17th – early 20th century

New forms of millennialism: postmillennialism, premillenarianism, the Social Gospel

In the 17th century some Lutheran and Reformed theologians, rejecting a visible reign of Christ on earth, defended a spiritual conception: before the end of the world there will be a period of unusual power of Christ's spiritual coming in the Church and general awakening – according to Berkhof, the original form of postmillennialism. In the 18th–19th centuries the doctrine of the millennium again aroused interest (Bengel's school, the Erlangen school, Hofmann, Delitzsch, Auberlen, the Bonars, Alford, Zahn) with a huge variety of opinions, and calculations of the time of Christ's return failed. In liberal circles a new postmillennialist form appeared – the Social Gospel: Walter Rauschenbusch, having realized under Ritschl's influence the corporate character of sin and the importance of the Kingdom of God, wanted to restore the hope of the millennial Kingdom as a new social order "in which the law of Christ will prevail." In response to the challenge of rationalism, fundamentalism arose in the USA, among whose five points (Niagara Falls, 1895) was the coming return of Christ.