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C.I. Scofield
C.I. Scofield (August 19, 1843 – July 24, 1921) was an American preacher, theologian, and author whose ministry and editorial work profoundly shaped dispensational theology through the creation of the Scofield Reference Bible. Born Cyrus Ingerson Scofield in Lenawee County, Michigan, to Elias Scofield, a sawmill worker, and Abigail Goodrich, he was the seventh child in a family disrupted by his mother’s death in childbirth and his father’s remarriage. Raised in Wilson County, Tennessee, he served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War (1861–1865), earning the Confederate Cross of Honor, before moving to St. Louis, Missouri, where he worked as a lawyer and politician, elected to the Kansas House of Representatives in 1871. Converted in 1879 at age 36 under the influence of YMCA worker Thomas McPheeters, he abandoned his legal career for ministry. Scofield’s preaching career began with ordination as a Congregational minister in 1882, pastoring First Congregational Church in Dallas, Texas (1882–1895), where he grew the congregation from 14 to over 500 members, and later Moody Memorial Church in Northfield, Massachusetts (1895–1902). His most enduring contribution came in 1909 with the publication of the Scofield Reference Bible, a King James Version annotated with dispensational notes that sold over 10 million copies, popularizing premillennialism among evangelicals. Married twice—first to Leontine Cerré in 1866, with whom he had two daughters (divorced 1883), then to Hettie Hall van Wark in 1884, with whom he had a son—he faced early controversy over alleged fraud and forgery, though he claimed redemption through faith. He died at 77 in Douglaston, New York, leaving a legacy as a key architect of modern dispensationalism.
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C.I. Scofield preaches on the life of King Asa, highlighting his reforms and the secret of his victory found in his prayer and perfect heart towards the Lord. Despite Asa's imperfections, his sincere desire to do God's will and his heart's longing for perfection allowed God to use him mightily. Scofield emphasizes that having a heart perfect with the Lord involves desiring and intending to do God's will above all else, despite facing hindrances from one's own nature, the world system influenced by Satan, and spiritual opposition.
Asa's Good Reign
(2 Chr. xiv:1-12.) I. The Analysis. 1. Asa's reforms (verses 1-7; see below). 2. The Secret of Asa's Victory (verses 8-12). Asa's beautiful prayer is good for all dispensations, for it deals with the great permanent factors of man's need and weakness and the strength of God. Note that it is not a prayer of despair, but the confident petition of a heart that "rests" (verse 11) on God. II. The Heart of the Lesson. As not infrequently happens, we must go outside the lesson to find its deepest truth. Our lesson records the activities of Asa in the things of God, but a little word concerning this king in another book of the Bible gives the secret of his power to do the Lord's work: ''Nevertheless, Asa's heart was perfect with the Lord all his days." Reading that we no longer wonder that the idol houses came down and walls of defense went up. The real causes of things are often hidden from the world. When loving hands prepared Martin Luther's body for the grave it was found that his knees were calloused from his hours of unceasing prayer. The world saw Martin Luther nailing the immortal theses to the church door, and heard him thundering from pulpit and printing press against the iniquities of Rome. The Lord saw on his knees a humble man whose ''heart was perfect with the Lord all his life." And any man, king or peasant, scholar or unlearned, great or small, whose heart is perfect with the Lord will be owned and used of the Lord. What, then is it to have a heart perfect with the Lord? It is not to be sinlessly perfect in life, nor absolutely flawless in obedience, for Asa was neither. Not all of the high places were removed; and Asa gave the Lord's treasure to Ben-hadad (1 Kings xv:14, 18). And yet the Word of God expressly says that "Asa's heart was perfect with the Lord." That heart is perfect with the Lord which, in all sincerity of desire and intent, longs to do and permit to be done the will of God. Such a man will not be perfect, but he will long to be, and will mourn when he is not. He has enthroned the will of God as the supreme object of his desire. But he lives his life in the presence of three hindering forces. First of all his hinderances is himself as he is by nature. He is not in the flesh as to standing (Rom. viii:9), but the flesh is in him, and the old self will is a vigilant seeker after the throne from which it has been cast down. Secondly, the man whose heart is right with God lives his life in a vast world-system of which Satan is the veiled prince (John xiv:30) and god (2 Cor. iv:4). It spreads before the man of God its kingdom of pleasure; of profit and of power. And, finally, such a man is hated of Satan, and the principalities and powers of evil are arrayed against him. Doubtless the divine provision for his threefold need is ample (Gal. v:16, 17); Eph. vi:10-13), but doubtless, too, the man of God, to his shame and sorrow, before God will again and again come short of absolute perfection. But he will make no weak excuses for his failures, judging them honestly before God, and such a man God will surely use.
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C.I. Scofield (August 19, 1843 – July 24, 1921) was an American preacher, theologian, and author whose ministry and editorial work profoundly shaped dispensational theology through the creation of the Scofield Reference Bible. Born Cyrus Ingerson Scofield in Lenawee County, Michigan, to Elias Scofield, a sawmill worker, and Abigail Goodrich, he was the seventh child in a family disrupted by his mother’s death in childbirth and his father’s remarriage. Raised in Wilson County, Tennessee, he served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War (1861–1865), earning the Confederate Cross of Honor, before moving to St. Louis, Missouri, where he worked as a lawyer and politician, elected to the Kansas House of Representatives in 1871. Converted in 1879 at age 36 under the influence of YMCA worker Thomas McPheeters, he abandoned his legal career for ministry. Scofield’s preaching career began with ordination as a Congregational minister in 1882, pastoring First Congregational Church in Dallas, Texas (1882–1895), where he grew the congregation from 14 to over 500 members, and later Moody Memorial Church in Northfield, Massachusetts (1895–1902). His most enduring contribution came in 1909 with the publication of the Scofield Reference Bible, a King James Version annotated with dispensational notes that sold over 10 million copies, popularizing premillennialism among evangelicals. Married twice—first to Leontine Cerré in 1866, with whom he had two daughters (divorced 1883), then to Hettie Hall van Wark in 1884, with whom he had a son—he faced early controversy over alleged fraud and forgery, though he claimed redemption through faith. He died at 77 in Douglaston, New York, leaving a legacy as a key architect of modern dispensationalism.