The fact is that the guys who wrote 2 Timothy, Matthew, and Luke were writing about their own time.
Why warn Timothy if it had no relevance to him?
When in human history has there been no war, famine, earthquake, etc.?
If times are so terrible today, when would these Watchtower writers have preferred to have lived? Maybe the Lisbon earthquake? Maybe the Plagues of the middle Ages? Or weren't they bad?
Little wonder the writers of Matthew 24, who were writing about 15 years after the temple was razed by the Romans, were telling their own people to disregard wars, famines, and earthquakes as a sign. There would be people claiming to be "Christ", that is -- Anointed - who were doing so.
Doug