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The process of the Catholic apologetic and dogmatic up-building is logical and never-failing.

The process of the Catholic apologetic and dogmatic up-building is logical and never-failing. The Catholic theologian first establishes the teaching body to which Christ gave His deposit of revealed truth, to have and to keep and to hand down that deposit without error or failure.

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The process of the Catholic apologetic and dogmatic up-building is logical and never-failing.

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  1. The process of the Catholic apologetic and dogmatic up-building is logical and never-failing.

  2. The Catholic theologian first establishes the teaching body to which Christ gave His deposit of revealed truth, to have and to keep and to hand down that deposit without error or failure. This teaching body gives us the Bible; and gives us the dogma of the Divinity of Christ in the unwritten and the written Word of God, in Tradition and Scripture.

  3. We presuppose in this discussion certain established tenets • The historicity, of Jesus Christ He was a real person of history • The historical worth and authenticity of the Gospels and Acts • Jesus; The Son of God was consecrated as Christ (Messiah) by the anointing of the Holy Spirit and as such is The Divine Ambassador • He established an infallible and never failing teaching body to have and to keep the deposit of revealed truth entrusted to it • He handed down all of this deposit through “Tradition” which includes Holy Writ; the canon and inspiration of the Sacred Scriptures • We assume that the Divine nature and Divine personality are one and inseparable as defined by the Dogma of Trinity

  4. “The Incarnation” The aim of this class then is to defend based on these presuppositions that the historical person, Jesus Christ, is really and truly God, has the nature of God, and is a Divine person.

  5. The Latin Fathers, from the fourth century, make common use of the word; so Saints Jerome, Ambrose, Hilary, etc. But In this technical sense the word incarnation was adopted, during the twelfth century, from the Norman-French, which in turn had taken the word over from the Latin incarnatio. “The Incarnation” is the mystery and the dogma of the Word made Flesh.

  6. The choice of the word incarnationis very appropriate. The Latin incarnatio (in: caro, flesh) corresponds to the Greek sarkosis, or ensarkosis, The use of these words depend on John 1:14 kai ho Logos sarx egeneto, "And the Word was made flesh". These two terms were in use by the Greek Fathers from the time of St. Irenaeus--, A. D. 181-189 (cf. lren., "Adv. Haer." III, l9, n. i.; Migne, VII, 939). The verb sarkousthai, to be made flesh, occurs in the creed of the Council of Nicaea (cf. Denzinger, "Enchiridion", n. 86).

  7. In the language of Holy Writ, flesh is meant to be representative of human nature (cf. Luke, iii, 6; Rom., iii, 20). Man is called flesh to emphasize the weaker part of his nature. When the Word is said to have been incarnate, to have been made Flesh, the Divine goodness is better expressed whereby God "emptied Himself . . . and was found in outward bearing (schemati) like a man" (Phil. 2: 7);

  8. He took upon Himself not only the nature of man, a nature capable of suffering and sickness and death, He became like a man in all save only sin (cf. Suarez, "De Incarnatione", Praef. n. 5).

  9. The Incarnation implies three facts: (1) The Divine Person of Jesus Christ; (2) The Human Nature of Jesus Christ; (3) The Hypostatic Union of the Human with the Divine Nature in the Divine Person of Jesus Christ. The Divinity of Jesus Christ is established by the Old Testament, by the New Testament and by Tradition.

  10. The Divine Person of Jesus Christ: St. Paul in his Letter to the Hebrews while proving the Divinity of Jesus thru the Old Testamentinterprets directly andspeaks absolutely of the eternal generation of Jesus. Psalm 2:7 "The Lord hath said to me: Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee." Heb. 1:5 Here Yahweh, God of Israel, speaks to the promised Messiah.

  11. The Divine Person of Jesus Christ: Old Testament Proofs St. Paul applies to Christ the words of Yahweh to David, the type of Christ (He 1:5b): "I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me". (II Samuel 7:14.) In the following verse, Christ is spoken of as the first-born of the Father, and as the object of the adoration of the angels; "Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. . . Thy God, O God, hath anointed thee ” But only God is adored!

