Experts: World Population Will Explode by 2025 with Influx of 'Megacities' of 10 Million People or More

When most people see headlines like this, they usually think of global warming or the exhausting of natural resources. Personally, being a follower of Christ it reminds me of his command to "make disciples of all nations". This massive global urbanization is going to provide and incredible opportunity for the Gospel to be preached and the Kingdom to grow. However, it also provides an opportunity for the Enemy and the Kingdom of Darkness to wreck havoc on humanity. We live in unstable yet exciting times! Read the article and tell me what you think.

"It's the frightening stuff of science fiction.

You'll walk out of your cramped city apartment every day into a sea of people, and you'll be sandwiched among them as you go to work or buy food at the market.

You'll see scores of homeless people sprawled on the same jam-packed city streets. The ones who are lucky enough to have roofs over their heads will be living in shacks and shantytowns.

In the world's largest urban areas, that scenario is less than 20 years away, according to population experts. By 2025, they say, the number of so-called "megacities" — those with more than 10 million people — will balloon from the current 20 to as many as 40.

In 1980, there were only 10.

"The explosive nature of urbanization on the one hand has some hopefulness, but largely it contributes to a significant increase in suffering, extreme poverty, social disease and social disintegration," said Dr. Werner Fornos, president of the Global Population Education think tank and the former head of the Population Institute in Washington, D.C.

The world population, Fornos predicted, will swell from the current 6.5 billion to 9 billion by 2050.

"If we continue to grow at this rate, what this will do to our natural resources ... Population is still the most significant issue, and because of politics and religion, we're not able to come to grips with it," Fornos said.

The consequences of such a rapid rise in city inhabitants are dire, since so many megacities will be in the two poorest continents, Africa and Asia. Researchers predict mass homelessness, poverty and unemployment; a dwindling fresh water supply; a sharp increase in air pollution; the spread of disease; and a spike in crime. Most of the cities' governments won't have even close to the resources needed to handle all the people." You can read the rest of the article here. (Thursday, December 20, 2007 -By Catherine Donaldson-Evans- Fox News)

Here are a few observations in no particular order:

• India and Africa standout dramatically.
• Isn't it interesting that in Genesis 11, when mankind unifies and desires to build one big megacity, that God confuses their language and thus scatters people all around the world. Now that the Christ has come, the New Covenant has been offered, the Holy Spirit has been given, the Word of God is available to the world, and the church is established the world is beginning to come back together. Interesting.
• The sharing of the Good News about Jesus is going to require more then just a Bible and a laptop. It is going to require: doctors, farmers, engineers, well diggers, business men, teachers, and generous givers.