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The Flaming Sword
Contending For The Faith – Jude 3

 

DANCING AROUND THE GOLDEN CALF - PART 5

THE GOLDEN CALF IS MATURING

By JOHN S. TORELL

 

DO YOU KNOW WHY YOU BELIEVE WHAT YOU BELIEVE?

After the two hurricanes, Rita and Katrina, had devastated Louisiana, Mississippi and part of Alabama, there were hundreds of thousands of cars and trucks that had been damaged by the flood and totaled out by the insurance companies. But that was not the end of these vehicles. Salvage buyers took the vehicles, cleaned them up and started to ship them to other states, selling them as used cars and not telling the buyers that these were flood damaged vehicles. The people handling these vehicles not only cleaned up the cars and trucks, but through fraud and deception, had also been able to get new titles for them, making it very hard for a prospective buyer in another state to know where the vehicle came from. The only way to tell is to check under seats and covered compartments where there would by signs of flood damage.

            Now I want to ask you a question, if you are in the process of purchasing a used car or truck, isn’t it important to know where the vehicle came from and its history? We all know the answer: VERY IMPORTANT!

            Now, my next question to you is this, “Why is it important?” The answer is that if you buy a flood damaged vehicle, it is going to break down and cost a lot of money to repair. And the last thing you want and need are expensive repair bills.

            Let us now talk about your Christian life. Many of you use a Scofield Bible, and whatever is taught in the margins of this Bible has become part of your belief system. Others of you have become dispensationalists without knowing why. That happened to me.

            As Christians we feel pity for the Mormons, the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Muslims for following the teaching of men, who when they lived on this earth were dishonest, liars, thieves, etc. and we try through documentation to show these people that the leaders who developed their religions were evil men and deceivers. And all of us know how well people in false religions respond to us. They get angry and more or less tell us, “Don’t confuse us with facts.”

            Yet, Christians are in the same predicament. We live on traditions and we never question where a particular doctrine I believe in came from, who developed it and what kind of person were they? So even if I am born again, I might believe many things that are not true.

            False doctrine will cause problems on this earth: sickness, loss of spiritual power, no anointing, no fruit, and when you die and stand before Jesus at His judgment seat, you will suffer great eternal losses of rewards, all because you did not check out the people who designed your belief system. What a shame.

            My motivation for writing these newsletters is to expose fraud and bring people back to simple Bible truth, which is available to all of us if we read our King James Bibles with an uncluttered mind. Let’s now continue our quest for truth.

DARBY’S MAN IN AMERICA

            The Jewish leaders living in the 1850’s knew that the United States would be a power house of finance, manufacturing, education and military power in the future. They were also aware that the Christian church growth would eventually shift from England to the United States. Thus, they wanted to get in on the ground floor and have their people and doctrine in place in order to take control of the budding Christian church growth in the U.S. and make sure that from the very beginning they would have their doctrine anchored in dispensationalism with a strong support for the Zionist movement.

            The leaders in Judaism are not just moving in the flesh, they are also guided by their father, the Devil.

“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: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father. They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, 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. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God. Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me. Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” John 8:37-44

            There is no doubt in my mind that the Devil knew that the United States in the future would become the world’s most powerful nation and that it would dominate the world in all areas of human life. In order for the Devil to control the Christian faith, he needed to find a man of low character, greedy for money, power and fame, and willing to lie and cheat when it is needed. He did find his men for false religions in Joseph Smith, Charles Taze Russell and a number of others, but the man to infiltrate the genuine Christian faith must be of a better quality, yet willing to compromise with the forces of evil. The Devil and the Jewish leadership found their man, Cyrus Ingerson Scofield. (1843-1921)

THE LIFE OF SCOFIELD

            I am not going to spend a great amount of time on the details of the life of Cyrus Scofield, since there is an excellent biography which details the man’s life and his achievements. We carry this book on our bookstore and I believe that every Christian in the world should read this book in order to understand the doctrine of the Baptist and Pentecostal churches. The book is written by Joseph M. Canfield and entitled, The Incredible Scofield and His Book. I also believe that we are currently the only ministry to have a written mini-biography of Mr. Canfield (left), furnished to us by Mr. Canfield. He and I have had a number of telephone conversations and I have been honored with the privilege to speak with a Christian who fought the good fight in the 20th century and had access to events, people and places long before my time in the United States.

