Category Archives: Mankind

God’s Special Creation

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Genesis chapter 2 God circles back to add some detail about the special part of His creation. The part of creation that is different from all the rest. The part of creation to which He gave very special attention!

Man, God’s Special Creation

Genesis 2:7 “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.”

For all the rest of creation God said and there was. God spoke all other parts of creation into existence, but not man. He formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. God was much more intimate with the creation of man. The creation of man was not simply a word. God took time to form man, and the biggest difference between man and the rest of creation, God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. This is not simply life, but the spirit of man was breathed into him. His soul was given to him at this point. This is the part of man that is not shared by the rest of creation, man’s spirit, man’s soul. Man’s spirit is what really sets him apart from all other created creatures. It is the spirit of man that is the image of God.

It is because of this spirit that we are able to commune with God. It is this spirit that gives personality. The spirit that allows us to form abstract thought. To ponder the meaning of life. It is this spirit in fact that gives us meaning of life. It is why when we talk of the deep things of life, we speak of spiritual things. It is on the spiritual level that we meet with God, that we commune with God. The spirit of man is the eternal part of man. The spirit of man is what makes us know that there is more to existence than simply this short life. The spirit of man is eternal, our spirit will always exist!

Man’s Task

God planted a garden, a special place with all the things that Adam would need for life. The garden was planted with all the trees that were pleasant to look at, and all the trees that Adam would need for his life. God Mentions two trees in particular: 1. the tree of life, and 2. the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. These were both in the center of the garden. Man was put in the garden according to vs.15 to “tend and keep it.”

As a bit of a side note, God gives a bit of a geography lesson of the land around the garden, it’s rivers, and where they went. All of this geography is not the same now as it was then. We will look at an event later on that would reshape the face of the earth.

For now we need to know that God had created His master piece of creation, man, and had given to him all that he would need for life.

The Commandment

Adam was given the task of keeping the garden in which he would live. God also gave him one single rule, or commandment.

Vs. 16-17 “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

Talk about a truly simple life! Adam has everything he needs, and every beautiful plant on earth surrounding him. All he needs to do is tend to the garden, and obey God’s one commandment to not eat that one fruit.

Adams Companion

vs. 18 God said “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.”

God would make for Adam a companion like him, to complete him. It is worth noting here that God did not say that He would make a companion to serve him, or who was lesser than he. God said that He would make a companion “comparable to him.” God created them equal, but not the same.

For the remainder of chapter 2 God goes through an exercise with Adam. He made from the ground all the creatures of the earth to have Adam name them, so Adam did. He named all the animals, but vs. 20 says “But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him.”

God then went on to take a rib from Adam, and from that rib He would make a companion for Adam. Adam called her woman because she was taken out of man.

She was literally a part of him. Woman was created to be man’s companion, of all the other creatures of creation, there was no other animal that was comparable to man. Because of this when a man and woman are joined in marriage they are considered by God to be one. The bond of marriage cannot be broken in God’s eyes. He sees a husband and wife as one and the same.

In these days of confusion it is also important to note that the God prescribed marriage is one man with one woman for life. To deviate from this plan is to deviate from God’s plan, that is called sin.

Signs of the Times

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I saw something advertised on TV the other day that shocked me profoundly! I suppose it shows that I am disconnected from the times.

There was a commercial, the subject matter of the commercial was to be sure to get your annual STD checkup.

Annual STD checkup! The thought that a commercial could be targeting a set of people needing to be checked annually for STDs is quite amazing to me, and is indicative of where society has come. As we remove God more and more from our society, His guidelines for living are dismissed more and more as old fashioned, and outdated.

God calls sex outside of marriage sin. God’s plan for us sexually is for one man to marry one woman, and for that marriage to be honored until death. In fact the bible teaches that to have sexual relations makes the couple one flesh. Through sex a couple is bonded. God regards sex outside of these parameters as sin.

Sin has consequences! Eternal consequences and consequences that are evident in our daily lives. The consequences that come from sexual sin, show up in the form of STDs. The eternal consequences are much more severe! To be on the wrong side of God when He judges will lead to eternal separation from Him. He will send all people who have not followed His way to the place we call hell.

