles they said “Ye were not a people but now are THE people of God.” It is safer to believe the apostles than the Scofield notes. If the apostles interpret Hosea as we see they do, it may have even greater meaning than we have grasped. “In the place where it was said ye are not my people, there shall ye be called the children of God.”

That the Church never appears in the prophets is a teaching that appears over and over in some Bible notes and is the basis for much teaching. They take the promises that God intended for the overcomers and apply them to flesh Israel. Those that follow on to know the Lord are Israel whether Jews or Gentiles. In the fulness of time, God would gather all in one. The early Church was entirely Jewish. “Remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh … Ye were without Christ being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the Covenant of promise having no hope and without God in the world.” (Eph 2:11) “But now, in Christ Jesus ye who were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.” (v. 13)

The ultimate promise to Israel, “IF ye keep my Covenants ye shall be a special treasure unto me above all people … Ye shall be a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.” (Mal 3:16-17) Under the old Mosaic Covenant no one could be a priest but Aaron and his family. When the priesthood was set aside, there came a change of the law. (Heb 7: 12) The order of Melchizedek’s priesthood was forever. Jesus was from the tribe of Judah of which tribe Moses said nothing concerning priesthood. We, in Christ, have been made kings and priests unto God. (Rev 1:6)

In the communion service, we have the words, “This is the New Covenant in my blood which was shed for you.” We read in Hebrews that the blood of bulls and goats could not wash away sin, could not make them perfect so they could come to God. The way into the holiest was not yet made manifest because the blood of Jesus was not yet shed. It could not be fulfilled until the Old Covenant was taken away and the New Covenant brought in. Under the Old Covenant they could walk in God’s favor, IF they walked in his Covenant. It did not bring cleansing from sin, make them new creatures, or kings and priests unto God. But it would keep them in the path that would lead to Jesus and his salvation blessings.

Exodus 19:1-8 is quoted in Jeremiah 7:23-26: “Obey my voice, keep my Covenant and I will be your God … they hearkened not, but walked in the imagination of their evil heart. I sent prophets, they hearkened not. They did worse than their fathers. (v. 28.) This is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of their God, nor receiveth correction: truth is perished and cut off from their mouth.” Israel disobeyed God after he had given them mercy after mercy. At last, God said they would go into punishment. Jeremiah 7:33-34 was explicitly fulfilled as God poured out his wrath to the uttermost on Christ rejecting Israel in A.D. 70 in the destruction of Jerusalem.

Jeremiah had a vision of figs–some good and some bad. Some were delectable and the others so bad that they could not be eaten. (Jer 24) This is Israel–some very bad, some a godly Remnant. All the curses are aimed at the bad figs, the disobedient ones. Malachi had to deal with the apostate Israel. God is distressed with them, but “they that feared the Lord spake often one to another and a book of remembrance was written … for them that feared the Lord and thought upon his name. They shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels, and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.” (Mal 3:16-17)

God was looking for the time when he could gather together his Cegulah – his special treasure – his flock would be his children. (Mt 24, Isa 1:8-10) “He came unto his own and his own received him not, but as many as received him to them gave he the power to become sons of God even to them that believe on his name.” (Jn 1:11-12) They were his Cegulah not because they were Abraham’s seed or natural children of Israel, but they received Messiah and in him became a new creation. “He hath begotten us again to a lively hope by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.” (1Pe 1:3)

They could now say to the churches scattered across Asia Minor and to us in our time (to Gentiles but was written to Jews): “Whom having not seen ye love, and though ye see him not, yet believing ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.” (1Pe 1:8-9)

“Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold … but by the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” (1Pe 1:18-19) “Being born again not of corruptible seed, but by the word of God which liveth and abideth forever.” (1Pe 1:23) “Behold I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded … Unto them which be disobedient a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.” (1Pe 2:6-8) “You also as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood to offer up sacrifice,” (1Pe 2:5) He says unto them, “Ye are a chosen generation. a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people.” (v. 9)

Many Bible schools teach that the Church does not appear in the prophets and that the theme of the prophets is national Israel and all the glorious things spoken by them apply to the Israelis in the land now. That is exactly opposite to the apostles’ teaching, contrary to the original apostles, the early Church and all the Reformers. Such teaching is false. (Ac 3:22-26) All the prophets spoke of these days.

