Re your 2nd last paragraph - are you referring to all those juicy predictions in the Book of Revelation? I read that over & over, and think that a person must be willfully blind to not see what is happening under our very noses. However, it is not only the Christian bible that spoke of a time of great troubles, to be followed by end of human society in its present form, and the appearance of a fine new world under the rule of God Himself - there have been other cultures with the same kinds of stories in their ancient books. And there have been, apparently, at least 16 other Christ-like beings in other parts of the world over thousands of years. I don't really know, of course, but it is surely all grist for the mill.