SCOFIELD’S EARLY YEARS

            He was born in Michigan on August 19, 1843. His mother never recovered from this childbirth and died in November of the same year. Cyrus (right) had four sisters who were 17, 15, 8 and 3 years of age at his birth. Some time later his father remarried. His parents were members in the Congregational Church. It is interesting to note, that the Anti-Masonic Movement was strong in this area during the early years of Cyrus and that he must have learned about this as a child.

            As his sisters married, they moved to different places. His sister Emeline settled in St. Louis, Missouri. Laura moved with her husband to the state of Tennessee. After the death of his stepmother, his father remarried a second time and Cyrus ended up living with his sister Laura and her husband. He had plans to enter college, but when the Civil War broke out in 1861, Cyrus decided to join the Confederate Army even though he was only between 17 and 18 years of age. It is noteworthy to observe that Cyrus was born and raised in the North, and had only lived a short time in the South, and yet without hesitation, he joined the South in its rebellion against the Union. He became a soldier of the 7th Regiment of Tennessee Infantry.

            In July 1862, Cyrus sent a letter to the Confederate Secretary of War and requested to be given a discharge, stating the fact that he was born in Michigan, his father still lived there and that he had joined the army as a minor, while staying temporarily with his sister. He also stated that his health had deteriorated as his regiment had been in several battles. It was not until September 26, 1862, that after a series of bloody battles, Cyrus was discharged and given some money to make it back to Tennessee and his sister. However, all records are lost and Cyrus never publicly told where he spent the next four years before he showed up in St. Louis on September 21, 1866.  

ST. LOUIS 1865

            It is interesting to note that the city of St. Louis was held by Union forces throughout the Civil War and served as a troop base for the Union. At the end of the Civil War, the city was the center for fur trade, an industry which was dominated by French traders, particularly by the Choteau family. France was ruled at this time by Napoleon III who had brought France back into high society living. France was also the center of the Rothschild banking dynasty and the base of the Illuminati lodges. Paris had taken the lead role in women’s fashion, and through the French connections, St. Louis had become the “fashion city” of the United States. Thus, the city was a bustling hub of fashion, politics, crime, prostitution, gambling and fast money. This was the city in which Cyrus began his civilian life after the war.

            Cyrus' brother-in-law, Sylvester Papin, was president of the St. Louis Board of Assessors. Papin secured a position for Cyrus in his own office, where he could personally train him for the profession as a lawyer. Working in the assessor’s office, Cyrus became familiar with grants, titles, deeds and conveyances.

            As Cyrus socialized with the French families in the city, attending dinners, dances etc. He met a young French woman by the name of Leontine Cerre. She was born in 1847 and was 18 years old when she met Cyrus. Her ancestors came from the Canadian city of Montreal. After a short time they were engaged and they married on September 21, 1866. Since Leontine was a Roman Catholic and Cyrus was not, the wedding ceremony took place before a Justice of the Peace.

            In 1867 their first daughter, Abigail, was born and in 1869, a second daughter was born to them named Marie Helen. The same year, the Scofield family moved to Atchison, Kansas.

THE KANSAS YEARS

            As I have studied the life of Cyrus Scofield, there is one thing that stands out, the guidance given to this man as he stumbled through life after the devastation of the Civil War. There is a satanic guidance and a human guidance.

            The human guidance can be seen in the fact that the household Cyrus set up was that of a rich man. Records from the U.S. census in 1870 show that Cyrus, Leontine and their two daughters did not live alone in their house. Living with them was Henry Cerre, Leontine’s 19 year old brother, an Irish maid by the name of Catharine McGuire, age 36, and Mary Brice, a ten year old black girl, listed as a servant.

            In previous newsletters, I laid out how the American economy at this time was being contracted (reduced) by the banks and that these years were very hard on the American people, yet Cyrus was able to feed a brother-in-law, and maintain two female servants, a wife who was a homemaker and he himself as an attorney in training. The question that remains unanswered is from what source did Cyrus get his money? Was it from the French connection, who was supporting Cyrus in anticipation of services further in the future?            