Hear the details from the Scofield note on Eph 3: “In his (Paul’s) writings alone we find the doctrines, position, walk and destiny of the church.” The teaching that the prophets do not mention the church is a tremendous lie that has thrown a blanket of darkness over God’s people and robbed them of the promises of God.

The born again new Israel was to be Israel and also Church, (1Pe 1:23-25) ecclesia–from Moses through the prophets. (Mt 16) Some think that when Jesus said, “Upon this rock I will build my church,” that this was the first appearance of the word Church. It appears in Moses and Old Testament as prophecy of the people of God as a promise of the true people of God in the New Testament. They gave the Church the name qahal as it is God’s true Israel. God divided his promises between the good Israel and the bad Israel. He says to the disobedient that all the curses of the law are their promises, that all the blessings are for the good Israel. God never refers to them as one block, but carefully distinguishes between the apostates and the obedient Israel including the Gentiles. In the apostles’ teaching there is only one promise for the disobedient–damnation. The door of salvation is open to whosoever will. If a Jew receives Christ, he will be saved as will a Gentile. There is nothing that prevents a Jew from believing. There are Jews who love Jesus. I thank God for them. If Jews accept Jesus, they will be accepted of the Father. But the Scripture says, “Who is a liar but he that denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son. Whosoever denieth the Son … HATH NOT THE FATHER.” (1Jn 2:22-23a.)

But Scofield knows better. On page 922 SRB, “Israel is to be restored and forgiven, wife of Jehovah; the church the virgin wife of the Lamb. Israel is Jehovah’s earthly wife and the church the Lamb’s heavenly bride.” (Cf. 1Co 6:9-11; Gal 2:15) So says Scofield!

Some kindhearted people object. “True they don’t accept Jesus, but they have the Father.” Not so! According to Jesus’ own words in Jn 15:23, “He that hateth me hateth my Father also.” We dare not go along with teachers that say that Israel loves God when the apostle says they have not the Spirit of God, neither do they love God. In Php 3:2, Paul warns to beware of Israel after the flesh that they are the enemies of Jesus. “Their minds are blinded because of false teaching and the veil upon their heart shall be taken away when they turn to the Lord.” (2Co 3:14-16)

What about the verse that says, “They shall look upon him whom they have pierced?” Then they get saved? That is another false doctrine. Matthew tells us what will happen to the ones who have not believed on the Lord up to the moment of his coming. (Mt 8:12) “The children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness and there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

(A note from Scofield on Ro 11, p. 1204, SRB.) “That the Christian church now inherits the distinctive Jewish promises is not taught in Scripture. The Christian is of the heavenly seed of Abraham and partakes of the spiritual blessings of the Abrahamic Covenant, but Israel as a nation always has its own place, and is yet to have its greatest exaltation as the earthly people of God.”

What a distortion of the plain Scriptures that have just been cited. That is wishful thinking. God has no earthly people. (Jn 14:6; 1Co 1:29 and 15:45-50.) “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.”

“Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you and to you who are troubled, rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power when (Lk 13:25-28) he shall come to be glorified in his saints and to be admired in all them that believe.” (2Th 1:6-10) These are the ones who love him and have been waiting for him. The true Church enters into rest on the day the Lord destroys the wicked, when they receive the sentence of eternal death. He makes it plain that he comes pouring out judgment. The great judgment is the day of their destruction. See 1Th 4:13-17. “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works thereof shall be burned up.” (2Pe 3:10)

It was to the Church of Jesus Christ that the gospel was preached by the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. “Surely the Lord will do nothing that he does not reveal his secret unto his servants the prophets.” (Amos 3:7)

