| Highlights of Dawn | October 1968 |
The World Population Problem
TEN thousand people either starve to death or die of malnutrition every twenty-four hours. Thus says the Population Reference Bureau, as quoted in the Los Angeles Herald Examiner. Population experts report that 324,000 new babies enter the world every day. Including those who die for lack of food, 134,000 die every day, leaving a net gain of 190,000 people every twenty-four hours. This means that each year a total of 69,350,000 are added to earth’s population—this, approximately, is equal to the population of eight cities the size of New York.
It is estimated that by the beginning of 1969 the total population of earth will be three and one-half billion, and that this number will be doubled by the year 2000. The increase of population is much greater in the so-called “have-not” nations of the earth; and ironically, it is in these areas that the people are in a much less favorable position to care for their rapidly increasing numbers.
The population experts know that the present rapid increase of world population will lead to all sorts of problems within the foreseeable future. They see mass starvation and famine conditions throughout much of the world. They realize that the expansion of population, and thus of needs, in the backward nations of earth will lead them to pressure the “have” nations by war, and in other ways, to share more of their wealth with the world’s needy and starving people.
This in no small way is the motive which moves the United States and other governments to make available birth control information, together with the means of implementing that information, to the needy nations of earth. But will this serve to halt the population increase sufficiently to solve this rapidly looming problem in time? An atomic scientist, Dr. Ralph Lapp, has calculated that at current birth rates as many people will be born in the next century as in all the previous twenty centuries, thus wholly upsetting the global balance of nature. “It looks to me,” Lapp says, “like a race between the pill and the bomb.”
As an atomic scientist Dr. Lapp realizes that one “solution” to the increasing population problems could be the destruction of nearly the whole population of earth by nuclear war.
The ratio of increase in population growth has been enhanced by the rapid advances which have been and still are being made in medical science. This is particularly true in the backward nations of earth. The average length of human life has been greatly increased in the last fifty Fears. A considerable portion of this increase has resulted from a decrease in infant mortality. Many more babies grow up into adults than formerly. This means, of course, that in living to maturity most of them marry and bring forth more children.
Certainly no one wants to criticize medical science for keeping people alive longer than in the past. Where the wisdom of this world is failing is in knowing how to cope with the rapidly increasing population of earth which has been stimulated by the successes of medical science. It is indeed a grim commentary on the matter for an atomic scientist to hint that perhaps the solution is in the mass destruction of countless millions, made possible by his brand of science.
The Pope Non-cooperative
The efforts of governments and other organizations to furnish the necessary means for birth control to those who desire to regulate the size of their families was given a severe jolt toward the end of July by the pope’s announcement that the Catholic Church is still opposed to any sort of artificial birth control. This announcement, although not ex cathedra and therefore not unchangeable, immediately stirred up a storm of protest in both Protestant and Catholic circles.
Large numbers of priests, bishops, and other educators made it plain by their public announcements that in their opinion Catholics should not consider the pope’s announcement as binding upon them; that after all it was a matter of individual conscience as to whether they did or did not use artificial birth control methods. In this, of course, we see another evidence of the breaking down of totalitarian authority in the Catholic Church.
The birth control agency of the United States Government, as well as private birth control agencies in this country and elsewhere, let it be known that the pope’s pronouncement would go unheeded so far as they were concerned. Regret was expressed, however, that the pope had attempted to lead the world backward instead of forward. And while it was expressed that probably the majority of Catholics would not obey the pope in this matter, yet his pronouncement certainly had not helped in the efforts they were making to relieve some of the suffering of humanity by means of artificial birth control.
One of the Signs
Those who have a genuine faith in the plan of God for the human race, as set forth in the Bible, see in the exploding population crisis a very real evidence of the near approach of the culmination of the divine plan through the agencies of the long-promised kingdom of Christ. God’s plan for his human creation is briefly but clearly stated in the Genesis account of creation. We quote:
“God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he … them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish [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. 1:26-28
This is a familiar text of Scripture, yet it contains vital information which is directly related to our modern population problem. Note the command to multiply and fill the earth. (The word “replenish” as used in the King James Version is not a correct translation of the Hebrew text.) Those who have the erroneous view that man’s existence on earth is but a temporary one and that when he dies he is transferred to another place of existence, would find no significance in the statement, “fill the earth.”