There are many who have lived a life of great sexual sin. Having had many sexual partners. Some of you have contracted some STD, or multiple STDs. You now also stand on the wrong side of God, as a sinner, an enemy even. An Enemy that He will judge guilty.

Hope

There is always hope. Jesus Christ, God’s own son died a terrible death. He was sacrificed for all of us. He was sacrificed for all our sins. We have to accept that Jesus died in our place, taking all the sin we have committed against God, and paying for that sin for us, in our place. Believe that that sacrifice is sufficient, that Jesus’ death is sufficient to erase that sin. God will accept the death of Jesus as sufficient payment for the sins we have done. Then after that forgiveness of the great debt of sin, God will accept us as His own children. That is called Grace!

After accepting Jesus’ payment of our debts, abstain from sexual immorality. Thank God everyday for His great grace toward us.

There’s Good and Evil, So What?

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What difference does it make to me if there is good and evil?

Well, we all stand on one side or the other. There are some who have earned the reputation of being evil, Jack the Ripper, Charles Manson… Society as a general rule regard these men as evil, because of what they have done. (their works)

Humanism has made the argument that “all people are basically good.” This argument has prevailed for the most part and is accepted as true. But is it true?

Jesus and the Law

A question was put to Jesus one day. “What is the greatest, or more important law?” It’s funny, this is the question that we all want answered. What is the least that I need to do to be considered good before God?

Jesus’ answer as usual was not as easy as we would like, in fact His answer was quite impossible because it encompassed the entirety of the law. The greatest law he said is to love the Lord your God with all your heart mind and soul, and the second is just like it, equal to it, to love your neighbor as yourself.

Well that put the kibosh on being good easy!

The first part of His answer is impossible. We can’t love God with all our hearts minds and souls because that is the way we love ourselves. We take the position of love and adoration in our own minds, the position of love and adoration that God wants, that He deserves. We are our own number one, and God wants to be, needs to be, our number one.

The second part of His answer, simply makes evident our position on the first part of the answer. It is impossible to love God with your everything if you don’t love all that He created as well. We can’t love God and hate our cousin Joe because he is an idiot. That would be a contradiction, a violation of the Law according to the teachings of Jesus. We can’t love God and ignore the suffering of children in need of food and clothing. We can’t love God and ignore the murder of babies. We can’t love God and ignore injustice in whatever form it takes.

The Human Evil

Despite the teachings of humanism, we as people are by default evil. We are born sinners, evil, and we look for excuses, and ways to dismiss what we know, that we are bad, rotten to the core. Late at night when all is quiet we know deep inside our failures, our wrongs, our evil actions. You need no convincing of that. The next morning, though we build a facade of righteousness, of all is well. We convince ourselves that we are good, and we go about our lives, putting on the lies.

All the noise and distractions of our modern society aid us in forgetting that we are inside, evil, bad, lost. So at times when we are forced to slow down all these realities can be harsh, we can be laid bare to ourselves, and we don’t like what we see. That is why there is so much despair in these days, we have been made to be more still than we are used to. We have been made to slow down. We have time to think.

There is hope! But hope is not in ourselves, it is in God. Seek Him. We are not whole without Him. We are in fact evil without Him. We all know this to be true!

God is Totally Unfair!

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I have heard many time from many people about the unfairness of God. Usually they are angry with God because something has happened to upset their normal daily lives. Perhaps someone close has died, or perhaps a job has been lost. As a result the question is, why is God doing this to me?

I have to agree. God is completely unfair in his dealing with mankind!

Purpose

I think we can all agree that there is purpose for everything, and everyone. For Example, a refrigerator. We purchase a refrigerator to keep our food fresh for longer and our drinks cold for more enjoyment. That is the purpose of the refrigerator.

We purchase a refrigerator and load it up with food stuff and drink. We expect that the food and drink will be kept cold or frozen while inside the box.

As long as the stuff stays cold or frozen inside the refrigerator it is fulfilling it’s purpose, and is deemed useful.