Paul says in Ac 26:22, “I continue to this day witnessing to both small and great saying none other things than that spoken by Moses and the prophets.” Everything about the Church is from the Old Testament and this is the burden of Paul’s teaching. Isaiah 53 is about the head of the Church dying for his people. The Father has put Gentiles together with the commonwealth of Israel and made one new man in Christ Jesus. He did not make a Gentile Church. Salvation is of the Jews. “Fear not, little flock, it is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” He took the kingdom away from apostate Israel and so built the Church. Paul, quoting Joel, tells the glory of the Church in Acts 2 indicating that Christ is risen from the dead and is seated on the right hand of God fulfilling the Davidic Covenant which is detailed in Ps 110:1. He is seated to reign through this age of grace when good and evil struggle together. This age is the end of that struggle. It is described in Mt 13:37-43. There will be no more struggle between good and evil after the end of this age. Paul taught the same thing: 1Co 15:24-26 refers to Ps 110:1. Peter preached the same on Pentecost as fulfilled by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Paul preached on it in reference to the close of the age and that Christ will remain on that throne UNTIL every enemy is conquered and the last enemy is death. Only then will he leave his glorious heavenly throne to come down to gather the saints still alive, bringing those who had died in Christ with him to receive their Resurrection bodies. Peter quoting Joel 2:28-32 about the outpouring of the Spirit, stops in mid verse because the rest of it is obvious, “For whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered.” (v. 32.) Paul quotes it in Ro 10:13.

If you had been in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, there would have been only one place you would have found salvation, in the 120 and their preaching of the kingdom of God which is a spiritual reality that no man can see or enter except he be born again. Except he is a new creature in Christ nothing else matters.

Joel predicts that marvelous scene and that initial voice of the gospel in the crowning of Jesus. Some say it will be fulfilled in the millennium, but Jesus said that at the end of THIS AGE he would send his angels and gather out all that offend and they shall be cast into the fire. No more of the wicked and righteous mingling together to the torment and oppression of God’s people. It is the end of this age. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their father. “Angels in flaming fire take vengeance on them that obey not the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power when he shall come to be glorified in his saints and to be admired in all them that believe.” “We enter into rest the day the Lord destroys the wicked when they receive the sentence of eternal death and flaming fire is poured out on them that obey not the gospel. Some say that we will be raptured away, but like a thief in the night he comes to destroy the wicked.” (2Th 1:7-10 and 2Pe 3:10)

The Greek says they shall in no wise escape, he will in no wise miss the redeemed and he will not miss the wicked … all those will be destroyed. We have the wicked consumed with the brightness of his coming exactly as is described. There are no wicked left to go into a millennium, Mt 13:40-42, 49, 50. When he comes it is to save his own. If the Jews turn to the Lord they can be saved also. “There is none other name under heaven whereby we must be saved.” (Ac 4:12) This is the only way to be saved or to shed the spirit of antichrist. It must be done NOW while the door is open and they can say, blessed be he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Christians do the Jews a great wrong when they suggest that they will have a second chance or that being fleshly children of Abraham can bring salvation. The Jewish people suffered the worst destruction ever brought upon any people in A.D. 70 because they refused to believe the Scriptures that plainly prophesied of the coming of the Messiah. They knew when he was to come because of Daniel 9, but since he did not meet their preconceived ideas of what they expected Messiah to be, they crucified him and suffered the loss of everything. All those who refuse to believe God’s more sure word of prophecy concerning Christ’s Second Coming, are headed for everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord when he shall come to be glorified in his saints.

Paul explains the reason for their blindness in 2Co 3:13-16: “And not as Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished: But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament; which veil is done away in Christ … unto this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart. Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away.”

Only the Holy Spirit can remove the veil. I love the Jewish people and pray that God may grant them this great mercy that they may behold Jesus, their Messiah, in time to be saved from eternal loss.

Origin of Scofield Heresies

by
EMMA MOORE WESTON

“No greater mischief can happen to a Christian people than to have God’s word taken from them, or falsified, so that they no longer have it pure and clear. God grant that we and our descendants be not witnesses of such a calamity” (Martin Luther, Table Talk.)

The modern teaching of a secret rapture of the church, a seven-year tribulation, and a literal thousand-year reign of Christ on earth are not found in the Bible. More and more scholars have begun to doubt the validity of this teaching and have done research to uncover the facts. Their search has led them to libraries in England to the Plymouth Brethren, John N. Darby, Edward Irving, and to a fifteen-year-old orphan, Margaret MacDonald. Several Jesuit priests were also involved as well as Cyrus I. Scofield.

