Scofield, C[yrus] I[ngerson] (1843-1921)

Missions advocate and promoter of dispensational premillennialism

Scofield was born in Michigan but grew up in Tennessee. He fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War, studied law in Saint Louis, Missouri, and then moved to Kansas in 1869. He served there as a state legislator and U.S. district attorney but experienced drinking and marital problems. He was converted, however, and in 1879 began work with the YMCA in Saint Louis. There he learned dispensational theology under James H. Brookes, a prominent early advocate. Scofield pastored Congregational churches in Dallas, Texas (1882-1895), Northfield, Massaschusetts (1805-1903), and Dallas again (1903-1905); thereafter he devoted all his time to speaking and writing. His publications, notably Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth (1882), a Bible correspondence course (1890-1915), and the Scofield Reference Bible (1909), became the most powerful propagators of dispensational premillennialism in America.

Scofield was a regional superintendent of Congregational home missions in the 1880s, but his vision for foreign missions grew after he met James Hudson Taylor, founder of the China Inland Mission, in 1888. In 1890 Scofield organized the Central American Mission, which placed thirty-nine missionaries in five countries by 1920. In 1914 Scofield cofounded the Philadelphia School of the Bible, which produced nearly a hundred missionaries in its first 20 years.

Joel Carpenter, “Scofield, C(yrus) I(ngerson),” in Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, ed. Gerald H. Anderson (New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 1998), 607.

This article is reprinted from Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, Macmillan Reference USA, copyright © 1998 Gerald H. Anderson, by permission of Macmillan Reference USA, New York, NY. All rights reserved.

Bibliography

Digital Primary

Gaebelein, Arno Clemens and C. I. Scofield. The Jewish Question. New York: Publication Office “Our Hope”, 1912.

Scofield, C.I. In Many Pulpits with Dr. C.I. Scofield. New York [etc.]: Oxford University Press, 1922.

_____. The New Life in Christ Jesus. Chicago: Bible institute colportage association, 1915.

_____. What Do the Prophets Say? Philadelphia: Sunday School Times Co, 1918.

Scofield, C. I. and Arno Clemens Gaebelein. Things New and Old: Old and New Testament Studies. New York: Publication Office “Our Hope”, 1920.

Scofield, C.I.,  D. McTavish, and Henry W. Frost. Report of Convention for the Deepening of the Spiritual Life Held at Ottawa, Ontario from Tuesday, October 25th to Friday, October 28th, 1898. Toronto?: s.n.], 1899.

Primary

Scofield, C.I. Plain Papers on the Holy Spirit. New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1899.

_____. Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth (2 Tim. 2:15); Being Ten Outline Studies of the More Important Divisions of Scripture. New York: F.H. Revell Co, 1907.

_____. The Scofield Reference Bible: The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments : Authorized Version, with a New System of Connected Topical References to All the Greater Themes of Scripture, with Annotations, Revised Marginal Renderings, Summaries, Definitions, and Index : to Which Are Added Helps at Hard Places, Explanations of Seeming Discrepancies, and a New System of Paragraphs. New York: Oxford University Press, American Branch, 1909.

Scofield, C. I. and Arno Clemens Gaebelein. Where Faith Sees Christ. New York: Publication Office, “Our Hope”, 1916.

Scofield, C. I. and Ella E. Pohle. Dr. C.I. Scofield’s Question Box. Chicago: Bible Institute Colportage Association, 1917.

Secondary

Canfield, Joseph M. The Incredible Scofield and His Book. Vallecito, CA: Ross House Books, 1988.

Spain, Mildred W. “And in Samaria”: A Story of Fifty Years’ Missionary Witness in Central America, 1890-1940. Dallas, Tex: Central American Mission, 1940.

Trumbull, Charles G. The Life Story of C.I. Scofield. New York: Oxford University Press, 1920.

Portrait

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