| Highlights of Dawn | April 1964 |
The Exploding Population in the Plan of God
“Thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the Lord; and there is none else.” —Isaiah 45:18
WORLD economists who are devoting attention to the rapidly increasing population of earth are becoming fearful lest this planet on which we live become overpopulated. While the situation is not yet critical, if something isn’t done the end of the twentieth century might well find more people on the earth than present potentials could properly feed, clothe, and house.
The permanent solution to this problem is to be found in the Word of God; but if this is to give us any satisfaction we must be prepared to accept the Bible’s record of the length of time man has been on the earth, and the purpose of the Creator in having him here. The chronology clearly set forth in the Bible brings us down to a point which can be coupled with secular history to give us a period of a little more than six thousand years since the creation of man. Jewish chronology gives a period which is even shorter than this.
By the beginning of the Christian era, which was approximately 4,000 years from man’s creation, earth’s population is estimated as being not more than 250 million, or a quarter of a billion. Sixteen more centuries had passed before the population reached the half-billion mark. But in the next 250 years, or by 1850, the one billion mark had been reached. Today, a little more than a century later, the population of the earth is three billion.
We are now told by the United Nations demographers that by the close of the century, thirty-six years from now, the population of the earth will be close to seven billion. They say that in less than 150 years the population will be fifty billion, or more than sixteen times what it is today.
But let us take the seven billion figure which will be reached within the lifetime of millions now living on the planet. This is more than double the present population. This would mean that all our cities must become double in size in less than forty years, and the rural population become twice as dense. New cities may well be built, but no matter how the increased population may be apportioned, this factual look at the situation is rather awesome. And if we project our thinking 150 years into the future the situation becomes seven times as acute; and from the standpoint of human wisdom, this would not be the end.
As compared with many countries, especially those of Asia and South America, the population situation here in the United States is very favorable. There is already overcrowding in many areas of the earth. Much effort is being made by those in positions of influence and whose responsibility it is to do something about the population explosion, to acquaint the people of earth with adequate methods of birth control, especially those in backward countries where the increase is the most rapid. So far as worldly wisdom is concerned, this seems to be the only solution, short of a hydrogen atomic war, which would wipe out most of the present population of earth—and no one wants this.
God’s Plan
To those who understand God’s plan for his human creatures, the present population explosion is not a surprise. Instead, it is one of the evidences of the forward march of his plan, and of the fact that it is soon to reach its glorious consummation in the enlightenment and blessing of all the families of the earth. The first statement in the Bible pertaining to God’s plan or his human creatures is found in the Book of Genesis. We quote:
“God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish [Heb. fill] the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”—Gen. 1:27,28
The Genesis record also says, “The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” (Gen. 2:8,9) This garden was but a model from which man could work as, in fulfillment of the Lord’s command, he pursued the project of subduing the whole earth.
And we can easily imagine how this would have been progressively accomplished. Obeying the Creator’s command to. multiply and fill the earth, Adam’s family soon would have outgrown that comparatively small garden “eastward in Eden.” Then its borders would need to be extended. This process would continue, until what started out to be but a small area of productive land would have encompassed the whole earth, and would thus have become a world-wide paradise.
This earthly paradise would then have been filled with God’s happy human creatures, knowing nothing of sin, sorrow, pain and death. There would have been no danger of overpopulation, for God’s command was to fill the earth, not to overfill it; and we may assume that at the proper time the Creator would have co-operated with his obedient humans to end the bringing forth of further children. The Bible does not give us the details of this, but the fact is clearly implied by the nature and limitation of the command.
Sin Entered
But matters did not work out in the obvious manner which we have outlined. God had placed a condition, not upon populating and filling the earth, but upon continuing to live under the favorable conditions provided in Eden. Speaking of the forbidden fruit of the garden, God said to. Adam, “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” (Gen. 2:17) We all know the story of Adam’s disobedience, of his being sentenced to death and driven out of Eden to die.
But this did not change the divine purpose in the creation of man, although human philosophy has made it appear as though it did. This philosophy got its start in a lie told to mother Eve by the serpent, which impersonated the Devil. He told her that death would not be the result of disobeying God. Just what this meant to her we may not be sure, but later the philosophy developed that there is no death. This would mean that Adam and Eve did not really die, as God said they would; that what seemed to be death was merely passing through a gateway into another life in some faraway “isle of somewhere.”