To date, this is the information that has come down to us. The first recorded history of a heretic writing and preaching the idea of a one thousand year reign of Christ on this earth was Cerinthus. He was contemporary in time and place with the Apostle John and was his enemy. The historian Eusebius wrote about him in his book Ecclesiastical History, A.D. 324.

The Protestants were calling the papacy the antichrist in the 16th century because of the millions of Protestant Christians being martyred. Hoping to take the heat off the Catholics, the Jesuit priests formulated doctrines calculated to counter the Reformation.

In 1585, Francisco Ribera published a prophetic commentary in which he put the first chapters of the Revelation in the first century and the rest off in the far distant future. He taught that the temple would be rebuilt in Jerusalem by an antichrist who would abolish Christianity, deny Christ, pretend to be God, and conquer the world. Ribera put a rubber band on Daniel’s 70th week and stretched it to the end of time. This was the beginning of the futurist theory that is being taught today. There is no Scripture that warrants separating the 69th and 70th weeks of Daniel. He took Scriptures that have already been fulfilled and put them far off in the future.

S. R. Maitland, Librarian to the Archbishop of Canterbury, (about 1826) discovered Ribera’s work and published it for general interest. Another Jesuit, Luis de Alcazar, put the fulfillment of prophecies of the Revelation in the past with his scheme now taught by preterists.

Another Jesuit, Emmanuel Lacunza, added his ideas in a book written in Spanish, but translated into English by Edward Irving and published in 1927. He suggested that the Second Coming of Jesus would be in two stages. Margaret Macdonald in Scotland also had a vision of the Second Coming being in two stages. Jesus would come first to catch some Christians in a secret rapture previous to the one Second Coming that the Church had believed in for centuries, and would return later with them. Copies of her vision were circulated in the area.

John N. Darby, of the Plymouth Brethren, and Edward Irving put all these ideas together and began to teach them as truth in the 1830’s. The final form of the teaching ended up with a secret rapture, then a three and one-half or seven-year period of terrible tribulation under an antichrist, before Jesus would return with all his saints at his revelation to set up a thousand-year reign in Jerusalem. The temple would be rebuilt, animal sacrifices reinstituted and Christ would reign with the Jews for a millennium. However, the Greek words for rapture and revelation refer to the same event and are used interchangeably.

In 1994. Rev. John Bray obtained a copy of another book published in Pennsylvania in 1788 that teaches the same heresies. Its influence, if any, on the Brethren group is unknown. (His address is P.O. Box 90129, Lakeland, FL, 33804.)

In the last half of the past century, Darby made several trips to the United States and taught his new prophetic schemes in Bible conferences. It was accepted by many in the United States, among them Reverend James Brookes, who was sponsoring a new convert, a young man named Cyrus I. Scofield. Later on, all these ideas were incorporated in Scofield’s notes and published in the Scofield Reference Bible in 1909. Millions of sincere Christians have accepted these ingenious theories as truth, knowing neither where they originated nor for what purpose they were intended. It has crippled the Church and the resultant date-setting has been disastrous. People need to know that the main differences in teaching on the Second Coming do not come from the Bible itself, but from these fabrications deliberately introduced to counter the Reformation and cause trouble. And have they ever! Added to this deception, the story of Scofield’s life has been kept covered up because it would discredit, if not destroy, his teaching.

Dispensationalists call Jesus’ coming as a thief in the night, when he comes for his saints, “the rapture” and the second stage when he returns with them “the revelation.” However, Greek words for rapture and revelation refer to the same event and are used interchangeably. The Scriptures teach that, “Then shall that Wicked one be revealed whom the Lord shall consume with the Spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of his parousia.” If the brightness of his coming is to destroy the Wicked it can hardly be a secret known only to the saints. (2Th 2:8) How can the antichrist begin to flourish at the parousia if he dies then? (Refs. on parousia 2Co 10:10; Mt 24:3, 27, 37; 1Co 15:23; 16:17; 1Th 3:13; 4:15; 5:23; 2Th 2:1, 8, 9 and Ja 5:7, 8)

The Reformers, Luther, Calvin and Knox, and the leaders of the Great Awakening, such as Wesley, Whitefield and Finney did not believe any of this teaching. However, the important issue is what did Jesus say about it? Absolutely nothing! He said, “My kingdom is not of this world.” (Jn 18:36)The only way to get into his kingdom is to be born into it. It is a spiritual kingdom entered only by a spiritual new birth. (Jn 3:5)

What does the Apostle Paul say about it? Absolutely nothing!
What do the other Epistle writers say about it? Nothing!
What does the Apostles’ Creed say about it? Nothing!

