I've gone over my eagle schematic very carefully and checked every connection on my pcb with a multimeter and couldn't find any problems. I also assembled a second board from scratch just in case it was an assembly defect and I have the exact same result. This is a very frustrating problem.
At this point, I want to say the only possible problem is the max7219's are defective. I bought them on eBay and paid $7 for a 10 pack which is I realize is very cheap. So I'm wondering if I should try and buy one from a more reputable source, but I'm not sure where to try. I also am considering buying some SOIC to DIP pcb's to try dropping one of the chips into a working circuit on a breadboard. Is there no better way to see if the SOIC IC is any good?