Where are all of the Children?

Sometimes we wonder where all of the children are. Why is it that we seem to be having fewer and fewer sons and daughters? How long can this last? Probably many of you who are reading this short article are part of the “problem” and yet you don’t know it. I know that in my own family, families are small. I know of a neighbor whose family is really small. So where are all of the children?

One source mistakenly thinks that much of the problem relates to poverty. For instance, we read: “Depending on the country in which they reside, a child will not enjoy the same rights or conditions of life as their Western counterparts.  Many regions and countries in the Third World face great disparities, and the factors in question, whether political, economic, social, cultural, ethnic or religious, can have a different impact on each child.” (https://www.humanium.org/en/children-world/). This may be true—to an extent. But this worldly source can be very false as well!

Another source says that there are 2.2 billion children in the world. But these children (aged 15 and younger) come from different situations. Note this: “40% of world population has less than 2 children per women and thus compensation for the 18% that get more than 3 children per women. (http://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/unpp/p2k0data.asp )

In other words, a small number of women in the world (from the 40% mentioned above) have fewer children but another part of the world produces more children. According to the above source, some 18% of women have more than 3 children! This is a great contrast. In America, where I live, it is somewhat rare to have a family of white, middle-class adults who have a large family of two or more children. It would seem that two is about the limit but some have only one! In a few years, we think that this sort of family will “die out” for lack of offspring.

The Christian looks at all of this differently than does the world. Instead of looking at things from a purely economic standpoint, the follower of Christ must have children for the glory of God! God’s Word says, “Children are a gift of the LORD, the fruit of the womb is a reward” (Psalm 127:3). Then in verse 5a, we read, “How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them.” In other words, children are not to be avoided (through abortion, for example) but are to be welcomed by the God-fearing husband and wife (father and mother).

Consider the family of Jesus. We know that there were four brothers—James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas (Matthew 13:55; Mark 6:3). Then we read of his sisters also in Matthew 13:56 and Mark 6:3. Thus, there was a plurality. If there were 5 boys (including Jesus) in the family and a like number of girls, this would be a total of 10, plus Joseph and Mary.

How many American families or families around the world consist of ten children and two adults? Some but probably not many. I do know of a family with ten children in Pennsylvania. I also know of another family in Pennsylvania with about ten children. Another family has eleven or twelve children. But I suppose that this would be somewhat rare, as families in the world go. One well-known family produced a television show (I have this on DVD) and they have 19 children (plus the mother and father). Again, this would be rare. Then we may also remember that the family of Jacob (in Genesis) had twelve sons (and how many daughters, we don’t know). Perhaps the family had 20 or 24 children, plus Jacob. Again, this was somewhat rare, even in Biblical times.

We entitled this article, “Where are all the Children?” The reason for this provocative title is the fact that the number of children being born in the world (in some countries) is becoming fewer and fewer. The world as a whole may have 2.2 billion (https://www.google.com/ search?q= children+in+the+ World&oq=children&aqs=chrome.0.69i59l2j69i57j0i512j0i433i512j46i199i291i433i512j0i512l2j46i199i291i512j46i175i199i512.2399j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8), but this doesn’t deal with the number per family.

The number of children are scattered. Notice these statistics:

59.33 percent are in Asia

17.51 percent are in Africa

9.77 percent are in Europe

8.37 percent are in Latin America

4.37 percent are in North America

And 0.56 percent are from Oceana.

(https://www.statista.com/statistics/237584/distribution-of-the-world-population-by-continent/).

All in all, we think that the number of children born of mothers in the world are quite scattered or not evenly distributed. We also read this:

According to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, the number of people is estimated to grow steadily and in 2100, the global population is estimated to be approximately at 10.87 billion people. This gives a broader picture of families.

The countries with the highest population growth rate in 2017 were mostly African countries. Compared to the previous year, the South Sudan’s population grew by about 3.83 percent in 2017. (This was somewhat unusual, even for Africa.) The country with the highest population decline rate in 2017 was the Cook Islands. In the Cook Islands (in the pacific), the population decreased by about 2.79 percent compared to the previous year.

Asia is the most populous continent on earth. China was the country with the largest population. In mid-2019, about 1.4 billion people lived in this nation. (https://www.statista.com/statistics/237584/distribution-of-the-world-population-by-continent/). This would be about four (4) times the population of America!

What about the Christians? (We can’t speak for all Christians and we must remember that most people who claim to be Christians are not truly Christians in God’s sight.) We know that God does love children, thus truly Christian families might want to have children—even many children. We do know that some families (like ours) did “try” to have children but for some reason, God withheld them. But generally, for young families who marry early (perhaps about age 20), we know that these families could have five or even ten or more children.

We have no way of knowing when Christ will return to usher in the end, and this could be before we finish this article but it could be many years from now. If the latter would be true, this would mean that true Christians may have many children. Demographically, Christians could make up a larger percentage of the world population. Some years ago, I met a professing Christian family, and they decidedly refrained from having any children since they were convinced that Christ was returning very, very soon. This was years ago and thus far He has not returned.

For instance, if two people marry at age 18 or 20 and bear children until the wife is age 40 or 45, this would mean that they could have many children. If they have an average of, say, 10 children, this would be 12 people. If each of these children were to marry and bear children—an average of 10 each—this would be a total of 100 children. If we were to include the spouses, this would be even more. If these 100 children were to marry and have an average of 10 children, this would be some 1,000 children; and if these were to have children, there would be some 10,000 people. And this would be in only several generations. We know that this would never be. For even a family of 12, there could be some families of five or six and some may not be able to bear.

 

All we want to emphasize here is this. If the average family in America has two children (2.0) or perhaps one and a half children, on average (a total of about one or 1.5 children), and if the average family in Africa may have 3 or 4 children (even if a few of these were to die or die prematurely), true Christians may easily overtake this number in several generations. We know that the number of children we’ve given is high and we realize that many will not come to Christ or perhaps they will fall away. Yet we think that many may remain faithful and continue on through the years.

What about you? How should we look at all of this? What is the outcome of this, according to the ways of God? We know that God may have other plans but what we have presented above is something to consider. God may work in this way for His glory!

We also know that there are numerous problems associated with this scenario. (See our article: “Financial Trials of Following the Lord Jesus—and Their Solution”.) How will a truly saved family of Christians find housing, where will they live, what kind of work will the man of the house do, what if the husband dies and leaves a wife, what if there is a major health problem, and so much more. Thus we realize that there could be a huge issue with this and that the scenario that we have described may never come to pass. Yet, we must consider this and realize that God does work in the midst of these problems for His glory.

One of the Sources:

https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.0014.TO.ZS

Financial Trials of Following the Lord Jesus—and Their Solutions