Yesterday I posted the first of a 3-part series showing various ways that this world is improving. Today’s post is part two, and again a lot of charts will be presented. The following information was made public by Joshua Greeson at his Facebook (Author) page during the week of April 4-8, 2016. Joshua is the author of the book, “God’s Will is Always Healing.”
Deaths by Climate Disaster: Going DOWN! #theworldisgettingbetter
(Adam’s note – Here’s a working link: http://hive.org/world/the-world-is-actually-getting-better/)
Deaths by WAR: Going DOWN! #theworldisgettingbetter
Childhood Mortality: Going DOWN! #theworldisgettingbetter
Life Expectancy Around the World: Going UP! #theworldisgettingbetter
I want to briefly backtrack to the “Religion” category of good news for a minute. This one is another great example of the “Limited LOCATION” perspective and how it can skew our view of the world. Here’s a graph that shows two different statistics on it. The pink line shows the decreasing percentage of Christians in “first world” nations, while the blue line shows the increasing percentage of Christians in “third world” (developing) nations.
So what’s the good news here? Roughly 80% of the world’s population is considered “third world,” and are projected for continually increasing conversion to Christianity… and who knows how steeply that increase will actually continue? Sure we hit a little dip in the industrialized nations; but don’t worry—the WHOLE EARTH is FILLED with the glory of God (Isaiah 6:3; Numbers 14:21)!!! #theworldisgettingbetter
Here are a couple more death stats today (I know, sorry… but they’re good). Here’s the United States’ statistics for Homicide Deaths and Rape from 1970-2010. Yep—yet again—they’re going DOWN! Look at how much it’s improved just in ONE GENERATION. Come on, get happy! #theworldisgettingbetter
Here again, we have the chance to see what happens when we broaden our “Limited TIMESPAN” perspective. If you thought the U.S. statistics showing the decrease in homicide from the last 40 years were encouraging, look at it for the last 310 years! Holy smoke! So when you hear about the “good ol’ days”—don’t fall for it! They weren’t as “good” as people make them out to be! They just had “Limited INFORMATION!” …and the best days are still ahead!
So what’s going on in other parts of the world?
#theworldisgettingbetter
Here we see Western Europe’s Homicide Death rate going DOWN. The top one is combined, then the bottom one breaks it out for some individual nations. I don’t have any stats for the non-western world. I’m willing to bet that they’re improving right along with the rest of the world, though, due to some other correlated statistics… #theworldisgettingbetter
Moving on from death… Oh, look — what do we have here? Slavery? Going DOWN!!! #theworldisgettingbetter
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There’s more to come in Part 3 (the conclusion)…
Pursuing Truth 
Personally I find the statement “the world is getting better” is far from reality. Statistics are used to distort the truth. It’s quite apparent there is a growing godlessness in the world and that void is being filled by hate which is resulting in violence. Please consider in reference to Mr. Greeson’s quote from Daniel 2:25 that “The Rock” grows into a great mountain in heaven not on earth, and only after the final judgment, which includes the destruction of all the unrighteous and death, does it comes down from heaven filling the earth Rev 21:2. This is important to understanding why evil exists while Christ and the saints rule from heaven.
The idea that mankind will bring about peace and security brings to mind the prophecy “While they are saying ‘Peace and safety!’ then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child” in 1 Thes 5:3. Do these cries of peace reveal that Satan and his angels have been released from the abyss for a short time to deceive the nations and lead them to war against God Rev 20: 3, 7 & 8? Those that don’t understand will be led astray by the claims that there is peace “when there is no peace” Ezek 13:10 & Jeremiah 6:14. We can expect that the final judgment will come as a thief in the night just as the day of the Lord did in 70 AD 1 Thes 5:2, because many are spiritually blind and will not see it coming.
It’s critical now more than ever to ensure we are following only Christ. We are being bombarded with an extreme level deception from all sides including the media, governments, and religion. Our protection is the armor of God which includes the Word of God and prayer Eph 6 11 to 18. Let’s take every opportunity to strengthen our armor because the battle seems to be close at hand.
God bless!
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Hi Kate. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. As I mentioned in my introduction to Part 1, I don’t deny that there are significant problems and injustices in our world, and mountains to be conquered. Joshua, though, has provided a lot of information showing many areas of life where things are getting better. We haven’t even mentioned medical advancements, better ways of communicating (e.g. email and the internet), better means of travel, new technologies, etc.
Statistics need to be compiled with integrity. I learned a lot about that when I took a Statistics course in high school. The statistics that Joshua featured come from secular sources, and were not created by those who share his eschatology (most likely). If any of them lack integrity, you’re welcome to demonstrate that. Otherwise, I don’t know where distortion would come in.
