By Herbert W. Armstrong

Of course, I know many do not even believe God exists. But just suppose ; and suppose that you, yourself, were God the Creator.

You had created a perfect and beautiful earth. You put mankind upon it. You gave the earth rich soil to raise food and beautiful trees, plants and flowers. In the earth you had stored other wealth ; gold, silver, iron, the other metals, coal, oil.

You gave it rivers and lakes with fresh, clear, sparkling water. You gave it fresh, clean, pure air for mankind, animals and plant life to breathe. You gave it adequate forests, both for lumber and to cause abundant necessary rainfall. You gave the mankind you put here everything GOOD, for his health, his needs, prosperity if he would properly use all you had put at his disposal, for his pleasure.

You gave him a miracle-working MIND with superior intelligence. You made him so that his efficient MIND would direct his every move and act ; a mind that would improve with proper use.

You made him so that it was necessary that he learn or be taught EVERYTHING ; even how to walk, run or sit. And you started from the instant of his creation to reveal to him needed basic knowledge for his guidance, his welfare, his protection, his happiness and complete well-being. You intended for him to use this wonderful earth you gave him ; to preserve it, improve it and work it for his good and needs.

Being God, you not only are creator. You also are ruler over your creation, and it is your policy to preserve what you create by your GOVERNMENT.

You also are educator and revealer of necessary basic KNOWLEDGE that man can never discover or produce of himself. So you start from the instant of his existence to teach the first man and woman that basic necessary knowledge. And you give this first man the opportunity to be the KING of the earth, over those who shall populate this beautiful, wonderful earth by the reproductive process.

Of course you have put within these humans your own very image and likeness, powers of thought, reasoning and the making of decisions -- else they could have no individuality, personality or character.

But, alas! You find that these two humans don't believe what you say, as you begin revealing to them necessary basic knowledge ; knowledge of WHAT they are, WHY they are, WHERE they are going ; their incredible awesome human POTENTIAL. They decide to take to themselves the KNOWLEDGE of what is good and what is evil. They flatly disobeyed you and refused to obey the laws of your GOVERNMENT, let alone accept the rulership of administering that world government.

So you adopt a hands-off policy for 6,000 years. You leave them to the production of their own knowledge. You turn them over to working out their own form of government, making their own laws to regulate their own man-made society. You allow a self-centered nature to enter their minds ; a nature of vanity, lust and greed, of jealousy, envy and hatred of others, of competition and strife. And now, the 6,000 years are about up.

You look down from your throne of the universe in heaven to see what the members of the human race have done with their minds, their powers of thought and especially this wonderful earth that you gave them.

WHAT DO YOU SEE?

You know, Youth 85 readers, as I now spend much of my time traveling over this earth ; over North and South America, over all of Europe and Asia, over Africa, Australia and New Zealand, flying through the air at hundreds of miles an hour, looking down on this earth and its teeming millions of humans, I WONDER ; I wonder how God the Creator looks at it. I wonder how it looks, as seen through His eyes?

Let me tell you some of the things that have indelibly impressed themselves on my mind.

For thousands of years this was a multi-divided world. It had come to be inhabited by many races from many mixtures of intermarrying from three original races. But here were hundreds and hundreds of different peoples, speaking their hundreds of different languages, each with its own country or area and language-dialect.

For thousands of years humanity drifted along on virtually an even keel. There was little or no communication between individual areas because of the language barrier and lack of rapid transportation or instant communication.

There was little diffusion of knowledge until the printing press was invented. Transportation and travel were on foot, by camel, elephant, horse or mule, rowboat or sailboat.

But suddenly, in the 19th and 20th centuries all that changed! The steamboat appeared. Combustion engines put wheels to work developing faster travel by land. The automobile appeared. Roads were built. Railroads developed greater speed. Then came the motion picture.

People from all parts of the world began to see what people in other parts looked like. Styles originating in Paris, New York or Hollywood were seen and copied all over the earth. Then came radio, and then television. When I was 11 years old the first airplane flight was made. The wars developed the airplane as a weapon of war. Then came the jet, the telephone and now miraculous, almost instant telephone connections to any part of the world by means of satellite.

I am writing this from Nairobi, Kenya, in central east Africa. Nairobi is a modern city replete with hundreds of modern buildings and skyscrapers. I'm on the 16th floor of a hotel, which counts floor one after the elevators pass the ground floor, another floor, then a restaurant floor and a floor designated as pool. And also it numbers floor 13, so I'm actually on floor 20, counting the ground floor.

Whether I am here, in Djakarta on the island of Java on the equator, in Melbourne, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Tokyo, London, New York, Paris, Buenos Aires, Rio or any part of the globe, I am in a modern city on the same general pattern. Suddenly, it has become ONE WORLD. There is not much difference today in all parts of the world.

So if I were to play God, I do, as it were, look down from heaven and see what has happened to this earth. And what do I see? I see a sickening sight. I see a progress in reverse ; a progress that has polluted the air, the water, the soil ; yes, and as former Prime Minister Eis aku Sato of Japan said to me, polluted human minds! I see a civilization that has reduced rainfall by robbing the forests without adequate reforestation, robbed the earth of its raw materials, robbed the soil of its life cycles ; a civilization that is sickly and diseased, governments, businesses and industries that are corrupt, a crime-ridden society, governments of man's devising, nations that try to kill off one another in wars. More than half of the world's population is in dire poverty, living in filth and squalor; half or more illiterate or nearly so. The world is filled with the sick and diseased in hospitals. Its inhabitants are turning to immorality, which results in divorce and broken homes and families.

I think if I were God, I would thunder out: Give ear, O Earth, and HEAR! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY BEAUTIFUL EARTH I TURNED OVER TO YOU? You have polluted, perverted, ruined, destroyed and injured every particle of this earth you were able to get your hands on! You have perverted the wonderful MINDS I gave you!

Those that you have educated you have turned against me and funneled into their unsuspecting minds fables, lies, nonsense, while at the same time you call my truth fable or superstition. You have turned truth into error. You have called right wrong. You have had no place in your knowledge dissemination for me. You have turned to a WAY OF LIFE that is destroying your minds and your bodies and my earth. You have sought false values and devoted your time and energies to things that never satisfy and are worthless and destructive. You have sought pleasure and ease and spurned righteousness. You have forgotten the God who gives you life and breath, and you have despised His RIGHT WAYS, and turned to every wrong way.

And I think I would thunder out: THE TIME FOR AN ACCOUNTING HAS COME! I am about to PUNISH THIS WORLD FOR ITS EVILS!

Jesus of Nazareth said that when this world reached its END time, the condition would be like it was in the days of Noah. Then God did look down to see what men had done to His earth. And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually ... The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth (Genesis 6:5, 11-12, Authorized Version throughout).

But there also is another prophecy for the future: And I saw a new heaven and a new earth ... and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away (Revelation 21:1, 4).

That will come after the Kingdom of God has come to the earth ; after humanity has been disciplined by the loving Creator God. Then the government of God will rule, bringing, at last, WORLD PEACE!