The Scofield Connection and the Pre-Tribulation Fallacy with Corrie Ten Boom's Perspective! - Chapter 47

The Scofield Connection – The Pre-Tribulation Fallacy with Corrie Ten Boom’s Perspective

I have just been re-watching Bill Salus’s video on America in Bible Prophecy.[1] Bill comes out as a defender of the pre-tribulation rapture. Many Christians hold dearly to the pre-tribulation rapture escape doctrine in spite of the fact that it is contrary to sound doctrine and traditional Bible interpretation held for hundreds of years by our Christian forefathers. I will need to make a short case to refute the pre-tribulation doctrine as it is called.

Up until the 1830s no one had ever heard of such a doctrine. Since the time of Christ the church had taught that the true believers would suffer persecution for their faith. Jesus, himself, had said,

The servant is not greater than his Lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you.[2]

Apostle Paul when writing to the Corinthian believers said,

We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed.[3]

In fact in the book of Hebrews the eleventh chapter we find a history of the heroes of faith of times past many who died for their beliefs.

And others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection: and others had trial of cruel mocking and scourging, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; (of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in mountains, and in dens and in caves of the earth. And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.[4]

In 1563 Foxe's Book of Martyrs was first published. Written by John Foxe the Protestant theologian and leader, it was a famous collection of the history of the Christian martyrs from the time of the Christian persecutions by Nero to the then present.[5] In it, over and over again, one could see that God did not always rescue His beloved servants, but He gave them strength to suffer and die for their faith. As Apostle Peter had said,

Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: but rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s suffering; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.[6]

The mentality of the Christian believer for eighteen hundred years was that he was going to suffer for his Christian faith and world view in this life. Jesus had told us so,

If the world hates you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.[7]

However, that all changed around the 1830’s when John Nelson Darby a famous Plymouth Brethren preacher in England visited a spirited revival in Glasgow, Scotland. A young woman named Margaret MacDonald, a member of the congregation, shared a revelation she claimed to have received of the Lord. She believed that the church would not go through tribulation in the last days but would be miraculously saved by Christ. Darby incorporated this idea into his own Biblical framework and eschatology.[8]

Later, C. I. Scofield amplified Darby’s teachings and spent various years researching and footnoting Biblical passages to reinforce the pre-tribulation idea. Scofield himself seems to have a dubious background. He abandoned his first wife and two children after being released from jail. He had been serving time for his part in a railroad scam including criminal forgery. He then adopted as his mistress a young woman from the St. Louis Flower Mission whom he afterwards left for a rich widower.[9]

Scofield’s financial supporters were wealthy Jewish businessmen who were determined that the Jews should have a homeland, a place where they could be safe from religious persecution. We do not know for sure that their motivation was humanitarian, as some believe it was totally diabolical. We do know that Scofield worked in their employ for many years and used as his residence the famous Lotus Club in New York City indirectly owned by some of these financial barons. 

One of the first Scofield met was Samuel Untermeyer, who later became chairman of the American Jewish Committee, president of the American League of Jewish Patriots, and chairman of the Non-sectarian Anti-Nazi League. Untermeyer introduced Scofield to such influential Jewish leaders as Samuel Gompers, Fiorello LaGuardia, Abraham Straus, Bernard Baruch, and Jacob Schiff. Scofield later travelled to Europe where he studied and researched at Oxford and elsewhere at their expense. They later arranged the publication and distribution of his concordance and annotated Scofield Reference Bible in 1909.[10]

The result was the Scofield Bible footnotes and concordance adhered to a thoroughly pro-Jewish interpretation of the Scriptures. His footnotes reinforced the idea that the Jews were still God’s chosen people despite the fact that they had denied Christ and instigated His death. Scofield not only incorporated the pro-Jewish doctrine into his Bible footnotes, but also, the pre-tribulation doctrine and the doctrine of millions of years of theistic evolution.

Somehow, Scofield became a good friend of Dwight L. Moody. When Moody died suddenly in 1899 at the age of 62, it was Scofield who gave the first funeral eulogy of the great evangelist. In fact Scofield was known as Moody’s pastor. Scofield’s Reference Bible with his footnotes was later adopted by the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago and the Torrey Bible Institute in Los Angeles. As a result Scofield’s doctrines influenced all the Full-Gospel Businessmen, the Fundamentalist and Evangelical churches and universities. The Scofield Reference Bible became the favorite study Bible of almost all Protestant pastors. It is impossible to overstate the influence of Cyrus Scofield on twentieth-century Christian beliefs. His Bible has been the standard reference work in virtually all Christian ministries and divinity schools in the USA during the last century.[11]

I want to finish this chapter with a warning from a famous Evangelist, Miss Corrie Ten Boom. Miss Boom was a Dutch survivor of the WWII Nazi Concentration Camps. Because of a typographical error, she was miraculously released from a camp where her sister had died. Her mother and father had also died in a previous camp. On her release Corrie returned to Holland and after the war worked with victims of Nazi brutality. 

She taught and lectured on forgiveness travelling even in Germany. She noted that those who had the power to forgive were able to readjust to post war life and to reincorporate into society. Those however who held unto bitterness became incapacitated and were unable to find fulfillment in the post war period. Corrie became a world traveler speaking about her WWII concentration camp experience. Her famous book, The Hiding Place[12] documents her experience and was also made into a movie.[13]

During her travels to China, she was able to speak with the leaders of the underground Christian Chinese church. She learned that it was the pre-tribulation doctrine that had caused the Chinese Christians to be unprepared for the persecution which they experienced under Mao. The Chinese Christians implored Corrie to warn the Christians in the West of the dangers of such a doctrine. In 1974, Corrie published an article Prepared for the Coming Tribulation, from which I will paraphrase.

