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Father, we pray that You would solve this crisis. Bring revival to the world, God, and give parents everywhere a love and desire for children.
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Fertility rates are dropping worldwide. If we don’t make changes, we may go extinct. Let’s pray for more children before it’s too late.

From Ruth Institute. Demographic Winter could be the greatest disaster of the 21st century.

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The science behind it is called demography which is the study of populations – their rise or fall. In the Northern Hemisphere, winter is a time of ice and snow – a barren landscape where nothing grows. Hence, “Demographic Winter,” which refers to the fatal fall of fertility worldwide.

A nation’s fertility rate is the number of children the average woman will have in her lifetime.

We start with the number – 2.1. For industrialized nations, that’s replacement-level fertility. In other words, the average woman must have 2.1 children during her lifetime to maintain population stability. She has to replace herself and a man. The .1 recognizes the fact that some children will never reach maturity to have their own children.

Fertility rates are falling fast all over the world. Africa is the only continent with above replacement fertility. Every industrialized nation now has a fertility rate below replacement – in many cases, well-below replacement.

For the European Union as a whole, the fertility rate is 1.5. In some parts of the continent, it’s much lower. In Italy and Spain, it’s 1.3. Sometime in the next few years, worldwide population growth will end and de-population will begin – slowly at first, then (like a stone rolling down hill) picking up speed….

When discussing Demographic Winter, here are a few facts to bear in mind:

  • Worldwide, the fertility rate fell by almost 50% in less than 70 years – from 4.7 in 1950 to 2.4 last year. Let me repeat that for emphasis: The fertility rate – the number of children the average woman will have in her lifetime – was cut almost in half in 70 years. Within the next decade or two, we will arrive at below-replacement fertility worldwide.
  • In America, I was part of a generation called the post-war Baby Boom which started in 1946 and ended in 1964. In the United States, fertility fell from 3.5 in 1950 to 1.78 today – the lowest on record – and it’s still falling — from boom to bust, as they say.
  • Japan, which has a fertility rate of 1.3, saw its population decline by 640,000 last year. By the year 2050, it’s expected to lose an additional 27 million people – or almost 20% of its current population.
  • Japan’s over-65 population is expected to increase to 38% of the total by the year 2065. The Japanese now buy more adult diapers than baby diapers. In May, Elon Musk tweeted that, “Japan will eventually cease to exist” – sooner rather than later, so it seems….
  • Thanks to its insane, one-child-per-family policy – which included forced abortion and sterilization — China also has a fertility rate of 1.3. Last year, the number of children born reached a record low – 10.6 million, down from 12.2 million in 2019. That 10.6 million births may seem like a lot, but it isn’t in a nation of 1.4 billion.
  • The proportion of those over 60 in China’s population will go from 18.9% today to 39% by the middle of the century. China got rich; now it’s getting old.
  • The People’s Republic began abandoning it’s one-child policy in 2016. Now it’s moving rapidly in the opposite direction – expect for racial and religious minorities, like the Uyghurs. Recently, it started limiting vasectomies. Some hospitals require proof that a man seeking the procedure is married and has children. Sadly, it all comes too late….
  • Due to declining fertility among traditional Europeans and immigrants with large families from countries like Turkey, Iraq and Iran, Europe will eventually become Muslim, probably sometime in this century. Thanks to Demographic Winter, this is to be the fate of a continent which once was known as Christendom. The European Parliament recently passed a resolution lecturing the United States on maintaining unrestricted abortion. Why not? Look at how well abortion has worked for the Europeans….

This is where we are now – trudging into the snows of Demographic Winter. How did we get here? People didn’t just wake up one morning and say, “Hey, let’s stop having kids. That’d be cool!…”

Thanks to the Sexual Revolution, in a few decades, starting in the 1960s, three millennia of Judeo-Christian civilization were erased and we’re back where we started, with human sacrifice. First there was widespread contraception, then normalizing pre-marital sex, then no-fault divorce, then legalized abortion, then same-sex marriage and now transgenderism. It’s a short walk from civilization to Armageddon.

