Chapter Six Continued: A Question of Faith

A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada

When William Aberhart was still attending school, prior to getting his teacher's certificate, he fell out of a tree while picking apples, broke his leg, and was laid up at home until it mended.

During this time he may have studied the Bible intently, because it seems to be about then that his interest in religion took hold. He had attended Sunday School classes at the Presbyterian Church in Egmondville, but since he was adept at memory work, lacking reasoning skills, his knowledge was no doubt literal.

When he was finally able to return to his classes, he became alarmed at the religious program, which was following the social gospel, questioning the infallibility of the Bible.

While in my ... courses I had listened to the vaporing of modern theology. I heard them say that the first twelve chapters of Genesis was an allegory; that the story of the Flood was an Eastern Exaggeration, for the water had not covered the whole earth; that the crossing of the Red Sea was Eastern Imagery, and that it was the natural result of an East wind; that the yarn of Joshua and the Sun standing still was merely National legend, and not by any means scientifically accurate; that the story of Jonah and the whale was picturesque and figurative, and not meant to be taken in any literal fashion; that the first chapter of Matthew,
which describes the virgin birth, was unscientific and fanciful. I heard them say these things, and for a time I hardly knew where I was at. (1)

His faith wasn't put in question, so much as his memory of the Bible, which was how he defined his faith. This would have presented quite a dilemma for the young man, and began his disdain for liberal Christianity.

Brantford and a Spiritual Awakening

William arrived in Brantford at a time when the Niagara Bible Conferences had greatly impacted Church teachings. He joined the Zion Presbyterian Church, not long after they had lost their popular preacher, William Cochrane, who had stood at their pulpit since 1862. Cochrane had denied the new social gospel, maintaining that “Any toning down of such doctrines, is dishonorable in a Christian teacher, and deserving of severest condemnation.” (2)

The tradition continued and in 1902, the Church hosted their own Bible Conference, where the guest speakers were Elmer Harris and A.C. Dixon. Harris was the founder of the Toronto Bible College and would later be one of the consulting editors of the Scofield Reference Bible (1909). He was also the son John Harris, of the Massey-Harris company.

A.C. Dixon was a preacher at the Moody Church and regular attendant of the Niagara conferences. He was also the co-author a series of pamphlets defending conservative Christianity from the advances of modern theology, something that would have held a great sway with young William. The following year the speaker was Cyrus Scofield himself.

By this time, Aberhart was deeply involved with the dispensationalism that began with Reverend Edward Irving, who was considered a lunatic by his peers, and John Nelson Darby, whose writings on the seven dispensations, helped to form the basis of the Scofield Reference Bible. He also wrote a letter to his parents, berating them for not keeping the faith, that alienated him from his family.

A New Spiritual Mentor

There was another man who would have an effect on the direction of William Aberhart's future: Dr. William Nichol, who for eight years was the Sunday School Superintendent at the Zion Presbyterian Church.

Dr. Nichol had graduated from the school of homeopathy in Chicago in 1869, at a time when the famous evangelist, D.L. Moody was head of the YMCA, and was running an enormously successful Sunday School in the city. Nichol may have decided to follow in Moody's footsteps, because not only did he himself teach Sunday School and Bible classes, but he also became actively involved in the local YMCA, serving two terms as president. (3)

Nichol embraced dispensationalism and would eventually base his classes on the teachings of Cyrus Scofield. Young William was inspired and began teaching Bible classes himself, with his popular theme being the "Second coming of Christ." He continued to attend lectures by all of the top fundamentalists, and became especially enamoured with Dwight Lyman Moody. After seeing an ad for Scofield Bible studies, he sent away his $ 5.00 and completed the course at home. (4)

Besides teaching at the Zion Church he also ran classes at the YMCA and the Brantford Collegiate Institute. He then decided that he would like to become a preacher himself and enrolled in extramural studies at Queen's University, then a Presbyterian College:

His university education was rather unusual; he took his entire degree by correspondence, had no time for extensive research, and was never able to interact with his teachers and other students and thereby refine his thinking. That he was able to complete his degree at all shows a tremendous amount of ambition and initiative, for he had to carry his studies along with his duties as principal, husband, father, and lay preacher. Other than first-class honours in mathematics, his marks were very poor, reflecting the little time he was able to devote to his studies. He failed Greek twice, Hebrew once, and received only 35 per cent in Honours Political Science. He finally completed his B.A. degree in 1911. (5)

His theories were also becoming more erratic and not everyone saw a future preacher:

"He got in wrong with the ministers and officials of the Church because of his high-handed methods and his tendency to condemn all who were not of his opinion. Just prior to his departure for the West, there was increasing evidence of this intolerance." (4)

This would be the pattern of William Aberhart's life and the movement he created: Confrontation, Intolerance and erratic beliefs.

