“Be fruitful and multiply.” This is one of the Bible’s rare commands that men and women around the world have historically not struggled to follow.

After it was issued to the first couple in the Garden of Eden, those two multiplied into several, then those several into dozens, those dozens into hundreds, those hundreds into thousands, those thousands into millions, and finally those millions multiplied into billions. That doesn’t mean the line always ran unswervingly upward: The Great Flood, the Mongol conquest, the bubonic plague and the Spanish Flu all shrank the global population, by a lot or a little. But on the other side of calamity, survivors never took long to regroup, pair up and begin multiplying once again.

From the time of Adam and Eve to the present, it is estimated that more than 55 billion babies have breathed the breath of life.

The population growth happened in large part because people lived, for hundreds of generations, in agrarian societies. Within these societies, they generally married young, had few birth control options, and stayed married until death. Children were seen as natural and inevitable. They were also often viewed as vital financial assets. “Children were free labor that were de facto chained to their parents’ economic needs,” geopolitical strategist Peter Zeihan writes in The End of the World Is Just Beginning.

Each woman typically had at least five babies, and often 10 or more. And no calculator is needed to see that when two are becoming seven or 12 or more for generation after generation, the numbers multiply quickly—even if child mortality rates are high.

Moving From Farms to Factories

Procreation may have remained a popular pastime indefinitely. But starting in the late 1700s, nations began transitioning away from those agrarian societies to industrial ones. People hung up their overalls and put on boiler suits. They left the sprawling farms that their families had worked for generations and moved to quarter-acre plots or apartments down the street from factories that now paid their wages. With this move, many of the economic reasons for having children simply vanished.

Children weren’t just less of a financial asset—they became a significant expense to bring into the world and raise. At the same time, sweeping cultural changes began taking root: secularism was on the rise, birth control became more reliable, eventually abortion became more accessible, there was greater focus on personal fulfillment or “self-actualization,” and new ideological movements motivated women to prioritize careers over children.

These were major societal changes.

And so, just as couples had many children back when it was economically beneficial, once those benefits were overtaken by costs, and as other societal changes took hold, people started having fewer sons and daughters—or none at all. The late Herbert W. Armstrong discussed this in his 1985 book Mystery of the Ages. “Family life is being broken down though the family is a basic building block of any stable civilization,” he wrote. “More and more, children are not wanted.”

In the four decades since he wrote those words, the situation has only grown more dire.

For a developed nation’s population to remain constant, it needs an average fertility rate of 2.1 children per woman—two to replace the mother and father, and a fractional cushion to offset unspeakable personal tragedy.

In the United States today, the average woman has 1.7 children—well below what is needed to keep the population from decreasing and far below what is required to multiply. Were it not for immigration, America’s population would be declining every year.

And American couples are actually more prolific than those of most other industrial and post-industrial nations. Modern Australian, British and Dutch women bear only 1.6 children each. For Canadians and Germans, it’s around 1.5 children. Greek, Hungarian, Portuguese and Russian women have an average of 1.4 babies each. Japanese and Italians bear just 1.3. And the average Chinese woman births only 1.2. At the bottom of the list (unless you count Vatican City’s goose egg) is South Korea, with an abysmal 0.75 children per woman.

A fertility rate of 0.75 means each successive generation is one third as numerous as their parents’ generation. At current rates, every 100 South Koreans currently of childbearing age will produce only 14 grandchildren.

In several countries, the drop-off happened at tremendous speed. Singapore had a birthrate of about 6 children per woman as recently as 1960. By 1985, it was down to 1.6; today it’s 1.

Unlike the United States, many of these fallow nations do not have substantial numbers of immigrants coming in each year. As a result, their populations aren’t just shrinking—they’re in free fall.

Japan, for example, suffered a population loss of 890,000 people in 2024. This marked the nation’s 18th consecutive year of decline. Japan has already shrunk by nearly 5 million since its peak, equivalent to 20 times the number of lives it lost in the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. If current rates continue, in just one more generation, Japan will shrink by another 20 million people.

The Great Graying

Not only are many developed countries getting rapidly smaller, but they’re just as quickly getting older. This is largely because the shift to industrialization brought with it more wealth for more people, which translates to better health care, sanitation and nutrition, and thus longer lifespans.

A century ago, less than 1 percent of Japan’s population was 75 years old and older: The average person only lived to age 40. But lifespans began to dramatically expand at that time, and the trend has continued into the present. During the same 12 months of 2024 when Japan lost a total of 890,000 people, their number of individuals age 75 and older grew by 700,000, reaching 20,777,000. This age group now makes up a jaw-dropping 17 percent of Japan’s 123.7 million people. (In comparison, less than 7 percent of Americans today are 75 or older, and for the world’s youngest nation, Niger, only half of 1 percent is past this milestone.)

