John Calvin Commentary Acts 1:7

"And he said unto them, It is not for you to know times or seasons, which the Father hath set within His own authority." — Acts 1:7 (ASV)

It is not for you to know, etc. This is a general rebuke of the whole question. For it was too inquisitive for them to desire to know that about which their Master wanted them to be ignorant. But this is the true means to become wise: namely, to go as far forward in learning as our Master Christ goes in teaching, and willingly to be ignorant of those things which He conceals from us.

But since there is naturally engendered in us a certain foolish and vain curiosity, and also a certain rash kind of boldness, we must diligently observe this admonition of Christ, by which He corrects both these vices. But so that we may know what His meaning is by this, we must note the two parts which He joins together.

“It is not for you,” He says, “to know those things which the Father has placed in His own power.” He speaks, indeed, of the times and seasons; but since there is a similar reason in other things, we must think this to be a universal precept: that, being content with the revelation of God, we consider it a heinous crime to inquire any further.

This is the true balance between the two extremes. The Papists, so that they may have something with which to cloak their gross ignorance, say for themselves that they omit the hidden mysteries of God—as though our whole faith and religion consisted of anything else than the hidden mysteries of God. Then we might as well abandon Christ and His gospel, if we must abstain utterly from the hidden mysteries of God.

But we must keep, as I said before, a balance in this; for we must be desirous to learn as far as our heavenly Master teaches us. But as for such things as He wants us to be ignorant of, let my own mind be so bold as to inquire about them, so that we may be wise with sobriety.

Therefore, whenever we are vexed with this foolish desire of knowing more than we ought, let us call to mind this saying of Christ: “It is not for you to know.” For unless we would defy His will and commandment, this will have force and strength enough to restrain the excesses of our minds.

Now, regarding the foreknowledge of times, Christ condemns only the investigation of it which reaches beyond the measure of God’s revelation. And that is to be noted from the second part, as I have said before: “which the Father has placed in His own power.” It is true that God has in His own power winter and summer, and the rest of the seasons of the year, cold and heat, fair weather and foul.

But because He has testified that the course of the years shall be perpetual (Genesis 1:14), He is said not to have placed that in His own power which He has revealed to men. Whatever philosophers or farmers comprehend or understand by skill, by learning, by judgment, or experience, all that God does not retain to Himself, because He has in a certain way revealed it to them (Genesis 8:22). We must have the same opinion of the prophets, for it was their office to know those things which God revealed.

But we must be ignorant of the secret events of things, regarding the future. For there is nothing that can make us more slack in doing our duties than an excessive inquiry into these matters, since we are always inclined to make our plans according to the future outcome of things.

However, the Lord, by hiding this future from us, prescribes to us what we ought to do.

Here a conflict arises, because we will not willingly allow God to have that which is His own—namely, the sole government and direction of things which are to come. Instead, we cast ourselves into a strange and inordinate anxiety.

To conclude, Christ forbids us to claim those things for ourselves which God claims as belonging to Himself alone. Such is the foreknowledge of those things which God has taken to Himself to govern and direct according to His own pleasure, far contrary to our opinion, and otherwise than we could devise.