  12. The Divine Person of Jesus Christ:Old Testament Proofs (Ps. 45:7-8). St. Paul refers these words to Christ as to the Son of God (Heb.1:9). ho theos, ho theos sou, ”therefore God, your God, anointed you” Hence, the Christ is here called God twice; and his throne, or reign, is said to have been from eternity.

  13. The Divine Person of Jesus Christ:Old Testament Proofs (Ps. 110:1) "The Lord says to you, my Lord sit thou at my right hand". (Matt.22:44). Christ cites this text to prove that He is Adonai (a Hebrew term used only for Deity), seated at the right hand of Yahweh, who is invariably the great God of Israel

  14. The Divine Person of Jesus Christ:Old Testament Proofs (Ps. 110:3b) In the same psalm, Yahweh says to Christ: ”In holy splendor before the daystar, like the dew I begot you". Hence Christ is the begotten of God; was begotten before the world was, and sits at the right hand of the heavenly Father.

  15. In the sapiential books Wisdom is presented as a Divine Person distinct from the First Person In the Old Testament, the uncreated Logos, or hrema, is the active and creative principle of Yahweh (see Ps 29; Ps 33:4,6,9) Later the Logos became Sophia, the uncreated Word became uncreated Wisdom. To Wisdom were attributed all the works of creation and Divine Providence (see Job 28:12: Prov. 8, 9; Sir.1:1; 24:5-12; Wis. 6: 21; 9: 9). In Wis. 9:1-2 we have an instance of the attribution of God's activity to both the Logos and Wisdom.

  16. The Divine Person of Jesus Christ:Old Testament Proofs In Sirach 24:9, Wisdom is described as uncreated ”before all ages, in the beginning, he created me, and through all ages I shall not cease to be.” We do not know the original Hebrew or Aramaic word; it may have been the same word that occurs in (Prov. 8:22-23): "The Lord begot me, the firstborn of His ways, the forerunner of his prodigies of long ago from of old I was poured forth at the first before the earth." Wisdom speaking of itself in the Book of Sirach cannot contradict what Wisdom says of itself in Proverbs and elsewhere.” (see St. Athanasius, "Sermo ii contra Arianos", n. 44; Migne, P. G., XXVI, 239).

  17. The Divine Person of Jesus Christ:Old Testament Proofs The Book of Wisdom, speaks clearly of Wisdom as: (Wis. 7:21-26.) "the worker of all things . . . a certain pure emanation of the glory of the almighty God . . . the brightness of eternal light, and the unspotted mirror of God's majesty, and the image of his goodness." St. Paul paraphrases this beautiful passage and refers it to Jesus Christ (Heb. 1:3).

  18. The Divine Person of Jesus Christ:Old Testament Proofs It is clear, then, • from the text-study of the books themselves, • from the interpretation of these books by St. Paul, • from the admitted interpretation of the Fathers • and the liturgical uses of the Church, • That the personified wisdom is: • the uncreated Wisdom, • the incarnate Logos of St. John, • the Word hypostatically united with human nature, • Jesus Christ, the Son of the Eternal Father.

  19. The Divine Person of Jesus Christ:Old Testament Proofs The Prophetic Books The prophets clearly state that the Messiah is God. • "God Himself will come and will save you" (Isaiah 35:4); • ”Prepare the way of the Lord (Yahweh)" (40:3); • ”Here comes with power the Lord God (Lo Adonai)” (40:10). That Yahweh here is Jesus Christ is clear from the use of the passage in Mark 1:3.

  20. The great prophet Isaiah gives the Christ a special and a new Divine name "His name will be called Emmanuel" (Is 7:14). This new Divine name St. Matthew refers to as fulfilled in Jesus, and interprets it to mean the Divinity of Jesus. "They shall call his name Emmanuel, which, being interpreted, is God with us.“ (Matt., i, 23.) Isaiah 9:5 calls the Messiah God: "A child is born to us . . . his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, God the Strong One, the Father of the world to come, the Prince of Peace." Catholics explain that the very same child is called God the Strong One (9:6) and Emmanuel (7:14)

  21. The Divine Person of Jesus Christ: Isaiah also calls the Messiah the "sprout of Yahweh"(Is. 4:2), that which has sprung from Yahweh is the same in nature with Him. The Messiahs is ”Your God is King!" (Is. 52:7), "the salvation of our God” (Is. 52:10); ”The God of Israel" (Is. 52:12): ”Your redeemer is the Holy One of Israel, called God of all the earth.” (Is. 54:5)".

