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

by Daniel G. Hummel

The 1890s witnessed a plethora of experimental “faith missions”—modeled especially on the examples of Hudson and Maria Taylor, who had decided to become independent missionaries to China with financial support provided solely “as answer to prayer in faith.”28 They adopted this idea from the Brethren, whose leaders, Darby among them, pioneered the “faith principle” of independence from a single church or denomination for financial support. By the 1880s, the role of philanthropy—especially of individual large benefactors—aligned with this theological principle, providing expansive growth based on personal relationships rather than denominational affiliations. Along with the “faith principle,” the Brethren practice of lay ministry also influenced these new faith missions. Hudson Taylor’s China Inland Mission, founded in 1865, was the model. Taylor, a British nonconformist, was deeply influenced by Open Brethren practice of faith missions. Like his Brethren colleague George Müller (and Darby), he did not require ordination of missionary workers. China Inland Mission empowered laity to assume any leadership position. This expansion of lay leadership was a profound expression of Brethren values. Missionaries squared the egalitarian impulse through the premillennial conviction that global missions were a feature of the last days, requiring new tactics to achieve their goals. Taylor’s mission inspired other agencies, too. Albert B. Simpson, a longtime follower of Hudson’s work, fo...