The Church didn't pay much attention to end times prophecy until after the reformation - and more specifically, after the reformation further spread into a second lineage of more independent, colonial Protestant offshoots (the original Protestants were mostly Calvinist and Lutheran in nature..and in some ways, closer to their Catholic and Orthodox counterparts). The biggest debt modern end times prophecy owes is to John Darby, whose teachings didn't arrive until well into the 1800s. Basically, it's a relatively modern fascination in the church.
Little history lesson out of the way, before that, the church varied from not commenting at all or having a loosely based end times school of thought that's now called "Preterism". Preterism is, more or less, the "historical" position of the church, be it the Old Protestants, Orthodox, or Roman Catholic. In Preterism, it's believed that we are living in the so called "Millenium" mentioned in the book of Revelation, and that most of the tribulations are actually in the past. In Revelation, it is said that Jesus binds the powers of darkness from being truly harmful for a time, and that there is a "thousand years" of his rule on earth. It never says it's a millenium of peace, prosperity, or a complete vanquishing of evil.. it just says that Satan is bound up from causing harm, and that Christ reigns with his people on earth. The historical interpretation of this is that is none other than the Age of the Church itself, and that most of the so called "End Times" story has already been told.. that Christ is ruling on earth for a thousand years vicariously through his church.
Second, the Bible never actually says it's the "End Times" anyways. It says Christ's life is an end of an "Age" (greek: "aeon"), not Time itself.
Even further to the point, Christ says time and time and time again that most of the destruction and plagues mentioned in the New Testament will "happen soon", and that "some of this generation" will see it. He literally says that people standing with him will see things come to pass. Either he was crazy or he actually meant it. The Church always interpreted the whole thing as the tribulations it went through in the first century. Among other things. It seems more logical that way too, even if you wish to not ascribe any mystical meaning to it. I mean, if you actually study early European and Middle Eastern history, it sounds like hell on earth. Especially under the reign of the Nero. A lot of scholars proposition that Revelation was written during this time, and there's a lot of evidence within that supports that. Most especially, the number of the beast: 666. Although the writer of revelation was writing in Greek, it would seem that "666" was code for "Nero Caesar". I'm already making this long as it is, but you can Google the details. It is not likely that it has anything to do with some New World Order run by evil commies flying around in Locust Shaped Helicopters controlling us with our "Master Card" account numbers, all in cahoots with the Satan and the Pope and god knows who else. It's more likely that the writer was encrypting the name numerically, and that people who think any other way are batshit, retarded rednecks who need a history lesson on what real apocalyptic persecution looks like.
Hmm.. There's so much else to say actually, but I'll spare you.
