Downsizing Hell

Did you know that religious women are having many times more babies in America than secular women?

First Things' contributor Michael Novak explains the mega-trend in a recent post, but to get this you'll need to put your math hat on for a moment. "Nearly a quarter of the children of baby boomers descend from the mere 11 percent of baby boomer women who had four or more children."

Also, consider the demographics of France. "Among French women born in the early 1960s, less than a third have three or more children. But this distinct minority of French women (most of them presumably practicing Catholics and Muslims) produced more than 50 percent of all children born to their generation, in large measure because so many of their contemporaries had one child or none at all."

Forgive me for the overly provocative title on this post; just because religious folks are having more children than secular ones doesn't mean hell's population growth will slow down. But as Dr. Rayburn points out in his article on covenant succession, "Christian parents do not imagine themselves to be populating hell when they bring sons and daughters into the world!"

So in some sense, one way that this earth can become more like the kingdom of Christ and less like the kingdoms of this world is for this trend to continue.