In that classic movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” an angel shows George Bailey what life would be like in his hometown of Bedford Falls had he never been born. Without George’s influence, there was nothing to hinder the greedy ambitions of old man Potter. He was able to buy up one business after another until he owned virtually the entire town. In fact, he became so powerful that he renamed it “Pottersville.” Instead of the quiet, family-friendly village he had grown up in, George was shown a decadent township boasting bars and strip-clubs. Even decent folks he had known had been thoroughly corrupted by the environment. Such was the effect on this community of one honest man.
In their arrogance and rebellion, atheists believe that there is no God; that the world was formed by some kind of cosmic explosion billions of years ago. They want to believe this because they do not want to be held accountable for their actions.
Little do such fools know what that would actually mean. What would this world be like if there wasn’t a God of love tempering Satan’s activities?
God oversees everything that occurs on our planet, of course, but there have been certain locales and periods of history where the enemy has had greater sway. If you would like to know what this world would be like without the Lord’s influence, consider some of the following examples.
During the War years, the Nazi regime brought out the very worst in people who lived in Germany and the other nations it conquered. Jews had lived peacefully for many years in the “Fatherland” before Hitler came to power. Under the Fûhrer’s leadership, German culture became infused with a national mindset of Jew hating. The Nazi party could not have accomplished the destruction of six million Jews without the voluntary aid of thousands of civilians.
Another example: the small African nation of Uganda underwent a similar transformation under the leadership of Idi Amin. With his Nubian supporters, the savage dictator brutally murdered 300,000 people.
Some fifteen years after the overthrow of his government, the Hutu tribe in neighboring Rwanda instituted a systematic genocide of their rivals, the Tutsis. By the end of 1994, some 800,000 people—whose only crime was that of belonging to a different tribe—lay slaughtered in the villages of Rwanda.
These are but a handful of examples of what happens when people groups allow Satan to fill their culture with his malice and hatred. What would it be like on Earth if God was completely absent? Only a visit to hell could answer such a question.