TRUE BELIEVER

By age 36, Cyrus Ingerson Scofield had failed magnificently. Accused of forgery and embezzlement, he had slipped into an alcohol-soaked despair. In 1879, he quit drinking, embraced Jesus Christ, and devoted himself to evangelism—spreading the word about the importance of personal salvation and biblical authority. Three decades later, he created the Scofield Reference Bible, sometimes cited as a plinth of Protestant fundamentalism. Conforming to a theological view known as pre-millennial dispensationalism, Scofield’s Bible presents history as epochs governed by divine covenants. In the last epochs, for example, to fulfill God’s plan, Jews must return to the Holy Land. Some scholars cite the Scofield Bible as a factor that helped forged longstanding support among American evangelicals for the nation of Israel.

Scofield’s life began in trauma: his