Post-Millennialism Refuted.
The post-millennial position rests largely upon a mis-translation. In Matt.13:39 we read "The harvest is the end of the world," and again in Matt.24:3 -- "And as He sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto Him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world?" Now the Greek word which is used in the above passages is entirely different from the one found in John 3:16 -- "God so loved the Kosmos." In the verses quoted above the word is not "Kosmos" but aion and ought to have been rendered "age" -- "the harvest is the end of the age." In the marginal rendering of the R. V. Matt.13:39 reads "The harvest is the consummation of the age." Both of the Greek words which are translated "world" in the King James Version occur in Heb.9:26 -- "For then must He often have suffered since the foundation of the Kosmos: but now once in the end of the aion hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself." Here it is evident that "aion" cannot mean "world." The Lord Jesus was offered as a sacrifice for sin more than eighteen hundred years ago, and the end of the "world" has not come yet. It was at the consummation or end of the Mosaic age that our Lord appeared and died upon the cross in order to effect our salvation. So, in the above instances read, "The harvest is the end of the age," the present age and not the end of time, for just as the Mosaic age was followed by the Christian age, so the present Dispensation shall be followed by the Millennium. That the "harvest" referred to by our Lord in the Parable of the Tares takes place at the end of this age rather than at the end of the "world," is further seen by a comparison of Joel 3:13-17 and Rev.14:14-20 which refer to the same "harvest" and where this harvest is definitely placed at the commencement and not at the consummation of Messiah's reign. That our Lord will return before the Millennium rather than at its close is clear from many considerations.
2 an examination of pre-millennialism
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