The great pyramid passages and chambers

God in the way of the downward course of mankind have been (1) the indirect restraining influence of the truth manifested in the lives and sayings of his people (Matt. 5: 13, 14), and (2) the direct prevention of anything which would interfere in any way with the outworking of the Divine plan of salvation. Had men been given complete liberty, their evil desires and lack of judgment would long ago have precipitated matters, but God restrained them, as we read in Psa. 76: 10—“ Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain.”

149 During the long period of 6040 years from the fall to the overthrow of ‘‘ this present evil world” and the setting up of Christ’s Kingdom, men have tried in every conceivable way to obtain a form of government and mode of life which would ensure lasting health and happiness, peace and contentment, but to no purpose. The reason of the failure is to be found in man’s moral, mental and physical imperfection, due in part to his own fault, but chiefly to heredity and environment. God knew beforehand that men could not rule themselves, but he knew also that it was best for them to learn by bitter experience that there is no other way of salvation from sin and its train of evil consequences—pain, disease, misery and death,—than that which he himself has provided in his Son Christ Jesus. In harmony with this, the Apostle Peter said to the rulers and elders of Israel: “ This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” —Acts 4: 11, 12.

150 In the beginning Adam had God's law written on his mind and heart, that is to say, he was perfect and at peace with God, and thus he enjoyed sweet communion with the Lord from day to day. But after the fall how changed were all the conditions ! His descendants lost the desire to obey the law of God, and with this they lost also to an increasing extent the ability to discern good and evil. God permitted this condition to continue, with the result that the race became more and more degraded, and its consequent alienation from God grew daily wider. ‘‘When they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their hearts . . . and even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind [margin—a mind void of judgment], to do those things which are not convenient ’’—Rom. 1: 18-32.

151 For the first sixteen and a half centuries of this long period of 6040 years, the angels were permitted the attempt to save men, in order to demonstrate their inability to do so, and at the same time to test their loyalty to God. Far from saving men, some of these angels became contaminated with the general evil, and so degraded did the human race become that God brought that First Dispensation to an end by means of the Deluge, and “the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day” (Jude 6), that is to say, he has ever since prevented them from communion with the holy angels and from materialising and mingling with men.