Death, however, is a reality. Our first parents were not transferred to another abode at death. They died; for “the wages of sin is death.” (Rom. 6:23) “The dead know not any thing.” (Eccles. 9:5) The simple fact is that man was created to live on the earth, but he lost the privilege of living forever because he transgressed divine law. However, this did not change the divine purpose in the creation of man. As our text declares, God did not create the earth in vain, but formed it to be inhabited—not by a dying race, but by a living race.
It is a well-known fact that Jesus died to save the world from sin and death. But those who do not accept the testimony of the Bible concerning the reality of death suppose that Jesus’ death was to provide a way for converted sinners to go to heaven when they die. In reality, however, the great redemptive program centered in Christ Jesus provides for the human race to be restored to life on the earth as humans. This means that eventually, and in God’s own due time, God’s original purpose concerning man will be accomplished. The whole earth will become one vast paradise, filled with perfect and happy humans, freed from sickness and death, and all the other evils which now afflict the dying race.
True, Jesus said to his disciples that he was going away to prepare a “place” for them, and that he would come again and receive them unto himself. (John 14:2,3) This and other promises of the Bible warrants the followers of Jesus to expect a heavenly reward in the resurrection. But this provision is not for mankind in general. It is only for that little flock who follow in the footsteps of Jesus, laying down their lives in sacrifice as he did. These will be exalted to “glory, and honor and immortality,” to live and reign with Christ a thousand years.—Rom. 2:7; Rev. 20:4,6
Restitution
The main purpose of Jesus’ first visit to earth was the giving of his life in sacrifice in order that condemned humanity might be released from that condemnation and be restored to life. The Bible teaches that his second visit, which lasts for a thousand years, will be for the purpose of restoring the people to life. The Apostle Peter described the period of Christ’s second visit to earth as “the times of restitution of all things, which,” he declared, “God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.”—Acts. 3:19-21
This means, according to the testimony of all God’s holy prophets, that that which would have been, had sin not entered the Garden of Eden, is yet to be. And the restoration of the human race to life will include not only those who are living at the time this great feature of the divine plan begins for the Bible reveals clearly that all the dead are to be awakened from the sleep of death, and given an opportunity to share in the blessings of health and life provided by the death of Jesus as man’s Redeemer.
This would seem to make the exploding population problem even more serious. Some have mistakenly supposed that there would not be room enough on the earth for those who have died, but this is not true. A simple way to prove this is to multiply the present daily death rate by the number of days since creation, add to this the present population of earth, and one will find that there would still be room on earth for the total number. It is obvious, however, that this method of estimating gives us many times what the total actually will be.
Limited
It is true that if nothing is done about the present population explosion the earth would soon become overpopulated. But something will be done about it. As we have noted, the command to our first parents was to multiply and fill the earth, not to overfill it. We may rest assured that the providences of God will overrule in this matter in a way to bring to an end any further increase in population. Even now the publicity that is being given to this subject is preparing the people for the change which must inevitably come.
The Bible makes it very definite that those resurrected from the dead will not continue to have children. This is brought out in a discussion between Jesus and the Sadducees of his day. The Sadducees did not believe that there would be a resurrection of the dead, their thought being that death was the end of everything. So they propounded what they expected would be a difficult question for Jesus to answer. They mentioned the case of a woman who had married seven brothers in turn, one after another having died. Then they asked, “In the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her.”—Matt. 22:23-28
From the standpoint of human reasoning this would seem to be a real problem, but not so for Jesus, for he understood the great plan of his Heavenly Father concerning the human race. His reply was, “Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.”—Matt. 22:29,30
Jesus meant that restored mankind would be as the angelic host, in that they would no longer propagate. There is endless variety in the creative works of God. The angels were created individually, and are not able to reproduce their own kind. Man was given this power, but only until a sufficient number of humans should have been born to properly fill the earth, and then it was to cease. In the great plan of God this change takes place for millions when they are resurrected.
Jesus said to the Sadducees, “Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God.” Those who know the Scriptures know that it is God’s purpose to restore the dead to life on the earth; and those who know this, and have faith in the unlimited power of the Creator, are assured that he is abundantly able to take care of every necessary detail in his plan, even to bringing about the necessary changes in human anatomy to prevent the further increase of earth’s population. Medical science even now has the knowledge for controlling the birth rate, but we can he assured that God’s way will be much better.
