Volume 45         Issue Three         March 2026

Last Trumpet Ministries · PO Box 806 · Beaver Dam, WI 53916

Phone: 920-887-2626   Internet: http://www.lasttrumpetministries.org

“For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?” I Cor. 14:8

The Rise And Fall Of Humanity

 

“Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished.”

 

Isaiah 51:6

 

The Holy Bible has long told of the world’s impending destruction. Even from ancient times, it was understood that the planet we now live on had a beginning and will someday have an end. Psalm 102:25-27 declare, “Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed: But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end.” Isaiah 51:6 uses similar language, proclaiming, “Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished.” Peter the Apostle presents a vivid description of what this event will look like, informing us in II Peter 3:10, “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.”

 

Why would God Almighty choose to destroy a creation that He called “very good” in Genesis 1? Simply put, while the creation was beautiful and flawless in the beginning, sin has had a disastrous impact. The prophet Isaiah presents the earth straining under the weight of sin in Isaiah 24:19-20, declaring, “The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly. The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again.” Throughout history, humanity has revealed its destructive tendencies, and when the end finally does come, the world will be so ravaged by sin that it is easier to simply destroy this world and replace it with a new one. It is for this reason that Peter wrote II Peter 3:13, “Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” In this issue of the Last Trumpet, we will examine how a slow, steady crisis has been building over the last 75 years with profound implications for the future of humanity.

 

A Global Crisis

 

In June 2025, BBC News published a story with the headline “World fertility rates in ‘unprecedented decline’, UN says.” (1) The piece highlights a study conducted by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), which surveyed 14,000 individuals across fourteen countries and uncovered startling results. One in five respondents reported that “they haven't had or expect they won't have their desired number of children.” In response to the study, Dr. Natalia Kanem, who is head of the UNFPA, was quoted as saying, “The world has begun an unprecedented decline in fertility rates.” She then continued, “Most people surveyed want two or more children. Fertility rates are falling in large part because many feel unable to create the families they want, and that is the real crisis.” Demographer Anna Rotkirch remarked, “Calling this a crisis, saying it’s real–that’s a shift, I think.” (2)

 

Despite the recent attention from the United Nations, global fertility decline is not new. According to Pew Research, “Total fertility rates have declined in every world region since 1950.” Although a fertility rate of 2.1 is required to maintain population levels, most countries now fall well below this threshold. In North America, the fertility rate is 1.6, while in Europe it is only 1.4. The rate is 2.1 in Oceania, which is better than most regions but still only barely at replacement level. Africa is the only region in the world with a fertility rate higher than replacement level. With a fertility rate of 4.0 births per woman, Africa will be the primary driver of population growth in the coming decades. It should be noted, however, that while the fertility rate in Africa is significantly higher than the rest of the world, it remains significantly lower than in 1950, when it was 6.5. (3) Thus, the fertility crisis is impacting every region and every continent.

 

If you were alive in the 1970s, you likely recall the hysteria regarding overpopulation. Much of this hysteria was fueled by a book by Paul and Anne Ehrlich titled The Population Bomb. Published in 1968, this bestselling book boldly predicted, “The battle to feed all of humanity is over. In the 1970s, hundreds of millions of people will starve to death.” (4) This mass starvation never happened, but fears of overpopulation led some governments to take drastic and tragic action. In India, the government declared an emergency in the mid-1970s and forced millions of men to be sterilized. A few years later, the Chinese government enacted its infamous one-child per family policy in 1979. (5) The demographic damage from these policies is still reverberating decades later.

 

We can look back at human history and clearly see when the global population began to rise rapidly. Prior to the 1800s, there were fewer than one billion people in the world. By 1925, the global population had reached two billion, and about fifty years later, it doubled to four billion. According to the United Nations, the eight billionth human was born on November 15, 2022. (6) Although the world’s population continues to rise, it is growing at a much slower pace and is projected to peak at 10.3 billion in 2084. At this time, the global population is expected to begin declining, falling to 10.2 billion by the end of the century due to the global fertility crisis. (7) Remarkably, the United Nations has already projected and mapped out the rise and fall of humanity. Yet, we know that projections are not set in stone. Whatever happens over the next century, assuming the Lord tarries, is entirely subject to God’s will.