What about some day in the future when we open the door of that refrigerator, and we are met with a mildly unpleasant odor, reaching into the refrigerator we find it warm instead of cold. Not happy we open the Freezer part of the refrigerator to find it’s contents thawed and spoiling.

That refrigerator is no longer fulfilling it’s purpose! It is now worthless, and we need a new one.

Our Purpose

God also created us for a purpose. He created us to devote ourselves to Him, to worship Him and to look to Him for all our needs.

Rom 1:21 states that man though knowing God have decided not to acknowledge Him as God.

So we when we are not living acknowledging that all things come from God and not giving thanks to Him for all things, we have failed in our created purpose.

Fairness

So, if we know what fairness is, and when something in our lives does not fulfill it’s purpose, in fairness we discard that thing. If God were fair by our standards, we would all be discarded. We fail him in every aspect of our lives. This failure is called Sin. The book of Romans once again addresses this in Rom 3:23, stating that we, all of us have sinned against God. We have all failed Him.

Since we have all failed Him, by our standards we should be cast away, replaced! Being God who created the world and all in it, if God had our mindset, when Adam sinned against God, He would have destroyed it all and started again. Thus we would not be!

The Unfairness of God

So we are all failures and we deserve to be cast away!

But God being totally unfair as decided to buy us back, to make a way that we can be redeemable. That we can be useful once again, once and for all!

Rom 3:24-26 Go on to tell us that Jesus was given by God to make us acceptable again. He has sent Jesus to Justify us before God, making us useful and with purpose again.

That is the unfairness of God. He is willing to overlook all our faults, all our sins. Faith in Jesus covers up our faults before God. Gives us purpose again.

The unfairness of God justifies us without us having to give anything. We have nothing to give that could justify us.

So yes God is a totally unfair God who created us to look to him for all things. We have all failed God in all things. But He unfairly made us justified once again.

God has unfairly made us look completely sinless as far as He can see. That is unfair!

Character of God, Did God Create Sin

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There was a concept brought up to me just a couple of weeks ago. A concept that I had not heard before, and the thought of which had never entered my mind. It turns out that his concept is a concept held by some of the “great” theologians who’s teachings we follow with fervour. This is the reason that God has told us very strongly to scrutinise the teachings of our teachers against the word of God. If they are wrong we must confront them as they will do damage to the body of Christ.

The concept is that God created sin. The basis for the argument that God created sin is that He is Sovereign over all things. That God created all things that exists, therefore He has to have created sin.

It is interesting that one attribute of God can be taken to such an extreme by our foolish minds that we make God what He is not. There is no scripture that they can point to that declares that God is the Author of Sin, but they have taken scripture that speaks to the Sovereignty of God and applied their own extra Scriptural understanding to it.

In fact there are a few things that the bible teaches very clearly that God can’t do. Yes even though He is sovereign, He has limitations.

  1. God cannot lie. Tit 1:2 Heb 6:18
  2. God cannot tempt with evil. James. In fact He can only do good. It is not within His ability to do evil, or cause anyone else to do evil.

Another interesting thing about our Sovereign God is His ability to forget. Yes, Forget. Heb 8:12 Isa 43:25

So we see that His limitations are toward sin. The only thing that the Sovereign God can’t do is anything involving sin. He can’t cause a person to sin, He can’t make sin, and He can’t do sin. His memory toward sin can also be wiped out. Scripture says He will not remember sin of the redeemed.

James 1 is the most direct scripture written to this subject. It tells me that this argument has been going on since the beginning of the church. Fallen man is always in danger of misunderstanding God when he thinks too highly of himself.

James 1:13 is pretty clear that no one can blame God when he sins. Because it say God can’t be tempted with evil and neither does God tempt anyone. So if God in fact did create evil then this passage would be a direct contradiction.

The passage then goes on to describe from God’s perspective how a man is tempted with evil. Vs. 14 states that a man is tempted when his own lust (NIV uses the words strong desire) draws him away and entices him. That means that the evil, or sin, starts from man’s own person. There is no need for outside influence. There are many people out there who claim things like “the devil made me do it.” Well to say that you’d have to throw the book of James  out of the scriptures.