            Kansas was a battleground before and after the Civil War over property rights. Original land grants were challenged by squatters, who simply settled on unoccupied land and built homes and farms. One of the cases referred to Regis Loisel, who had a Spanish land grant of some 38,000 acres. In 1858, Congress confirmed this land grant. Cyrus became involved in this case, since his wife held certain rights to this property, and he selected John J. Ingalls (right), a Jewish New Englander attorney who had settled in Kansas to work with him on the case. Ingalls had become a State Senator in 1861. According to Mr. Canfield, it was Ingalls who sponsored Cyrus for admission to the Kansas Bar as an attorney, and later he became a law partner in the Ingalls’ law firm. In 1871, Cyrus was elected as a representative to the Kansas Legislature for a term of one year. Scofield was assigned to the Committee on the Judiciary and became the chairman.

            During this time of wheeling and dealing in politics, Cyrus also ran a law office, which was also a “land office.”  

            In June 1872, Leontine gave birth to a son, Guy Sylvester, but he died two years later in 1874.

            The political climate in Kansas during the 1872 election was heated and all parties were using “dirty tricks” to take control. At this time, U.S. Senators were elected by the legislators, not by public voting. Samuel C. Pomeroy (right) was up for re-election, after having served for twelve years. The leadership in the Republican Party did not want Pomeroy re-elected. Scofield was in the middle of this fight, and Pomeroy used his power to block Scofield from being nominated from the 4th district he represented. Scofield decided to run from a different county, Nemaha County, using Seneca as his base. The fact that he was not a resident of Nemaha County did not bother Scofield, and when the election took place in 1872, he was elected as a Liberal Republican.

            When the legislature convened in January 1873, a terrific fight broke out since Pomeroy had many personal enemies. Scofield played a major role in the fight opposing Pomeroy. Scofield was instrumental in nominating his old lawyer friend Ingalls, who was then elected as Senator from the State of Kansas.

            None of the politicians in the State Legislature were morally clean; bribes and trading of favors were rampant, and Cyrus Scofield was a master of it all.

PAY BACK FROM INGALLS

            Politicians reward their friends and harm their enemies. John J. Ingalls served three terms in the United States Senate. Shortly after he had taken his seat in the Senate, Ingalls submitted a recommendation to President Grant recommending that Cyrus Scofield be appointed to the office of United States District Attorney for the district of Kansas. President Grant approved the request and appointed Scofield as the federal Attorney General for the State of Kansas.

            After having resigned his position as a state representative, Cyrus took the oath of office on June 8, 1873. Cyrus lied without hesitation when he took the oath stating he had never born arms against the United States and that he had never aided in any way parties hostile to the United States. This was a blatant lie, since Cyrus had served as a soldier in the Confederate Army, and fought in combat against the United States.

            It is now becoming clear that the young 29 year old Cyrus was being pushed into higher positions by “handlers,” who had their own plans for the savvy lawyer turned politician. Thus, Scofield was not worried about perjury; he had friends in high places.

            Scofield only lasted as a federal Attorney General for six months. A case was pending for trial for ex-Senator Pomeroy, who continued his bribing by giving money to Scofield in return for him to drop the case. But there was more smoke; newspaper reports of railroad companies and settlers in Southern Kansas had been blackmailed by these two “buddies,” in order to be able to continue business and keep land. Suddenly on December 20, 1873, Scofield resigned from his federal position. 

            Now something strange took place, Scofield disappeared for the next three years and there are no official records available of what he did or where he lived. According to information from newspapers from that time, he was sent to Canada by his political handlers in Kansas, until things had cooled down enough so that he could come back to the United States. 

            Scofield abandoned his family from that time on and left them destitute.

WHEELING AND DEALING

            In 1877, legal records tell us that Scofield moved back to St. Louis. Cyrus was now borrowing money, by issuing notes, backed by his sister Emeline E. Papin and a C.F. Betts. Cyrus had issued a $200 note (approximately $10,000 in today’s value) for 60 days, and when the note holder, Jephtha H. Simpson, tried to cash the note plus a 10% agreed interest, the bank refused to accept the note. Scofield’s office was closed and there was no residence address for Cyrus. When the case went to court, it was determined that Cyrus was using his sister’s name and forging her signatures. Consequently, Cyrus was sued in court on a number of occasions for using fraudulent notes to raise money for himself.

            Christian dispensationalists have tried to clean up the life of Cyrus during the years of 1877 and 1878, claiming that he was a successful lawyer when he “got saved” in 1878. The truth is that Cyrus had abandoned his wife and two daughters and made a living through fraud and bogus notes. Mormon spin doctors have sanitized the life of Joseph Smith, and in much the same way, leaders in fundamental Christian circles are guilty of doing the same thing for Cyrus Scofield. Court and newspaper records, including arrest records, show that Cyrus lived outside the law, using his skills as a former attorney to defraud people.