 

Why Is There A Fertility Crisis?

 

In the previous section, we established that there is an ongoing fertility crisis. The next pertinent question we must ask is “Why is this happening?” To be sure, this is a complex issue, and there are many factors to consider. The most common reason couples give for choosing to have fewer children or none at all is financial constraints. This fact is highlighted in a Time Magazine piece published in June 2025, which cites results from a study conducted by the research firm YouGov. The study found that 39 percent of respondents said financial limitations were the biggest barrier to having more kids, 19 percent said housing limitations were their biggest concern, and 12 percent said a lack of childcare options was the biggest factor for them. (8)

 

In the United States, the total cost of raising a child can vary widely by state, but it will be a considerable expense no matter where you live. According to a report from ABC News, Massachusetts is the most expensive state in which to raise a child, with an annual cost estimated at $36,000. A 2023 LendingTree study estimates the average annual cost across the U.S. at $21,681 per child. (9) Because both parents often work, child care is essential, but it comes at an enormous cost in many states. In Massachusetts, the average annual cost for daycare is $21,503 per child. Other states with high annual child care costs include Hawaii ($19,592 per child), Connecticut ($19,554), and New York ($17,821). (10) Food is another major expense; the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that the average family of four now spends between $983 and $1,599 on groceries each month. (11)

 

Those who dream of starting a family often hope to do so while living in their own home. Yet owning a home remains an elusive dream for many Americans. According to the real estate firm Redfin, the median sale price of a typical home in the United States was $423,261 in January 2026. (12) The high cost of real estate and elevated interest rates have prompted a pessimistic outlook. In May 2025, Gallup reported that less than one-third of non-homeowners planned to buy a home in the next five to ten years. (13)

 

Meanwhile, Fortune Magazine declared in December 2025 that “Gen Z is defiantly ‘giving up’ on ever owning a home.” The piece quotes economist Kyla Scanlon, who believes that Generation Z, the cohort born between 1997 and 2012, is suffering from “financial nihilism.” Scanlon opined that Gen Z has “watched the American Dream rot before their eyes, as higher education becomes a luxury good, a housing crisis exacerbates the cost of living, all backdropped by political stagnation and rapid (perhaps even too rapid) technological advancement.” Researchers Seung Hyeong Lee of Northwestern University and Younggeun Yoo of the University of Chicago further explained, “We find that when home prices rise to the point where renters can no longer afford to buy a house within the foreseeable future by saving their wages, renters give up on home purchases and instead use their savings to increase consumption.” (14) While not everyone has given up on the dream of owning a home, it is interesting to note that the average age of first-time homebuyers has climbed to a record high of 40 years. (15)

 

Financial constraints only tell part of the story. Fertility rates have been falling for decades, long before the financial shocks of the Great Recession in 2008 and 2009 and the Covid-19 pandemic of the early 2020s. One development that certainly did not help matters was the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision of 1973, which made abortion legal in the United States. That decision would remain in effect until 2022, when the Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade and made the legality of abortion a decision for each state to decide individually. While Roe v. Wade stood, there were more than 63 million abortions in the United States. (16) This is a massive loss of life, and it is impossible to know the full impact of it. If they had lived, many of those 63 million babies would have grown up to have children and grandchildren of their own.

 

Sadly, a report published by KFF in January 2026 indicates that abortions in the United States have increased despite the Roe v. Wade reversal and despite thirteen states enacting total abortion bans. (17) Abortion totals remain high because women are able to travel to other states to undergo the procedure, and because they can receive drugs used to terminate pregnancies in the mail. A paper published by the Department of Economics at Wellesley College in 1999 concluded that “a complete recriminalization of abortion nationwide could result in 440,000 additional births per year. A reversal of the Roe v. Wade decision leaving abortion legal in some states would substantially limit this impact because of the extent of travel between states.” (18)

 

China’s Disastrous One-Child Policy

 

For much of the developed world, including North America, Europe, Oceania, and Asia, common reasons given for lower fertility rates include the cost of raising children, couples waiting until later in life to get married, and the secularization of society, with fewer people embracing traditional religion. However, China is facing a unique fertility crisis of its own making.

