from pentecost to now there were always believers who seriously thought that they were living in the time of the END OF THE WORLD, not just their natural end. but
This was not always a 'PRETZEL' reasoning like the WT's ongoing convoluted "2 groups = 1 generation" concept.
it is more like a never ending 'we live in the end' mental condition, a time concept like the one surface MOEBIUS strip,
TWISTED.
Yes in difficult times all through history since the first century Christians have said this must be 'the end time' Jesus spoke of. For example in the Reformation, for Protestants, Babylon the Great was fulfilled in Rome and the Pope. God would surely act to rid the world of the papists and bring in a new world order.