This study investigates the missional impetus generated by dispensational eschatology that emerged during the 19th cen tury-commonly referred to in mission history as ‘the Great Century.’ Situated within the broader intellectual and theolog ical d...
This study investigates the missional impetus generated by dispensational eschatology that emerged during the 19th cen tury-commonly referred to in mission history as ‘the Great Century.’ Situated within the broader intellectual and theolog ical developments of its time, dispensational theology empha sized a literal interpretation of Scripture and the imminence of Christ’s return. These convictions fostered a profound sense of evangelistic urgency and contributed decisively to the mobili zation of evangelical missions. Despite the theological tensions arising from its rigid liter alism and dualistic division of redemptive history into distinct dispensations, dispensationalism became a formative influ ence within evangelical missiology. It reaffirmed the authori ty of Scripture-challenged by the rise of 19th-century liberal theology-and rekindled missionary zeal through Bible confer ences, revival movements, the founding of Bible institutes, and the Student Volunteer Movement(SVM). In the present era, as the epicenter of global Christianity continues to shift from the West to the Majority World and as secularization deepens within historically Christian societies, a renewed theological engagement with dispensationalism offers valuable insights. It calls the church, living within the escha tological tension of the ‘already and not yet,’ to re-envision its missional identity under the dynamic anticipation of the king dom of God that has come and is yet to come.