This centuries-old statement of the faith of the Church declares: “I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried. The third day he arose again from the dead, He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God, the Father Almighty. From thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.”

Some teachers would have it read, “From thence he shall come to set up an earthly kingdom for a thousand years, and after that, he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.”

The earthly kingdom doctrine was taught by the Pharisees. The Messiah would come, conquer their enemies and set up a literal kingdom. This is what the disciples had in mind when they asked Jesus, “Wilt thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” They did not understand why Jesus did not set about doing it. They had no conception of a dying Messiah, a resurrection and another coming. They still did not understand his first coming. Their eyes were blinded by previous teaching. However, after Pentecost they never mention again this “doctrine of the Pharisees” that Jesus had warned them about.

The whole contrived millennial theory of a reign of Christ on earth depends on a literal and incorrect interpretation of one portion of Scripture, Rev. 20:1-7.

The word “millennium” is not in the Bible. This symbolical Scripture, Rev. 20:1-7, cannot all be taken literally. You cannot bind a spiritual being with a literal chain. Even if it did mean a literal thousand years, Jesus said, “In the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.” This Scripture is the only witness. It is dangerous to build a whole doctrine on one portion of Scripture, especially if it is not backed up by the Gospel writers.

In Psalm 50:10, it says, “Every beast of the forest is mine and the cattle on a thousand hills.” Does that mean only a thousand? “God keeps covenant and mercy to a thousand generations.” (Dt 7:9.) Does his mercy stop there? Also see Ps 105:8. The thousand is not literal in any of these. Many scholars believe that it is a symbolical number representing the indefinite period between Jesus’ first and second coming.

Did Jesus ever offer himself as a king or suggest in the faintest way that he was going to set up a literal kingdom? He said to Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world.” “When Jesus perceived that they would come to take him by force to make him king, he departed.” His offer of the kingdom is the same he made to Nicodemus at the start of his ministry, “Ye must be born again.” (Jn 3:3, 5,14,15)This is the kingdom that he preached, (Mt 4:20; 9:35; 24:14 and Lk 12:32) and that Paul preached. (Ac 28:31; Col 1:13) Some say that the Jews refused this so Jesus had to postpone his kingdom. They try to fit Old Testament Scriptures about the kingdom into the thousand-year reign, but Jesus’ kingdom in the New Testament is everlasting.

The Apostle Paul does not agree with this modern teaching: (1Th 4:13-17) “Even so them which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him …the dead in Christ shall rise first … THEN we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.” The rapture and the revelation happen at the same coming. Compare 1Co 15:23-24: “Christ the firstfruits, after that those who are Christ’s at his coming, then cometh the end … when he delivers up the kingdom to God, even the Father, when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign until he hath put all enemies under his feet.” From where does he reign? “Now this man, after he had offered one sacrifice of sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God. From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.” (Heb 10:12-13; Ps 110:1.) There is no time for a seven-year tribulation or thousand-year reign after Jesus raises the dead. That is not what the Scripture says. Many people love the millennium theory and are not impressed when shown that there is no Scripture to support it. Instead they accept the teaching of Scofield and others who contradict the Lord Jesus himself.

Thousands of devout believers have become brainwashed by the constant repetition of this teaching by evangelists, pastors and scores of books on prophecy and now base their hopes on man-made theories.

A new look at what the Scripture actually says should settle the minds of those who are confused:

He is coming again, “If l go away, I will come again.” (Jn 14:5)
It will be as unexpected as a thief in the night. (1Th 5:2.)
It will not be secret. (Mt 24:26)
It will be as impossible to hide as lightning. (Mt 24:27)
It will be very noisy. There will be a shout, a voice, and a trump of God. (1Th 4: 16a-c.)
“The souls … will God bring with him.” (1Th 4:14b)
“And the dead in Christ shall rise first.” (1Th 4:6)
“Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together … to meet the Lord in the air.” (1Th 4:17)
Then, not seven years later, he will take the resurrected dead and the living with him.