  22. The Divine Person of Jesus Christ:Old Testament Proofs The other prophets are as clear as Isaiah, though not so detailed, in their foretelling of the Divinity of the Messiah. • Jeremiah (23:6; 33:16) call Him ”Yahweh our Just One". • Zacharias 13:7 has Yahweh speak of the Messiah as "my Companion"; but a companion is on an equal footing with Yahweh. • Micah 5 speaks of the twofold coming of the Child, • His birth in time at Bethlehem • His procession in eternity from the Father. The Messianic value of this text is proved by its interpretation in (Matthew 2:6).

  23. "Behold I send my angel, and he shall prepare the way before my face, and presently the Lord, whom you seek, and the angel of the testament, whom you desire, shall come to his temple (Malachi 3:1)". The messenger spoken of here is certainly John the Baptist. • The words of Malachi are interpreted of the Precursor by our Lord Himself (Matt. 11:10). • The Baptist prepared the way before the face of Jesus Christ. • Therefore the Christ was the spokesman of the words of Malachi. • But the words of Malachi are uttered by Yahweh the great God of Israel. • Therefore the Christ or Messiah and Yahweh are one and the same Divine Person.

  24. The Divine Person of Jesus Christ:Old Testament Proofs The last of the prophets of Israel gives clear testimony that the Messiah is Himself the very God of Israel. The argument is rendered even more forcible by the fact that this prophecy of the Lord's coming to the Temple applies to the Messiah a name that is reserved for Yahweh alone. That name occurs seven times outside of Malachi and is clear in its reference to the God of Israel. (Ex.23:17; 34:23; Is. 1:24; 3:1; 10:16, 33; 19:4),

  25. The Divine Person of Jesus Christ:Old Testament Proofs This argument from the prophets in favor of the Divinity of the Messiah is most convincing if received in the light of Christian revelation The Evangelists refer to the prophecies of the Divinity of the Messiah as fulfilled in Jesus (see Matt. 1:23; 2:6; Mark 1:2; Luke 7:27).

  26. The Divine Person of Jesus Christ: New Testament Proofs Jesus is the Son of God According to the testimony of the Evangelists, Jesus Himself bore witness to His Divine Sonship. As Divine Ambassador He can not have borne false witness.

  27. The Divine Person of Jesus Christ: New Testament Proofs Jesus is the Son of God He asked the disciples, at Caesarea Philippi, "Whom do men say that the Son of man is?" (Matt. 16:13). • This name Son of man was commonly used by the Savior in regard to Himself; it bore testimony to His human nature and oneness with us. Peter, as spokesman, replied: "Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God" (ibid. 16:16). • Jesus was satisfied with this answer; it set Him above all the prophets who were the adopted sons of God; it made Him the natural Son of God. This natural Divine Sonship was made known to the leader of the Apostles only by a special revelation. "Flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee, but my Father who is in heaven" (ibid. 16:17). Jesus clearly assumes this important title in the specially revealed and altogether new sense. He admits that He is the Son of God in the real sense of the word.

  28. Jesus is the Son of God He allowed others to give Him this title and to show by the act of real adoration that they meant real Sonship. • The possessed fell down and adored Him, and the unclean spirits cried out: "Thou art the Son of God" (Mark 3:12). • After the stilling of the storm at sea, His disciples adored Him and said: "Indeed thou art the Son of God "(Matt.14:33).

  29. Jesus Himself clearly assumed the title. He constantly spoke of God as "My Father" (Matt. 7:21; 10:32; 11:27; 15:13; 16:17, etc.). Jesus is the Son of God Nor did He suggest that any erred who gave Him the homage due to God alone. • The centurion on Calvary (Matt. 27:54; Mark 15:39), • the Evangelist St. Mark (1:1), • the hypothetical testimony of Satan (Matt. 4:3) • and of the enemies of Christ (Matt. 27:40) All show that Jesus was called and esteemed the Son of God.