  • For the first time in history, just under half of the world’s population of child-bearing age uses some form of artificial contraception – much of it paid for by third parties including governments and employers.  Other peoples have become extinct — the Babylonians, Phoenicians, Etruscans and Aztecs to name few. But this is the first time a people have subsidized their own extinction.
  • Worldwide there are 73 million abortions a year. That’s more than three times the number of military deaths in World War II – the bloodiest conflict in history — not spread over six years, but each and every year. In America, we are losing one million a year through legalized abortion.
  • Fewer and fewer people are getting married, and more and more who do don’t want children.
  • In the United States, among those 18 to 29 years old (those in their prime childbearing years) 59% were married in 1978, versus 20% last year.
  • To confirm this, watch a few hours of commercial television. Count the number of commercials for diapers, car seats and toys. Now compare this to the number for pet products, retirement communities, in-home care and medication to treat a variety of ailments of the elderly. You’ll get the point very quickly.
  • In a Pew Research Poll released last November, 44% of Americans ages 18 to 49 who don’t have children said they don’t want them.
  • In the United States, by 2060 there will be more Americans over 65 than under 18. This means too few workers to pay for pensions and health care for the elderly. In other words, a demographic train wreck is heading our way.
  • Taxes on young workers will take so high a percentage of their income, that they’ll revolt and shrug off the burden, or government will inflate the currency to such an extent that it will become practically worthless. 8% inflation will be a memory of happier times.
  •  There will also be a push for the rationing of medical services for the elderly, along with legalized euthanasia.
  • Why do so many Americans want a life without children? Pope Francis provided a partial answer when he observed late last year: “We see a form of selfishness. People don’t want to have children. Maybe they’ll have one child and not more than that. And many couples don’t have any children because they don’t want any…. But they have two dogs and two cats.” The Pope was excoriated for these comments. Truth hurts….

Add to this, the population-control cultists have been wildly successful….

For more than half-a-century, governments everywhere have been fighting a war on families, led by International Planned Parenthood, The Sierra Club, The Club of Rome, Bill Gates, George Soros, the U.N. Population Fund and other misanthropic elitists.

War is an apt metaphor, because the struggle against procreation always involves coercion….

Nations like Mexico, Bolivia, Peru, Indonesia, Bangladesh and India have forcibly sterilized millions of women. In Peru, under the Fujimori government, more than 314,000 women were sterilized in this small, mountainous country….

In the United States, Malthusian hysteria was abetted by the popular culture….

Declining fertility is a downward spiral. Obviously, the children who aren’t born today won’t have children or grandchildren of their own tomorrow. Each generation will start with a smaller childbearing base than the last, until (as Musk predicted) civilization crumbles….

Modern technology requires robust population growth. With fewer and fewer to care for it, the mighty industrial engine we’ve built over the past two centuries will grind to a halt and rust.

With depopulation, where will we find the workers of the future? Who’s going to work on the farms and in the factories? Where will we get the essential workers – the police and firefighters, the soldiers, teachers, and caregivers?

As our population shrinks, the infrastructure won’t shrink with it. We’ll still have the same farmland and factories, the same transportation system (roads, bridges and ports). What we won’t have are the people to work the land, operate the machinery, drive the trucks, repair the roads and do the thousand and one other things needed to keep society functioning….

What’s the answer to the fertility crisis? How do we climb out of the hole we’ve dug ourselves into?…

To counter declining fertility, we need to take the following six steps:

1.    Encourage people to have large families. Help them to understand that the future of humanity depends on each generation creating the next. It doesn’t happen spontaneously but requires commitment and forethought. When I speak to college audiences on this topic, I often tell students that nothing they can do, nothing they can accomplish in their lives, is as important as having children.

2.    Explain the benefit of marriage to the young – On every index (including health, happiness and financial security), married couples do better than their single counterparts. More importantly, the fertility rate reflects the marriage rate.