When will this be? When are the dead raised?
“I will raise him up at the LAST DAY.” Jesus repeats this in Jn 6:40,44 and 54. On the last day, at the last trump, and in the twinkling of an eye (cf. 1Co 15:52)

“The hour is coming in which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and come forth, they that have done Good unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done Evil unto the resurrection of damnation.” (Jn 5:28-29) (Jesus said that the good and bad are raised at the same time.)

In his note (SRB 1967) on Mt 25:32, Scofield states, “This judgment of individual Gentiles is to be distinguished from other judgments in Scripture, such as the judgment of the Church, the judgment of lsrael, and the judgment of the wicked after the millennium. The time of this judgment is ‘when the Son of man shall come in his glory,’ i.e., at the Second Coming of Christ after the tribulation.”

But Paul said, “He hath appointed A DAY in which he shall judge the world.” (Ac 17:31) “We shall ALL stand before the judgment seat of Christ.” (Ro 14:10b.) “It is appointed unto man once to die, but after this the judgment.” (Heb 9:27)

Now, I ask you, if all the dead – good and bad – are raised for judgment on the last day, where do you find all these different judgments, a seven-year tribulation or a thousand-year reign of Christ after the judgment? There are no more days after the last day. Only judgment awaits unbelievers after that. See Mt 13:38-42, 47-49.

The day Noah entered the ark the flood came and destroyed all who were outside. (Lk 17:26)

“The same day Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.” (Lk 17:29-30) The Scofield notes could cost those who believe in them their eternal souls. There is no time to get ready if you miss the “rapture.” There will be no second chance. Books are being written to tell those who miss the rapture what to do. God help these writers and open their eyes to the truth.

“All that are in the graves shall hear His voice.” (Jn 5:28b, 29) When He comes the door will be shut as Noah’s Ark was shut after Noah’s family was inside and the Flood came and destroyed the ungodly. The ones who are ready are taken, the others are left – for certain destruction.

Preachers describe a secret, silent coming of Jesus as a thief in the night when millions of people will disappear and huge headlines in the papers will tell of the frantic families whose loved ones are gone without a trace. Don’t you believe it! Jesus warned against believing any report that He had come secretly for His coming would be visible as lightning. Paul tells us in 1Th 4:16 that the Lord will descend with a shout, the voice of the archangel and the trump of God. A very noisy time!

Peter didn’t believe in a secret rapture or a literal reign of Jesus on earth. He wrote in 2Pe 3:10, “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night [unexpectedly] in the which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat, the earth and the works therein shall be burned up.” Who will be left then to publish a paper or establish a kingdom? The day after this will never come, for this is the end of life as we know it. With this word of Peter’s, the whole contrived doctrine goes up in smoke.

The teaching that a terrible tribulation period is coming, after this secret catching away of the church, keeps people in great fear. If this were true that the Lord would come after a seven-year tribulation the exact time of his coming would be known. Since the two comings idea came from the Scottish girl’s vision and not from the Scripture, you can throw out the whole argument as to whether Jesus’ coming will be pre-, mid- or post- this seven-year tribulation between the comings. It is sheer imagination. Jesus said that in the world we would have tribulation. Around the world many are suffering now for their faith. But Jesus explicitly said that there never would be a repeat of the wrath of God poured out in the destruction that was just ahead for Jerusalem and the people of that very generation to whom he was speaking. (Mt 24:21) “Thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, compass thee round … lay thee even with the ground and thy children within thee … because thou knewest not the time of thy Visitation.” (Lk 19:43-44) He said to the women following him as he carried the cross, “Weep not for Me; weep for yourselves and your children.” “This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.” “I will send them prophets and apostles and some ye shall slay and persecute; That the blood of all the prophets which was shed from the foundation of the world may be required of THIS generation. Verily I say unto you, it shall be required of THIS generation.” They had murdered the prophets God sent and then brought their rebellion to a climax in crucifying His Son. Wrath came upon them to the uttermost. (Cf Mt 21:33-45)

