It is like talking about famine or disease or natural disasters as signs of the end. These are things that happen frequently throughout human history, and continue to do so. The UN designated 1986 as the Year of Peace and Security. How much clearer could a sign get? And yet... nothing.
One can interpret it to mean that the end will come when it is least expected. In other words, when the nations are celebrating peace and security (ie, when they feel that things are going as well as can be hoped), that is when the end will be upon them. In other words, it's not necessarily a literal cry of "peace and security" as much as it is a sense of complacency.
The problem is, humanity has been so on edge, constantly predicting the end for centuries. It's as if we will never become complacent. So god might never get a chance to sneak up on us. The ultimate irony: our fervent desire for the end to begin might delay it forever...