In Brief: The New Population Bomb and Prophecy
A recent article in Foreign Affairs, titled "The New Population Bomb," shows that one problem with the current population explosion is not so much how many people there will be in the future, but where this increase will be located.
"Twenty-first century international security will depend less on how many people inhabit the world than on how the global population is composed and distributed...which countries are relatively older and which are more youthful, and how demographics will influence population movements across regions" (Jack A. Goldstone, January-February 2010).
Today's global population is 6.83 billion people. According to the United Nations Population Division, the population of the world will be around 9.15 billion by the year 2050.
However, as the population of Western countries continues to decline, the fastest-growing populations will be located in Africa, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Latin America. Except for Latin America, huge elements of these fast-growing, youthful populations will be concentrated in Muslim countries, such as Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey.
According to Foreign Affairs, in 2009 the above-mentioned six countries were the world's most populous Muslim-majority countries and had a combined population of 886 million (2009). Their populations are expected to increase by 475 million more between now and the year 2050.
The descendants of Ishmael are generally considered to be today's Arab people, but their descendants expand further than just the Arab peoples. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia points out that the term "Ishmaelite" has a broader significance in the Scriptures. "The Ishmaelites were not confined to the descendents of the son of Abraham and Hagar, but refer to desert tribes in general, like 'the children of the East'" (p. 906).
Some of them are listed in another prophecy in Psalm 83, which mentions a confederacy of tribes that correspond to Arab and Muslim nations today. This confederacy will apparently attempt to destroy the modern descendants of the tribes of Israel: "They have said, 'Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation, that the name of Israel may be remembered no more'" (Psalm 83:4).
The article in Foreign Affairs issues a warning to the Western world. Describing the Muslim nations that will experience such enormous population explosions, it says that the majority of people "live in poor communities vulnerable to radical appeals and many see the West as antagonistic and militaristic" (p. 37).
The tensions between Muslim and Western societies will also lead to the prophetic scenario of an end-time king of the South pushing at the European-centered king of the North (Daniel 11:40).
For more on these prophecies, see The Middle East in Bible Prophecy. WNP
An Article from:
World News and Prophecy: January - February 2010
Course Content
Fred Nance
Fred Nance is a pastor at the United Church of God and has a B.A. in History from Ambassador College. He is originally from Lansing Michigan having moved to Arkansas in September of 2009. His wife Lidia is originally from Argentina.
John Ross Schroeder
John died on March 8, 2014, in Oxford, England, four days after suffering cardiac arrest while returning home from a press event in London. John was 77 and still going strong.
Some of John's work for The Good News appeared under his byline, but much didn't. He wrote more than a thousand articles over the years, but also wrote the Questions and Answers section of the magazine, compiled our Letters From Our Readers, and wrote many of the items in the Current Events and Trends section. He also contributed greatly to a number of our study guides and Bible Study Course lessons. His writing has touched the lives of literally millions of people over the years.
John traveled widely over the years as an accredited journalist, especially in Europe. His knowledge of European and Middle East history added a great deal to his articles on history and Bible prophecy.
In his later years he also pastored congregations in Northern Ireland and East Sussex, and that experience added another dimension to his writing. He and his wife Jan were an effective team in our British Isles office near their home.
John was a humble servant who dedicated his life to sharing the gospel—the good news—of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God to all the world, and his work was known to readers in nearly every country of the world.