 

From 1979 until 2015, the communist Chinese government enforced its strict one-child-per-family policy. In 1982, the Asian nation’s constitution was modified to reflect this change, declaring that “both husband and wife have the duty to practice family planning” and “the state promotes family planning so that population growth may fit the plans for economic and social development.” (19) In traditional Chinese culture, boys are favored over girls. In the early days of the policy, before ultrasounds were available, female babies were often abandoned after birth. Sometimes they were kidnapped, sold to orphanages, or simply left in the street in the hopes that someone would take pity on them. Over the years, tens of thousands of Chinese babies were adopted by American families, including three thousand in 2012. (20)

 

Families that violated the government’s policy and had a second child, either accidentally or intentionally, often faced harsh penalties. In some cases, homes were destroyed and large fines were imposed. Worst of all, many women were subjected to forced abortions and forced sterilization. “I really don’t know how many [babies] I delivered. What I do know is that I’ve done a total of between 50,000 to 60,000 sterilizations and abortions… But I had no choice; it was the government’s policy,” said a midwife from China. (21) The one-child policy resulted in a massive gender imbalance. There are 30 million more men than women in China today. (22) A CNN piece published in August 2024 states that 20 million female babies disappeared during the years China’s one-child policy was in place due to sex-selective abortions and infanticide. (23)

 

China lifted its one-child-per-family limit in 2015 and began encouraging families to have two children. The limit was increased again to three children per family in 2021. In a massive about-face, the Chinese government is desperately trying to convince its people to have more babies, even running a national campaign to encourage a “pro-birth culture.” However, after years of living under harsh restrictions, many citizens are not interested in having more children. “How ‘well-planned’ the family-planning policy is! (The government) used to slap us for having two (babies) and now expects us to have three?” said a woman quoted by CNN. “Coercive family planning, as a form of state violence, has scarred women deeply … and people just haven’t got over it yet,” said another woman. (24)

 

China was the most populous country in the world for many decades. However, in April 2023, India's population surpassed China's. It was the first time China fell out of the top population rank since records began in 1950. (25) Since then, the situation has only grown more dire. Reuters reported in January 2026 that China’s population fell for the fourth consecutive year in 2025, even as the birth rate plunged to a record low and deaths outpaced births. Yi Fuxian, a demographer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said births in China were at “roughly the same level as in 1738, when China's population was only about 150 million.” (26) As it stands, China’s population is aging rapidly. About 23 percent of the total population is over 60 years old. By 2035, the number of people over age 60 is expected to reach 400 million. (27) This demographic imbalance will strain the workforce in unprecedented ways as older Chinese retire without young people to replace them. It calls into question what China’s future will look like and raises serious concerns regarding the economic impact of a declining population.

 

Proposed Solutions

 

Given that the fertility crisis is a universal problem, one might ask what is being done to correct it. President Trump, for his part, has established himself as a pronatalist president who wants to boost the fertility rate in the United States. Various incentives have been proposed by his administration, including a $5,000 cash bonus payable to mothers upon giving birth. Last year, Trump pledged to be “the fertilization president.” “We will support baby booms and we will support baby bonuses for a new baby boom. I want a baby boom,” Trump declared. (28)

 

Although the lump-sum baby bonuses have yet to materialize, the Trump Administration is planning to launch Trump Accounts for children later this year. Beginning July 5, 2026, children born between 2025 and 2028 will be eligible for a special investment account seeded with $1,000 from the U.S. Treasury. Friends and family members will be allowed to add money to the accounts, which could result in a substantial sum. “These young people’s accounts could grow to over $100,000 or more by the time they turn 18,” Trump claimed in his State of the Union Address. (29) Will these efforts raise the fertility rate, though?

 

A rather snarky piece published by the liberal media outlet known as Vox in November 2023 claims in its headline, “You can’t even pay people to have more kids.” The article notes that various countries have taken dramatic steps to boost their national fertility rates, including Taiwan, which began offering six months of paid parental leave in 2009. Russia offers a substantial cash bonus to parents who have two children, and Hungary offers a $30,000 loan to newlyweds that is forgiven if the couple has three or more children. (30) None of these efforts have yielded the desired results.   