Spiritually speaking, there may be growing godlessness where you live (I don’t know where that is), but we can also acknowledge amazing movements to Christ happening in various places around the world. Even where ISIS is, there are fantastic stories of how God is at work, breaking through the darkness and drawing large numbers to Himself. It’s encouraging, and I do believe that God’s kingdom is advancing.
Furthermore, we (Christ’s body) bear the leaves of the tree of life for the healing of the nations (Ezekiel 47, Revelation 22). The light of the New Jerusalem and the kingdom of God shines through us, and we should see transformation around us.
Where does Daniel 2 say that the rock “grows into a great mountain in heaven not on earth, and only after the final judgment”? Here’s what Daniel 2:34-35 says:
“You watched while a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were crushed together, and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors; the wind carried them away so that no trace of them was found. And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain AND FILLED THE WHOLE EARTH.”
God bless you too.
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I appreciate your reply Adam! I must have been mistaken in thinking that you were a partial preterist like myself or perhaps I didn’t see the large divide between full preterism and partial until more recently. I certainly understand where the theme “the world is getting better” is coming from now, although I disagree. I’ll read through your Book of Revelation Fulfilled information, and let you know if you sway my opinion from partial preterism.
I do disagree with Mr. Gleeson’s use and interpretation of statistics and I’ll be posting a comment directly to him since he is the author and has replied to my comment.
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Kate–
I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt, and assume that you’ve actually read through parts 1, 2, and 3, and have examined the statistics. As Adam mentioned, there were many more that could have been included to demonstrate it even further. As a reminder, though, your perception of the world getting worse is most likely due to several factors that were mentioned in the posts: limited TIMESPAN, limited LOCATION, and limited INFORMATION (or by contrast, too much of the WRONG information).
You are quoting several Scriptures out of their context concerning the (then-)impending events of 70 A.D., and attempting to apply them to some “last days” or “tribulation”-type scenario some 2,000 years later. There are several great books out there to help you with those particular theological perceptions. You can find a few of them here: http://www.mindrenewal.net/eschatology/
The world is not increasing in “godlessness.” The Kingdom of God is advancing all over the earth, and will continue to do so. The stone becomes a mountain which fills the earth. The leaven of the kingdom leavens the whole lump. Of the increase of His kingdom, there will be no end. These are just three relevant Scriptures. Do you believe that God is LOSING? If so, I’d re-think that. The gospel is the good news of great joy which shall be to all men… not the bad news of great depression which shall be to all men.
If you can counter the statistics provided with actual facts, I’d be interested in hearing them. Otherwise, it seems your skewed theological perspective, and limited timespan/location/information perspectives are preventing you from seeing the awesome news that Jesus is winning, and will continue to do so until the knowledge of the glory covers the earth as the waters cover the sea. Blessings on your journey!
#theworldisgettingbetter
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With all due respect Joshua, you are only acknowledging the statistics that support your belief that the world is getting better. It is misleading to use data from the 1700’s to support your notion that murder rates have dramatically improved and are “getting better”, which is why data starting in the mid 1800’s was used in the report Homicide Trends in America: 1850 – 1950 the author, Megan Sasinoski. Ms. Sasinoski states “Before the urbanization of America in the mid-1800’s, towns were only loosely organized into clost-knit communities, and murder was relatively rare”. I haven’t found US murder statistics before the 1900’s to conclude whether your figures or Ms. Saskinoski’s opinion that “murder was relatively rare” is correct, but it is evident the change in social conditions makes data before the 1900’s incomparable.
In the introduction Ms Sasinoski states “As America became more urbanized, crime rose steadily, with a few noteworthy increases or decreases in the national homicide rate. In response to the violent crime, the U.S. spent more money on law enforcement in the 1840’s than almost any other country in the world. Despite this increase in funding, these systems were unable to curb the steady rise of violence that continued until the late 1930’s.” We see this spike in the per capita murder rates from just over 6 in 1900 to over 9 in the early 1930’s as Ms Sasinoski described in the National Homicide Rate chart in her report. In the same chart we see a significant drop in the per capita murder rates in the late 1930’s to just over 4 which held fairly constant through to the 1960’s. Continuing on from 1960 using data from http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/uscrime.htm we see the rates increased to a high of 10.2 in 1980 followed by a drop that began in the late 1990’s reaching a low of 4.5 in 2014. Ms. Saskinoski states the importance of considering demographic and societal factor information when predicting changes in homicide rates, but acknowledges that “a comprehensive predictive model for homicide rates is not yet available”. Your assumption that positive trends will continue into the future is flawed because past homicide rates are not predictive of future ones.
