From Eternity Past

Human Life Regarded With Indifference

Polygamy had been early introduced, contrary to the divine arrangement. The Lord gave to Adam one wife. But after the fall men chose to follow their own sinful desires. As the result, crime and wretchedness rapidly increased. Neither marriage nor the rights of property were respected. Men exulted in violence. They delighted in destroying animals, and the use of flesh for food rendered them still more cruel and bloodthirsty, until they came to regard human life with indifference. EP 52.1

The world was in its infancy, yet iniquity had become so deep and widespread that God said, “I will destroy man whom I have created, from the face of the earth.” He declared that His Spirit should not always strive with the guilty race. If they did not cease their sins He would blot them from His creation; He would sweep away the beasts and the vegetation which furnished such an abundant supply of food, and would transform the fair earth into one vast scene of ruin. EP 52.2