I am writing this close to New Years, when people everywhere think about their past, and their future. At least I was told to do that when I was young. We were supposed to reflect.

That might be a good thing for each of us, but it is also useful to look at where our world is going. We have history about our past, but we also have a future direction, and unless something interrupts the forward movement, it is interesting where we are going; and maybe scary.

If you do an online search for “population projections” you will learn that the United Nations predicts a world population of about ten billion by the year 2050, and only eleven billion by 2100. Apparently, they expect the world to fill with people soon, and then they expect population growth to slow and even to level off.

These experts have accurately predicted future population trends for about fifty years. So far, they have been correct.

What we do not learn from general population numbers, is how the human race will be divided. What directions will ten billion people go? Which ideas will be popular, and which ones will get us into trouble?

It is interesting that the experts predict a world that is more biblical. The human race has filled this planet, but the important ideas that guide us have decreased in number. We are what we believe, and some belief systems, mostly religions but also ideologies, are shrinking.

Do you remember Communism?

When I was young, I visited a place in Europe near a Communist border, what we called the Iron Curtain. I was a foolish young man, and I walked to the border, with my friend, to see that famous curtain.

What I missed was a small concrete block that marked the border, and both of us were arrested by Communist border guards, on the wrong side of the border. I was handcuffed, and they pointed guns at us.

We were released after a few hours, and I never did anything that stupid again. Those guards would have shot and killed us if we tried to run. If I returned to that place today, I would be at the border between Austria and Slovakia, and I might get a stern lecture from the border police. Times have changed.

I had a friend who traveled to East Berlin in Communist times, and her friend took photos of the eastern-side guard posts. That got them both some jail time, and eventually a deportation.

Two things are important here:

1) I experienced the boundary line between two opposing belief systems, and I could have been killed, easily.

2) Change happens. That huge, world-dominating belief system of Communism has gone from everything to nothing, in the lives of millions of people. Not many years ago, a system that controlled about half of the world collapsed.

Communism, with all its strict controls, might be gone for most of us, but human nature has not changed. The experts predict more than just population growth, they also predict a world with only a few belief systems. We can expect an increase in controlling intolerance:

This is a measure of something that us really happening among us. Are you ready for a polarized world? Are you ready for belief systems to dominate and conquer, or to disappear?

Two or three major belief systems, probably both religions, will dominate the world. Apparently, the two leaders in this race are Islam and Christianity, but that could change. Each system grows in different ways; Islam mostly retains its followers and grows with natural increases in population. Christianity often depends on evangelism or persuasion.

Like any horse race, we don’t know which system will actually win the race. I don’t know if the two religions will have a huge conflict or if some third force will come into power, but it is clear that the human race is losing it diversity and splitting into two or three factions. That is what the experts tell us. I think that’s more important than arguing about whose religion is better. We are moving into a world where each of us will be one of them, or one of the others. We are losing our diversity.

This is not a new idea. Long ago, religious prophets told us about the direction of world history, and they seem to be as accurate as the modern statistical experts. It seems that we are moving into a very biblical world. I believe we should think about this, and make decisions about who we are and what we believe, while we still can.

One of those ancient teachers was a man named Jesus, and He predicted a highly polarized and violent future, for the human race. It is interesting that modern demographics fit perfectly with the predictions. Are we ready for a conflict where we might become refugees? Are you ready to “flee to the mountains”?

We have this prediction:

(Let the reader understand), then those in Judea must flee to the mountains. The one on the roof must not come down to take anything out of his house, and the one in the field must not turn back to get his cloak. Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing their babies in those days! Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath. For then there will be great suffering unlike anything that has happened from the beginning of the world until now, or ever will happen. And if those days had not been cut short, no one would be saved. (Matthew 24: 15 to 2)

Have you decided what side you are on? Are you convinced about what is true? We should be convinced enough to choose.

Another prophet, named Moses, gave us these directions:

I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life. (Deuteronomy 15: 19 and 20)

I hope we all find our way, in the new year.