 

If countries are unable to address the fertility crisis, how will they deal with labor shortages and the shortage of care workers to support the elderly population? Never fear, Elon Musk has a plan. Speaking in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Musk said, “My prediction is there will be more robots than people,” noting that the robots in development could assist with elder care. Musk also promoted robots and artificial intelligence as the tools necessary to bring prosperity to the world. “With robotics and AI, this is really the path to abundance for all,” Musk insisted. He then went on to say, “People often talk about solving global poverty — how do we give everyone a very high standard of living? The only way to do this is AI and robotics.”  (31) Thus, we have a clearer picture of what the 22nd century might look like. With fewer people and more robots, it would be an unrecognizable world to us today.

 

In closing, only God knows what the future holds. It is vitally important that we put our full and complete trust in Him. Psalm 62:5-8 declare, “My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation: he is my defence; I shall not be moved. In God is my salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God. Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Selah.” If you have not yet repented of your sins and dedicated your life to God, I urge you to do so now.

 

As I prepare to finish this newsletter, I have just learned that the United States is once again at war with Iran. I hope and pray the conflict will be quickly resolved without a substantial loss of life. Lord willing, we will have a clearer picture of what transpired by next month’s issue, and we will cover this topic at that time.

 

Thank you all for your kind support of this newsletter. If you have any prayer needs, we always invite you to send them our way. Each request is given individual attention, and our God is a very present help in trouble. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

 

Samuel David Meyer

 

This newsletter is made possible by the kind donations of our supporters. If you would like to help us, you may send your contribution to our postal address or donate online at http://lasttrumpetnewsletter.org/donate.

 

References

 

01. BBC News, June 9, 2025, By Stephanie Hegarty, bbc.com.

02. Ibid.

03. Pew Research, August 15, 2025, By Sofia Hernandez Ramones, Skylar Thomas, and Manolo Corichi, pewresearch.org.

04. The Guardian, May 31, 2025, By Jonathan Kennedy, theguardian.com.

05. Ibid.

06. Ibid.

07. Pew Research, July 9, 2025, By Manolo Corichi, Sofia Hernandez Ramones, and Skylar Thomas, pewresearch.org.

08. Time Magazine, June 13, 2025, By Chantelle Lee, time.com.

09. ABC News, April 7, 2025, By Bethany Braun-Silva, abcnews.com.

10. Ibid.

11. Ibid.

12. Newsweek, February 19, 2026, By Giulia Carbonaro, newsweek.com.

13. Gallup, May 7, 2025, By Jeffrey M. Jones, gallup.com.

14. Fortune Magazine, December 12, 2025, By Sydney Lake, fortune.com.

15. National Association of Realtors, November 4, 2025, nar.realtor.

16. Fox News, May 4, 2022, By Kyle Morris, foxnews.com.

17. KFF, January 7, 2026, By Karen Diep, Bryana Castillo Sanchez, Usha Ranji, and Alina Salganicoff, kff.org.

18. National Library of Medicine, February 1999, By P.B. Levine, D. Staiger, T.J. Kane, and D.J. Zimmerman, pmc.ncbi.nih.gov.

19. PBS, February 5, 2020, By Kristal Sotamayor, pbs.org.

20. Ibid.

21. Ibid.

22. Ibid.

23. CNN, August 19, 2024, By Joyce Jiang, cnn.com.

24. Ibid.

25. The Guardian, April 24, 2023, By Hannah Ellis-Petersen, theguardian.com.

26. Reuters, January 18, 2026, By Farah Master, Editing by Christopher Cushing and Kate Mayberry, reuters.com.

27. Ibid.

28. The New York Times, April 21, 2025, By Caroline Kitchener, nytimes.com.

29. NBC News, February 25, 2026, By Hannah Parker and Kayla Steinberg, nbcnews.com.

30. Vox, November 27, 2023, By Anna North, vox.com.

31. CBS News, January 22, 2026, By Aimee Picchi, cbsnews.com.