3.    Make it easier for families to support children — with tax incentives and other pro-natalist policies. Hungary has lifetime tax breaks and favorable mortgage rates for families raising more than 4 children. Italy now provides monthly allowances for children from the 7th month of pregnancy until the child turns 18. The Russian Province of Ulyanovsk – (yoo.lun.naav.shuh) 800 kilometers east of Moscow — has designated September 12 a Day of Conception. Couples are given the day off from work to do what comes naturally. Those who deliver – so to speak – 9 months later, are entered in a lottery to win prizes like SUVs.

4.    End abortion, now! Whether or not a pregnancy is intended, every child is wanted – wanted by God and humanity. Abortion is a curse, a blot on the land. Perhaps declining fertility is God’s way of saying: “Okay, you don’t want children, then you won’t have them.”

5.    Stop the culture’s war on men. Children require women who are willing to have them and men who are willing to support them – emotionally as well as financially. Men and women aren’t interchangeable parts. Each has a unique role to play in the family. This is the foundation on which childbearing rests. Feminists have spent decades making war on fatherhood, under the guise of combatting what they call the patriarchy. Unfortunately, it’s taken a toll. If you tell men they’re dispensable, that’s the way many will behave.

6.    Promote religion. When he was president, Dwight David Eisenhower said: “Our form of government has no sense unless it is founded in a deeply felt religion, and I don’t care what it is.” Liberals of the day said, “Oh, Silly, Old Ike. He says we got to have faith, and he doesn’t care what it is.” Not quite. Our 34th president affirmed that our nation needs religion to hold it together, whichever religion citizens choose to follow. Governments everywhere must stop stigmatizing and penalizing faith. In America, we need to recall that the Founding Fathers said “unalienable rights” are endowed by our Creator. Humanity finds its future in the cradle and the cradle is rocked by the hand of religion….

To solve the problem of Demographic Winter – before it’s too late and the world freezes over — we need a renewal of faith. Therein lies humanity’s hope….

How are you praying about the fall of fertility? Share your thoughts and prayers below.

(Excerpt from Ruth Institute. Photo Credit: Omar Lopez on Unsplash)

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Tammy Arneson
September 2, 2022

I am sure it isn’t meant but it seems a generalization is being made. I used to be married – now I am divorced. We didn’t have children because God created me where I can’t. It was ok with me and my ex. I am glad I can’t have children – not because I am selfish though I admit I have selfish tendencies. My ex and I wouldn’t be good parents. We were both immature and shouldn’t have been married. Our child ie 30 something year old would have issues and the odds of that child being in church would be slim though God is a miracle working God so who knows. I was just thinking of this the other day and yes I know this may not be Biblical but there is another perspective here – ie bringing children into this world now could be considered selfish. God knows our heart and will judge our motives. In the meantime I am helping a couple families by babysitting for cheap and using my time to help them in this way. They are precious children who I hope know Jesus as they grow older.

Bob Huseby
August 31, 2022

Dear IFA.. please continue this topic . Math doesn’t lie. It’s neither right nor left, saved or unsaved. It is us all.. this must be addressed from pulpits !!!!

Susan
August 29, 2022

Regarding couples that do not want children. I think it’s wonderful that people that don’t want children recognize that they don’t want this responsibility and take appropriate action not to have them. I am not speaking of abortion I am 100% against abortion it is murder.
I am speaking of taking contraceptive measures. It is much better never to have a child than to have a child you do not want and that you may possibly abuse.
So perhaps that is why the Pope was so excoriated for his opinion there’s two ways of looking at this issue perhaps they chose not to have children because they know they wouldn’t be good parents. I see nothing selfish about that I admire it.
It’s a thousand times better then people that have three to five babies out of wedlock and then expect the government to raise them

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Lois Poppema
August 29, 2022

Today (August 28) we didn’t get the Intercessors stories online – they appeared in a little box on the lower right of the computer screen, but I had to search for the stories. I appreciated all three and am wondering why they wouldn’t have automatically be sent to us online – as they had previously. Some of our ordinary emails are also ending up in spam – especially from missionaries.
We have Microsoft Edge – is that the problem? What’s a better option?