Corrie believes the world is deadly ill and dying. But although the world is dying and God has signed its death certificate, He still needs His ambassadors, His over-comers, to be streams of living waters and channels of mercy to the dying world.

In Ravensbruck, the concentration camp where Corrie’s sister Betsy died, she and her sister had been God’s representatives from Heaven. They were there because they had helped persecuted Jewish families. Seven hundred people from Holland, Russia, Poland, and Belgium were crammed into a room built for a mere two hundred. As far as Corrie knew, she and her sister were the only representatives’ of God’s Kingdom in that room. But because of their presence and because of their sharing their faith with others, things changed. Jesus said,

In the world you shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.[14]

Corrie says that we can be over-comers today by bringing the love and light of God to a world filled with darkness and hate. When we read the Bible we may even get frightened as we read of the promised tribulation and persecution that are to come. We even see them coming true today. But we can still shout “hallelujah,” because Jesus has said,

He that overcomes shall inherit all things: and I will be His God, and he shall be My son.[15]

This is the future and hope of this world. Not that the world will survive – but that we shall be over-comers in the midst of a dying world.[16] - Corrie Ten Boom

Corrie went on further and said she could not understand why God let her sister die in that horrible concentration camp. But later, she realized that Betsy’s death was the catalyst that caused Corrie to end up travelling the world to tell people about Jesus. But she warned:

There are some among us teaching there will be no tribulation, that the Christians will be able to escape all this. These are the false teachers that Jesus was warning us to expect in the latter days. Most of them have little knowledge of what is already going on across the world. I have been in countries where the saints are already suffering terrible persecution.[17]

Corrie goes on to explain about what happened on her visit to China. The Chinese Christian leaders said that the American missionaries had told them that before the tribulation would come they would be raptured away. Therefore, the Chinese Christians were not prepared for tribulation or persecution. They were expecting God to supernaturally save them. But then the Chinese communists came and millions were tortured to death. The Chinese Christians encouraged Corrie to warn the west of the coming persecution. She writes:

In America, the churches sing, "Let the congregation escape tribulation", but in China and Africa (and throughout the Middle East and India) the tribulation has already arrived. In last year alone, more than two hundred thousand Christians were martyred in Africa. Now things like that never get into the newspapers because they cause bad political relations. But I know. I have been there. We need to think about that when we sit down in our nice houses with our nice clothes to eat our steak dinners. 

Many, many members of the Body of Christ are being tortured to death at this very moment, yet we continue right on as though we are all going to escape the tribulation. I feel I have a divine mandate to go and tell the people of this world that it is possible to be strong in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are in training for the tribulation, but more than sixty percent of the Body of Christ across the world has already entered into the tribulation. There is no way to escape it….We are next![18]

Corrie also tells us how we can get ready for the persecution that will come one day. First of all she says we need to feed on God’s Word and digest it so that it becomes part of our very being. Like Joshua said to the Jews as they entered the promise land:

This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shall meditate upon it day and night that thou may observe to do all that is written therein, for then shall thou make thy way prosperous and then thou shall have good success.[19]

Corrie says we should have disciplined Bible study each day, not only to memorize Bible passages, but to apply those passages to our lives. She goes on to say that we need to develop a personal relationship with Jesus, not the Jesus of yesterday, but the life-changing Son of God who is alive and well and willing to move in the hearts of men today.

We need an infilling of the Holy Spirit as a priority. The disciples of the past could not have stood up against the horrible persecution they received without the power of the Holy Spirit. Neither will we be able to face the coming persecution and tribulation without our own personal infilling of the God’s Spirit. Nor must we wait until tribulation comes before starting to encourage one another.

The fruit of the Spirit should be the dominant force of every Christian's life.[20]

We also may be fearful of the coming tribulation. But as Corrie says, when we are weak, then He can be strong in us.[21] If we have been faithful in preparation, the mighty inner strengthening of the Holy Spirit will help us through. We may not be strong in ourselves, but we will be strong in Him who will make us more than conquerors.[22] And though it may seem He slays us, by not saving us from the persecution or tribulation, yet will we trust in Him[23]; knowing that if we endure until the end, we shall receive a crown of life![24] Get ready. It’s later than we think!

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Notes:

All Bible verses are from the King James Bible, although I have changed some of the old English. Any similarity to any modern version is only by coincidence. Bible verses other than the King James have been foot-noted properly.

Copyright @ Dennis M. Edwards (photos used from Google images for educational purposes only) 

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKOKqCk5vuo (accessed 03/16)
[2] John 15:20
[3] 2Corinthians 4:8-9
[4] Hebrews 11:35-40
[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxe's_Book_of_Martyrs (03/16)
[6] 1Peter 4:12,13
[7] John 15:18-19
[8] http://reformed-theology.org/html/issue06/pre-trib.htm (03/16)
[9] http://proliberty.com/observer/20090507.htm (accessed 03/16)
[10] http://www.sweetliberty.org//issues/hoax/unified.htm#.VLlq8I2ePPk
[11] Ibid
[12] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hiding_Place_%28biography%29
[13] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XX0GwjXExFE (accessed 03/16)
[14] John 16;33
[15] Revelation 21:7
[16] http://www.emoaf.org/RAPTURE.html (accessed 03/16)
[17] Ibid
[18] Ibid
[19] Joshua 1:8
[20] http://www.emoaf.org/RAPTURE.html

[21] 2Corinthians 12:10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

[22] Romans 8:37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

[23] Job 13:15 Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.

[24] James 1:12 Blessed is the man that endures temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.