He told his followers that when they saw Jerusalem surrounded with armies, the people in Judea were to flee to the mountains. (Lk 21:20-21) AND THE CHRISTIANS DID! They fled to Pella in the Decapolis where King Agrippa opened to them a safe asylum. This great tribulation was for a certain city, people and nation and has been fulfilled. The country was left desolate and devoid of inhabitants for over fifty years. Everything was utterly wiped out –Israel ceased being a nation. It seemed God’s intention that when the siege came, the city was packed with thousands of people who had come to celebrate Passover and were destroyed with the city. The people were killed, starved, crucified or sold into slavery, and the glorious temple and all it stood for utterly destroyed. No country or people ever endured the wrath and judgment that came upon Jerusalem. No wonder Jesus wept over the city. “This generation shall not pass until all shall be fulfilled.” (Mt 24:34)

“Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken,” Mt 24:29. In commenting on this verse, Philip Mauro says, “Whatever may be the force of the word translated ‘immediately,’ it cannot be permitted to displace the tribulation foretold by Christ as coming and which did come in that generation and to remove it away off to the end of the age … All we assert is that regardless of the nature and severity of afflictions which are yet to come, that particular”tribulation” the Lord spoke of as the “great tribulation” and as “the days of vengeance,” (Mt 21:21; Lk 21:22, Mk 13:19) was the execution of divine judgment upon Daniel’s people and the holy city for which God used the Roman armies under Titus in A.D. 70.” (Mauro, The 70 Weeks and the Great Tribulation, pg. 272.)

Since the prophecies were literally fulfilled about the destruction of Jerusalem and the following verses were not fulfilled literally as some men assume, then there must be another interpretation of the prophecies. Such Old Testament symbols as “The sun shall be darkened, the moon shall not give her light, and the stars fall from heaven” were used over and over to describe the breakdown of governments and men in authority. Remember Joseph’s dream? He saw the sun, moon and stars fall down before him. This was fulfilled later when his father and his brothers bowed before him in Egypt. The destruction of Jerusalem is shown by Joel 2:30-31, by wonders in heaven, darkening the sun and the moon turning to blood. So it seems to apply here concerning the final destruction and dissolution of the nation. The stars fell representing the downfall of the leaders.

The Jews and Jesus were familiar with the symbolic language used by the prophets. The heavenly bodies typified people. “For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light, the sun shall be darkened … the moon shall not cause her light to shine.” “I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place … in the day of his fierce anger.” (lsa 13:10,13) “The heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth from the vine” (lsa 34:4) This was a prophecy against ldumea. Also see Joel 2:30-31; Eze 32:7-8; Amos 8:9 and lsa 41:15-16. “Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill made low and the crooked be made straight” (Isa 40:4) was about the coming of John the Baptist. God is said to have “come down” in judgment many times in the Old Testament. Jesus uses the same kind of language in Jn 14:18, “I will come to you,” and in 2Pe 1:16. These comings were not literal. The destruction of Jerusalem was to be swift as a vulture (Roman eagle) swoops down on a rotten carcass. The city was ripe for judgment. Can Mt 24:29 be literal, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken,” any more than lsa 40:4 was literal and the mountains and valleys moved at the coming of John the Baptist?

Jesus told Caiaphas that he would see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven. (Mt 26:64) He was saying in symbolic language, “You will see my power manifested.” It was seen in the earthquake at Golgotha, darkness during the crucifixion, the splitting of the veil in the temple when He died, and the utter destruction of Jerusalem. The sun set on their kingdom, and it went down in blood as the old system was wiped out. The Christians who escaped from the destruction must have felt that Jesus had truly “come down” in judgment, established his New Covenant, and proved his royal reign. (Ps 18:9) This fulfilled the prophecy, “There be some standing here which shall see the Son of man coming in His kingdom.” (Mt 16:28)

Jesus said, “This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.” (Mt 24:34) If they were not fulfilled for those who look for them with preconceived ideas, there must be a different interpretation of the prophecies. Jesus predicted a time would elapse before his Second Coining for the Jews would be scattered in all nations and Jerusalem would be trodden down until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. The kingdom of heaven was like a man traveling to a far country, and alter a long time the Lord would return and reckon with his servants. (Mt 25:14-30) “Ye know not when the Master cometh.” “There will be wars and rumors of wars, but the end is not yet.” (Mk 13:7) No special signs of warning will be given, only he will come suddenly.

