So God created man in his own image . . . and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase, fill the earth and subdue it, rule over . . . every living thing." Gen. 1:27, 28, N.E.B.

"The serpent said, 'Of course you will not die! God knows that as soon as you eat it, your eyes will he opened and you will be like gods knowing both good and evil' " (Gen. 3:4, 5, N.E.B.).

Here are two offers from two very important persons. Which one would you accept if you did not know about Satan's opposition to God? Both offers in themselves look attractive. Satan promises you just about as much as God does—world dominion, to be like God.

When God created man and placed him on this little planet he was a minority among the various species of animals. With his fall he exercised only limited dominion. There is little or no evidence that man did extend his dominion over the earth.

But now in the twentieth century all has changed. Up to the eighteenth century the earth population did not exceed 300 million so far as we are able to tell. During the nineteenth century the population reached one billion; by 1930, two billion; by 1962, three billion. By the end of the century, the earth will be twice as crowded as it is now.

Had not sin entered, man would have fulfilled God's purpose, replenished the earth and held sacred dominion over it. Apart from the rule of God, man's dominion has effected only pollution of the atmosphere and the seas, has desecrated the earth and squandered the treasures in the earth placed there for man's creative genius and development. Under God man would not have been in this position.

There is now no place to go. Sinful man has developed a world-destructive power of which no previous generation had any idea—nuclear energy. Nuclear energy is not a strange thing. It is not a human invention. It is the natural energy of the universe. All the galaxies of stars, billions of suns, use this nuclear energy. It can be a great blessing. But it can be a terrible curse. We are face to face with the terrible possibility inherent in sinful man's dominion over the earth. The fundamental question is: Does man have control over himself under the Lordship of Christ, or is he under Satan's dominion?