Christians Were Tricked Into Zionism

Christians Were Tricked Into Zionism

How Footnotes Rewrote Christian Theology

As many of my regular readers know, I grew up in the South and was raised as an Evangelical. From an early age, I was told about how the Jews are God’s “Chosen” people, and by that logic, as I was taught, the modern state of Israel is part of “God’s plan” as well.

I never really questioned this logic as a child, or even as a young adult.

The pastor would make sure that his message aligned with this “irrefutable truth,” as well, and the televangelists reinforced it on TV at home.

But I have a message for all of you Evangelical Christians out there: you were manipulated. Hoodwinked into worshiping a nation-state instead of the values of peace and love, your religion supposedly stands for.

The main tool used to pull off this con wasn’t some secret government operation; it was a Bible. Specifically, a heavily footnoted, suspiciously pro-Zionist interpretation of the Bible known as the Scofield Reference Bible.

If you’ve never heard of it, that’s the point. It was never meant to be a headline; it was meant to be a framework, a stealth theological shift disguised as biblical scholarship. This Bible was published in 1909 and backed by some of the wealthiest elites of the time. The two main investors who backed his work were Alwyn Ball Jr., a New York businessman and philanthropist, and John T. Pirie, a Chicago-based department store magnate (Carson Pirie Scott & Co.).

But the most important figure to back him, was Samuel Untermyer, a wealthy Zionist lawyer and political figure. Untermyer was instrumental in promoting Scofield’s work through elite literary and social clubs, like the Lotos Club in New York. The Lotos Club was a place where the elite and renowned authors could network, a club that Untermyer had actually been the chairman of for a time.

Some Zionists try to dispute Untermyer’s backing of the Scofield Bible, but keep in mind that Scofield was not a prominent author yet somehow became a member of this elite club, and saw his footnoted Bible rise to prominence…

How would an unknown author with no credentials and a fringe theology get his works backed by a prestigious club without any connections?

Keep in mind that at this point in time, the ideas of a pre-tribulation rapture, existence being divided up into seven separate “dispensations”, and the idea of Christ returning for a literal thousand-year reign on Earth were all rejected by mainstream protestants.

So, who were the true beneficiaries of Scofield’s work being pushed out to the masses? The Scofield Bible essentially rewrote the way millions of American Protestants read Scripture, and it contains just enough theological dressing to pass for credible commentary.

What it really did was twist biblical text into a 20th-century political manifesto with Israel at the center of it all.