            But Cyrus still had “handlers” who came to his aid. On November 6, 1879, a criminal case against Scofield was dismissed in an Appeals Court which could have sent Cyrus to prison had the case not been tossed out.

            According to observations of people who lived at this time and knew Scofield, he was classified as an alcoholic.

            It was in 1879 that Cyrus Scofield “got religion.”

CYRUS SCOFIELD GETS SAVED IN A JAIL CELL

            He was now 36 years old and had fought as a soldier for the South during the Civil War, trained as a lawyer, served as an elected politician, had been a United States Attorney General for six months, was married with three children and for the last years lived as a white collar criminal. Now he claimed to have accepted Jesus Christ as his Saviour.

To understand the moral character of Cyrus, I quote a newspaper article published on August 27, 1881 in The Daily Capital, a Topeka, Kansas newspaper: 

“CYRUS I. SCOFIELD IN THE ROLE OF A CONGREGATIONAL MINISTER”

“Cyrus I. Scofield, formerly of Kansas, late lawyer, politician and shyster generally, has come to the surface again, and promises once more  to gather round himself that halo of notoriety that has made him so prominent in the past. The last personal knowledge that 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’ 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 gentleman 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 Chas. 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.” (End of quote)

            While Cyrus was a jailbird, there was a group of Christian women who had a jail ministry. Cyrus was witnessed to and made a profession of faith in Christ. He then began to study the writings of John Darby (right), the founder of the Plymouth Brethren and embraced Darby’s theology about the rapture and the need for Jews to resettle the land of Israel.

A NEW PROFESSION

            Scofield entered Christian ministry upon his release from the jail and this was going to be his profession until his death. There is no doubt in my mind that Ingalls, the Jewish lawyer/senator, had informed his Jewish peers that Scofield would be the perfect candidate to develop and penetrate fundamental Christian churches and denominations. All it would take was the right “handlers” and cash.

            Leontine and her two daughters did not fit into the new life of Cyrus Scofield, since she was a Roman Catholic, and the two girls had been brought up in the Catholic faith. During this time, divorce was viewed as a gross sin, and not caring for one’s family was considered extremely bad. Thus, the “spin doctors” handling Cyrus put a “blanket” over his wife and the official line was that Cyrus was a bachelor. From time to time, Cyrus would send small amounts of money to his wife and daughters, but it was sporadic, and Leontine worked in a store to make a living. When Leontine eventually filed for divorce and the truth came out, it was down-played by Scofield’s handlers in their press (propaganda) releases.

            Only one major biography of the life of Cyrus Scofield was written in 1920 by Charles G. Trumbull and entitled, “The Life Story of C.I. Scofield.” This biography is the official “white wash” to clean up Scofield for future generations, who would not have access to historical facts, but believe this spin doctor.

            The jail conversion of Scofield was not good enough, and a better version was concocted in Trumbull’s book. In this version, Scofield was in his law office in St. Louis when Tom McPheeters entered, and during the business discussion, Tom asked Cyrus why he was not a Christian. After a pointed discussion, Cyrus agreed to accept Christ and the two men knelt in the office and prayed.

            The fact that Scofield did not even have a law office at the time when this momentous event is supposed to have taken place did not slow down Trumbull, and thus the lie has been repeated long enough and often enough, that fundamental Christians believe that this is truth. 

            In his book, The Incredible Scofield and His Book, Joseph Canfield makes this statement on page 64:

“The very sudden quashing of the criminal charges without proper adjudication suggests that Scofield’s career was in the hands of someone who had clout never available to either Ingalls, Pomeroy, or anyone of the Choteau Clan. But, the career was to be of such a nature that Leontine, the Catholic wife, had to go.”

It is important to note that Christians living after 1980 have become used to scandals in the Christian churches and their tolerance for sin has increased to the point, that as long as a person has been to a “rehab,” it does not matter what they did before. The immoral behavior of ministers like Rex Humbard, Morris Cerullu and Oral Roberts for financial misconduct, Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart for sexual immorality, Ted Haggard, Roberts Liardon and Paul Crouch for homosexual misconduct, and the fleecing of the flock by Benny Hinn have made Christians so cynical that they do not care any longer. Thus the criminal background of charlatans like the prophet Mohammad, Joseph Smith and Cyrus Scofield do not face people living today, it happened too long ago and with the attitude, “Who knows what the truth is anyway?” That the writings of these men are used to lead millions of people astray and eventually to hell is not understood by the masses. Public schools and watered down preaching have dumbed down the masses of people so that they have no discernment.

