Time

chronos [and] kairos

There are two basic words in the Greek that are translated time. Interestingly, both appear in Acts 1:7: “And he [Christ] said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.” Times is chronos (5550; English, chronometer), which basically means “time, course of time, passage of time,” or more precisely, “space of time whose duration is not as a rule precisely determined.” Acts 19:22, for example, says that Paul “stayed in Asia for a season” (i.e., “for awhile,” an indefinite period). While there are examples where chronos is used in a more specific sense, in light of the other word used here, chronos speaks of a time period that is not precisely known.

Seasons, then, is kairos (2540), which refers to “a decisive or crucial place or point,” such as a date. The point in Acts 1:7, therefore, is that it is not for us to know either the indefinite time or the definite time of Christ’s return to the earth. Some teachers say that we can ascertain the “date” when Jesus will come, but that is plainly false, for any “date” is a definite time. Other teachers insist that while we can’t know the exact time, we can still know the “year.” But that, too, is false, for a year would be an indefinite time.

There’s a reason for our Lord’s statement. It’s not that His earthly kingdom is not important; rather, we’re not told when He is coming back because He’s given us a task that is much more pressing. That task is spoken of in the very next verse: “But ye shall receive power, after [literally, when] that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”

The most pressing thing for us to do today is not to try to figure out when Jesus is coming, but to be active witnesses for our Lord. There is, of course, a special blessing in studying the prophecy of Revelation (1:3), but there are some who get so absorbed in prophecy that they begin to neglect the commission God has given them, not to mention the false predictions and silly applications that some students make.

Scriptures for Study: Read 1 Thessalonians 5:1–6, noting the same basic principle we see in Acts 1:7–8.