Introduction: A number of people, mostly elites, and increasingly calling out for more people to die! The justification, if I understand it correctly, is that there are too many people on this planet to be kept (the “sustainability” argument) and/or there isn’t enough of the right _kind_ of people.
One female British scientist, if I recall correctly, observed that the world would be a much better place, in so many words, if world population leveled off at about 500,000 people. Leaving aside the rationale for these arguments, the fact is, they will come very close to achieving their wish!
Full disclosure: I hold to the pre-tribulation Rapture, pre-millennial kingdom view of the last days. Even if you don’t, let’s agree to disagree and simply consider a few things as revealed in the Scriptures concerning the last days. There are a few events yet to come so let’s take a look at each of these:
1 The Rapture of the Church
Text: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, KJV: 13 But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. 15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. 16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. 18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
A brief comment on verse 15: the word translated “prevent” means “to precede” or go before. This is just one of several words which have changed meanings since the early 1600’s when the King James Version was being translated.
Notice that there is no sign, detail, or indication when this event will take place, only that it will take place at a future date. Paul writes in this passage that the Lord Jesus Christ will return to this atmosphere (“in the air”) and there will be various sounds. The dead in Christ will rise first then the living saints will join them, and the Lord, to be with the Lord forever!
Now to return to depopulation. Let’s say, for round numbers, there are 8 billion, with a b as some say, people living on this planet. Now let’s say that when the Rapture takes place (even if only for the sake of argument) there are one billion genuine believers in Jesus. Let’s add to this that there are another billion or so infants and children who have not yet reached the age of accountability—much like the 120,000 in Nineveh who didn’t know their right hand from left per Jonah 4.
Allowing for this 2-billion-or so removal of people, that’s going to knock down the world’s population from 8 to 6 billion in moments.
That’s a 25-per-cent reduction of the world’s population!
So now, allowing that once the Rapture takes place, there are no believers on the earth at the time, the world is going to experience some unusual things. Now, taking the Book of Revelation as a guide, let’s see what some of those things are going to be.
2 The opening of the first five seals
Text, Revelation 6:1-11, KJV: 1 And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see. 2 And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer. 3 And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see. 4 And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword. 5 And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. 6 And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine. 7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. 8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.
9 And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: 10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? 11 And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.
Revelation 4 and 5 have a glorious feel to them, what with the various thrones and the 24 elders singing praise—continually—to and about our Lord. What a day that will be when these elders express “Thou are Worthy, O Lord!” Our hymns of praise, no matter how great they may be down here, will sound so much better once we see the Lord in His Glory!
But, getting back to earthly things, let’s look at Revelation 6. Recall that in chapter 5, no one was found worthy to open the book of the Seven Seals. Only Jesus, the Lamb as if slain, was worthy (and who else could be). The Lamb now proceeds to open the seals, one by one.
The first four seals bring, respectively, a rider on a white horse who’s holding a bow, “conquering and to conquer (verse 2). This rider clearly isn’t Jesus Himself. Then the Lamb opens seal 2, and the red horse of War appears. When, how, and who are the parties involved are not mentioned specifically in this passage.
After this, the Lamb opens seal 3 and the black horse of famine now enters the picture. This is a picture of how expensive the bare essentials of food will become: a “measure” is the word “choenix” in the original (https://biblehub.com/greek/5518.htm) and contains only a little less than 2 dry pints—less than half a quart.
There are some videos on the Internet how people try to live like people in the World War 2 era, living on the rations of that time. Item: one of the creators of one of those videos mentioned that in WW2, the British were rationed to one egg per adult per week. Needless to say they didn’t continue that experiment for very long!
Barley would still be available but I’ve heard, never having knowingly eaten any of it, that it’s worse than wheat but much cheaper. And in those days to come, it will be; three “choenix” of barley for a penny. Oh yeah—that “penny”? It represents an entire day’s wage! Remember the parable of the Workers in the Vineyard (Matthew 20)? The “penny” was the amount given to each man for working. It’s probably a safe guess there won’t be too many generous vineyard owners during those days to come.
But all of the above would be preferable to what comes when the Lamb opens seal number 4. When that happens, there is a “pale” horse (pale could also be translated green or pale green, per https://biblehub.com/greek/5515.htm) and the rider is called Death. And Death didn’t come alone: Hades (Hell, KJV) followed right along with him.
As eerie, mystifying, or whichever term one chooses, the literal fact remains that there are some very troublesome times in store for those left behind after the Rapture takes place. The total or sum effects may not be known until a future date but there is one thing for sure: these will happen just as Revelation foretells.
Yet even worse is one detail that some may overlook: when the fourth seal is opened, and Death and Hell appear on the scene, they are given power to kill one-fourth of the earth through various means. Sword most likely means war; hunger, famine; and “beasts of the earth”. This last item could mean an increase in violent animal activity; other scholars like John Phillips in his book “Exploring the Revelation” think this could also include diseases spread by vermin. In any event, the future looks bleaker than ever.