     
     
Morris Cerullo Oral Roberts Jim Bakker
     
     
Jimmy Swaggart Ted Haggard Paul Crouch
     

SCOFIELD IS PRESSED INTO CHRISTIAN SERVICE

            It was the Presbyterian pastor, James H. Brookes, of the Walnut Street Presbyterian Church in St. Louis, who became the “theological handler” of Scofield. Brookes was born in 1830 and died in 1897. When he began the training of Scofield, he was 49 years old. Brookes had met Darby in person as Darby traveled in the United States until 1877 and he became a solid believer in the doctrine developed by the Jewish Jesuit priest Lacunza, and further developed by Darby. Brookes was also a key leader in the Niagara Bible Conferences.

Through Canfield’s book on Scofield, I had read about the Niagara Bible Conferences, but I had no historical knowledge of these conferences at all. When I began to research this subject, I became painfully aware of how shallow my education was at the seminary when I studied for some three years for a Master of Divinity degree. I now realize that as a student from 1969-73, I was taught what the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) wanted me to know, but they omitted vast areas of history that were not benevolent to the SBC for its pastors to know. To my utter dismay, I realize that there are vast gaps in my knowledge of history and the more I dig, the more I find out that I do not know. Before I continue with the history of Scofield, we must now take a look at the Niagara Bible Conferences, since they played a major role in the development of the Lacunza doctrine.

THE NIAGARA BIBLE CONFERENCES

            At the time these conferences were held, radio, television, audio recordings and videos did not exist. News and educational writings (including theology, doctrine) etc. were spread through newspapers, books, pamphlets and speakers. Hence, a conference was a very valuable asset to any person or group who wanted to promote products or new ideas. Leaders from around the nation and from other countries would come and discuss and exchange ideas, and then return to where they came from and pass on what they had just learned. It is also extremely important for the 21st century person to know that most people in the United States after the Civil War had good reading skills and that the common people would read and then discuss what they had read. This might seem strange to the generation living today, where people in general have been raised on television and do not have the vocabulary or the skill to read, think and understand what is presented to them. I am aware that my newsletters are read by only a few people who have the skill to read and understand.

            Back to the conferences; the location was at Niagara-on-the-Lake Ontario, which was located some 14 miles below Niagara Falls. There was a hotel called, “Queen’s Royal Hotel” in addition to boarding houses in the village. Brookes describes the place as very beautiful with the conference building facing Lake Ontario and the river Niagara, surrounded by green trees and secluded from the noise of the world.

            As I have described in prior newsletters, prophecy teaching had become very popular on the Eastern Seaboard of the United States and the flames had been fanned by William Miller (founder of the SDA churches), and later when he had predicted the coming of Christ and nothing happened, the torch was taken over by Ellen G. White. In this “soup,” it is necessary to also mention Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon Church, and after the Civil War, Charles Taze Russell, founder of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Adding strong spices to this soup was John Darby, who traveled in the United States and converted pastors to the Lacunza doctrine. Brookes had become a total disciple of Darby, and worked hard to spread the Lacunza doctrine. Cooking the soup were Jewish rabbis, Jewish Zionists and Jewish bankers and business men. They were working hard to lay the groundwork for a Jewish state in Palestine and knew that unless they could capture the Christians to support a Jewish state, it would be very difficult for them to continue.

       
       
William Miller Ellen G. White Joseph Smith Charles Taze Russell
       

            In 1875, several prominent Christian leaders met to pray and discuss prophecy outside Chicago. Among them were Phillip P. Bliss (hymn writer, who died in 1876, right), N.W. West, James H. Brookes and Flemming H. Revell. Revell was a ship builder who had emigrated from England in 1849, whose daughter Emma had married D. L. Moody in 1862, and whose son Flemming Revell, Jr. became the owner of the biggest publishing house in the U.S.

            We can see now that the men dedicated to spreading dispensationalism into the mainstream of Christianity were just like a parasite fungus, clinging to the most vibrant men of God at that time and infecting them with the Lacunza doctrine.

