What if Jesus ran the world?

For some reason, known only to Him, Jesus has chosen to allow satan, who is also known as the Devil, to have control over this planet. We know this because the Bible tells us that Satan controls the "kingdoms of the world", (Matthew Chapter 4 and also Luke) and offered to give them to Jesus if He would bow down and worship him. Would Jesus not have laughed, if satan had tried to give something he had no right to give? If this were the case, one might liken this conversation to me telling my neighbor, that if he will worship me, I will give him the Taj Mahal. (I don't think he is quite so gullible).

Anyway, there are other passages, and one can also see from any of the news networks that broadcast satan's news day and night that Jesus, by choice, is clearly is not in complete control.

But what if He were? What, if anything can we learn by asking such a question?

The Bible gives us the answer to this question, but before we delve into the Bible, let's use our imaginations and see what we might come up with.

If Jesus ran the world:

1,200 people would not have died last week in Egypt because their ferry boat capsized. Were Jesus to rule the earth, the waves of the sea would not be "contrary" and no boats would sink. Also, the two greatest concerns of every human would be Jesus and other humans, so no one would set out on a journey without providing for every possible emergency.

In Houston, the police would not have fired guns into a car where a mother and her kidnapped child lay frightened and screaming while two armed thugs fought a gun battle with the police. In fact, there would be no police, because there would be no crime; unfortunate for lock, alarm and fire safety equipment industries, but terrific for the rest of us.

Baseball might be worth watching because the top players wouldn't be doped up robots who think everyone else is a moron and can't tell that they use performance-enhancing drugs.

49% of the prisons wouldn't be filled with black males, because black males would be just as productive as Asian immigrant males and everyone else for that matter because racial, social, economic and every other inequality would no longer exist. Instead of identifying oneself as an "african-American" or "Mexican-American", everyone would identify themselves as a "Jesus-American" and it wouldn't matter what you looked like. In addition, the prisons would be torn down because it doesn't make sense to operate a perpetually empty building.

Churches wouldn't have billions of dollars in the bank while billions of people around the world starve to death. In fact, churches would stop pretending that they serve Jesus and want to be like Him, because they really will want to be like Him. Also, there would only be one church because the church is the group of people who worship Jesus Christ.

Hospitals and also doctors would be out of business. I wouldn't mind, as long as Jesus wipes out my student loans.(sic) Actually, I dont mind at all because there would be no more sickness, or pain or death.

The funeral industry would become bankrupt because nobody would need them anymore. Were Jesus to be in direct control of the earth, no one would die.

Lawyers would be unemployed - there would be no courts, because all disagreements would be settled by Jesus and would be righteous and right every time.

There wouldn't be a few mega-wealthy persons and billions of hungry and struggling persons. There would be no need for wealth, as Jesus would provide everything one needed.

There would be no angry muslim mobs because there would be no muslims, or Hindus or members of any religious sect. Anyone who doubted Jesus and His claims to be God would only need to travel to see Him in person.

One might ask, wouldn't it be boring?

Think of this. Every dollar you earned at the job you loved and whcih existed for the betterment of mankind, would be yours to dispose of as you pleased because there would be no taxes. But, your desire would be to use that money for Jesus' idea of human growth and development. Now, add perhaps 2 billion persons to yourself and imagine what could be accomplished.

If Jesus were in complete control, the violence of the universe would have ended (stellar bodies slamming into one another - stars superheating into novae, etc.) and the other planets in the universe could be colonized.

All technology would be beneficial and work 100% of the time. Imagine how quickly the internal combusion engine would disappear if Shell, Texaco and Exxon-Mobile weren't controlling 20% of the world economy. One example, is Magneto-hydrodynamic propulsion for ships, which worked pretty well 30 years ago, but hasn't been deployed for "economic" reasons.

Imagine if all babies were cared for and murderers posing as doctors quit performing abortions. (Don't send me email about the efficacy and need for abortion, unless you are willing to come with me to the clinics to counsel the victims of these abortions - the women who have been duped into receiving them).

Imagine if nursing homes were obsolete because people cared for their aging and elderly parents, instead of passing them off onto a business for convenience sake.

Imagine that mothers would choose to stay in their modest home or apartment and raise their children instead of working 60 hours a week so they can drive a Lexus and buy their children video games and laptop computers. Imagine fathers who chose to live modestly so their wives could do this.

Why am I writing all of this? Well, one reason is that I am pretty sick of this world, although I am grateful to be serving Jesus while i'm in it. (St. Paul put it like this - "to live is Christ, but to die is gain") There won't be any longing for this world after I am gone. And two, these things and more than I could ever imagine will happen one day - I believe soon. I do not know that it will occur within my lifetime, but I hope that it will.

It is my hope that you also long for the day when Jesus returns. Will you be ready?