I became aware a few years ago when I was researching pornography’s influence on society how statistics are used to distort to the truth in reading some of Dr. Judith Reisman’s articles where she provides evidence that not only were the statistics of sexual crimes tampered with, the correlation between pornography and sexual crimes was covered up. Here are some excerpts from an article about Rape Rates at http://www.salvomag.com/new/articles/salvo8/8reisman.php that confirm statistics are changed to distort the truth:
• The National Institute of Justice paper, Managing Adult Sex Offenders in the Community, reported: “The number of adults convicted annually of rape, child molestation, or other forms of sexual assault and sentenced to state prisons more than doubled between 1980 and 1992. In 1994, state prisons held 88,100 sex offenders compared to 20,500 in 1980.” One officer said that crime comes down “because we cook the books.”
• Perhaps the most famous scandal involving the fudging of crime statistics took place in New York City in March of 2004. The Police Benevolent Association (PBA), the largest law-enforcement union in the United States, declared publicly that political pressure to keep New York’s crime rate down had led precinct commanders to downgrade crimes from felonies to misdemeanors or to not count them at all.
It is misleading to mention only the crime of murder which has seen a decrease over the last 20 years, while ignoring other crime statistics that are not as positive. Take rape for example which went from 9.6 per 100,000 in 1960 to a high of 42.8 in 1992 dropping to 26.4 in 2014, assault which went from 86.1 in 1960 and steadily increased to a high of 441.8 in 1992 dropping to 232.5 in 2014 and other crimes such as robbery, burglary and theft which saw similar patterns. We must consider abortion also, because although legalized in the 1960’s, it most certainly is viewed as murder in God’s eyes. Abortion statistics start at zero abortions per 1000 live births in 1965, increased to 100 abortions per 1000 live births in the 1970’s and held to that level until it started to drop in the mid 1980’s, and was just below 50 abortions per 1000 live births in 2015 http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/policy/abortion/graphusabrate.html. Statistics do not prove the world is getting better, they only appear to because you have failed to consider all crime statistics, and that statistical trends are not predictive of future crimes.
I won’t burden you with further critiques of your statistical analysis, but present an overview of the state of the world from my personal perspective. While I have not been personally impacted by the escalating rates of fornication, divorce and STD’s I’m not oblivious to this having taken place in my surrounding environment which strong evidence against “the world getting better”. This survey presents startling levels of pornography use in “Christian” men with 35% admitting to having an extra-marital affair http://www.provenmen.org/press-releases/2014-pornography-survey-of-christian-men-shocking-new-national-survey-reveals-high-levels-of-pornography-use-and-rampant-extramarital-affairs-among-christian-men/ . This CNN report states that the rates of STD’s have spiked because technology has made it easier to “hookup” http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/19/health/std-rates-rise-dramatically/ . While neither my immediate family nor I have suffered from heart disease, cancer or other modern illnesses, I can see other families suffering so I’m well aware of how common, and heart wrenching it is. This is ample evidence to convince me that godlessness is increasing across the US, and it isn’t just in my neighborhood.
Most Bible prophecy was fulfilled in 70 AD; the great tribulation/day of the LORD, the first judgment, Christ’s 2nd coming, the rapture of the saints both dead and living; but Rev 20:7 to 21: 4 has not been fulfilled yet as evidenced by the existence of death and evil. Many people fail to see that throughout Christ’s millennial reign the separation of the sheep from the goats continues, and only God’s people are living in peace and security. It is critical that we understand that FEW people are God’s and MANY are not Matt 22:14, and what makes this especially confusing is that MANY will believe they are following Christ when they are not Matt 7: 22 & 23. To key to distinguishing God’s people from others is ensuring their theology aligns completely with scripture which is evidence they have received the spirit of truth John 15:26.
There is a great deal of deception in the world, which I believe is evidence that Satan has been released for a short time to lead many to war against God’s people Rev 20: 3, 7 & 8. There are many false teachers who claim to be representing God, but their message contradicts that found in the gospel. Your teaching that mankind will create heavenly conditions on earth is the opposite of what the Bible states, which is that the holy city will come down out of heaven from God Rev 21:2. This will not happen until after Satan’s release for a short time when he leads MANY to war against God’s people Rev 20: 3, 7 & 8 and the final judgment where all the unrighteous and death are destroyed in the lake of fire Rev 20: 11 to 15. To ensure we aren’t one of those misled by Satan we must study the inspired Word of God and pray for understanding because there is significant evidence that the time is drawing near.
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