The Scofield Reference Bible was published in 1909. At that time, Oxford University Press invited Arno to participate in another project. He mentions this in his autobiography:

“The Oxford University Press sent me on November 6, 1909, and invitation to serve on a committee of scholars to go over the King James version to change obsolete phrases and make other changes which were absolutely necessary, disturbing as little as possible the authorized text. (He lists the others on the committee) The 1911 commemorative edition was published by the Oxford University Press, but for some reason it never became popular.” 25

This shows that Arno was in a working relationship with Oxford University Press at the time the Scofield Bible was published. He was not working through Scofield.

Blocked in this early attempt to rewrite the Bible, Oxford Press apparently invited Arno to devote the next decade of his life to writing a new set of Commentaries on the Bible. See the listing of books he wrote between 1909 and 1924.

In 1959, on the 50th anniversary of the Scofield Bible, Oxford University Press asked Frank to write a history of the Scofield Bible which appeared in a small booklet.26

At about this time Frank joined eight committee members to write the New Scofield Reference Bible(1967). When it was complete, Oxford asked him to write a brochure advertising it. And he presided over the large dinner held in Chicago when the revision was launched.27

A busy man, he headed the style committee of the Holy Bible, New International Version. And ultimately the Scofield Reference Bible committee replaced the KJV with the NIV. Thus Frank finished what his father began. And we see that father and son had for 80 years worked at the direction of a hidden hand in Oxford.

Oxford University Press had a Fabian socialist bent. The Fabians believed in slow and steady change. From the time of Westcott until the publication of the New Scofield Bible there was a continuity of purpose that spanned three generations. The Fabians patiently created a new interpretation of bible prophecy, a new bible and a new set of commentaries. These replaced the Victorian standards of historicism, the KJV and Matthew Henry. Judge their tree by its fruits.

But new bibles and commentaries were nothing without believers. Ministers were needed to teach the new religion to the target audience in the bible belt.

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Interesting Links

Balfour
C.I. Scofield
C.C Carlson - The Mother of Modern Prophecy
Dallas Theological Seminary
Dispensationalism
Hal Lindsey - Wolf In Sheep's Clothing
The Rapture Hoax
Rothchild
Theodore Herzl
Untermeyer
Westcott
Zionism

25. Arno C. Gaebelein, Half a Century, (Our Hope Publications, New York, 1930), p. 95.
26. Arno C. Gaebelein (Rausch), p. 241.
27. Ibid., p. 243.

Bibliography