The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | Page 346

into the counsels of the Infinite One, or to understand fully the working
out of His purposes, yet often it is because of some error or neglect on
their own part that they so dimly comprehend the messages of Heaven.
Not infrequently the minds of the people, and even of God’s servants, are
so blinded by human opinions, the traditions and false teaching of men,
that they are able only partially to grasp the great things which He has
revealed in His word. Thus it was with the disciples of Christ, even when
the Saviour was with them in person. Their minds had become imbued
with the popular conception of the Messiah as a temporal prince, who
was to exalt Israel to the throne of the universal empire, and they could
not understand the meaning of His words foretelling His sufferings and
death.
Christ Himself had sent them forth with the message: “The time is
fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the
gospel.” Mark 1:15. That message was based on the prophecy of Daniel
9. The sixty-nine weeks were declared by the angel to extend to “the
Messiah the Prince,” and with high hopes and joyful anticipations the
disciples looked forward to the establishment of Messiah’s kingdom at
Jerusalem to rule over the whole earth.
They preached the message which Christ had committed to them,
though they themselves misapprehended its meaning. While their
announcement was founded on Daniel 9:25, they did not see, in the next
verse of the same chapter, that Messiah was to be cut off. From their very
birth their hearts had been set upon the anticipated glory of an earthly
empire, and this blinded their understanding alike to the specifications
of the prophecy and to the words of Christ.
They performed their duty in presenting to the Jewish nation the
invitation of mercy, and then, at the very time when they expected to
see their Lord ascend the throne of David, they beheld Him seized as
a malefactor, scourged, derided, and condemned, and lifted up on the
cross of

345