This month Messenger is considering various worldview topics and how the church might respond. The topic we will be considering in today’s is the global decline in birth rates.
Paul Ehrlich’s book “The Population Bomb” came out in 1968 and dreamed of zero population growth. In just over fifty
years, the world has regrettably morphed into the nightmare of a baby bust. A study by the renowned weekly medical journal Lancet predicts: “Population in the third quarter of the 21st century will peak in 2064 and then cascade a billion people by the end of the century—and continue to fall—and almost all from one root cause: the worldwide birth dearth, baby bust, or birthrate collapse.” Few predicted it would spread to every corner of the globe—Asia, Europe, South America, North America, and even China and India. Based on current statistics, by 2100 it is predicted 97% of the world’s countries and territories (195 out of 204) will have fertility rates below what is necessary to sustain population size, causing massive labor shortages and the realignment of geo-political power structures.
The ominous global birth dearth train is coming down the tracks and ultimately could be catastrophic for the nations. This demographic winter is projected to negatively impact world economies, food security, and health care just to name a few. Researchers say the world is ill-prepared for this global birth crash which will have a jaw-dropping impact. The church should care about this topic and have an ongoing conversation about it from a Biblical worldview.
What might be the church’s response? Biblically speaking, Christians should proclaim the preciousness of children and celebrate their value to God and society. The church can embrace the context of the dominion mandate of Genesis 1:28. The fall-off on the birth rate is one very dangerous indicator of the secularization of the world culture and the subversion 
of marriage and of the first command given to the man and the woman in the garden to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.”
Wise Solomon said that children are a blessing from the Lord. However, that does not mean God has not blessed childless couples or that children are the only sign of His favor. It means that children are to be received as an expression of God’s goodness and grace and not as a curse or an inconvenience. When God chooses to bless us with children, He intends to bring great joy, pleasure, security, protection, and reward to families and society through them. May the church boldly declare this Biblical point of view to a world in spiritual darkness!
Pr. Ray Ballmann
Glen Rose, Texas
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Once again, Pr. Ballman gives a clear word of discernment and hope. Children are a gift from God. Blessed are those, who are privileged to fill their quivers!