Posted by:
L.A. Exmo
(
)
Date: March 07, 2021 04:47PM
Well, strictly speaking, the "end of the world" corresponds to the start of the millennium, while the "end of the earth" is judgment day. So when Packer speaks of the EOW, it's *pre-millennial*.
JS-Matthew:
4 "…and what is the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world, or the destruction of the wicked, which is the end of the world?"
55 "And thus cometh the end of the wicked, according to the prophecy of Moses, saying: They shall be cut off from among the people; but the end of the earth is not yet, but by and by."
Mormons don't usually get nuance, but there is a doctrinal difference.
Joseph the Smith made the distinction as early as 1835:
"…the end of the world is the destruction of the wicked, the harvest and the end of the world have an allusion directly to the human family in the last days, instead of the earth, as many have imagined…" (Teachings, p. 101)
The Encyclopedia of Mormonism says explicitly that the two terms are not interchangeable:
https://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/digital/collection/EoM/id/3861Besides, there's a ton of mormon doctrine stuff that's still supposed to happen before the millennium. (Jackson County temple, mormon Jerusalem temple, two mormon prophets for 3-1/2 years, the council at Adam-ondi-Ahman, the healing of the Dead Sea in Palestine, etc.) So yeah, per Mormonism, not any time soon.
(And yes, I was one of those deep-doctrine gospel scholars.)