Vs. 16 goes on to say that everything good comes from God. That is all God is capable of doing, good! God is not in the business of causing, making sin. Sin is a consequence of peoples own lust. This verse also makes a statement that there is no “variableness” in Him. That is to say that He is always the same, since He is always good, there is no potential for sin, or no potential for Him to tempt anyone to sin.

Free Will

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Okay, we all know that God is sovereign! He has the right and ability to rule over all of creation, to do with it as He wishes. After all most of creation was done by Him simply commanding, speaking it into existence. I say most because man was different, God formed mankind with his own hands, then breathed life into him. There is a clear distinction between the creation of man and all the rest of creation as it exists.

God created mankind in His own image. That doesn’t mean that we look like Him, but rather we are like Him in spirit. Things that set us apart from all other created living things. Creativity, Communication, Desire, Love.

Yes, mankind is God’s special creation, we also do things, act differently from all of creation. The Bible teaches that all of creation glorifies God, all of creation speaks to His existence. All of creation is created to do just this, all except man. We have been given a choice to decide weather or not we will gorily our creator, again a special privilege.

Adam and Eve were given a special place to live. In this special place were places two trees that were also special. One of the trees was forbidden to them for food. To eat the fruit of that tree would be to disobey God, to sin. This was the first choice given to mankind. It was a simple choice, to leave the fruit alone, or to eat it. It didn’t take long for a poor choice to take place. Was this God’s doing? Was it Eve’s doing? Was it Adams doing? We have been living with the consequences of that one bad decision for the rest of our history, and we will continue to live with it for the rest of history future, until God brings the history of earth to an end.

Genesis 3:1-3 The question is put to Eve do you eat of the forbidden fruit or not? Is God holding out on you? We like to blame Eve for this poor decision, but if you read on Adam must have been standing there with her and he offered no resistance to her trying it. The decision was made by both of them. The consequences of making a poor decision did not delay long in coming. God Put them out of the garden, killed animals in order to clothe them, and started the clock of death that would come. Did She exercise her free will to eat of the fruit, did Adam? Yes!

God sometimes hardens a persons will, usually to force a point to be clearly understood. We see this clearly in the case of Pharaoh while Moses was trying to get him to set the people of Israel free in Exodus. God hardened Pharaoh’s heart so that He, God, could show the entire world that He is who He says He is and will do what He says He’ll do.

We have the will to obey or not to obey God. Joshua near the end of his life told the people of Israel to make up their minds who they would serve. They had seen God work mighty works, but still some dabbled in sin. Joshua 24:14-15

We have the will to believe him or not to believe him. Jesus gives us the same teaching. John 3 Jesus explains to Nicodemus, a learned man in the scriptures, that one must believe on Jesus to attain everlasting life. This is your privilege, to believe on not to believe. There is no other created thing that has this privilege. Will you believe Him? Will you live?

Sodom and Gomorrah

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Well here is a subject that I did not intend to take up at this point. I am disturbed at the goings on in the church that calls itself Christian. I am also disturbed to hear people who should know better making statements that are completely contrary to the word of God, as if dismissing the teachings of the Bible would benefit them or anyone who hears.

Why is it that God wiped Sodom and Gomorrah off the face of the earth? In fact the scriptures tell us that God destroyed not only these two cities, but everything that was living in the valley where they were built, down to every blade of grass. What is it that the inhabitants of this valley had done to so infuriate God?

In Chapter 18 of Genesis we find Abram pleading with God to not destroy the cities of the Valley. Abram’s concern was that God would destroy the entire place even with those who were righteous before God. I imagine that Abram was concerned for Lot, his nephew, and Lot’s family. God’s response was interesting, He would spare the city for the sake of even 10 people who were not wicked like the others. The grace of God is indeed incredible! It gives one to wonder if that is why the earth continues in the wickedness of today, because of those who do believe God and walk with Him. What happens as the numbers of those trusting God decline?

