I don't think these are the result of any 'timetable' kind of prophecy - but are the result of the development of human consciousness such that many people (especially Westerners) have become capable of detaching themselves from the divine and denying the divine.
(In which the divine is defined in Christian terms.)
This leads to a crux - where the assumption (from society, from institutions - even, implicitly, from most churches) is that there is no divine; that the divine is not really real... so each individual must choose the divine, if he is to know the divine.
Knowledge (here and now) depends on choice. Choice is the beginning of knowledge of the divine.
The End Times are when the assumption of the unreality of the divine is normal, propagandised, assumed, and imposed. When, in other words, the default is for people to choose their own damnation (choose to reject Heaven).
The End Times seems to refer to a state of positive-feedback when this becomes prevalent, and worsening.
Why? Why does it happen., Why is it allowed (by God) to happen?
The answer is perhaps because the End times are also the era of maximum clarity, of maximum differentiation between salvation and damnation; between choosing Good or evil - the dwelling in Heaven or the various personal hells. For some incarnate Men, this is the best time to be born, the best chance.
What will end the End Times?
The best answer is that they end themselves. In the End Times, values are inverted - hence evil, death and spiritual destruction become the implicit objective of human motivation (albeit, motivation is itself severely weakened by the inversion and the consequent deep-confusion).
What comes after the end? Who knows ? It is not knowable - because we really are free agents.
Probably it depends... A new beginning, or the end to the experiment of mortal life... or both.
