Thanks for doing the legwork to research all of this. If one delves into Protest theological history, one again and again finds the recurrent pattern of eschatological obsession leading to false prophecies and cultish behavior, which in turn leads to factionalism and schism when the eschatological predictions fail to come to pass. The entire Adventist movement and its offspring today are probably the most emblematic in the US (see also "The Great Disappointment").
Looking a bit further afield in the contemporary Orthodox milieu, there's a fair amount of apocalyptic obsession driving the Russo-Ukrainian war, as many Russian apologists specifically frame justification for the Russian side in terms of fighting the anti-Christ. "Ultimate Things" by Dennis Engleman is an English expression of an earlier version of this (albeit having a bit more to do with the USSR, and no, I don't recommend anyone read this book except as an academic exercise), where "Holy Russia" is depicted as spiritual "seal" against the rise of the anti-Christ, which the Bolsheviks broke. There is a popular American abbot who expressly voices this belief today, and who has moved into Heer's orbit.
This entire issue is sadly a bit personal for me, as I have apocalyptically obsessed relatives who have been living embodiments of one "end of the world!" obsession after another, depending always on current politics of course (and never agreeing with each other in the specifics). In the past 30 years they have consistently insisted on the imminent eschaton as always being 1-2 years out, and so constantly live in a state of agitation and fear, against which I have had to caution my own children. And among my fellow Orthodox are a few who themselves are quick to give credence to Heers, or engage in "heresy hunting", somehow believing (like the Old Believers) that they are secretly preserving the "true church". As I heard one priest quip several years ago "everyone thinks they're the next St. Mark of Ephesus - nobody wants to face the fact they might really be another Tertullian."
Thanks for doing the legwork to research all of this. If one delves into Protest theological history, one again and again finds the recurrent pattern of eschatological obsession leading to false prophecies and cultish behavior, which in turn leads to factionalism and schism when the eschatological predictions fail to come to pass. The entire Adventist movement and its offspring today are probably the most emblematic in the US (see also "The Great Disappointment").
Looking a bit further afield in the contemporary Orthodox milieu, there's a fair amount of apocalyptic obsession driving the Russo-Ukrainian war, as many Russian apologists specifically frame justification for the Russian side in terms of fighting the anti-Christ. "Ultimate Things" by Dennis Engleman is an English expression of an earlier version of this (albeit having a bit more to do with the USSR, and no, I don't recommend anyone read this book except as an academic exercise), where "Holy Russia" is depicted as spiritual "seal" against the rise of the anti-Christ, which the Bolsheviks broke. There is a popular American abbot who expressly voices this belief today, and who has moved into Heer's orbit.
This entire issue is sadly a bit personal for me, as I have apocalyptically obsessed relatives who have been living embodiments of one "end of the world!" obsession after another, depending always on current politics of course (and never agreeing with each other in the specifics). In the past 30 years they have consistently insisted on the imminent eschaton as always being 1-2 years out, and so constantly live in a state of agitation and fear, against which I have had to caution my own children. And among my fellow Orthodox are a few who themselves are quick to give credence to Heers, or engage in "heresy hunting", somehow believing (like the Old Believers) that they are secretly preserving the "true church". As I heard one priest quip several years ago "everyone thinks they're the next St. Mark of Ephesus - nobody wants to face the fact they might really be another Tertullian."