Much of the Northern wing turned to premillennialism, the belief that Christ’s return was imminent and that society would inevitably get worse before it occurred. By the late 1800s, the great evangelist Dwight L. Moody literally preached a lifeboat ethic: “I look on the world as a wrecked vessel. God has given me a lifeboat and said, ‘Save all you can.’” Thus, many conservatives withdrew from the social arena. Evangelical historian Timothy Smith describes this as the Great Reversal.