Still Room
There is still much unused land surface on the earth. There are the vast deserts which today are producing nothing. The Scriptures assure us that during the “times of restitution of all things” “the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.” (Isa. 35:1) We are also promised that “then shall the earth yield her increase.” (Ps. 67:6) There are also the large areas of land near the North Pole and at the South Pole which might well in due time, with the change of climate, become available for cultivation.
We are reminded also of the ever-increasing knowledge related to land utilization. On the average, much more food is being produced per acre than was true fifty years ago. And this increase continues. Modern farm machinery enables a few to cultivate vast areas of land. We simply remind our readers of these various details to emphasize that the earth is quite capable of taking care of the existing population, and also those who will be brought back from the dead.
Kingdom Near
There are many prophecies in the Bible pertaining to the day of preparation for Christ’s kingdom, which will be the agency used for restoring mankind to life on the earth. These prophecies are being fulfilled in a remarkable manner, which proves that the long-promised kingdom of the Messiah is close at hand. One of these prophecies pertains to the great increase of knowledge and rapid means of travel peculiar to the present time. (Dan. 12:4) The increase of knowledge manifests itself along many lines, and particularly in the increased production of all the various commodities needed by man.
Under present conditions, and particularly aside from the vast amount of energy utilized in maintaining and increasing machinery of war, this increased production potential is posing a labor problem for the world. The industrial world is now able to produce much more than the people can possibly use. However, this situation will not continue, for soon there will be not only the living generation for which provision will need to be made, but also the vast numbers returning from death. Thus God, in his wise foresight, has timed these events to coincide for the good of his human creatures.
And speaking of God’s timing, the population explosion points up another aspect of divine wisdom. While at present, and for a short time into the future, the total number of humans born will have ample room here on earth, and can be well provided for, the present arrangements cannot continue too long, for if they did, as the statisticians point out, there will not be room on earth for even the living population, to say nothing about the millions who have died.
What has so comparatively suddenly brought about this population crisis? A simple, and we believe a well-known illustration, reveals the answer to this question. Two germs are placed in a bowl to propagate. These germs double in number every second. At the end of one hour, the bowl is full of germs. At what point in the hour is the bowl half filled? The answer is, at the end of the fifty-ninth second of the sixtieth minute in the hour. It would be the last doubling that would fill the bowl.
We can hardly apply this illustration with exactness, for there is no way of determining now just how many people the earth will actually support under perfect conditions. However, it would appear that humanity has reached a point in its increase of population which about compares to the last second in that hour during which the germs filled the bowl. This is why thinking people of the world are suddenly becoming alarmed. The doubling of the present population of three billion by the end of the century is a startling thought, but what about the doubling of that number a few years beyond the turn of the century?
And what does it mean so far as the outworking of the divine plan is concerned? Simply that God’s time is near to call a halt to human propagation, for enough people will have been born to fill the earth. This means that Messiah’s kingdom and the time of restoration is near—that restoration, or restitution, which was spoken by the mouth of all God’s holy prophets since the world began.
Distribution
Today seventy-five percent of the human race is underfed and under-clothed. Millions, particularly throughout Asia, never have a roof over their heads from the time they are born until they die. Even now, however, the productive countries of the earth could produce enough for all. One of the problems is distribution. Back of this problem is human selfishness. The “have” nations simply do not want to give up any of their luxuries in order to raise the standards of the “have not” nations. If the spirit of unselfishness and of genuine interests in the welfare of all people prevailed, the distribution problem would soon be solved.
But here again the Lord will step in and do for man what he cannot do for himself. One of the prophecies concerning restitution pictures men as being given hearts of flesh, and the Lord’s law of love being written in their hearts. (Jer. 31:31-34; Ezek. 11:19,20; 36:24-28) What a difference this will make in human behavior, especially in the attitude of people toward other people, particularly the people of other lands!
With such an attitude prevailing, and with divine power intervening when necessary in the affairs of men, there will be no problem too great to be solved. Ways will be found to make the earth produce more abundantly. With irrigation all the present waste places will become fertile; more and better machinery will speed up the building trade so that “they shall build houses” in abundance, and “inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them.” (Isa. 65:21,22) Let us rejoice in all the evidence with which we are surrounded assuring us that such a glorious new day of blessing is near!