Millennial thinking and its implications for social reform: Premillennialism in urban America, 1865-1925

A Christian view of the future labelled premillennial dispensationalism developed and replaced postmillennialism in middle nineteenth-century America. Dispensationalism predicts deteriorating conditions, leading to a "rapture" of the true church just prior to the second coming of Christ. After tracing three centuries of millennial thinking in America, this study examines the social reforms sponsored by dispensationalists. Contrary to their escapist, or pessimistic eschatology, selected dispensationalists sponsored a variety of reform measures in the middle nineteenth and early twentieth-century America. This study examines the contributions of five remarkable dispensational, social activists: The Reverends A. J. Gordon, A. T. Pierson, W. B. Riley, J. R. Straton and M. A. Matthews. Their activism demonstrates some dispensationalists actively led social reforms in urban America. They successfully balanced an eschatology which argues for a declining culture, while affirming the biblical mandate to care for the impoverished.