Two-thirds of the world's population is starving!
By the Year 2000 experts predict the population will double — food production cannot keep up.
Does the Bible say anything about famine and hunger in the world TODAY?
What WILL the world be like in the YEAR 2000?
EVERY DAY of this week some ten thousand people will DIE of malnutrition or STARVATION!
"In India alone, fifty million children will die of malnutrition in the next ten years.
"More than half the world's three billion people LIVE IN PERPETUAL HUNGER!"
These shocking statistics published in Newsweek magazine, June 17, 1963, illustrate a crying need for a solution to what well may be the BIGGEST PROBLEM the world faces!
Will science discover a way to feed these starving millions? Can the United Nations through the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) find a way to support the burgeoning population explosion? Or will these "HAVE NOT" nations bring about a feared and dreaded "HUNGER WAR?" These questions resound in the minds of world leaders everywhere.
What Is the Problem?
As the average American, European or Australian — fortunate enough to live in the "HAVE" nations — sits down to enjoy three full meals a day, the other TWO-THIRDS of all the people in the world are literally STARVING TO DEATH! To vividly illustrate the problem, Assistant Secretary of State Harlan Cleveland said, "If we were suddenly to join the less fortunate, our next meal would be a SMALL BOWL OF RICE and perhaps a piece of fish an inch square the day after tomorrow" (Newsweek, June 17, 1963; emphasis mine). Does it seem possible such conditions could exist in the booming, scientific, SPACE AGE, twentieth century? Nearly two-thirds of all the people in the world would rather eat a good meal than hear about a man shot into space — or a rocket roaring to the moon. That is how real the problem is!
Another expert in the field of food and the population is Dr. Georg Borgstrom of Michigan State University's Department of Food Science. He recently disclosed the results of his research and study, declaring, "We ought to seek disarmament, but a GREATER, MORE URGENT NEED is for a gigantic rearmament to wage the sinister war for human survival by providing food to give the human race a future" (Long Beach Independent Press Telegram, August 12, 1962). To put it in other words — the entire human race is in danger of starving to death in the next thirty years!
In another recent news clipping, well-known reporter Jim Bishop puts it this way, "If there are no accidental wars, then my guess would be that one will be started by design no later than 1970.
IT WILL BE A FOOD WAR! The populations of the nations are increasing so swiftly that some of the big ones will begin to feel the pinch of starvation within ten years. What then happens, either the people revolt or the government goes to war. . . ."
In a nutshell the problem is so severe experts and authorities greatly fear entire nations could go to war over it. If a war does not result, mass millions will starve to death. The underlying reasons for these problems are many. Population increases, drought conditions, lack of education on how to produce from the land available, and disobedience to God's natural laws are all contributing factors for the problem we now see in the world. One only needs to look around to realize that the problem is SEVERE. And it is only natural to wonder if any of us could ever be hungry like millions are in other lands of the world today.
Forecast Over Nineteen Hundred Years Ago
What we read in our newspapers today is only what reporters have seen or heard — conditions that exist today. However, the greatest newscaster who ever lived — JESUS CHRIST — predicted that starvation would exist in the world. And not only did He simply predict that, but He predicted it for our time, today!
In Matthew 24:3, the disciples came to Jesus Christ, asking Him, "Tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of THY COMING, and of the end of the world?" In this prophecy, commonly called the Olivet Prophecy, Jesus Christ unfolds and discloses conditions that will exist in the world at the time of His return! Notice Christ's answer concerning these important SIGNS beginning in Verse 5, "For many shall come in my name, saying I am Christ; and shall DECEIVE many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars (we are right now in an interim between World War II and the prophesied World War III — and continually about us we hear of small wars and rumors of war on an earth seemingly seething with rebellion and uprisings) see that ye be not troubled: for all these things MUST COME TO PASS, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation (world wars), and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be FAMINES (lack of food and starvation), and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places." Notice it again, one of the major signs announcing the return of Jesus Christ will be famine!
Many scoff and say, "Oh, we have had famine and hunger since the beginning of time." That is just what Peter said the world would be saying, "Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last day scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation" (II Peter 3: 3-4). However, those who scoff and ridicule had better take note that famine is as bad now as it ever has been in history. Newsweek magazine said, "Every day of this week some ten thousand people will die of malnutrition or starvation — MORE THAN AT ANY TIME IN HISTORY." And the situation is not going to get better. Jesus prophesied these conditions would continue until He returned! And that at the present rate of increase — with no solution in sight — every man, woman and child in this world would starve to death if he were living in the next twenty-five to one hundred years. We had better look at the signs around us and realize we are living in unprecedented times!
The Population Explosion
To further illustrate the increasing problem we have, every second of every day THREE new babies are born into the world. Nearly two million babies will be born next week, and the week after, and the week after that. It took over five thousand years (from the creation of Adam to about 1825) for the population of the world to first reach one billion! A little over one hundred years later — by 1930 — the population had doubled to nearly two billion. Only twenty-five years later — by 1965 — the population of the world will be three billion! And in the next twenty-five to thirty years that three billion would double to over SIX BILLION-at the present rate!
Fantastic, you say?