  30. Jesus is the Son of God Jesus indirectly but clearly assumes the title (John 10:36, 38): "Do you say of him whom the Father has sanctified and sent into the world: You blaspheme, because I said, I am the Son of God? . . . the Father is in me and I in the Father."

  31. An even clearer witness is given in the narrative of the cure of the blind man in Jerusalem (John 9:35-38). Jesus said: "Do you believe in the Son of God?" He answered, and said: "Who is he, Lord, that I may believe in him? And Jesus said to him: You have both seen him; and it is he that speaks with you now. And he said: I believe, Lord. And falling down, he adored him." Here as elsewhere, the act of adoration is allowed, and the implicit assent is given to the assertion of the Divine Sonship of Jesus.

  32. The Divine Person of Jesus Christ: New Testament Proofs Jesus made undoubted profession of His Divine Sonship in the real and not the figurative sense of the word; and the Jews understood Him to say that He was really God. Their complaint was not that Jesus violated Roman law; but that he violated the Jewish law. "We have a law; and according to that law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God” (John 19:7).

  33. The dread law of Leviticus: "He that blasphemes the name of the Lord, dying let him die: all the multitude shall stone him, whether he be a native or a stranger." (Lev. 24:16). By virtue of this law: • The Jews were often on the very point of stoning Jesus; • They often took Him to task for blasphemy when He called Himself the Son of God; • They call for His death.

  34. The Divine Person of Jesus Christ: New Testament Proofs The angel Gabriel proclaims to Mary that her son will "be called the Son of the most High" (Luke 1:32); "the Son of God" (Luke 1:35); St. John speaks of Him as "the only begotten of the Father" (John 1:14); At the Baptism of Jesus and at His Transfiguration, a voice from heaven cries: "This is my beloved son" (Matt. 3:17; Mark 1:11; Luke 3:22; Matt. 17:3)

  35. The Divine Person of Jesus Christ: New Testament Proofs Jesus is the Son of God In the testimony of John, Jesus identifies Himself absolutely with the Divine Father. According to John, Jesus says: ”He that sees me sees the Father" (14:9). • St. Athanasius links this clear testimony to the other witness of John "I and the Father are one" (10:30); and thereby establishes the consubstantiality of the Father and the Son. • St. John Chrysostom interprets the text in the same sense.

  36. Jesus is the Son of God "We know that the Son of God has come: and He has given us understanding that we may know the true God, and may be in his true Son. This is the true God and life eternal" (I John 5:20). No one denies that "the Son of God" who is come is Jesus Christ. This Son of God is the "true Son" of "the true God"; in fact, this true son of the True God, Jesus, is the true God and is life eternal. Such is the exegesis of this text given by all the Fathers that have interpreted it ("Spicilegium Dogmatico-Biblicum", ed. Gandavi, 1884, II, 48).

  37. St. John affirms in plain words that Jesus is God. He was aroused to action against the first heretics that bruised the Church. "They went out from us, but they were not really of our number. If they had been, they would have remained with us" (I John 2:19). They did not confess Jesus Christ with that confession which they had obligation to make (I John 4:3). The set purpose of the aged disciple was to teach the Divinity of Jesus in the Gospel, Epistles, and Apocalypse that he has left us

  38. Jesus is God John's Gospel gives us the clearest confession of the Divinity of Jesus. We may translate from the original text: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was in relation to God and the Word was God" (John 1:1). This meaning is driven home, in the irresistible logic of St. John, by the following verse: "All things were made by him." The Word, then, is the Creator of all things and is true God.

  39. The Divine Person of Jesus Christ: New Testament Proofs Jesus is God Who is the Word! It was made flesh and dwelt with us in the flesh (1:14); and of this Word John the Baptist bore witness (1:15). It was Jesus, according to John the Evangelist, Who dwelt with us in the flesh and to Whom the Baptist bore witness. Of Jesus the Baptist says: "This is he, of whom I said: A man is coming after me who ranks ahead of me because he existed before me.” (1:30).

  40. The Divine Person of Jesus Christ: Witness of Nicaea The first general council of the Church was called to define the Divinity of Jesus Christ and to condemn Arius. In his "Thalia", Arius taught that the Word was not eternal nor generated of the Father, but made out of nothing; and though it was before the world was, yet it was a thing made, a created thing.