Chapter Six Continued: Jessie

Sources:

1. Bible Bill: A Biography of William Aberhart, By: David R. Elliot and Iris Miller, Edmonton: Reidmore Books, 1987, Pg. 8-9

2. William Cochrane, Dictionary of Canadian Biographies Online, University of Toronto

3. History of Brant County, City of Brantford, Biographical Sketches, Warner and Beers, 1883, Pg. 526

4. The Social Credit Movement in Alberta, By: John A. Irving, University of Toronto Press, 1959, pg. 12

5. Elliot/Miller, 1987, Pg. 16

Chapter Five Continued: A Conspiracy Unfolds

A CULTURE OF DEFIANCE: History of the Reform-Conservative Party of Canada

Dwight Moody, who was more commonly known as D.L. Moody, was a very successful evangelical leader and regular attendee of the Niagara Bible Conferences.

His father died when he was young and his mother struggled to bring up seven children, eventually being forced to send several of them away. At the age of 17, Dwight moved to Boston to work in an uncle's shoe store, but the stipulation for employment was that he must go to church.

This set him on a career path that would span several decades, and he would found the Moody Church, the Northfield Mount Hermon School in Massachusetts, the Moody Bible Institute and Moody Publishers.

But before reaching that pinnacle of success, he spent many years in the trenches, ministering to the poor and less fortunate.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Moody became involved with the U.S. Christian Commission of the YMCA, and would continue to build the organization after the war. In the spring of 1872, he travelled to England and Scotland, where he spoke to sold out crowds, and it was here that he came into contact with the Plymouth Brethren.

Henry Drummond

While touring Scotland in November of 1873, D.L. Moody was assisted by a fellow evangelist, named Henry Drummond, a member of that Plymouth Brethren.

Drummond's work was important because he combined scientific studies with scripture, which was just what they needed to help battle against the discoveries of Charles Lyall and Darwin.

But more importantly, Drummond was the son of the late Henry Drummond Sr. who himself had been an Irvingite. He had also worked closely with John Nelson Darby, and it is believed that he financed Darby's speaking engagements as he travelled throughout the United Stated and Europe, selling dispensationalism. (1)

Moody and Drummond would create a powerful team for the next leg of this spiritual journey.

Cyrus Scofield

Cyrus Ingerson Scofield was born on August 19, 1843 in Michigan. His mother died in childbirth and his father remarried. When the Civil War broke out, despite living in the North, Cyrus joined the Confederates. Not much is known about him until he shows up in St. Louis.

At the time, the city was the hub of the fur trade, run by the French, including many French-Canadians. This was when he met Leontine Cerre, whose family was from Montreal, and they were married on September 21, 1866. Since Leontine was a Roman Catholic and Cyrus was not, the wedding ceremony took place before a Justice of the Peace.

Meanwhile he was working for his brother-in-law, Sylvester Papin, who was president of the St. Louis Board of Assessors, where he trained to be a lawyer. It was here that he became familiar with grants, titles, deeds and conveyances. In 1869, he moved with his family, which now included two daughters, to Atchison Kansas, where they appeared to be living a pretty lavish lifestyle.

He was still involved in land claims, eventually going to work in the law office of John J. Ingalls, and it was Ingalls who sponsored Scofield's admission to to the Kansas bar.(2)

After getting elected to the state legislature, at a time when they appointed senators, Scofield managed to get his friend named to represent Kansas in the senate. Shortly after, Ingalls returned the favour by convincing President Grant to appoint Cyrus Scofield to the office of United States District Attorney for the district of Kansas.

However, it was soon learned that the new DA had been involved with some questionable land deals that included blackmail, so Cyrus resigned his position and fled to Canada, where there was no record of him for about three years. (3)

By 1877, he was back in St. Louis, making a living on swindles and schemes and writing bogus cheques. He was caught and thrown into prison.(2) However, after supposedly being "witnessed to" he became "born again" and emerged from jail (early) with a new religious calling. However, not everyone was convinced that this conman was on the level:

“Cyrus I. Scofield, formerly of Kansas, late lawyer, politician and shyster generally, has come to the surface again, and promises once more to gather round himself that halo of notoriety that has made him so prominent in the past. The last personal knowledge that Kansans have had of this peer among scalawags, was when about four years ago, after a series of forgeries and confidence games he left the state and a destitute family and took refuge in Canada. For a time he kept undercover, nothing being heard of him until within the past two years when he turned up in St. Louis, where he had a wealthy widowed sister living who has generally come to the front and squared up Cyrus’ little follies and foibles by paying good round sums of money. Within the past year, however, Cyrus committed a series of St. Louis forgeries that could not be settled so easily, and the erratic young gentleman was compelled to linger in the St. Louis jail for a period of six months.

