Reflections on a Family Bible: Some Common Ground Between Families (12/26/11

I thought I would begin a yearly reflection on my family's spirituality/lineage with some common ground shared by both families. This common ground is Cyrus Ingerson Scofield. Leona Baker, Richard Morville, and Jeanette Karloski all owned Scofield Reference Bibles. Knowing that C. I. Scofield is a common reference point should tell you a lot about this family. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Scofield, or those who's bells are not sounding as to his lasting impact on this family, please continue reading.

Cyrus Ingerson Scofield (August 19, 1843 - July 24, 1921) was an American theologian, minister, and writer whose best-selling annotated Bible popularized dispensationalism among fundamentalist Christians. Let me try to unpack this rather dense theological phrase from Wikipedia. C. I. Scofield's religious background was English Puritan and Episcopalian. The Puritan influence plus an early life of war, heavy drinking, and a rocky marriage led Cyrus to St. Louis (He was born in Michigan, interesting!). It was in St. Louis where Cyrus met Dwight L. Moody, the famous evangelist. A combination of Scofield's background and his new friendship with Moody and James H. Brooks, a Presbyterian minister of notable reputation, led Scofield to become a strong fundamentalist and premillennial dispensationalist (Please keep reading, I know these words sound like gobbledygook). Let's start with fundamentalism and work our way to premillennialism, and then dispensationalism. Then hopefully we can see how these ideas (and ways of life) bring light onto my grandparents and their grandparents and everyone in between. Most of the posts will not be this theologically difficult, but this is important "set up" information.

Fundamentalism arose out of British and American Protestantism in the late 19th century and early 20th century among evangelical Christians. The founders of Fundamentalism reacted against liberal theology and militantly stood on 2 pillars or foundations of doctrine, the inerrancy of the Bible and Jesus Christ as the only means to salvation/atonement. To simplify this, "liberal theology" emphasized deeds (feeding the poor, taking care of the widows, orphans, etc), whereas Fundamentalism emphasized creeds (primarily) and deeds. The type of Fundamentalism that Scofield was associated with (and I think all of our family) was Evangelical Fundamentalism. This type of fundamentalism was a movement about correct beliefs (doctrine). This movement stressed the need for personal conversion, sometimes called being "saved" or "born again", a high regard for biblical authority, an emphasis on teachings that proclaim the saving death and resurrection of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, and actively expressing and sharing the gospel.

Dispensationalism is a way of interpreting the scriptures. Adherents of Dispensationalism typically see the bible as a series of chronologically successive "dispensations" or periods of history in which God relates to human beings in different ways under different Biblical covenants. (The notes in Leona, Jeanette, and Richard's Scofield Reference Bibles all reflect this way of interpreting scriptures.) There are 4 major pillars or foundations of Dispensationalism. 1.) Israel and the Church are two separate people groups with two separate histories in God's ultimate plan for his people. This view is contrasted with the view that the Church is now the "new Israel." 2.) There is more discontinuity than continuity between the Old and New Testaments. 3.) The church began at Pentecost in Acts chapter two, rather than the view that puts the beginning of the church in Genesis chapter twelve. Lastly 4.) The bible's meaning is obtained through studying its historical context and through the grammar of the biblical text itself.

Premillennialism is the last distinction. Other than evangelism, premillennialism is probably what all of us learned by talking with our family. Premillennislism is a view that literally means "a belief in something before the millennium." Premillennialists held to a specific view of the Bible that strongly believed the Christians were going to be taken to Heaven before the 1000 year reign of Christ. I trust that if you are seriously confused by all of this you will read more about on Wikipedia's excellently written article. What I want to stress is that people who believe in Premillennialism are people who strongly hope in the second coming, who truly believe God has not forgotten us and has woven us into his plan all the way up to the end of time. I remember living on Elliot Street growing up and Grandma Karloski was there sleeping in my room. One night before bed she began telling me about the book of Revelation and about all the things she believed would happen when God would come back to create a new heaven and a new earth. I remember being so scared that I asked my mother to sleep in a different room. Looking back on that evening I am flattered that Grandma cared enough about me to give me a glimpse of what she thought God's plan for world history would be.

So quickly let me summarize the four major pillars/foundations on which Jeanette Karloski, Richard Morville, and Leona Baker stood:

1. Fundamentalism: You must believe certain creeds and you must be "born again".

2. Dispensationalism: God works with different people from different times in different ways.

3. Premillennialism: Belief that God has revealed details of the end times in the book of Revelation.

4. Evangelicalism: Focus on atoning work of Christ and inerrancy of Scripture as the two central elements of faith. If you are an evangelical, you are a fundamentalist, but if you are a fundamentalist you are not necessarily an evangelical.

Jeanette, Leona, and Richard were all fundamentalists and evangelicals.