Does Your Eschatology Accept The Global Decline in Fertility Rate?

[NASB]

I didn't see a prior discussion here or elsewhere online. I don't see the topic addressed by leaders or religious news outlets. I've only found four published books on the subject of the declining birth rate in America and around the world. (I've read two and ordered the other two.) For a while I had a Google alert set up to track new news reports from America and around the world to see if the trend was changing.

In a nutshell, parents are having fewer babies. The minimum replacement rate is 2.1. When a couple has fewer than two children on average, i.e., doesn't replace itself, the population starts to decline. The rate is already below 2.1 in a number of countries (you can find them online).

In 2015, the US rate was 1.84. In May 2018 the NYT had a headline: "U.S. Fertility Rate Fell to a Record Low, for a Second Straight Year."

After reading the books, news reports, and further discussion, it becomes clear the problem isn't going away and there is no legitimate solution. Government efforts worldwide to raise the fertility rate have failed. (There aren't many efforts but the ones different countries have tried over decades don't do much at all.)

Christians aren't having more babies. South Korea has a high percentage of Christians but the national FR is 1.24. In 2017 it recorded its lowest FR ever. Then this catchy headline resulting from a government study: "S. Korea's Total Fertility Rate Feared to Fall Below 1 in 2018."

SK isn't the only nation with this problem. Across Europe there are similar problems, including Germany, Spain, Portugal, etc. In 2015 the EU average was 1.58.

Here is a bleak projection graph:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:...Population_Prospects_2015,_United_Nations.gif

So the world is expected to die off, nation after nation, disappearing...

Governments can't do anything. The Church isn't doing anything. Even if it was well aware, what would it do? Encourage its people to have more kids. That's not going to work. It's obviously often finances and the economy that affect the decision on how many if any kids a couple has. The Church can't be expected to change the economy. In many nations the cost of living is high and the future economy doesn't look great.

I'm not posting this message to encourage people to have more children. I don't have any children (I'm not married). The point is to see if your views on the future accept the facts and the trend, and to hear what discussions you've had or heard about the subject.

Could the end of the world be as simple as people not having enough babies? No big Judgment Day. No drama. Just a slow and gradual die off.

And should we even care if the rate gets very low? "It's not my problem."

P.S. I've never heard one prophecy that addresses the decline or provide a solution. Is it possible God isn't concerned about it? He's okay with where things are going and has no plans to change anything.

 

[Chinchilla]

We are closer to end than you think , apart from that you can incrase the fertility by stopping eating junk poison foods , stopping using drugs ( all drugs not only the bad ones ) and exercising more often . Clean water is important too .

 

[salt-n-light]

I don't think that is a place that the church can control, as there are many factors as to why fertility rates would be dropping.

 

[tranquil]

I didn't see a prior discussion here or elsewhere online. I don't see the topic addressed by leaders or religious news outlets. I've only found four published books on the subject of the declining birth rate in America and around the world. (I've read two and ordered the other two.) For a while I had a Google alert set up to track new news reports from America and around the world to see if the trend was changing.

In a nutshell, parents are having fewer babies. The minimum replacement rate is 2.1. When a couple has fewer than two children on average, i.e., doesn't replace itself, the population starts to decline. The rate is already below 2.1 in a number of countries (you can find them online).

In 2015, the US rate was 1.84. In May 2018 the NYT had a headline: "U.S. Fertility Rate Fell to a Record Low, for a Second Straight Year."

After reading the books, news reports, and further discussion, it becomes clear the problem isn't going away and there is no legitimate solution. Government efforts worldwide to raise the fertility rate have failed. (There aren't many efforts but the ones different countries have tried over decades don't do much at all.)

Christians aren't having more babies. South Korea has a high percentage of Christians but the national FR is 1.24. In 2017 it recorded its lowest FR ever. Then this catchy headline resulting from a government study: "S. Korea's Total Fertility Rate Feared to Fall Below 1 in 2018."

SK isn't the only nation with this problem. Across Europe there are similar problems, including Germany, Spain, Portugal, etc. In 2015 the EU average was 1.58.

Here is a bleak projection graph:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:...Population_Prospects_2015,_United_Nations.gif

So the world is expected to die off, nation after nation, disappearing...

Governments can't do anything. The Church isn't doing anything. Even if it was well aware, what would it do? Encourage its people to have more kids. That's not going to work. It's obviously often finances and the economy that affect the decision on how many if any kids a couple has. The Church can't be expected to change the economy. In many nations the cost of living is high and the future economy doesn't look great.

I'm not posting this message to encourage people to have more children. I don't have any children (I'm not married). The point is to see if your views on the future accept the facts and the trend, and to hear what discussions you've had or heard about the subject.

Could the end of the world be as simple as people not having enough babies? No big Judgment Day. No drama. Just a slow and gradual die off.

And should we even care if the rate gets very low? "It's not my problem."

P.S. I've never heard one prophecy that addresses the decline or provide a solution. Is it possible God isn't concerned about it? He's okay with where things are going and has no plans to change anything.

