Generally, a term referring to a length of time--usually vaguely understood to mean less than a generation or, at the longest, a few generations--preceding the apocalypse. The term is encountered within various faiths, including within Islamic and Christian traditions. "End Times" has different connotations within the Christian traditions using the term. But, for many Evangelical, Fundamentalist, Charismatic, and Pentecostal Christians, the term is common, and is closely associated with the Tribulation--a seven-year period that is the culmination End Times and marked by wars, plagues, and cataclysms, as well as the emergence of the Antichrist, and finally the bodily return of Jesus Christ both to defeat the Antichrist and his armies at the Battle of Armageddon and inaugurate his divine reign over a 1,000-year-long kingdom on Earth. The term is less commonly encountered in mainline Protestantism and Roman Catholicism in which it has different connotations.
Belief in End Times, during which it is prophesied many key events occur in Israel, has affected American foreign policy through the influence of the Christian Right.
(see ReligiousTolerance.org "Eschatology, end times, and Millennialism")
(see the End Times as rendered on a chronological chart placed on the website maintained by a Fundamentalist Christian family here. Warning: large file)
(see Chip Berlet "End Times As a Growth Industry")
(see Frontline's "Apocalypse!" glossary)