            Brookes expanded the meeting the following year, and in 1876, there were among others present, Pastor Adoniram Judson Gordon (right), a Baptist minister from Boston, H. M. Parsons and Pastor William J. Erdman (Presbyterian). This meeting was held at Swampscott, Massachusetts and called, “Believers Meeting.”

            In 1877, the annual meeting was held at Watkins Cover, New York. From here it was held for three years at Clifton Springs, New York. Then the conference was moved to Old Orchard, Maine, and then to Mackinac Island in northern Michigan. The following year it was moved to Niagara-on-the-Lake, and renamed Niagara Bible Conference. The Niagara conferences were to last from 1883 to 1897.

            The conferences attracted some of the most well known Christian leaders of the time. It was there that the Fundamental movement was born and solidified, which has shaped the Christian landscape in the United States and laid the foundation for Premillennialism, which is the foundation for Christian Zionists.

            It is important to point out that most of the men who came to speak at these conferences were genuine born again Christians with a zeal for the Lord. The sermons delivered dealt with the doctrine of Christ, the Holy Spirit, the Bible, missions and prophecy. The founder of China Inland Mission, J. Hudson Taylor (right), came and spoke and fellowshipped as did others. But it was Brookes and Scofield who inserted the poison into the Christian doctrine, which today is deeply rooted, not only in Fundamentalist circles, but in Pentecostal and Evangelical churches. 

MAXIMUM EXPOSURE

            The men taking part in these conferences built powerful ministries in the United States, augmenting them with Bible Schools and books and pamphlets. Just to mention a few: A.D. Gordon founded the Boston Missionary Training School, which later evolved into Gordon College and Divinity School. He helped compile two hymnals and wrote Gospel songs, the most well known being, “My Jesus I Love Thee.”

            D. L. Moody (right) was a world known evangelist, who came under the doctrinal control of Scofield, something which we are going to look into later. Moody organized the Northfield Conferences in Massachusetts. Prior to the Civil War, he founded the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA); he started the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Bible Institute of Los Angeles (BIOLA) and was responsible for getting the large Revell Publishing house going.

            Scores of other pastors started Bible schools, colleges, seminaries, etc., and all these students and readers of the material became strong believers in the Lacunza doctrine and staunch Christian Zionists. In less than 65 years, the money which Jewish bankers had put into the Christian churches bore fruit and the State of Israel came into being in 1948.

            As of 2007, there are no major Christian publishing houses left in the United States, they have all been bought up by Jewish power brokers, and the same publishing houses that spew out pornography and other filthy trash books are also printing and distributing Christian books, hymnals and sheet music. No Christian writer is able to be published by a major Christian publishing house unless they are a certified Christian Zionist. Anyone voicing opposition to the State of Israel is labeled “anti-Semitic” and financially ruined, since no one will buy from a person with that label. The Jewish leadership is now openly in control, while in the 1880’s they had to work in the shadows.

            Remember this, Jewish bankers and investors have no problems investing huge sums of money into Christian ministries as long as they toe the line and are useful to the Zionistic Movement. This also applies to politics: every major political candidate for the presidency of the United States is making a “pilgrimage” to Hollywood to look for a donation from the Jewish Hollywood moguls. In order to qualify for a donation from the rich and famous, they have to make a confession that they support the State of Israel, regardless of what is happening. To be politically correct, the politician must take an oath that irregardless what Israel does, it is always right.

            The majority of the pastors in 2007, who believe in pre-tribulation rapture and teach dispensationalism are good men, born again and strong in evangelism, except to the Jewish people. They are sincere but blinded to the error they are teaching. One such pastor is Joseph R. Chambers, a good friend of mine. Over the years we have talked quite often over the phone and we exchange material. Pastor Chambers (left) is a former Assembly of God minister, who left that denomination because he felt they had become too liberal in tolerating sin. Chambers preaches holiness and is very zealous for Jesus. He is the pastor of Paw Creek Ministries in Charlotte, North Carolina. Many years ago he bit into the Scofield teaching and I believe that he is the same as me, he never checked out who Scofield was and how dispensationalism came into being. Will Chambers change and see the truth? Most likely not; he is set in his ways and will die a dispensationalist. Does that make him a bad man? Absolutely not, but he will be corrected at the judgment seat of Christ and there will be loss of rewards for him, since he is responsible for sending Jews to hell by withholding the Gospel from them and for believing in a two-tier covenant. I believe that Pastor Chambers will shed many tears when he stands at the Great White Throne Judgment and hears the Jews wail as they are sentenced to the Lake of Fire.

