Jesus tells us that the end of time is unknown to everyone but God. Nonetheless, an entire field of theology called eschatology (“ess-ke-TOL-ogy”) is devoted to it, and countless self-professed prophets have been trying to pinpoint the end date for millennia, to no avail.

There are two problems with trying to find out the end date: 1) God won’t tell you, and 2) God still won’t tell you.

If all the angels in Heaven don’t know, and even Jesus seated at the right hand of the Father doesn’t know, why would people on Earth think they can know? Even more puzzling, why would other people believe them?

Yes, we can know the “season”, but the predictors that indicate the season are quite general (war and rumors of war, earthquakes, famines, etc.). Was there ever an age when we didn’t have wars, rumors of wars, earthquakes, and famines? Jesus also mentioned that the Gospel must be preached in all the world before the end can come, but with hundreds of babies being born every minute, the preaching will go on for a while yet.

The beings with probably the biggest stake in wanting to pinpoint the end date are the fallen angels and demons, because they have a strong motivation for wanting to delay it, namely forestalling eternity in the lake of fire. And it appears that delaying is exactly what they’re doing. As mentioned, Jesus says that the Gospel first has to be preached in all the world before the end can come, so one of the two main ways that the dark spirits are trying to delay the end is to prevent the Gospel from being preached.

And how are they doing that?

By outlawing it, changing it, and bringing it into disrepute (“it’s out-dated”, “it’s irrelevant”, “it’s racist”, “it’s homophobic”, “it’s hate speech”, etc.). Their plan seems to be working. Even in places where the Gospel isn’t outright banned, it’s been removed from public spaces and hounded off public and private Internet forums. To our dire detriment, God and Jesus are no longer welcome in formerly Christian nations.

Along with getting rid of the Bible and stifling or perverting the Gospel, another way that the times of the gentiles are being dragged out is preventing souls from coming into the world. And how is that being accomplished? Through birth control, abortion, vaccines, and sterilizing chemicals in the food, water, air, and everyday household products.  At the same time, non-stop propaganda informs us that having children is not only selfish but also bad for the environment, and families are a thing of the past.

I’m not entirely convinced that these stalling tactics will be successful, however. Remember how the legion of demons begged Jesus to let them go into a herd of swine rather than to be cast back into Hell? Jesus gave them their wish, but then drove the herd over the cliff and into a lake, drowning them. No matter how clever the devil and his hordes think they are, God and Jesus are always one step ahead.

The takeaway from all this is that the end will come when God says it will. He’s in the driver’s seat. We can know the signs of the season, but seasons themselves can be fickle. Yes, eschatology has a place in the life of believers, but it’s better to focus on doing God’s will both in and out of season than on constantly looking for and trying to interpret the signs of the end.

“Are we there yet?”

Nope, not yet.

We’ll get there when we get there.