The Scofield Bible: The Hidden History Evangelicals Were Never Told

0:00 Well, the Evangelical Christians in the US that support Israel mostly do so

0:04 from the theology that came about in the late

0:07 1800s from what's called the Scofield Bible.

0:11 Now, evangelicals know what the Scofield Bible is, but a lot of us don't.

0:15 It's basically like a Cliff's Notes for the Bible

0:18 that Christian Zionists use as their reason behind

0:21 supporting Israel even when it becomes readily apparent

0:25 that Israel continues to murder innocent people and attack Christians.

0:29 They hold tight because of this one seminal text.

0:34 What most people don't know though is that text, the Scofield Bible,

0:38 was funded by Wall Street elites and supported by very

0:41 early Zionists long before the state of Israel ever existed.

0:47 Now, they may not know also who is Cyrus Scofield.

0:50 So, I'm going to give you a brief biography of him.

0:53 He was, by Evangelical standards, a scoundrel.

0:58 He was a philanderer who abandoned his wife and two daughters.

1:01 He was sued many times and in fact even served prison time for fraud.

1:05 He was ousted as district attorney in disgrace.

1:09 He lied about his military record having been a Confederate soldier.

1:13 So, how did this person become a biblical leader that led so many

1:19 faithful Christians towards supporting the government

1:22 of Israel and all of its subsequent wars?

1:25 Well, let's take a look.

1:26 Cyrus Scofield was not a religious man from his upbringing.

1:30 He was raised in Michigan.

1:32 His mother died very young.

1:33 He was raised partly by his sisters

1:35 and he followed one of his sisters to Tennessee.

1:38 There he briefly and volunteered to join the Confederate Army,

1:42 but he didn't really like it.

1:43 So, he wrote a letter and said, "You know, I'm not really even a Southerner.

1:47 I'm from Michigan.

1:48 I want out of the army." And his request was approved.

1:52 During his time in Confederacy,

1:54 many of his fellow soldiers converted to Christianity.

1:57 He was not one of them.

1:59 Later in life when he was a well-known Bible teacher,

2:02 stories would circulate that he had received what was

2:04 called the cross of honor for bravery in the army.

2:08 The problem is the Confederacy never gave out any decorations for bravery.

2:12 Uh so, he kind of let those war hero stories circulate

2:17 and he never corrected them even though he did know about them.

2:20 Now, he followed his sister later to St.

2:23 Louis where he would marry a Catholic woman of French descent named Leontine.

2:27 Her family was very well-connected and he then uh married her.

2:32 He did not convert to Catholicism.

2:34 Later he complained about her Catholicism as one

2:36 of the sort of sources of strife in their marriage.

2:39 They would have two daughters and a son.

2:41 The son only lived a few months.

2:42 The daughters lived well into their adult years.

2:45 Now, her connections helped him get elected

2:48 to Kansas legislature despite never really having much

2:51 formal schooling and later he became the district

2:54 attorney for the district of Kansas in 1873.

2:57 Now, around this time Scofield and his sister

3:01 as well begin to be sued many times for fraud.

3:04 He was accused of forgery, financial fraud,

3:08 uh giving and taking loans that he did not pay back.

3:11 Um he had many issues tied to other people's money.

3:14 In one case led to formal charges and conviction.

3:18 Others were dropped or just left unresolved somehow.

3:21 Uh eventually he would resign as the district

3:23 attorney due to allegations of blackmail.

3:27 He also did serve time in prison for forgery.

3:31 He would eventually be pardoned for this when he became a biblical leader.

3:35 Now, it was around this time that he has his Christian conversion.

3:39 Scofield said it had to do with this businessman named Thomas McPeters in St.

3:43 Louis.

3:44 Both men said, "Oh, we were just having a conversation in my law

3:46 office." despite the fact that he never even had a law office,

3:50 but you know, the stories sort of get passed around.

3:53 It was this funny story, a haha.

3:55 And almost immediately his life takes a sharp turn from disgraced lawyer

4:00 and convicted [clears throat] forger

4:02 to Bible student and then superstar preacher.