  41. The Divine Person of Jesus Christ: Witness of Nicaea Against this bold heresy, the Council of Nicaea (325) defined the dogma of the Divinity: of Christ in the clearest terms: "We believe . . . in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Only-begotten, generated of the Father, that is, of the substance of the Father, God of God, Light of Light, True God of True God, begotten not made, the same in nature with the Father by Whom all things were made."

  42. The Human Nature of Jesus Christ The Gnostics taught that matter was of its very nature evil, somewhat as the present-day Christian Scientists teach that it is an "error of mortal mind"; they believe then that Christ as God could not have had a material body, and His body was only apparent. • These heretics, called doketae included Basilides, Marcion, the Manichaeans, and others. • Valentinus and others admitted that Jesus had a body, but a something heavenly and ethereal; hence Jesus was not born of Mary, but His airy body passed through her virgin body. • The Apollinarists admitted that Jesus had an ordinary body, but denied Him a human soul; the Divine nature took the place of the rational mind. Against all these various forms of the heresy that denies Christ is true Man stand countless and clearest testimonies of the written and unwritten Word of God.

  43. The Human Nature of Jesus Christ The title that is characteristic of Jesus in the New Testament is Son of Man; It occurs some eighty times in the Gospels; It was His Own accustomed title for Himself. The life and death and resurrection of Christ would all be a lie were He not a man, and our Faith would be vain. (I Cor. 15:14). "For there is one God, and one mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (I Tim. 2:5).

  44. The Human Nature of Jesus Christ Christ even enumerates His Body parts. "See my hands and feet, that it is I myself; handle and see: for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as you see me to have"(Luke 24:39). St. Augustine says, in this matter: "If the Body of Christ was a fancy, then Christ erred; and if Christ erred, then He is not the Truth. But Christ is the Truth; hence His Body was not a fancy' (QQ. lxxxiii, q. 14; P. L., XL, 14).

  45. The Human Nature of Jesus Christ In regard to the human soul of Christ, Scripture is equally clear Only a human soul could have been sad and troubled. Christ says: "My soul is sorrowful even unto death" (Matt. 26:38). "Now is my soul troubled" (John 12:27).

  46. The Human Nature of Jesus Christ Jesus was really born of Mary (Matt. 1:16), made of a woman (Gal. 4:4), after the angel had promised that He should be conceived of Mary (Luke 1:31); This woman is called the mother of Jesus (Matt. 1:18; 2:11; Luke 1:43; John 2:3); Christ is said to be really the seed of Abraham (Gal. 3:16), the son of David (Matt. 1:1), made of the seed of David according to the flesh (Rom. 1:3), and the fruit of the loins of David (Acts 2:30). His obedience to the heavenly Father and to Mary and Joseph supposes a human soul (John 4:34; 5:30; 6:38; Luke 22:42).

  47. The Human Nature of Jesus Christ So clear is the testimony of Scripture to the perfect human nature of Jesus Christ, that the Fathers held it as a general principle that whatever the Word had not assumed was not healed, that is, did not receive the effects of the Incarnation.

  48. The Hypostatic Union What is Hypostasis? The definition of Boethius is classic: (P. L., LXIV, 1343), a complete whole whose nature is rational. A book is a complete whole; its nature is not rational; it is not an hypostasis. An hypostasis is a complete rational individual. St. Thomas defines hypostasis as, a substance in its entirety. Hypostasis adds to the notion of rational substance and rational nature the idea of entirety; Human nature is the principle of human activities; but only an hypostasis, a person, can exercise these activities.

  49. The Hypostatic Union It is to be remembered that, when the Word took Flesh, there was no change in the Word; all the change was in the Flesh. At the moment of conception, in the womb of the Blessed Mother, through the forcefulness of God's activity, not only was the human soul of Christ created but the Word assumed the man that was conceived. When God created the world, the world was changed, that is, it passed from the state of nonentity to the state of existence; and there was no change in the Logos or Creative Word of God the Father. Nor was there change in that Logos when it began to terminate the human nature. A new relation ensued, to be sure; but this new relation implied in the Logos no new reality, no real change; all new reality, all real change, was in the human nature.

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