[CS-FSLUG] [OT] Ozone Hole

[Chris Brault]

Y'all making me work for a living,

>I'll assume that you're right about some relatively large number of
>people being around, but where does it speak of billions?  (I suspect
>that you're right, but I can't recall any verses offhand that speak of
>a population quite that level).
>  
>
Here are some of my wild assumptions about the "end times".

Wild Assumption One:

"And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand 
thousand: and I heard the number of them."  - Revelation of John 9:16 
[AKJV]

It seems to me that you' d need quite a population to raise and support 
a standing army of 200 million. Maybe I'm wrong, but supplying them 
alone would take another, much larger army of farmers, factory workers 
and transport personel.

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Wild Assumption Two:

"And he said to me, The waters which you saw, where the whore sits, are 
peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues." - Revelation of John 
17:15 [AKJV]

The "whore" (Mystery Babylon) of the end times is in control of not a 
few people or a remnant of nations, but of multitudes, nations and many 
languages. Seems like there'd need to be quite a few people around for 
that to occur.

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The idea of  billions comes also from an understanding of the fall of 
"Mystery Babylon".

"And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no 
man buys their merchandise any more..." - Revelation of John 18:11 [AKJV]

This section details how this one city's demise shocked the merchants 
and kings of the world. With "Babylon's" demise, a great and powerful 
trading center is lost; Indeed, it will be so powerful that all men will 
mourn for her. The obvious question arises: Who was "Mystery Babylon" 
trading with? Kings and merchants to be sure, but you've got to sell 
alot of things to make the incredible wealth she had.

As an example: America consumes 1/4 of all the worlds goods. If we were 
to fall, I'm sure, aside from the mixed politicial reviews, we'd receive 
this kind of sad farewell. How many nations rely on America's buying 
power as the lynchpin of thier economies? How many nations rely on the 
US military to protect their national interests?  How many nations' 
stock markets would collapse if America's disappeared?

In other words, you need alot of people to create this kind of personal 
attachment to a trading center. If Singapore or Hong Kong sank into the 
sea, do you think world commerce would panic? Over 100,000 people died 
in the Indonesian quakes, indeed, the entire earth shook, but life went 
on. Think about that. It's human nature to care most about our own 
self-interests.

----------------------------------------------------

>If, for example, 99% of the population were to be killed off by some
>human-caused event, there'd still be enough people left to bring the
>population back to it's current level in a while, if a billion is the
>required level.  Groups of people have believed that they were in the
>"end times" at many points in history.
>

First, let's define "a while". If earth's population were reduced to 60 
million people, 1% of 6 billion, and were spread out over the planet, 
how long would it take to get back up to a billion? Some things to think 
about:

1) Most westerners lack basic survival skills. The fall of society would 
result in wide spread panic and death as people fight for the fleeting 
remnants of society. Disease and famine would wipe out millions of 
helpless city dwellers.

2) Without modern medicine, AIDS, Ebola, Mad Cow, the Avian Flu and 
other modern diseases would ravage and wipe out whole societies. Take 
Central Africa as an example.

3) With the new fight for survival and subsequent lack of capital, 
things extemporaneous  to survival like art, schools, research and hard 
science would decay quickly. Once lost, this knowledge base would take a 
while to be revived.

My point here is that only a "modern" society can provide food, medicine 
and infrastructure to support a billion people. So any surviving 
population could only grow as fast as medicine and technology allowed it 
to. If history is any guide, the time for this kind of society to breed 
another 940 million people would be in the hundreds if not thousands of 
years.

Lest we forget the army of 200 million, the number of people on the 
earth needs to be much larger than simply one billion.

Also, the Jews have to survive in order to regain their nation and 
rebuild the temple at Jerusalem as the word of God says they will. This 
brings into account the fact that Jesus spoke of the days we live in 
now, the days when Israel would return to their home land and again form 
a nation. He spoke of the nations of the Persians, a United Europe (Rome 
reborn) and the kings of the far east (China? India?). The world is 
alive and well when the end times come. The Jews have returned home.

 Jesus said himself to his disciples in a description of the end times 
(Matthew 24):

"For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and 
there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers 
places...

When you therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by 
Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place...

Truly I say to you, This generation shall not pass, till all these 
things be fulfilled."