Chapter 19 opens with two angels entering the city of Sodom in the evening. Lot saw them and knowing the wickedness of Sodom he with great effort convinced them to stay in his house for the night, and he said to them that they should leave as soon as it is light the next day.

They settled down for the night with Lot making a great feast, I imagine to be sure they had no reason to leave his house. Lot had the hope that they would be able to leave safely the next day, for he knew the wickedness of his fellow citizens.

Before they went to sleep that night Vs. 4 tells us that the men of Sodom, all of them, young and old, surrounded Lot’s house. They demanded of Lot to bring the men who were in his house out so that they could have sex with them(know them). This was indeed the wickedness that caused God to set out to destroy this people. Lot’s response is equally startling, he offered to the mob his two virgin daughters instead of the men. The men outside wanted nothing to do with the women, they were set on Sodomizing the men staying with Lot. Yes this is where we get our legal term from for the act of homosexual intercourse (Sodomy). It is the sin of homosexuality that was bringing the wrath of God on all living things in this valley. This lifestyle is not acceptable by God, and it should not be accepted as an acceptable lifestyle in the Christian Church.

There are those who say, “That’s the old testament, the new testament doesn’t teach that.” Turn to Romans Chapter 1:18 God’s wrath, but for what, those holding the truth of God in unrighteousness. The following verses go on the tell us that if a person thinks he is wise and decide to not glorify God there foolish hearts are darkened. Vs. 26 cuts to the chase. The result of intentionally disregarding God end in the base of base sin, homosexuality! Therefore the act of men or women having sex with others of their own sex is according to this passage the furthest that a person can get from living a righteous life.  It’s interesting that this act is then a result of sin, it is in itself a punishment. God is still God, and he will eventually destroy all the wicked.

God is a God of grace who will remember these sins no more if we accept the death of Christ as God’s payment(punishment) for our sins, and live by faith in God Rom5:1. He will guide us to a life of fulfillment, grace, fullness, and joy. He alone can transform sinners to righteous.

Babel The Origen of Diversity of Language and Race

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After the flood Noah and his family once again began to grow. God had desired of them to spread out and fill the earth. He did not want them to settle in one place.

Genesis 11 starts out making a statement that the whole earth was of one language and of one speech. There wasn’t so much as a difference in accent. They all spoke exactly the same. They formulated a plan to build a great city, they also made a name for themselves. Names, identities  keep us together. They were again not doing what God desired of them! So what is the Problem? Why does God think He should control everything?

The simple truth is that God created man for His pleasure. If His creation is not doing what He created them for then the problem comes from that simple fact. Lets say that you as a parent decided to make a swing for your 4 year old child. You go about making the ropes fast and the seat so that the child doesn’t fall out. After the completion of the swing, you talk to the child so that he or she knows what to do on the swing. The swing is created to do a specific duty, that duty will bring pleasure to both the child and parent alike. Let’s say now that the swing doesn’t function correctly and the child is turned out on their head. What will a good parent do with the swing? The swing will be corrected so that the proper pleasure will be gotten from it. That is exactly the way it is between God and mankind. He created us for a purpose, and He will correct us when we are not fulfilling that purpose. He has given lots of instruction on what He expects of us.

So God observed mankind in his activities, and decided to step in. Race is the subject of much debate these days. The division of race is being discussed on many levels in our society. I have observed in my travels that there is a division caused by language that far outweighs the division caused by the colour of ones skin. God did two things to all the people living at Babel. One he gave them all different languages. There are said to be more than 8000 languages spoken in todays world. God created them all in one instant. Two He scattered the people over the whole earth, from one extreme to the next. This is the main reason I think that people do not generally like to move. God put them where they are. For example there are people living in the deltas and swamps of the world, just miles away from firm ground, but they stay. The name of most people groups can be translated the people. Yes each group consider themselves “The People” and it comes out as an outsider becomes more familiar with a people group. He realises that he the outsider is considered sub par, not one of the “people.” As an outsider becomes more proficient with the language he is looked on with less suspicion, and more respect and will eventually if he learns the language well become one of the “people.”

So God in His wisdom and understanding spread mankind out on the face of the earth and made it impossible for all the earth to be one people again. That is until He decides to bring all the people of earth together.

