Many things to understand what is meant by the end of the world. It clearly does not mean the planet will be destroyed, for that would take away all options in a single think. That's not what the seers of the past were trying so hard to tell. They were warning us of something entirely different - more like an abrupt shift in the direction of one's life.
Just as today's astronomers have a more expansive perspective on outer space than Galileo and Kepler did, so those throughout history who have been able to view earthly events from a cosmic point of view have had a broader understanding than most of us of the narrative of our planet through time.