4:05 He has this rise as a Christian convert and it was unusually fast.

4:12 From there he moved to Dallas on the invitation of a person named A.J.

4:16 Gordon.

4:18 Um and more directly he's connected through Dwight L.

4:21 Moody, the revival movement.

4:22 You may know about that.

4:24 He leaves his wife and two daughters behind and he leaves them for good,

4:28 never to come back and parent them.

4:30 His wife has to work two jobs to support these two girls.

4:34 They go on to be upstanding citizens in their hometown of Atchison, Kansas.

4:39 And in fact, when the Joseph Canfield book

4:41 about Scofield was published uh about 20 years ago,

4:45 the local library there refused to carry it.

4:47 And I think this is such an interesting

4:49 note because the author of the Canfield book offers

4:52 to send the local library a copy of this book

4:54 and this is what the library sends back.

4:57 As you recall, Mr.

4:58 Scofield left Mrs.

4:59 Scofield with small children and no money.

5:01 Not too responsible of a person.

5:03 I don't think we need his biography.

5:05 Many Atchison citizens remember what a rascal he was.

5:10 So, his reputation there was so bad that the local

5:13 library didn't even want a copy of the book there.

5:17 In Dallas he marries his second wife.

5:19 Her name's Hettie.

5:20 Records show that the divorce from Leontine was not completed by the time he

5:24 married his second wife raising serious questions

5:28 about his faithfulness to his first wife.

5:30 And again, he's an Evangelical founder.

5:34 He is who Evangelicals look to for their theology.

5:39 Nevertheless, he becomes a rising star.

5:42 Now, maybe he does reform his personality from thief,

5:45 fraud, deadbeat dad, philandering husband.

5:49 A lot of people do.

5:50 That's between him and God.

5:52 It's not for me to say,

5:53 but it is odd get given all of these promotions of the church,

5:57 he never prop- properly atoned or made explanation

6:02 for these crimes and sort of personal failings.

6:07 Uh later in life his daughter will ask him for money when

6:10 he's an internationally known author and he still does not help her.

6:14 But back to the story.

6:15 Now, from Dallas he's drawn into a growing network

6:18 of influential Evangelical leaders and invited to the Niagara Bible Conference.

6:23 This is a gathering that would prove pivotal for Scofield,

6:26 but also for the future of American Christianity.

6:29 Most people understand that in Niagara and in general the Northeast,

6:35 there was a new system of theology being born in American Christianity.

6:40 Uh it emphasized a literal interpretation of prophecy, a coming rapture,

6:45 a distinct future role for national for the nations

6:49 of Israel as pivotal in God's plans.

6:53 These were not fringe meetings.

6:55 These were well-attended and very well-funded.

6:59 It was here in 1878 that church leaders adopted

7:02 a series of revelations about their belief in Israel.

7:06 Specifically, look at article 14 saying, "We believe that the world will not

7:11 be converted during the present dispensation." So,

7:13 these are like eras basically.

7:16 Uh but is fast ripening for judgment.

7:19 While there will be a fearful apostasy

7:22 in the professing Christian body and hence the Lord Jesus

7:25 will come in person to introduce the millennial age

7:28 when Israel shall be restored to their own land.

7:31 So, the theology taking shape here is basically this.

7:34 History is divided into stages.

7:37 The Bible can be divided into these stages too

7:40 and the one we're in now doesn't actually end in revival.

7:44 It ends in decline.

7:45 The church weakens.

7:47 The world is ending and then God intervenes.

7:51 Tied to this idea is that Is- Israel has a pivotal future role.

7:56 The story is not complete until Jews return to their homeland.

8:00 And look at where this is landing.

8:02 There is no Israel at the time.

8:05 We're talking late 1800s.

8:07 That won't ex- Israel won't exist until 1948, but the expectation is there.

8:12 They're setting the stage more than 50

8:14 years before the country comes into existence.

8:17 Now, this sounds extreme,

8:19 but you have to think about the United States at this time,

8:22 late late 1800s, just coming out of the Civil War,

8:26 economy's terrible, social upheaval, everything feels unstable.

