Thoughts on the End Times

In the car on the way home tonight, I started thinking about the end of the world and the Second Coming. I don't know how I ended up on that train of thought, but I came to a few conclusions nonetheless. So much of what's "out there" on this topic is so scary, Halloween-y stuff full of blood, smiting, and plagues and curses. The God I worship isn't about that. A lot of the sources for those predictions are the same people who are all about God "getting" anyone who doesn't believe exactly as they believe. I think a lot of them are simultaneously afraid of the Second Coming (especially if they end up not "getting Raptured") and eagerly anticipating seeing nonbelievers get what they deserve-- a fiery eternity with Beelzebub. A lot of the literature on the subject tends to suggest that we're living in the End Times, which is signified by all the doings that are antagonistic and displeasing to God.....therefore, the earth will soon come to an end, Jesus will appear in a blaze of glory and smite all the bad people, and the rest of us (them? some or all of you? I don't know if they'd consider me good enough) will live happily ever after in a heaven where we each have a McMansion on a gold-paved street.