Do you think any works of man will change the tribulations prophesied by God for this earth?
As an Amil, I think the idea that there is some special 'last days' period of suffering somehow worse than all others is preposterous. The theologians I read are convinced the 'last days' began in Acts 2 and that the Apostle John shared in the 'tribulations' of the last days as he was stuck in his cell. Therefore, YES, the 'works of man' will change and influence and effect the tribulations we suffer: because many of the tribulations are man-made! The beast itself is picture language for any time governments appear like the Roman government did: steeped in worldly philosophy and at war with God's people. In this sense, North Korea and various Muslim states are already 'beasts'. People enact the tribulations of God.
As to the rest of Revelation describing nature in chaos, yes, that's under God's control. His Judgements. We saw them in the 2004 Tsunami, the Japanese Tsunami, volcanoes and earthquakes etc. It *largely* as it always was: this world is not perfect, but marred by sin. In a sinless world, maybe earthquakes would have been *fun*? But now, they are deadly.
But here's the question you have to answer: does the fact that human society and nature are
already in chaos (wars and rumours of wars & earthquakes etc) then give you the right to make that situation
worse? Does the potential for earthquakes and volcanoes mean you can just poison your neighbour's yard with some old chemicals you have left over from your day job? No? Why not? What about tipping it in the river, where statistically it may or may not harm people downstream? Statistically? Is morality statistical? Can we build public policy on it, or vote with statistics in our conscience? Should they have outlawed lead in our petroleum, yes or no? Why?
I don't think the fact that we are living in the 'tribulation' (and have been for 2000 years) means we are exempt from moral thinking about our politics. In fact, BECAUSE this is a Christian forum I think we have an EXTRA reason to consider our careful use of the environment, and how to appreciate the robust ecosystems God left to us that we have somehow over logged, over fished, over farmed, over dammed, over infested, over used and over-heated. How to preserve the biodiversity and species God made is part of our Christian duty: how to preserve environmental ecosystem services is also part of our Christian compassion to our fellow human being. We tend to get hungry and starve and die when the crops fail! Even Calvin understood this and explained the duty of Christian farmers to leave their fields in a better state than they received them!
Global warming is, as close as anything is in science, a fact. We can measure what happens with CO2's heat trapping properties: repeatedly, demonstrably, again and again. We know what it does. We know what more of it does. That part of it is not too hard. Tracing where the trapped heat goes in this complex globe: that's hard! But we're seeing where it shows up.
But the bottom line? We're running out of cheap oil. We're going to run out of gas and coal one day (unless the Lord returns tonight, or sometime soon). Coal pollution kills a million people a year. Why do you love coal so much that you see it as an attack on Christianity itself to discuss alternatives?
