So when they had come together, they asked him, "Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?" (Acts 1:6 NRSV)
Latter-day Saints and other groups who hold to a form of premillennial eschatology believe that Christ will establish a kingdom on the earth and reign for 1,000 years. However, many who reject this view (those belonging to the amillennial camp) have to relegate the importance of this and other kingdom texts in the Acts of the Apostles and elsewhere. For instance, Calvin wrote the following on this verse:
He showeth that the apostles were gathered together when as this question was moved, that we may know that it came not of the foolishness of one or two that it was moved, but it was moved by the common consent of them all; but marvelous is their rudeness, that when as they had been diligently instructed by the space of three whole years, they betray no less ignorance than if they had heard never a word. There are as many errors in this question as words. They ask him as concerning a kingdom; but they dream of an earthly kingdom, which should flow with riches, with dainties, with external peace, and with such like good things; and while they assign the present time to the restoring of the same. they desire to triumph before the battle; for before such time as they begin to work they will have their wages. They are also greatly deceived herein, in that they restrain Christ’s kingdom unto the carnal Israel, which was to be spread abroad, even unto the uttermost parts of the world. Furthermore, there is this fault in all their whole question, namely, that they desire to know those things which are not meet for them to know. No doubt they were not ignorant what the prophets did prophesy concerning the restoring of David’s kingdom, they had oftentimes heard their Master preach concerning this matter.
For Calvin, there were as many errors as words to the apostles' question! (in the original Greek, 11 words compose the apostles' question).
While I disagree with his Socinian Christology, Anthony Buzzard has done a stellar job in the realm of eschatology; his article on the Kingdom of God and Acts 1:6 was published by the Evangelical Quarterly, a theological journal, and has just been made available online:
He demonstrates that this verse supports the premillennial view of eschatology and the kingdom of God, something that is contrary to much of Catholic and Reformed formulations of eschatology.
For Further Reading
Anthony Buzzard, Our Fathers Who Aren't in Heaven: The Forgotten Christianity of Jesus the Jew
Craig L. Blomberg and Sung Wook Chung, eds. A Case for Historic Premillennialism: An Alternative to "Left Behind" Eschatology