For the first few generations after a given nation industrializes, extended lifespans actually offset declining birth rates. People reproduce less, but since they live longer, total population figures remain relatively stable. But within a couple of generations, lifespan gains max out, then the inevitable population decline kicks in.

With 123 of the world’s 195 nations now below that 2.1 replacement level of fertility, this demographic shift is quietly reshaping the planet. Workforces are thinning, social welfare and health-care systems are straining, schools and shops are shuttering, and entire towns and even cities are fading into ghost towns. The only group swelling in number is the ranks of pensioners and other retirees.

A few sobering facts drive home just how extreme—and unprecedented—these shifts have become: In 2023, more than 155 South Korean elementary schools reported zero new student enrollments. Around 200 child-care centers in the nation have been turned into elder-care facilities. In Japan, dozens of medical centers built for pregnant women have been repurposed as nursing homes. In countries like China, Japan and South Korea, adult diapers now outsell baby diapers.

These Asian nations are demographic “canaries in the coal mine,” offering a glimpse of what awaits Western countries if current trends persist.

The shrinking and graying of nations is clearly abnormal in the context of human history. But what may not be as obvious is that it is utterly unsustainable.

‘Humanity Is Dying’

When asked during a Fox News interview in March what most keeps him up at night, Elon Musk answered: “The birthrate is very low in almost every country. And unless that changes, civilization will disappear. … Nothing seems to be turning that around. Humanity is dying.” In doing his personal part to slow the crisis, Musk has sired 14 known children.

U.S. Vice President JD Vance agrees that tumbling birthrates are a “catastrophic problem.”

Zeihan, too, says the threat is cataclysmic, and emphasizes that it is more urgent than most realize. “In the 2020s, birthrates are no longer simply dropping,” he writes, “they have been so low for so long that even the countries with the younger age structures are now running low of young adults—the demographic that produces the children. As the already smaller 20-something and 30-something cadres age into their 30s and 40s, birthrates will not simply continue their long decline, they will collapse.”

“For countries as varied as China, Russia, Japan, Germany, Italy, South Korea, Ukraine, Canada, Malaysia, Taiwan, Romania, the Netherlands, Belgium and Austria, the question isn’t when these countries will age into demographic obsolescence,” he continues. “All will see their worker cadres pass into mass retirement in the 2020s. None have sufficient young people to even pretend to regenerate their populations. All suffer from terminal demographics. The real questions are how and how soon do their societies crack apart? And do they deflate in silence or lash out against the dying of the light.”

Some governments are waking up to the looming danger of their demographic crises and are scrambling to reverse course with pro-natalist measures.

In 2016, the Chinese government ended the nation’s myopic one-child policy, first allowing families to have two children, then three. When few couples took them up on the woefully belated offer, the government sweetened the deal with subsidies, tax breaks, child-care support and extended maternity and paternity leave. In an even more unusual move, several Chinese universities have launched courses such as “The Psychology of Love” and “The Sociology of Marriage and Intimate Relationships.” These aim to teach the one-child generation how to date and to convince them of the benefits of marriage and procreation.

Similarly, the Japanese government has started giving citizens substantial “baby bonuses” to help cover the costs of childbirth and essential postnatal items such as strollers, diapers and car seats. This year, the government implemented a four-day workweek for state employees to foster work-life balance. Tokyo is encouraging the private sector to follow suit.

South Korea has generously expanded both maternity and paternity leave and gives parents child-care subsidies, housing support and other financial incentives. Families with two or more children are also gifted a “Multi-Child Happiness Card,” which unlocks steep discounts at theaters, amusement parks and other attractions.

In the Republic of Georgia, the Orthodox patriarch made an unusual pledge: If an Orthodox married couple had three or more children, he would baptize the third-born and up personally. As a result, this revered figure has become the godfather to over 48,000 children.

Meanwhile, Hungary gives newlyweds interest-free loans as long as they vow to try reproducing soon. If their efforts bear fruit, a portion of the loan is forgiven. The nation also exempts mothers of three or more from paying personal income tax for life. And for mothers of four or more, generous subsidies are given to buy seven-seater minivans. On the roads of Hungary, these vehicles are viewed as rolling symbols of fertility pride.

Perhaps the most unusual measure is in Russia, which enshrined September 12 as a new holiday called the “Day of Conception.” Couples are encouraged to stay home from work on this unique day to focus on procreation. It’s no coincidence that the occasion falls exactly 9 months before “Russia Day” on June 12. Women who deliver a new citizen for the motherland on Russia Day win televisions, washing machines and other prizes.

Russia is also fighting against its population decline with a new law outlawing “child-free propaganda,” such as television depictions of seemingly happy childless couples. And in a much darker measure, Russia’s troops are literally stealing tens of thousands of children from its war zones in Ukraine and bringing them into Russia to be raised thinking they are Russian. Analyst Jake Broe said in 2023, “This land grab in Ukraine was always also a people grab.”