“Among the many malicious acts that characterized his career, was one peculiarly atrocious that has come under our personal notice. Shortly after he left Kansas, leaving his wife and two children dependent upon the bounty of his wife’s mother, he wrote his wife that he could invest some $1,300 of her mother’s money, all she had, in a manner that would return big interest. After some correspondence he forwarded them a mortgage, signed and executed by one Chas. Best, purporting to convey valuable property in St. Louis. Upon this, the money was sent to him. Afterwards the mortgages were found to be base forgeries, no such person as Charles Best being in existence, and the property conveyed in the mortgage fictitious.” (4)

However, the new and improved Scofield was about to embark on the biggest con job in his illustrious career.

The Conspiracy

James H, Brooks, as I mentioned before, was the man who was behind the Niagara Bible Conferences. Brooks had met John Nelson Darby on one of his visits to the United States and had become a devout follower of his dispensationalist theories, and the doctrine developed by a Jesuit priest named Manuel de Lacunza.

In 1801, Lacunza had written a book, The Coming of the Messiah, under a Jewish pen name; Juan Josafat Ben-Ezra. Rev. Edward Irving had the book translated into English from the original Spanish in 1827, and this book became much of the foundation for his doctrine, that was followed by the 'Irvingites'.

Darby had actually used this work for his own preaching, giving credit to Lacunza, but was told that he would have to stop. If Brooks was going to be able to pull this off he couldn't include the Jesuits.

So at the Bible conference of 1877, Brooks introduced his new protegee to J.L Moody, a man with a lot of prestige in the evangelical community. Without knowing of his shady past, Moody named Scofield as secretary of his YMCA, and they would remain close, with Scofield even officiating at Moody's funeral.

But what did Brooks want with Scofield?

At the time there were several wealthy Jewish Americans, who wanted a place in the religious awakenings. Through Scofield's old friend, John Ingalls, himself Jewish, he was introduced to several of these money people, including Samuel Untermeyer, a prominent Jewish lawyer, whose clients included the Rothschilds, and oil baron Lyman Stewart, whose company later assumed the name Unicol.*

These are the people who put up the money for the Scofield Bible**, which became the basis for a Judea-Christian heritage, which is now referred to as Christian Zionism.

Eventually the Niagara Bible Conferences were cancelled due to lack of interest, mainly it was said because they had focused too much attention on dispensationalism and not enough on Christian fundamentalism.

I felt it was very important to spend a bit of time on the religious background of this movement, because William Aberhart embraced all of this, and it became the foundation of what I refer to as the Reform political movement, that culminated in the election of Stephen Harper and his newly created Conservative Party of Canada.

From a Scottish cult based on the writings of a Jesuit Priest, to the dispensationalism of John Nelson Darby, to the Christian fundamentalism created by the Niagara Bible Conference, and finally to the creation of Christian Zionism by a conman named Cyrus Scofield.

And just as these high profile evangelical leaders got together to dispute scientific claims, so too does our current government. Our Science Minister, Gary Goodyear, is a creationist. I think that says it all.

Chapter Six: William of Tuckersmith

Footnotes:

* Hamid Karzai, the president of Afghanistan, is a former employee of Unicol. According to Eric Walberg of Middle East on-line, "... Karzai himself was a member of the Taliban government from 1995-98, before Unicol hired him as an insider to try to clinch an oil pipeline deal." Many people believe the War in Afghanistan is really about those pipelines.

** The Scofield Bible would be the inspiration for evangelist Tim LaHaye's immensely popular Left behind series. LaHaye was the man behind the formation of the Moral Majority/Religious Right movement in the United States. LaHaye was also one of the founders of the Council for National Policy, where Stephen Harper gave his 1997 speech that surfaced during an election campaign, and many believe saved Canada from a Harper majority in 2006.

Sources:

1. The Life and Work of Prof. Henry Drummond, by Rev Finlay Stewart

2. Dancing Around the Golden Calf, By: John S. Torell, European American Evangelistic Crusades, The Flaming Sword, January-March 2007

3. The Incredible Scofield and His Book, By: Joseph Canfield, Ross House Books, 1988

4. Cyrus I. Scofield in the role of a Congregational Minister, The Daily Capital, Topeka, Kansas, August 27, 1881