The Messias-Deniers are captives of an insane and reality-denying faith.

 

A DOGMATIC TREATISE ON THE 

INCARNATION 

THE REVEREND JOSEPH POHLE, Ph. D., D.D. 

FORMERLY PROFESSOR OF APOLOGETICS AT THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA, NOW PROFESSOR OF DOGMA IN THE UNIVERSITY OF BRESLAU 

THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST 

It belongs to Fundamental Theology to develop this argument fully; in the present, purely dogmatic treatise we shall merely sketch its outlines. 

a) Against the Jews we must prove that Jesus Christ is the " Messias" promised in the Old Testament. If He is the Messias, He is true God, for as such the prophets predicted that He would appear. If He were not the Messias, the Jewish religion would be based on fraud, because the idea of the Messias forms its very foundation-stone. 

All the Messianic prophecies were fulfilled in that historic personage known as Jesus of Nazareth, who proved Himself by word and deed to be the true Messias.

The well-known prediction of Jacob (Gen. XLIX, 10 sqq.) : "The sceptre shall not be taken away from Juda, nor a ruler from his thigh, till he come that is to be sent, etc.," either has not yet been fulfilled, and must forever remain  unfulfilled, or it is fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

The same holds good of the famous prophecy  of Daniel (Dan. IX, 24-27: "Seventy weeks are shortened upon thy people, etc."). No matter how we may interpret it in detail, as a whole it was either realized in Christ or must remain forever unfulfilled. 

Now there can be no reasonable doubt that the Danielic prediction has found its consummation in Christ, for since His time the Jewish sacrifices have ceased and the city of Jerusalem with its Temple has been destroyed. 

Similar arguments can be constructed from the prophecies  of the "virgin birth" (Is. VII, 14), the passion (Ps. XXI; Is. LIII, I sqq.), the "clean oblation" (Mai. III sqq.), and so forth.

Furthermore, all Old Testament types, both personal and real, have been fulfilled in Christ and His Church.

Hence, for an orthodox Jew to deny the Messiahship and consequently the Divinity of Christ, means to reject the Jewish religion as an empty superstition.

Why is the Catholic Church so fearful of these people who are part of a false and superstitious religion?