The Rise and Fall of Dispensationalism: How the Evangelical Battle over the End Times Shaped a Nation

by Daniel G. Hummel

Pierson recalled, “but his own mission ship, mission magazine, and mission training-school.” The model, Pierson reported, was being replicated on a larger scale in Chicago—tailored to fit the demands of expanding global missions. The Mission Agency Bible conferences and Bible institutes supported the premillennial complex’s centerpiece: global missions. Forward Movements in the Last Half Century (1900), written by Pierson as a look back on the growth of global missions since the Civil War, was one popular account of the effort. Pierson argued that with the growth of “Bible schools and conventions,” a third organizational type, the interdenominational mission agency, would disseminate the gospel to the entire globe.26 His account charted a globe-spanning network of ministries that were the end points for Bible institute graduates. His examples included George Müller’s orphanages, Jerry McAuley’s rescue missions, Samuel Fisk