Open your news feed for five seconds and you’ll find war, political chaos, AI anxiety, and another prediction that “the end is near.” Things are once again heating up in the Middle East, and U.S.-Iran tensions are at a fever pitch.

It seems like every generation for centuries has had voices claiming that theirs is the generation living in “the last days.” And today, as in every age, there are those who come up with prophetic timetables and predictions that “prove” that they—or we—will be the ones upon whom the end of the world will come.

But we have been in the Last Days since our Lord’s Ascension, and He will come again as a “thief in the night,” not as a Welcome Wagon representative with a 2:30 appointment on Friday so we can have the scones and tea laid out.

The apostle Peter stood up on the Day of Pentecost about 2,000 years ago and declared that Joel’s prophecy about “the last days” was being fulfilled right then (Acts 2:16–17). The writer of Hebrews said that God “hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son” (Hebrews 1:2 KJV). John even wrote, “Little children, it is the last time” (1 John 2:18 KJV). The New Testament wasn’t talking about some distant future—it described the era that began with Christ’s first coming.

Here’s another Bible fact that surprises people: the Greek word often translated “world” is aion, which frequently means “age” rather than the physical planet. When Jesus promised, “I am with you always, even unto the end of the world” (Matthew 28:20 KJV), the phrase is more accurately understood as “the end of the age.” The Bible is focused on God’s unfolding plan through the ages—not merely the destruction of a globe.

So, let’s not obsess over predicting the end. Instead, let’s spend today living like our Lord could return at any time to usher in the new age