Many of God’s people are fond of dwelling on the “end times”, otherwise known as “eschatology”, from the Greek word “eschatos”, which means “end.” But this obsession is unhealthy and was rebuked by Jesus when He addressed His disciples in Acts 1. He gave them — and us — another focus instead:

Just before Jesus ascended to the Father, the disciples asked Him in :6, “Is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” But Jesus responded, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.” (Acts 1:7-8)

In His response to the disciples’ question, Jesus denied their curiosity about the “end times”, and instead focused them on the mission they were to be about: being His witnesses from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth.

In fact, there is an interesting word-play involved here in the Greek text. When Jesus speaks of the “remotest” (some translate “ends”) of the earth, it is the Greek word “eschatou” — ironically related to the same Greek Bible word “eschatos” from which we get the word “eschatology”, or the study of the end times!

The message to His church then and now is clear: our focus is not to be on speculations regarding the events of the end, but is to be on our mission, both where we are, and to the most remote places on earth. It is the “eschatou” — the “ends” of the earth — which is to be our focus, not “eschatology”!