Gods Sabbath

T HE J EWISH T RAGEDY

487

From Faith to Unbelief

For the disciples, the evil consequences of their unbelief were the destruction of their faith and separation from God. The final outworking is described in the following words: “Unbelief was taking possession of their minds and hearts. Love of honor had blinded them. They knew that Jesus was hat ed by the Pharisees, and they were eager to see Him exalted as they thought He should be. To be united with a teacher who could work mighty miracles, and yet to be reviled as deceivers, was a trial they could ill endure. Were they always to be accounted fol lowers of a false prophet? Would Christ never assert His author ity as king? Why did not He who possessed such power reveal Himself in His true character, and make their way less painful? Why had He not saved John the Baptist from a violent death? Thus the disciples reasoned until they brought upon themselves great spiritual darkness. They questioned, Could Jesus be an im postor, as the Pharisees asserted?” The Desire of Ages , 380.1. What a transition this was from the faith and enthusiasm ex hibited only a few hours before! This is a striking demonstration of the deadly effect of mixing human works with living faith. Satan tempts us to destroy our faith by simply adding our own works to it. If we cooperate by doing this, our faith is guaranteed to die. The disciples were deeply troubled because, in their eyes, Christ did not “... reveal Himself in His true character.” But that was, in fact, just what He was doing. Their inability to see it was due to their erroneous views of the Saviour’s character and work. Despite this, they had no excuse for slipping into the satanic trap prepared for them, for full protection was available in the simple principle of leaving Christ to do His Father’s will completely free from any pressure or interference by them. When they could not succeed in influencing Him to execute their wills, they cherished and cultivated dark, complaining thoughts against Him, instead of dwelling upon the blessed truths they had learned that day. The course those men should have taken is described in the following paragraph: “The disciples had that day witnessed the wonderful works of Christ. It had seemed that heaven had come down to the earth.