Matt is a completely different document from Rev - Especially in Content but yes . it contains prophecy as well. Revelations is much more detailed .. and from a different perspective.
First off I should say that I am not a literalist .. folks hate that I know . but they should let up as most of Christianity are not literalists.
While this is good in some ways .. as I don't have to fret over a few contradictions here and there .. does no injury to my foundation .. I do have to decide which is the most authentic .. which is more "Inspired" than other and/or which is perhaps allegory and other factors.
As I said .. I like Revelations and believe there may be some inspiration in there.. but ... this book is distinct from other books in many ways .. in tone and so on .. it is similar to other apocrypha .. of which there is much more .. so one must realize that this kind of writing was a bit of a trend at the time .. in conjunction with messianic tradition.
That said .. some of these folks dreams come true - be it Nostrodamas, Cacey, and others.. Some of the stuff in the OT has turned out to be rather prophetic as well - as did the words of Jesus and .. there are some very interesting corrolations in Revelations.
Revelations was one of the last books that made into Cannon... The reason being that it was disputed by many in the Church at the time.
They tosses Shepherd of Hermes, tossed Epistle of Barnabas (after once being Cannon) .. why would we look at Revelations much differently ? .. and at the same time I think there are reasons to look at Revelations differently.
But .. am I going to Put Revelations on Par with Matt/Mark ? No .. not going to do that. for starters it is way further away from the source ..Mark round 60 AD ... interpreter of Peter .. Matt - uses all of Mark but adds other stuff which is thought to be from another early source(s) - possibly the actual Matt or another disciple - or an associate of one of those disciples. Matt written after the destruction of the Temple around 80-90AD.
While I have some doubts about some books which remain in Canon .. like the Pseudepigrapha - stuff written in Paul's Name by another at a late date such as 150AD .. does not really deserve to be in there .. whereas some of the earlier stuff that is not in there .. perhaps should be .. such as the Gospel of Thomas ? Reads like Jesus to me..
but yes .. I worked in the field - projects and research - bioremediation and other innovative technology .. cleaned up many hydrocarbon contaminated sites. The Band Wagon ran towards CO2 and Global Warming .. while this is an issue .. the bigger issue is Ocean Pollution .. and this is not debated by folks who know the industry.. If we wanted we could turn off the CO2 tap - if we had to type of thing.. say 90% reduction or some ridiculous number that is currently unachievable ... but we could ..given a "New World Order" or some such thing.
What we can't do is filter the Ocean :) So that is issue #1 - it is not a garbage can .. and has limited capacity to absorb all the waste we throw into it .. including this fertilizer issue. but this rarely gets discussed in favor of the Hollywood discussion of AGW .. Climate Change is a serious issue .. but good luck surviving if we mess up the Ocean Equilibrium .. the "Lungs of the Planet" -- which produces roughly 60% of our Oxygen .. which we need to be in a very tight range to survive.
#2/3 - Industrialization/Poplulation Growth - Take a person from Africa = eating bowl of rice a day - to a first world nation .. and you have just increased the carbon equation for this person by 36. .. so the equivalent of 36 people in Africa in terms of consumption or Resources and subsequent biproducts of consumption ( CO2 +POllution) .. Eating a piece of meat once in awhile and you up the fertilizer loading .. which we are happily dumping into the Ocean both direct and through rivers and streams .. like no tomorrow .. even in first world nations .. still doing this .. "hand up in the air" Hello !! .. is there anybody out there :) .. other than in the bottom corner on Page 65 of the NY-Times on Sunday .. and the nerdy scientific magasines I like to read ..
We are much better at Persistent Organic Pollutants /Heavy Metals in North America Europe - in the industrializing nations .. not so good ..a very dirty process .. 10 years ago there were 1.4 Billion industrialized .. out of 7 Billion .. meaning a 5.6 left to go .. basically tripling the loading on the surface but much more as industrialization is dirtier per person than the average first world citizen.
10 years later we have roughly 1.8 Billion industrialized .. say double by 2030 getting to 2.8 industrialized. Happy day right .. we only have 4.2 left to go ... Ohhhhh .. noooooo Luke .. you forgot that in this time Population has grown to 8.5 Billion .. so in 20 years we have not made a dent in the non industrialized portion - due to population growth .. and we don't have another 40 years to stop polluting the carp out of the Oceans..
#4 is CO2 - and this is a real issue as well .. just not as important as the first three which get almost no attention.
NGDeal - "We will not export our Pollution problems to other Nations" - Great .. Good Policy.. but but .. then why are you against Pipelines ?????????
Pipeline doesn't increase the carbon equation by one molecule - and in fact it decreases this equation. So one can not argue from the CO2 point. Are you going to use less gas depending on whether the feedstock comes in from Tanker or Pipeline ? OK .. so next year we will use some 20 million barrels of Oil a Day .. every day. and we have to get it from somewhere.
The choice is then "Canada or US domestic by Pipeline" or "Nigeria" by tanker. This is a no brainer .. the domestic option is way cleaner for the Environment .. less pollutive and decreases the carbon equation over getting it from Nigeria .. hands down.
Further .. by getting it from Nigeria we incentivize industrialization .. something we should not be doing .. Leave them to their natural subsistance diet .. and in fact help them to maintain this .. but give them contraception..
This is not PC I know -- but, it is what has to be done .. especially the Industrialization part .. remember 36 x the consumption.
The study looked at China who was (11) at the time saying that if China was to realize first world consumption rates .. world resource production would have to double .. and this is Just China.
There you go.
Thanks for the detailed reply.
On the subject of Rev being canonized you answered some of my curiosities of how things went when they made it canan however I have a couple counter points.
1 John, an apostle who walked with Jesus personally recieved these visions.
2 If Rev were less inspired God would have prevented it as he is in control
3 although there are non literal parts to Rev. The fact that it contains a lot of prophecy, there is a lot that can proove it's revelance like the things beginning to unfold, nwo, the mark, and so on.
