C.I. SCOFIELD'S HIDDEN SIDE

 by Dave MacPherson

     C. I. S. can stand for "Crime Investigation Scene" or C. I. Scofield.

     But I repeat myself. The venerable old C. I. Scofield of Scofield Bible fame was, in a sense, a 19th century "crime scene" that many still don't know about.

     Cyrus Scofield is best known in Christian circles as the greatest promoter of the pretrib rapture during the past century by means of his Scofield Reference Bible which came out in 1909.

     He preferred the pretrib rapture view over other prophetic views and never missed an opportunity to plug that 19th century fantasy and sneak it into his "explanations" which he included alongside Bible verses.

     Maybe we should call his Bible the Scofield "Preference" Bible!

     Some remarkable things happened after his reported conversion to Christ in 1879:

     An article in the "Topeka [Kansas] Daily Capital" on Aug. 27, 1881 began in this manner:

     "Cyrus I. Schofield [sic], 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 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."

     It continued: "Within the past year [1880]...Cyrus committed a series of St. Louis forgeries" which landed him "in the St. Louis jail for a period of six months." (I obtained a copy of this article at the Kansas State Historical Society in Topeka.)
     One of the forgeries was a real estate scam he cooked up during which he robbed his own mother-in-law of her life savings ($1300.00)! (Would most crooks target their own family members?!)
     Scofield deserted his first wife Leontine (and their two girls), she divorced him in 1883, he remarried three months later and also lied to "Who's Who in America" about his criminal past. (To see a copy of C. I. Scofield's divorce decree which I found in the Atchison County Courthouse in Kansas, Google "Scofield: The Man Behind the Myth."  I included highlights of the above in my 1983 book "The Great Rapture Hoax.")
     Leontine died in 1936 fifteen years after Cyrus died. She never remarried and spent many years as the librarian at the Atchison Library. To see where she is buried in a Catholic cemetery, Google "gravestone of Leontine Cerre Scofield."
     Although Scofield never had any theological training, he brazenly added "D.D." after his name in the 1890s even though no institution had conferred that degree on him!

     Those interested in many other shocked aspects of Scofield's hidden (and criminal) side are invited to obtain "The Incredible Scofield and His Book" (1988) by Joseph M. Canfield. Another great book on C. I. S. in "The Praise of Folly" (2009) by David Lutzweiler.

     Somehow the Scofield saga continues. His pretribized Bible is still being merchandised in numerous Christian bookstores and I am forced to conclude that many pretribbers are still Scofieldelirious!