Except for the depopulation crowd, that is. Let’s say that the population holds steady at this time, with still around six billion people on Earth—for round numbers and ease of computing things. So, from 6 billion, minus one-fourth more, the population is now down to 3.75 billion people.
But don’t worry yet—there’s still more to come!
When the Lamb opens seal #5, there’s a glimpse of what has gone on before. John reported that he saw the souls of them who had been put to death for the Word of God and their testimony. Clearly these are saints who had been left behind after the Rapture but somehow found salvation in Jesus (there is no other way per John 14:6 and Acts 4:12). We’re not told much about them except that in my opinion, these saints are different from the others who died during the time of the Four Horsemen. At last estimate, the world’s population was down to a little less than four billion, 3.75 according to my personal calculations.
So let’s say there were 750 million new believers put to death during this time, I know it seems large but later John saw “a great multitude, which no man could number (Rev. 7:9)” and a few verses later he received the explanation that these whom he saw were saved out of the great tribulation. Even as early in the Tribulation period as this seems to be, it wouldn’t be that hard to find and eradicate those who had become believers in Jesus.
Allowing for the 750 million believers who die during the Tribulation, that brings the world’s population to a whopping 3 billion.
That’s over HALF of those who had been living before the Rapture took place! Sixty-two and a half percent, if my math is right!
But . . . the reduction isn’t finished just yet.
3 The Sounding of the Sixth Trumpet
Text, Revelation 9:13-21, KJV: 13 And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, 14 Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. 15 And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men. 16 And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them. 17 And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone. 18 By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths. 19 For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt.
20 And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: 21 Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.
Revelation 6 closes with the Lamb opening seal #6 and the result is what seems to me chaos on the entire earth. We’re not told how long this remains in effect but we are told in the first verses of Chapter 8 that there is silence in Heaven for half an hour. This must indicate something incredibly serious as there is no mention of prayer, praise, or anything else.
Just silence.
That silence, though, was only brief because seven angels were each given a trumpet and an effect on the earth as each trumpet sounded. The first four affect the Earth and those living directly. These effects seem to be temporary, just like some of these compare to the Ten Plagues in Egypt (Exodus 7-11) and those who receive these plagues responded just as the Egyptians did. They never repented.
There are three more angels to sound, however, and the sixth angel has some of the worst news ever for the people on Earth. Once he sounded his trumpet, there came a command: “Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.” This river is mentioned several times in Scripture but this is the only mention of it as a holding place or cell for evil spirits. Perhaps it was no surprise that two of Israel’s worst oppressors, Assyria and Babylon, were located near this river.
These angels, mentioned above, were held in place for one special and specific mission, as it were. These four angels, held for one particular moment, were loosed to kill one-third of what was remaining of the world’s population!
Along with these four specific angels, John heard the mention, specifically listing 200 million soldiers. There are a few nations even today who could put up that kind of armed forces easily; there could also be coalitions or allies among other nations involved.
This “army” did exactly what it was supposed to do: they killed the “third part” of men by means of their various weapons (again, how much is literal or figurative about these weapons is not known for certain). So, here, assuming the population has held steady at about 3 billion, a “third part” would be one-third, here, one billion of three.
Now, this takes the world population down to TWO BILLION. That’s ¾ or 75 percent less than that population before the Rapture.
But the casualties are going to keep on coming.
4 The Result of the Great Earthquake
Text, Revelation 11:11-13, KJV: 11 And after three days and an half the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them. 12 And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them. 13 And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand: and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven.
It’s probably true that there will be children born during the Tribulation but how many is anybody’s guess. We do know, as we’ve seen, there will be plenty of death to go around during that time. We’ll look at two of the more unusual means of this:
First, John mentions the “two witnesses (identity unknown)” who have and use some very special power. These two men are going to be killed but on the third day they’ll come back to life! We’re not told how many will die because they try/tried to hurt them but that number needs to be subtracted from the then-current population.
But after that, those who remain will experience “a great earthquake”. The results will likely be unforgettable: the “tenth part” or ten percent of the city will fall. Even worse, 7000 people will lose their lives. Again, subtract from the total and the population is still shrinking. Although I don’t have any hard figures, my guess is that by now the population will be down from two billion to maybe 1.75 billion.
To be fair, I haven’t found any more specific numbers in Revelation describing how many others beyond these totals. There could be many more who die, reducing the population with every death. We shouldn’t be surprised as even the Lord Jesus said, of the Tribulation, “21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened (Matthew 24:21-22, KJV). “
It’s anybody’s guess how many people will be left, alive, to survive the Tribulation Period but we do know some will: believers and unbelievers. Their respective destinies require messages beyond the scope of this one but the point is this, those who want to see a decrease in the world’s population will get their wish once the Tribulation begins.
But the most important thing of all is this: no one needs to go through ANY of the Tribulation. Receive God’s gift of salvation and avoid it! Heaven will surely be worth it all!
What say you?
Scripture quotations taken from the King James Version of the Bible (KJV)