Some of these measures are slowing the decline in certain nations, including South Korea where the fertility rate actually climbed last year from 0.72 to 0.75.

But overall, these efforts are tragically insufficient—far too little, far too late. None of these measures are enough to stop these nations from shrinking and start multiplying again. As Musk bluntly put it, “Humanity is dying.” It’s happening in virtually every industrialized and post-industrial country on the globe. And the implications are profound.

The ‘God of This World’ Hates Family

A major part of the reason why “humanity is dying” is because the being in charge of the world right now hates children and family. 2 Corinthians 4:3-4 show that the god of this world is Satan.

The devil is in control right now, and he is angry. The Bible makes clear that he was never given the power to reproduce himself as humans can. And he was never offered the future mankind has been offered. Because of this, he hates people of every age, sex, race and nation. And he has done all he can to pervert and destroy humanity, and he has deceived the whole world (Revelation 12:9).

This simple fact explains so much about the modern world. Satan’s leadership explains why mankind can’t avoid war. It explains why our leaders are corrupt and our nations are divided against each other. It explains why child abuse, spouse abuse, substance abuse, depression, hopelessness and suicide are ubiquitous. And it helps explain why so many today choose not to have children.

That is not to say that reproduction always comes from righteousness. After all, the command to “be fruitful and multiply” was given in the context of marriage. It was a command issued to a husband and wife to have children exclusively with each other and to raise them together. Yet a great deal of the multiplying since then has occurred outside of marriage, often in irresponsible and even criminal ways.

Nevertheless, when entire societies begin shrinking back from such a natural and foundational part of life—and such a cornerstone of societal stability—as having children, something is profoundly wrong. If we didn’t understand that the “god of this world” is rabidly anti-family, the trend would defy logic.

‘A Gift From the Lord’

As a newlywed, I remember my wife and I experiencing some of the trepidation that discourages many from expanding their households: worries about costs, fears about time management, concerns about the future of an unstable world, questions about our parenting abilities, comfort with the status quo, and the list went on. Eventually, though, we heeded good counsel and pushed those worries aside. Our family grew to three and then, just this year, to four.

It is beyond the scope of this article to try convincing the voluntarily child-free that procreation is worth the trouble and cost, and that parenthood doesn’t shrink you but grows you. And really no one can truly convey to another the marvel of meeting and melding with your mini-me, or describe the new love that expands the boundaries of your heart. But they are, as the Bible states in Psalm 127, “a gift of the Lord.”

The Bible also makes clear that a time is on the horizon when Earth will undergo a total revolution and be brought under perfect godly leadership. This will include a dramatic reversal of the demographic collapse plaguing so many nations today. Once again, people will heed the command to “be fruitful and multiply,” and they will flourish.

Ezekiel 36:10-11 show God at this future time telling the nation of “Israel”—here meaning mainly the U.S. and Britain: “I will multiply men upon you … and the cities shall be inhabited, and the wastes shall be builded. … and they shall increase and bring fruit.” Isaiah 27:6 affirms that these people “shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.” Other nations such as Egypt and Assyria—here meaning Germany—will also become thriving countries during this future epoch of peace (Isaiah 19:23-25).

But the multiplying and reproducing don’t stop there. The Bible also makes plain that the various nations and families have an ultimate future that is utterly transcendent: to be born into God’s Family. This includes not only those tens of billions who have already lived and died, from the time of the trend-setting Edenic couple to the present, but also those who have yet to be born.

This is the majestic and breathtaking future that was never offered to the “god of this world” and a major part of what makes him so psychotically anti-human, anti-child and anti-family.

In Mystery of the Ages, after Mr. Armstrong discussed Ezekiel 37, Romans 8, 1 Corinthians 15, Hebrews 1, Revelation 21 and several other Bible passages, he wrote: “Put together all these scriptures …, and you begin to grasp the incredible human potential. Our potential is to be born into the God Family, receiving total power! …

“What are we going to do then? These scriptures indicate we shall impart life to billions and billions of dead planets, as life has been imparted to this earth. We shall create, as God directs and instructs. We shall rule through all eternity! … It will be an eternal life of accomplishment, constantly looking forward in super-joyous anticipation to new creative projects, and still looking back also on accomplishments with happiness and joy over what shall have been already accomplished.”

Countless people today are gripped by doubt, confusion and myopia. As a result, many of the nations they comprise are shrinking, aging and self-destructing. But what Mr. Armstrong described is the family and the future that awaits us, our children and the future children we may bear. This is truth that can dispel doubt, correct confusion and myopia, and fill us with hope for the future. It can inspire us to share that future more broadly.