The great pyramid passages and chambers

having heard that only name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved, and the Apostle adds, “neither is there salvation in any other’’—Acts 4: 12, What does this mean? If the usual misconception were true, that God was altogether relying upon the missionary and other well-meaning efforts put forth by good men to save the heathen by bringing the name of Jesus to them before they die, it would mean that God, however benevolent his intentions may have been, has failed, and that Satan, who has blinded the minds of them that believe not, has been the victor. While God has gained his thousands, the great deceiver has now under his power his thousands of thousands!

29 Calvin, strong in his belief in the power of God, and perceiving in the Scriptures that Jesus himself said, “‘ Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it,” seized upon this as the explanation of the apparent weakness of God's plan. He revived the teaching of St. Augustine that God’s predeterminate purpose was to save only the few, and to condemn to an eternity of torment all the remainder, the vast majority. Surely a terrible blasphemy this of the character of God, the Holy One of Israel, whose name is Love! Not that Calvin intended to misrepresent God, for it must be remembered that the general teaching of his time was that all power, both present and future, was in the hands of the clergy. In his honest endeavour to get away from the one extreme, he followed the usual course of going to the other extreme.

30 But though we must discard Calvin's teaching, which, while vindicating the power of God, ignores his justice, wisdom and love, we cannot discard the Saying of Jesus, that the way to life is narrow and few there be that find it. How is it possible to reconcile this saying with the four attributes of God just enumerated ? Very simply, when we disregard the creeds and go directly to the Bible. ‘God is his own interpreter, and he will make it plain.’ The Key to the answer is found in God's promise to Abraham: In thee and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed —Gen. 12: 3; 22:18.

31 To understand this, let us follow briefly the course of God's dealings with men ; and though at first it may have been difficult to comprehend wherein the Divine plan for man’s salvation availed anything, or to understand how God's attribute of love is displayed in it, the careful and thoughtful student will presently perceive a beauty and harmony throughout the whole of the Divine purposes, which will appeal to both heart and head as nothing else could do. He will see that God is not working in any haphazard fashion, nor relying on the feeble power and resources of man. God declares in his own Word that all things are known unto him from the beginning, and that his Word, the revelation of his purposes, shall not return unto him void, but shall accomplish that which he pleases, and shall prosper in the thing whereto he sent it—Acts 15: 18; Isa. 55:11. The teaching of the Scriptures, properly understood, is more reasonable and more honouring to God than any theory founded on man's reasoning apart from Holy Writ. The Lord himself declares this truth through the prophet Isaiah: ‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

32 When God created Adam and placed him in the Garden of Eden, he imposed on

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