Here's a question for those that dare to speculate?
1 Thes 5:3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them,
will they be crying out for peace or as I wonder will they be saying we have peace now?
Such scriptures were not written with our day and time in mind at all. Clearly people in the 1st Century who were Jews and Christians obviously felt THEY were living in the last days.
They lived in the Roman Empire. Jewish Apocalypticism influenced such thinking. It was a time of foment, upheaval and insecurity. The Sicarii and other Jewish militants were provoking a cataclysm with Rome (just as they had done in the time of the Macabees by provoking the Greeks.)
When you read such statements as the quotation above, it is best to read it IN CONTEXT!
Here is what happened.
The Jews, the transitional Jews-into-Christians and the Christians really, truly, honestly felt the Messiah was coming ANY MINUTE to bring about the restoration of God's righteous rule upon Earth.
The words, sentiments, expressions and famous scriptures we cite clearly express the actual viewpoint of NOW! (Their "now", not ours.)
But wait!
Jesus (nor any genuine Messiah) did NOT return.
Logically, you cannot stay on pins and needles waiting expectantly for an "impending event" which simply does NOT happen!
A change in viewpoint was necessary psychologically.
The imminent return of Messiah (Jesus or whomever) to END the world and start it anew---WAS GRADUALLY REPLACED.
By what?
A gradual Christianizing of the world by Saints!
This is what became the role of the Church under Constantine. The world would be changed by conversion and by good example!
The "soon he will return" became "we can bring about the new world through our own efforts".
Look at history. Read about the ideas, the theories, the movements within Christianity. See how they were thinking about things.
Every thought of Christians was to stay pure and undefiled (some becoming monks, recluses and such) until conversion of the world took place.
The Puritans thought they could become perfect! The New World (America) would be a shining City on the Hill run by Pure Christians and serve as a beacon to persuade the rest of the world to become Christianized and bring about the end of human corruptions!)
READ CHURCH HISTORY! It is all there.
By the time the 18th and 19th century rolled around: THIS THEORY HAD EXHAUSTED ITSELF AS WELL. People weren't becoming more and more nearly perfect. They were becoming tired of rules, punishments, isolation from enjoyment in life. Programs, charities, preachments had not brought about the perfecting of society at all. The wars proved it. Disillusionment was enevitable.
Then what happened?
Another change BACK TO THINKING IT WAS GOING TO COME ANY MINUTE NOW!
We've come full circle.
Remember, the Jehovah's Witnesses of today are merely a branch of the failed prognostications of William Miller and his subsequent 2nd Adventist followers!
Pastor Russell founded this religion on the castoff bunkum of charts about Pyramids, Dispensations, calculations and crackpot imaginations!
Russell caught people's fancy because they were damned well ready for an outside part (Jesus) to get it all over with while they were still around to see it happen.
The catch-phrase Rutherford banged into people's minds, you'll recall was: MILLIONS NOW LIVING WILL NEVER DIE!
Jehovah's Witnesses experienced in 1975 EXACTLY what the Jews and proto-Christians experienced in AD 70!
Now, another turning of the circle is about to take place.
The wheel of theory will turn back to "change the world through example, conversion and such."
The more things change; the more they remain the same.