God desires our affection. He desires our attention. He desires us to follow His way and not our own. We as created beings, created by Him owe him no less than to be His, to give Him pleasure.

Noah After the Flood

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The whole earth was wiped clean by the flood. There was no more evil, no more violent acts. The earth was green and awaiting the passengers of the Ark to repopulate it. The waters of the flood were on the earth for ten and a half months before the earth was dry enough for Noah and his family to begin life again on it. According to the text it had rained for one hundred and fifty days with out a stop or break, then it took slightly more time again for the waters to clear and dry from the earth.

There is no more mention of Angels marrying and having children with the women of earth. It seems that there were at least two limitations that God put on the earth and mankind at this time, one was to shorten man’s lifespan, and the other, not spoken of was to put an end to angels and humans mixing. We also see in the ninth chapter that God requires the life of a person who commits murder. So capital punishment is in fact set in place by God Himself. God sees human beings as precious, and a person who would destroy another human intentionally should according to God be killed. To not do so results in more deaths by the hands of people who have no value for life. We also note that at this time animals will have a fear of man that did not exist up to the new beginning. Animals were also added to man’s diet. Just the opposite to the idea that we came from cave man who was a hunter and gatherer, then learned to farm.

With all these new limitations God now made a covenant to not destroy the earth in this way again. This covenant is between God and the inhabitants of earth, all living things. He would not destroy every living thing again with water. The token for this one sided deal, contract is the rainbow. It will be seen to remind us of two things. One God did destroy every living thing save one family by a great flood, and two He will not do so again.

God is a god of grace, He saved Noah and his family along with every species of animal of earth instead of destroying the whole thing by the flood waters. God is all powerful and the earth is under His power to do with as He wishes. God is a judge who judges with integrity and surety, His judgements can’t be overturned or changed, there are no appeals. His requirement of us is that we do not decide to turn away from Him. To turn away from Him, to deny His existence, is an intentional act that will bring His judgement to bear. He desires of us to trust Him, to acknowledge Him. He has the grace to overlook and forgive our shortcomings.

Noah

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By the time of Noah life on God’s creation had gotten really bad! So bad in fact that the scriptures declare that God was sorry for creating the earth and all in it.

It would seem that the entire population had decided to forget God, to go their own way, to not know God. They had decided to follow the way of Cain. The choice to walk away from God is a conscious one. The way of earth had become so violent and sinful that God decided to destroy the whole thing. He would with a flood of water drown the whole earth and everything living in it.

A few verses of the 6th chapter of Genesis make some strange statements. They talk about giants and it would seem Angels marrying human women and having children with them that vs. 4 calls the men of renown, maybe (Hercules) and the like. It is always said that legend always contains a little truth. These passages also state that God put a limit on the life span of men to 120 years. Lots of interesting events that are really unknown but alluded to.

There was one man who found grace with God. One man who acknowledged God as God. Noah! All the rest of the race of mankind were so evil that God says that “every imagination of the thoughts of his heart were evil, always.”

God revealed His plan to Noah. He would destroy all living things on the earth because of their evil. This is God’s right, He made everything, He alone can destroy everything. Noah, He would save, but Noah would have to build the vessel that would save him. The dimensions of the ark and the specified materials were explained to Noah. This Ark would save Noah, his family, and a pair of every animal alive, male and female.

A couple of observations. Noah’s age is reviled in the text as 600 years when the flood began. He was then the oldest man alive by 480 years since God had limited the lifespan of man to 120 years. Another thing is that Noah’s family were not mentioned as righteous before God. Could it be that God saved them even though they were not walking with Him for Noah’s sake? I’m sure Noah’s age stood out to all those around him, I’m also sure that drew attention to him and what he was doing. He was building a ship bigger than a football field and over three stories high. all these things I’m sure drew attention to what Noah did. No one else joined him. I think that was the purpose, God wanted Noah to be a spectacle so others would turn to Him, but none did. He is a Gracious God. He is also a faithful judge. So judgement would befall a world full of people and animals.