Wrong. Many nations, yes ... but not all ... and many nations had been involved in conflicts mant times before.
The error, Mee, is in reading the bit that suits your argument, and ignoring the bits that don't. Whereas the good Christian reads the whole thing, and listens to what Scripture is saying:
Matthew 24:4-5
"And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many."
You see, you've missed the point that WWI was not a war of religion, it was about politics and industrialisation. According to the text you cite, wars will come about by those proclaiming to be the Christ ... this is nothing at all to do with the causes of WWI — so even by your own favoured text, you've got the wrong war.
The Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) however, was a religious war, a direct conflict between Catholics and Protestants over who spoke in the name of Christ. So reading Scripture, Thirty Years' War fits the bill better.
Matthew 24:6
"And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all [these things] must come to pass, but the end is not yet."
That confirms it, then. There was so much politiking going on!
Matthew 24:7
"For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom... "
Yes ... all the nations of the Holy Roman Empire were involved.
"... and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places."
Yes again! A huge factor of the Thirty Years' War was that mercenary armies were used extensively, and entire regions were scavenged bare by the foraging armies. Famine and disease were widespread and devastated the population of the German states and, to a lesser extent, the Low Countries and Italy. Whole countries became bakrupt. The war may have lasted for 30 years, but the conflicts that triggered it continued unresolved for a much longer time.
On a relative scale, the 30YW was far worse than than WWI — the European population in WWI suffered shortages, but not famine, nor pestilence, on the scale of Europe in the 30YW.
Over the course of the TYW, the population of the German states was reduced by 30%; in the territory of Brandenburg, the losses had amounted to half, while in some areas an estimated two-thirds of the population died. Germany’s male population was reduced by almost half. The population of the Czech lands declined by a third. The Swedish armies alone destroyed 2,000 castles, 18,000 villages and 1,500 towns in Germany, one-third of all German towns.
Mat 24:8
"All these [are] the beginning of sorrows."
Yep. The 30YW changed the map of Europe thereafter.
So my suggestion is, according to Scripture, The Thirty Years' War is a far better candidate.
Wrong again. Every country in Europe was involved, and the battles took place over a far wider geographic region. Also, only the armies of nations were involved, whereas in the TYW the civilians populations suffered terribly, being slaughtered on a wide scale.
I suggest your 'biblical students' have made errors due to a poor grasp of history.
The rest is just a matter of working Scripture to produce the answer you want to find. That has been proven scientifically — even by JWs who have 'revised' their findings on more than one occasion.
And furthermore:
Mat 24:36:
"But of that day and hour knoweth no [man], no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only."
This is the bigger issue ... you actually ignore the Word of Scripture by even trying to find some kind of date, by setting a timetable for God ... the teaching of Our Lord is clear — we must be ready for His coming at all times, for no man knows when that time will be — and you think you know, and I say that you are wrong.
D'you think that a man in 1414 say, will be forgiven for not bothering because he worked out that the coming of the kingdom was not for another five hundred years?
Thomas
understanding is now abundant and they know just where we are in the stream of time . but those with insight do not keep it to themselves it is abundantly made known .