News flash — famine in Russia kills one third of its population.

War rages in Europe and Asia. The government of Japan is overthrown by a military coup.

Outbreaks of disease plague millions. Immigrants pour into overcrowded boats heading for America. People have abandoned traditional values and are living in decadence.

End time books and tracts appear with titles like, “Babylon is Fallen,” “The Antichrist; Where He is Born, of His Person and Miracles,” “The End of this World and Second Coming of Christ,” and “Exposition in Apocalypse.”

This is not a picture of the near future, but a glimpse back four hundred years to the year 1609!

Many followers of Christ believed world events and Bible prophecy indicated that Jesus was coming soon. They weren’t the first generation to feel that way, nor the last. Obsession with the imminent return of Christ and the end of the world is a recurring experience in the history of the Christian church. Ever since John first penned the New Testament book of Revelation — literally, “The Apocalypse”) twenty centuries ago, Christians have been speculating on the Second Coming.

In a recent Newmax magazine article entitled, “Will He Return?” David Patten takes a look back through church history.

He reminds us that bishops of the Ecumenical Council of 999 declared that the world would come to an end on January 1, 1000.

They based their belief on the fact that one thousand years had passed since Jesus’ birth. Weeping throngs of people gathered at St. Peter’s in Rome on New Year’s Eve, expecting Christ’s return.

During the 1300’s, as many as one-third of Europe’s population died of the Black Plague. Religious leaders were certain that this was an indication of the end of the world and predicted a series of second comings that never arrive.

Christopher Columbus predicts in his 1502 Book of Prophecies that the Judgment Day will take place in 1657.

His prediction was based on St. Augustine’s statement that the world would end in the 7th millennium following creation.

Physicist Isaac Newton predicted Christ’s return in 1715. Newton was a great scientist, but a poor prophet.

Two world wars in the 20th century kept many preoccupied with end times speculation.

The Antichrist was thought to be Stalin, Mussolini, or Hitler. The establishment of the state of Israel in Palestine in 1948 created a huge buzz among prophecy pundits as this was believed to be a sign of the soon Second Coming of Christ.

In 1988, former NASA engineer, Edgar Whisenant, published the book, 88 Reasons Why the Rapture will be in 1988.

When 1988 came and went, he wrote another book predicting 1989 to be the year; then 1993; then 1994. After that, his book sales dropped off.

Remember the Y2K hysteria surrounding the year 2000? Everyone rushed out to buy new computers except some prophecy experts.

They were certain the new millennium would trigger the Rapture of the church and usher in a literal thousand year kingdom of Christ centered in Jerusalem.

Del Loy is the pastor at Crosspoint Church in Natchez. This is a first in a three part series on the signs of the times.