8:31 So, when someone says, "Hey, this isn't chaos.

8:33 This is the biblical timeline." people lean into that.

8:36 It validates their experience.

8:39 Other incidentally end end of days religions are born at this time too.

8:44 Jehovah's Witnesses, Seventh-day Adventist, uh Christadelphians.

8:48 Some refer to this as the doom boom.

8:51 This idea that everyone's looking around and they're like, "Man,

8:53 the world is so screwed up." But the Bible says so, so we feel better.

8:58 There's this sense of everything breaking down and that history's

9:01 going to get worse before it gets better.

9:03 You can see why that appeals to people, right?

9:06 Now, Scofield will stay in the Northeast for some time as a preacher

9:09 and then mysteriously he becomes a member of the Lotos Club.

9:14 The Lotos Club is an elite New York

9:17 City gentlemen's club with members who are writers,

9:20 financiers, Wall Street power brokers.

9:22 Now, on his stated salary,

9:24 he should not be able to afford this, but he never explains how

9:29 he is a member of this elite society or how he pays for it,

9:33 but he remains a member until his dying day.

9:35 This is not a natural landing spot for a pious and humble preacher.

9:43 Famous members included Mark Twain, Andrew Carnegie, J.P.

9:46 Morgan, and Samuel Untermyer.

9:48 Untermyer was a prominent prominent voice in Zionist activism.

9:53 He advocated for establishment of a Jewish

9:56 homeland in what was then Palestine and he

10:00 used his influence and international influence

10:03 and and money to push towards that cause.

10:07 It was through the Lotus Club that he then

10:11 that Scofield gets the idea to write a companion Bible,

10:15 a CliffsNotes like Bible in order to push through

10:19 this dispensational theology with Israel at the center of the rapture.

10:25 He's then introduced to real estate tycoons who are eager to fund the Bible

10:32 and then he's introduced to the Oxford Press which will then publish it.

10:36 So I just wonder, do evangelicals know this that the reference Bible

10:40 that they used was born and funded by New York City elite social clubs?

10:45 Do you think they know this?

10:46 I'm just curious.

10:47 Now Scofield takes the money,

10:48 he begins working on the Bible, he travels throughout England.

10:51 He also says he goes to the Holy Land but his travel dates don't end up.

10:56 He was sick, that has not been verified.

10:59 It takes seven years, when it finally comes out it leans heavily into what

11:04 he frames as a distinct Jewish track in the scripture,

11:08 a sharp separation between Israel and the church

11:11 with Israel taking future stage in the prophecy.

11:14 And here's the tension, Scofield was not trained in Judaism,

11:18 he was not a historian of the ancient world.

11:21 You know, he didn't speak any ancient languages.

11:25 So how he came up with this is anyone's guess.

11:30 Once the Scofield Reference Bible is published though,

11:33 it spreads like wild wildfire, goes through multiple printings,

11:38 lands in seminaries across the country and pastors start preaching from it.

11:42 Pretty quickly Scofield isn't just a name, he's an authority.

11:46 He is famous all throughout Christian society.

11:51 He will die a wealthy man having never passed any

11:54 of that down to his first wife and oldest daughter.

11:57 And the Scofield Bible is still used

11:59 in churches and Bible colleges and study groups today.

12:03 In many cases the notes are treated almost as sort

12:06 of a built-in guide passed down alongside the biblical text itself.

12:11 Now before Scofield's Reference Bible,

12:13 this idea that Israel would play the central role in end

12:18 of times prophecy was not a dominant view in Christianity.

12:22 It did exist but it was on the margins, it was still pretty nascent in England.

12:27 It was not widely taught.

12:29 The Scofield Bible, at least in American Christianity,

12:32 really changed that and it was not a grassroots movement.

12:37 It was systematized, funded and published at scale.

12:41 It was a niche theological idea that was

12:44 packaged and printed directly into the pages

12:47 of scripture and distributed to millions funded

12:51 by Wall Street real estate tycoons and Zionist elites.

12:55 So I just think we need to know

12:56 that history when we consider the birth of Christian Zionism.

13:00 Let me think let me know what you think of that.

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