THE WHITEWASHING OF SCOFIELD

            According to Trumbull’s biography, prior to 1879, Cyrus Scofield had no knowledge of the Bible, and when it came to Christian history, archeology, etc., he was totally uneducated. He had lived as a soldier, a politician, a crooked lawyer and a drunk. To think that this man would be known as a “Bible Scholar” and produce a study Bible, which would guide most Christians in the United States for the next 125 years would have been unthinkable. But it did happen. We make fun of the Mormons who follow a horse thief, liar, and bigamist; and we make fun of the Moslems who become suicide bombers and follow a thief, liar, and murderer. But why don’t we make fun of ourselves for following a shyster, liar, and bigamist? After all, he gave himself the title “doctor of divinity,” proclaimed himself to be a Greek scholar and portrayed himself as someone who was qualified to rightly divide the Word of God.

            Brookes became Scofield’s handler and was able to bamboozle the top Christian leaders in 1883 and make them believe that Cyrus Scofield was a “gift from God.” Here is how it was done:

               Dwight L. Moody conducted an evangelistic campaign in St. Louis in 1879-80 and Cyrus was a volunteer worker in the meetings. The campaign ended in April of that year. The question arises, how was Cyrus able to make a living during these months? Trumbull in his biography tries to show that Cyrus still had a law practice but there is no evidence of it.

             Pastor Brookes spent time tutoring Cyrus in the doctrine of dispensationalism and he learned it well. But instead of joining the church where Brookes was the pastor, Cyrus became a member of the Pilgrim Congregational Church of St. Louis in July 1880. The pastor of this church, Dr. C.C. Goodell, was a personal friend of Pastor Brookes and held the same views when it came to prophecy. The Scofield family had for about 100 years had been members of this very liberal denomination, and Cyrus went back to his family roots.

            One month later Cyrus became the acting secretary for the Y.M.C.A. of St. Louis, a strong fundamental Christian organization that was founded to reach men for Christ.

            Cyrus was now building up his credentials in Christian work, and became involved in an outreach work for railroad crews, who exchanged trains in the city, and had lay-over time which was used by the men to drink, gamble and visit prostitutes. According to historical records, Cyrus did not win many men for Christ during this outreach.

            After having been “saved” less than two years, the St. Louis Association of the Congregational Church issued a “License to Preach” to Cyrus. He immediately organized and pastored the Hyde Park Congregational Church of St. Louis. After having served less than two years, the denominational leadership recommended him as pastor for a Congregational church in Dallas, Texas.

            Up until this time, Cyrus had no former theological training, just what he learned while he was on the job as a pastor. He was known for being a smooth talker as an attorney and thus he was able to present sermons to people who were members of the church, but were not born again.    

            In order to package and sell Cyrus to fundamental Christians, stories were released to the press that prior to his conversion to Christ he had been a hopeless drunk, but Christ had set him free and now he was sober and on fire for the Lord. These press releases served two purposes; any criminal wrongdoing prior to his conversion would be blamed on his drinking and by having gone straight, people would have great sympathy for this former drunk.

THE NEGLECTED WIFE AND CHILDREN

            When Cyrus was forced to resign as a District Attorney in 1874, he stopped supporting his family. For the next seven years, Leontine had to work to support herself and the two daughters. She also received some support from her mother. In July 1881, she drew up divorce papers which were filed on July 23, 1881. Cyrus hired an attorney to fight the charges of abandonment and gross neglect, but the court sided with Leontine, a divorce was granted and she was given full custody. Cyrus got visiting rights but was ordered to make alimony payments.

            But the divorce never became final and Leontine withdrew her request for divorce. There are no records of why she withdrew her request. The court granted the request and Cyrus and Leontine continued to be married on paper.

Divorce proceedings at that time were totally different from the way current proceedings take place. In order to get a divorce, evidence had to be presented to the Court that there had been adultery, abandonment or severe spousal abuse. As a result, a divorce was not that easy to obtain, unlike today when divorce is granted because someone cites a weak excuse like “irreconcilable differences.”