Childlessness can be a curse for unfaithfulness, like in Deuteronomy 28:15-68 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy+28:15-68&version=NIV
specifically Deuteronomy 28:18
(but to say all childless people are cursed would not be correct)

When you read a passage like this from Hosea 9 below, the reference to Ephraim is a reference to this curse for disobedience from Deuteronomy 28:36
“The LORD will bring you and your king whom you set over you to a nation that neither you nor your fathers have known. And there you shall serve other gods of wood and stone.

So, Ephraim can refer to the tribe of Ephraim, when the northern 10 tribe Israel split from Judah & Benjamin. Jeroboam was the 1st king of the 10 tribes and was from the tribe of Ephraim. 10 tribe Israel became apostate (splitting off from faithful Judah & Benjamin) and set up their own king over themselves (Jeroboam). Then 10 tribe Israel was taken over by Assyria, and had to serve the gods of Assyria.

Hosea 9

1Do not rejoice, Israel;
do not be jubilant like the other nations.
For you have been unfaithful to your God;
you love the wages of a prostitute
at every threshing floor.
2Threshing floors and winepresses will not feed the people;
the new wine will fail them.
3They will not remain in the Lord’s land;
Ephraim will return to Egypt
and eat unclean food in Assyria.
4They will not pour out wine offerings to the Lord,
nor will their sacrifices please him.
Such sacrifices will be to them like the bread of mourners;
all who eat them will be unclean.
This food will be for themselves;
it will not come into the temple of the Lord.

[...]
10“When I found Israel,
it was like finding grapes in the desert;
when I saw your ancestors,
it was like seeing the early fruit on the fig tree.
But when they came to Baal Peor,
they consecrated themselves to that shameful idol
and became as vile as the thing they loved.


11Ephraim’s glory will fly away like a bird—
no birth, no pregnancy, no conception.

12Even if they rear children,
I will bereave them of every one.
Woe to them
when I turn away from them!
13I have seen Ephraim, like Tyre,
planted in a pleasant place.
But Ephraim will bring out
their children to the slayer.”
14Give them, Lord—
what will you give them?
Give them wombs that miscarry
and breasts that are dry.

15“Because of all their wickedness in Gilgal,
I hated them there.
Because of their sinful deeds,
I will drive them out of my house.
I will no longer love them;
all their leaders are rebellious.

16Ephraim is blighted,
their root is withered,
they yield no fruit.
Even if they bear children,
I will slay their cherished offspring.”

17My God will reject them
because they have not obeyed him;
they will be wanderers among the nations.​

These curses for disobedience (as in worshiping the abomination of desolation idol) are the basis for the events of Revelation. Verses like Matthew 24:19 also allude to this.

 

[dreadnought]

I didn't see a prior discussion here or elsewhere online. I don't see the topic addressed by leaders or religious news outlets. I've only found four published books on the subject of the declining birth rate in America and around the world. (I've read two and ordered the other two.) For a while I had a Google alert set up to track new news reports from America and around the world to see if the trend was changing.

In a nutshell, parents are having fewer babies. The minimum replacement rate is 2.1. When a couple has fewer than two children on average, i.e., doesn't replace itself, the population starts to decline. The rate is already below 2.1 in a number of countries (you can find them online).

In 2015, the US rate was 1.84. In May 2018 the NYT had a headline: "U.S. Fertility Rate Fell to a Record Low, for a Second Straight Year."

After reading the books, news reports, and further discussion, it becomes clear the problem isn't going away and there is no legitimate solution. Government efforts worldwide to raise the fertility rate have failed. (There aren't many efforts but the ones different countries have tried over decades don't do much at all.)

Christians aren't having more babies. South Korea has a high percentage of Christians but the national FR is 1.24. In 2017 it recorded its lowest FR ever. Then this catchy headline resulting from a government study: "S. Korea's Total Fertility Rate Feared to Fall Below 1 in 2018."

SK isn't the only nation with this problem. Across Europe there are similar problems, including Germany, Spain, Portugal, etc. In 2015 the EU average was 1.58.

Here is a bleak projection graph:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:...Population_Prospects_2015,_United_Nations.gif

So the world is expected to die off, nation after nation, disappearing...

Governments can't do anything. The Church isn't doing anything. Even if it was well aware, what would it do? Encourage its people to have more kids. That's not going to work. It's obviously often finances and the economy that affect the decision on how many if any kids a couple has. The Church can't be expected to change the economy. In many nations the cost of living is high and the future economy doesn't look great.

I'm not posting this message to encourage people to have more children. I don't have any children (I'm not married). The point is to see if your views on the future accept the facts and the trend, and to hear what discussions you've had or heard about the subject.

Could the end of the world be as simple as people not having enough babies? No big Judgment Day. No drama. Just a slow and gradual die off.

And should we even care if the rate gets very low? "It's not my problem."

P.S. I've never heard one prophecy that addresses the decline or provide a solution. Is it possible God isn't concerned about it? He's okay with where things are going and has no plans to change anything.

This is the first I've heard of a worldwide decline in fertility rate. Last I know we were concerned about overpopulation.