Kristyn
August 28, 2022

We are in hard times. Now it takes both parents to work a fulltime job and then some to support a family, own a home. Look what inflation has done to this country. Back when my sibling and I were young my father worked and my mother stayed home with us. We were very fortunate. Now, many families can’t do that or they’re forced to put their children into daycare where 3/4 their paycheck goes to that care. It’s tough. I don’t believe a decision to not have children or only have a small family is sellfish, no sorry. I see another side. I’ve struggled with a chronic illness a majority of my life. I am a single 37 year old woman. I’m struggling and am in more physical and emotional pain the older I’m getting, doctors are doing their best to help me recover. I won’t lie when I say there are times I really beg God to just take me. I ask why I cant heal. I pray for my health and recovery, I do. I don’t know if I can have and want a child and that kills me but is a possibility that does scare me. I do not want to be judged or blamed for the falling of fertility. Sometimes it’s not by choice why some people are childless.

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    Carol Vigo
    August 29, 2022

    Kristyn,
    My heart goes out to you as I read your message. I pray that God will hear your prayer for recovery and bring you peace and perseverance. Don’t give up, look up. Jesus is faithful.

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      Kristyn
      August 29, 2022

      Thank you Carol for that very caring and heartwarming message and prayer. God Bless you.

      1
Daniel Moak
August 28, 2022

When I was in college in the 1970s, professors and environmentalist groups like the Sierra Club and Zero Population Growth really hammered into me the idea that the planet Earth simply could not sustain the current human population.

Human overpopulation was being blamed for

1. To much Deforestation
2. To many people burning to much fossil fuels causing to much CO2 in the atmosphere.
3. Overpopulation of our big cities causing to much smog and air pollution.
4. Overpopulation is causing us to run out of landfill space.
5. Overpopulation causing us to run out of available farmland leading to starvation.
6. Extinction of many animal and plant species are caused by too many people competing for the available land, and too many people extracting to much fish in our streams and oceans.

and on and on it goes..

I really believed the lie that the planet Earth simply could not support the current population, so I joined the Zero Population Growth group in order to ‘save the planet Earth’. This movement has now morphed into the Green New Deal and the current environmentalist movement.

Only after about 5 years later, did I become a Christian and therefore adopted a Biblical World View. No longer did I blame all these ills of this world on overpopulation, but rather God’s judgement for our sin, and Satan’s demonic activity. No longer did I worship the planet Earth, its plants and animals, and its environment as God. I was led to the Scripture:

(Rom 1:25)  who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

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Robin
August 28, 2022

This is not easy but very simple. Where there is a culture of death there will be infertility. I am not surprised this is happening but will pray God will fill our hearts with a love for him and if we love him we will love each other…and if we love each other… abortion, eugenics, assisted suicide, suicide, and unnecessary death will not prevail. There will still be death…as we live in a broken world. But with Jesus Christ, love abounds and so does life! ❤

Father,
I thank you for my life and Lord thank you for saving my soul from death-eternal separation from God. Thank you for always keeping me and protecting me and for the children you have given me. Help me to teach them the value of life father. I pray they will love you and love others being salt and light to a generation who needs hope…hope to live and share life and preserve life! So father it starts with me. Help me to love you and others starting with my own family. In Jesus Name.

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Joyce Neeley
August 28, 2022

The complexity and simplicity of loving GOD and loving each other, and trusting in HIS WORD. Be fruitful and multiply.🙏
Praying for HIS will be done, on earth as it is in HEAVEN!

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David Christian
August 28, 2022

This decline in population growth reflects a denial of the Creator, who gave command in Genesis 1. See also Romans 1.

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Nellie
August 28, 2022

Looks like thr vaccines made in China is causing issues with men and women to have fertility issues. Women, spikes in uterus and tubes.

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