Yes, but TRUE!
That is why many are calling this the "POPULATION EXPLOSION"! Can you imagine! Two-thirds of the world's population is starving now — and even at the present rate of increase what will it be like when there are twice as many people to eat approximately the same amount of food?
In a UPI release, May 27, 1961, United Nations diplomat Ralph Teatsorth said, "The United Nations is reluctant to face up to the fact that MAN IS BREEDING HIMSELF OUT OF LIVING SPACE AT AN ALARMING RATE! There will be standing room only on earth in less than eight hundred years if the population explosion goes unchecked."
The population of China now is about six hundred fifty million. In twenty years there will be over one billion Chinese. What do you suppose they will do when their food supply is shorter than it is now and their population increasing that rapidly?
In areas of Latin America, Africa and India — areas where hunger is a major problem — the population continues to increase at alarming rates. Dr. Herman Santa Cruz, Assistant Director General of the United Nations FAO, reporting on Latin America, said, "Within the next twenty years, Central and South America will see a population rise of about two hundred million to a total of some three hundred sixty million." He said further, "An increase of only one pet cent annually in the average family's income would double the total internal demand for farm and livestock products by 1980" (Los Angeles Times, November 26, 1962).
Bible Reveals Population Increase in The Far East!
The teeming millions in India and China — strange as it may seem — were prophesied in your Bible. We read in Matthew 24 of prophesied wars and rumors of war. These signs of famine, hunger and pestilence along with upset weather, were to reveal the meaning of today's news to those who understand. You have been reading in the pages of The PLAIN TRUTH magazine how a prophesied "BEAST" is going to arise in Europe. Ten nations will ally themselves under one head to form one of the most powerful military machines this world has ever seen. This combine of nations — perhaps to be known as the United States of Europe — will make war upon God's people, Israel (if you have not read Mr. Armstrong's booklet entitled The United States and the British Commonwealth in Prophecy, write for it immediately). But that is not the end. This tremendous war machine is to continue making captive nations of this world.
In Revelation 9:13, God shows a great war is going to take place between that United States of Europe and the vast hordes of the East. Let's read it, "And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates (the river Euphrates is northeast above Palestine. Continuing on a direct line northeast, you come in to the great, vast areas of the East where these tremendous armies are amassed as we will see). And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year (they have been preparing for this for some time), for to slay THE THIRD PART OF MEN. And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand (that is, two hundred MILLION): and I heard the number of them." Can you imagine an army of two hundred million soldiers? Where else on earth could such an army be amassed except from the hordes of China and India and the Far Eastern countries? And yet God tells us in advance — we can know — the meaning of the conditions in the world today.
Yes, the times we live in are climactic! We are living in the prophesied END TIMES. And until Jesus Christ comes, the situation is not going to improve! Instead, God Almighty says that famines will increase and grow worse and worse. Ultimately, they will result in a tremendous war and a surge for land and development to feed the teeming millions of the East.
Conditions in America
Now that we have seen what will transpire within the next ten to twenty years as far as conditions of famine and war are concerned in the Far East, let's come back to the United States and analyze our society today. While much of the world goes hungry, Americans are producing — of all things — a SURPLUS! The United States Government has spent billions of dollars to HOLD DOWN food production! In fact, we pay about four billion dollars a year for farmers NOT TO GROW FOOD! Rent on the storage areas for our surplus food alone costs about one billion dollars a day. Our problem is just the opposite of hunger. Perhaps we are even over-fed — if not, we certainly over-produce!
A very interesting comparison was recently published by Mr. Henry Smith Lyper in Presbyterian Life magazine. He reduced the whole population of the world to approximately one thousand. 'Hypothetically, this became a community of one thousand persons living in a single town. The following is a picture of the contrasts we would then vividly see:
"Sixty persons would represent the United States' population; the rest of the world would be represented by 940 persons. The sixty Americans would be receiving half of the total income of the entire community; the 940 other persons would share the remaining half. The 60 Americans would have a life expectancy of 70 years; all of the other 940 would average under 40 years. They would produce sixteen percent of the town's total food supply, but would consume all but 1.5 percent of what they raise and keep most of it for their own future use in expensive storage equipment. Since most of the 940 non-Americans in the community would always be hungry, and would never quite know when they would get enough to eat, the situation created by this disparity in food supply and the existence of vast food reserves becomes readily apparent, particularly in view of the fact that Americans already eat seventy-two percent above the maximum food requirements.
"Because of the cost of storing their surplus food, they would actually save money by giving away any excess food; but would regard that as the dangerous 'give-away' program of soft-headed 'do-gooders.' Of the sixty Americans, the lowest income groups would be better off than the average in much of the rest of the town. Literally most of the non-American people in this imaginary compressed community would be ignorant, poor, hungry and sick. Half of them would be unable to read or write." This comparison is alarming! And there are very few in America who could even begin to comprehend what it is like to be HUNGRY! The average American consumes about four and one-half pounds of food every day. The average Indian gets LESS THAN one and one-quarter pounds of food a day — and that is mostly rice. Truly the nations which we call the "have" nations are abundantly blessed by God. But how long will these blessings last?