However, God created the earth to be man’s eternal home. Isaiah wrote that God created the earth “not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited.” (Isa. 45:18) The Scriptures reveal that beginning with Christ and Pentecost a small number, on condition of being willing to follow in Jesus’ footsteps of sacrifice, have been invited to share his heavenly home, and to live and reign with him in his kingdom. (John 14:2,3; II Tim. 2:11,12) But God’s plan for mankind in general is that they might live on the earth forever as perfect humans.
But this was conditional upon obedience to divine law, and our first parents disobeyed that law and came under condemnation of death. However, this did not destroy God’s plan for his human creation, for in that plan redemption from death had been provided through God’s beloved Son, whom he sent into the world to be its Redeemer and Savior. Paul described this provision briefly when he wrote, “As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.”—I Cor. 15:21,22
Paul wrote to Timothy saying that Jesus gave himself a “ransom” for all. (I Tim. 2:3-6) The Greek word here translated “ransom” means “a corresponding price.” It was the perfect human, Adam, who sinned and brought upon himself death condemnation. It was the perfect “man Christ Jesus” who voluntarily gave his humanity as a substitute for Adam. Thus Adam and his posterity will not need to remain in death forever, but in God’s due time will be awakened and given an opportunity to obey God’s law and live forever on the earth, as was God’s original purpose for them.
Now, to return to Genesis 1:28. We note again the expression, “fill the earth.” Adam was commanded to multiply and fill the earth. This is a command with a limit, and the limit is the filling of the earth. It was not in the divine program for the earth to become overpopulated so that man, by his own inventions, would need to destroy large segments of his own species. The implication of this limited command is that when the due time should come, by divine providence, the procreative power of humans would cease.
Nor are we to suppose that this would be brought about by artificial means of birth control. Since we are undoubtedly nearing the time when this basic change in humans will gradually take place by a divine overruling, the great publicity concerning birth control now abroad in the earth may be serving to prepare mankind for what divine power will eventually bring about, for this is the day of God’s “preparation.”
Whether many or none of the present population are to be destroyed by hydrogen bombs we do not know; but we do know that all who have died, and all who will yet die, whether in war or otherwise, are to be awakened from death and have a place provided for them in the earth, even as God originally planned.
We realize that this may well place a tremendous strain upon the faith of some. But this need not be the case. It is human reasoning that is now causing the hearts of many to be filled with fear lest the earth become overpopulated. Actually, there is still plenty of room for all the living and all who have died; and there will also be plenty of room for the additional millions yet to be born. The great God and Creator of the universe who times so accurately the movements of all the heavenly bodies in his great universe is abundantly able to set the time when the procreation of the race must cease.
Besides, a study of facts even now known reveals the vast areas of the earth yet uninhabited, and the tremendous potentials for food yet undeveloped. Look at a global map and note the vast desert areas which are virtually uninhabited. These areas exist on several continents, and God has promised that these desert places shall become productive and inhabited.
Concerning the future time of restoration of the human race to life, the Prophet Isaiah wrote, “Then the eyes of the blind [literal and symbolic] shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert. And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes.”—Isa. 35:5-7
Agriculturists even now realize that the desert lands are extremely fertile, and in limited areas irrigating water is being provided. But this is not causing blind eyes to be opened, and deaf ears to be unstopped; nor is it causing the dumb to sing as the Prophet Isaiah said would be the case when God causes water to “break out” in the wilderness, and streams in the desert. Notice the little word “for”—eyes will [symbolically] be opened, the dumb will sing, etc., “for” or because, waters shall break out in the wilderness and spring forth in the desert.
We rejoice in what man is endeavoring to do on a limited basis in irrigating the deserts; but what excitement there will be when instead of bringing water hundreds of miles by pipelines, the news is flashed around the world that this will no longer be necessary because waters are springing forth in the deserts themselves!
Apparently this will be recognized as of divine accomplishment. We know that the physically blind and deaf and dumb will have their senses of sight, hearing, and speech restored. And this will also be true symbolically. Almost the entire human race is blind to the providences of God in human affairs. They cannot hear, in the sense of appreciating the glad message of the Gospel concerning the blessings of Messiah’s kingdom soon to come. And certainly they are speechless, or silent, concerning the great God of creation. But when the miracle of waters breaking out in the deserts becomes known, and when the people learn of all the other things being accomplished by Messiah’s kingdom, including the dissemination of the pure symbolic water of truth, how different it will be.
One of the great accomplishments which the people will then appreciate, and for which they will praise the Lord, is the manner in which he will solve the population problem. Let us rejoice even now in the prospect of this and all the other blessings of Messiah’s coming kingdom!