            In 1882, Cyrus moved to Dallas to become a pastor in a church, and Leontine was able to obtain the post as librarian for the city of Atchison and quit her job as a store clerk for the Gignac store. On October 1, 1883, she filed a second petition for a divorce and the court granted it on October 8, 1883. In the court decree, it was stated that Cyrus was not a fit person to have custody of the children and forbade him to interfere with their upbringing.

            It is important to point out that the Christian community at this time did not have knowledge that Cyrus had a wife and two children and his divorce was kept a secret. Had it been common knowledge in the Christian Fundamental movement of these matters, Cyrus would have had great difficulty to continue as a minister of the Gospel. We continue to see the deception on the part of Cyrus and the spin control of his handlers.

            If Cyrus had been a true born again believer in Christ and a soul winner, he would have wanted to lead his wife and children to Christ. But historical records show that Cyrus was happy to be rid of his first family.

            Leontine lived to be 88 years old and died on November 6, 1936. The oldest daughter Abigail died at the age of 87 on December 10, 1957. Her younger sister Helen passed away on February 27, 1958. These three women died as Roman Catholics, and in “good standing” with the church. Most likely they ended up in hell. Why didn’t Cyrus evangelize his own family? This question will be answered at the Great White Throne Judgment.

If the leadership in the Fundamental movement wanted to find out the truth, they had ample time, since the marriage between Cyrus and Leontine came to light early in the last century. But very little effort was made since the leadership wanted it to remain a secret.

CYRUS MOVES TO DALLAS, TEXAS

            The First Congregational Church of Dallas, Texas was looking for a pastor and issued a call for Cyrus, which he accepted. He came to Dallas on August 19, 1882, three years after his “conversion” to Christianity. All his theological training had been under Pastor Brookes, including intensive studies of Darby’s written material. Dallas at that time was more of a “cow town” and was considered a farming and ranching culture, with a population of 10,000. The church had been formed in 1877 with a membership of 17 persons. In the beginning, the church was not well received in Dallas since the denomination came from the North and people in Texas were still hurting after the Civil War. Cyrus, being a polished politician, used his credentials as a soldier in the Confederate Army to have people accept him, even though he was pastoring a Yankee church.

            Cyrus copied a technique used by D. L. Moody and had invitations after each sermon he preached. On October 22, 1882, Cyrus’ official position in the church was settled in a business meeting, and he was hired retroactively for a one year term dated to August 11th of that year. Nine new members were received at this business meeting as the congregation had grown from 17 to 26 members in a short time. In June 1883, the church voted to set his salary to $1,500 per year. In today’s currency value it would amount to a salary of $40k to $50K. This was a lot of money at this time in history. Scofield now transferred his membership from the church in St. Louis to the church in Dallas.

            Ordination was important for the handlers of Scofield as they were building his public relations file. In Evangelical circles in the United States, a person is normally first licensed to the Gospel ministry, and after having served for a number of years and establishing himself as a moral Christian and well educated in the Bible, an ordination council is called consisting of ordained ministers from other churches (most of the time from within the denomination).

            The council convenes and the candidate is asked many questions covering subjects from theological understandings to morality. A candidate who had been divorced would in 1883 never passed for ordination. There were two persons present at the ordination examination who knew about Cyrus’ family, Cyrus himself and Pastor C.C. Goodell from St. Louis. Neither of these two men divulged this knowledge of divorce to the council which ordained Cyrus on October 18, 1883.

            In September of 1883, a family with two daughters moved to Dallas from the state of Michigan. The family joined the church which Cyrus was pastoring, however, it did not take long before Cyrus started dating one of the daughters named Hettie. The fact that he was still a married man did not bother Cyrus and they were married after a six month courtship on March 11, 1884.

            Cyrus brought a dual message to his church, he wanted to increase the membership (more money in the till) and at the same time preach the doom message that the Christian church was failing, the end of times were upon them and Jesus was coming back any moment. As he pushed this message he was also building for long term work on the earth. Despite the confusion, the church kept growing. In 1866, Cyrus brought D.L. Moody and his singer Ira D. Sankey (right) to Dallas. On March 5-7th, meetings were held in as public arena holding some 4,000 people.

On May 1, 1886 the First Congregational Church in Dallas had reached a membership that could sustain the church and all support from the American Home Mission Board ceased.

 

CONTINUED: Dancing Around The Golden Calf - Part 5
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[1] Joseph M. Canfield is the author of the book, The Incredible Scofield and His Book.

 

 

 

 


 

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