Many denominations have never accepted this prophecy teaching. Their members know nothing about the “Rapture of the church,” two Second Comings or “the millennium” – this “other gospel.” But the ones who do teach it are extremely vocal.

The Apostle Paul says, “Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed” (Gal 1:8-9) Then in Acts 20:27, Paul said, “I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.” Paul’s teaching of the “whole counsel of God” did not include two separate comings, an earthly reign for a thousand years or a rebuilt temple with animal sacrifices. (See Heb 8, 9 and 10, especially vv. 12, 13, 14 of ch. 10) “But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God; from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering, he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.”

It should not take a theologian to figure out that the church has been sold “another gospel” by teachers who support doctrines that Jesus warned against. Paul’s curse is upon it. If the Lord has declared the full truth and things that are to come in the Bible, then all teaching and doctrines that are different from this is heresy, every one teaching it is a false prophet – though perhaps unknowingly. Then the postponed earthly kingdom also must be classed with false theories and speculations of men.

Many follow Scofield only because that was their early training and is the source of their financial support. They have followed in the error of the rapturists not realizing that they are in error, but longing to serve the Lord. So God brings them to a place of usefulness. He does not honor the error, but the Lord has given freedom, and they must find the truth. Those that rise up against God in the vanity of their own minds and false doctrine and exalt their imagination above the Word of God, he will laugh to scorn. Now is coming the shaking; now is coming the loosing when the bands of deception are being loosed. Many leaders are seeing it, for it is happening now. Those that are in error would like to have the place of accepted and unchallenged teachers. They shall not have it. The Sword of the Lord is in this battle for truth, and it cannot be sheathed by man.

God put the ministry gifts in the church: apostles, prophets, teachers, miracles, gifts of healing, helps, governments, and diversities of tongues. (1Co 12:28) Scofield took it upon himself to remove them, SCOFIELD note (SRB 1917,1967) on 1Co 14:1-2, “Tongues and the sign gifts are to cease.” Thus he takes the spiritual equipment that the Holy Spirit provided for Christians to carry on his work and leaves them sitting at a bus stop waiting for the Lord to snatch them out of the mess the world is in by a secret rapture. They forget that Jesus is to sit at the right hand of the Father until all enemies are put under his feet.

The very truth of the Bible has been destroyed. The alarm should have been sounded in 1909 when the boundaries were broken on all sides and the church accepted unscriptural teaching as truth.

We must take back our Bibles and return to apostolic foundations. The Word is clear and specific. To put the 70th week off to the end of time takes the heart out of the gospel and makes a mockery of the Visitation of the Messiah who wrought our salvation in that one special week. It is time for all the church to search the Scriptures deeply, do some research on church history and re-think its positions on prophecy.

A long-needed Reformation has begun.

For Further Research

The Weston Study Bible with notes by Charles Gilbert Weston exposing the Scofield and other heresies. Ask your Christian book store.
John Gerstner, Ph.D., Wrongly Dividing the Word of Truth.
E.B. Elliott, Horae Apocalypticae.
H.Gratton Guinness, The Approaching End ofthe Age.
Bishop Thomas Newton, Dissertations on the Prophecies.
Michael Berry, Foundation for Restoration, Revival Press, Box 130, Bedford, TX 76021.
Dr. D. James Kennedy, three cassette tapes on The End Times, Box 40, Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33302. Rev. John Bray, booklets covering all phases of the subject, Israel in Bible Prophecy, The Two Resurrections, etc., Box 90121, Lakeland, FL 33804.

Other sources for books on prophecy:
Ralph Woodrow, P.O. Box 124, Riverside, CA 92502
GAM Publications, P.O. Box 25, Sterling, VA 22170
Banner of Truth, P.O. Box 621, Carlisle, PA 17013
Chapel Library, 2603, W Wright St., Pensacola, FL 32502
Rare Christian Books, 19275 Highway 28, Dixon, MO 65459
(Books by Wm. Cox and Philip Mauro)
Valley Gospel Mission, 3923 240th St., R.R. #12, Langley, B.C. V3V 7B9, CANADA

Some of these books are rare, but your librarian may be able to borrow from another source.