During my many faithful years as a Witless zombie, I used to
wonder how the Society could claim that the Bible predicts
stuff like pollution - by quoting Rev.11 "bring to ruin those
ruining the earth".
You see, the problem is that to make this into a prophecy
of 'last days' pollution, you MUST PROVE that "ruining the
earth" means POLLUTION, not something else. Since Bible writers
didn't live in an industrial society with dioxin and mercury,
you can't prove a pollution reference based on their experience.
Furthermore, when John wrote Revelation he probably had something else
in mind besides pollution when he spoke of "ruining the earth".
The Bible, in the Tower of Babel account, says "the earth continued
to be of one language". In the account about Noah, it speaks
of the "earth" being ruined by violence.
Thus, on the basis of the way the Bible speaks of the "earth"
and its ruin, I find no prediction of pollution.
But more than that.....
If you love ecology, READ the Oct.2,2001 Wall Street Journal pg.A17
under the heading of "Bookshelf". It reviews a new book called
"The Skeptical Environmentalist". It seems a former member of
Greenpeace (a professor of statistics at the University of Aarhus)
told his students to debunk claims that the natural environment
is improving. They were stunned to find out it is! Sulfur dioxide
in the US is down 80% since '62, - carbon monoxide down 75% since
'70, - nitrogen oxides down 38% since '75. Brazilian rain forests
are 86% uncut and the rate of clearing is falling. An authoritative
UN report found that global forest cover has been reduced by a
minuscule 0.44% since '61.
More evidence that the old men running this sad fraud can't predict
(or interpret) their way out of a paper sack.
metatron