Compendium Theologiae Dogmaticae Tomus I: De Christo Legato Divino, De Ecclesia Christi, De Fontibus Theologicis

Cf. Ottiger, Theologia fundam. I, 526 ff., 629 ff., and the other apologetic treatises already mentioned; F. M. Lagrange, Le Messianisme chez les Juifs, Paris 1909; M. Meinertz, Jesus und die Heidenmission, Münster 1909; A. Seitz, Das Evangelium vom Gottessohn, Freiburg 1908, who reviews the various opinions of rationalists, who deny that Jesus was God, the Messiah, a teacher, or even existed at all.

Proposition XIII. Jesus Christ said that he was a divine envoy, and this testimony of his is worthy of faith.

126. Position of the question. Having established the authenticity, integrity, and credibility of the Gospels, we ask who and what sort of person Jesus was according to these sources. According to Catholic doctrine, already clearly transmitted in the Gospels, he is God incarnate. For the present, however, we set aside his divinity and consider only the dignity that he himself very often emphasizes: namely, that of a divine envoy, sent to human beings to teach them the right order toward God. Just as many deny Jesus’ divinity, so certain rationalists deny that Christ was, or wanted to be regarded as, a divine envoy. Most, however, concede this.

Long before the time of Jesus, the Jews were expecting a certain distinguished divine envoy, who was given the name Messiah, which is rendered ὁ Χριστός, or “Anointed One” (Dn 9, 25 sq.; cf. Is 61, 1). In the Old Testament, kings, priests, and prophets were called “anointed.” Here we consider only the office of prophet, or divine envoy. The Jews, then, were expecting the Messiah, τὸν Χριστόν, or τὸν προφήτην. Herod asks the priests and scribes “where ὁ Χριστός was to be born” (Mt 2, 4). Simeon had received from God the promise that “he would not see death unless he had first seen τὸν Χριστὸν Κυρίου” (Lc 2, 25 sq.). John the Baptist says of himself, “I am not ὁ Χριστός” (Io 1, 20). Andrew says, “We have found the Messiah” (Io 1, 41). The Jews exclaim, “This is truly ὁ προφήτης who is to come into the world” (6, 14). These and many other things show the expectation of a future divine envoy of an entirely unique kind.

We shall therefore show first that Christ said he was this divine envoy, and that this testimony he gave about himself is worthy of faith. We are not yet speaking of divine faith, but of human certainty.

127. Argument. Christ is a divine envoy if he said that he was a divine envoy and if his testimony is worthy of faith. But both conditions obtain. Therefore, he is.

Proof of the minor, part I. a) Christ said that he was the Messiah whom the Jews were expecting. To the question, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect another?” he answers, “Go and report to John what you hear and see: the blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead rise, the poor are evangelized” (Mt 11, 4 sq.). These are the words of Isaiah’s prophecy about the future Messiah (Is 35, 5 sq.; 61, 1). To the Samaritan woman who says, “I know that the Messiah is coming,” he answers, “I am he, the one speaking with you” (Io 4, 25 sq.). He declares Peter blessed because he has recognized him as τὸν Χριστόν (Mt 16, 17). To the high priest who adjures him, “Tell us whether you are ὁ Χριστός,” he answers, “You have said it,” and “I am” (Mt 26, 64; Mc 14, 62). He repeats the same thing in many other places (cf. Mt 22, 42; 23, 10; Mc 9, 40; Lc 24, 26, 46; Io 17, 3)¹.

b) Christ often said that he was sent by God (Mt 10, 40; 15, 24; Lc 4, 43; Io 4, 34; 5, 24, 36; 6, 39, 44; 17, 18). He was sent to preach and teach (Mc 1, 21 sq., 38 sq.; Lc 4, 31 sq., 43). He taught “a new doctrine” (Mc 1, 27; 4, 2; 6, 2), “as one having authority” (Mt 7, 29). Of this doctrine he said, “My doctrine is not mine, but his who sent me” (Io 7, 16). “He who sent me is true, and what I heard from him, these things I speak in the world” (Io 8, 26). “I have not spoken on my own, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment about what I should say and what I should speak” (Io 12, 49). He alone is the teacher of all (Mt 23, 10). Whoever does not hear him rejects the God who sent him (Lc 10, 16) and is liable to condemnation (Io 3, 18; Mt 10, 15; Mc 16, 16). Those who heard him rightly said of him, “Never has anyone spoken as this man speaks” (Io 7, 46).

From these things it is clear that Christ presented himself as an envoy sent by God for this purpose: to hand on to human beings a doctrine divinely revealed.

128. Proof of the minor, part II. Christ’s testimony about himself is true. Christ is either a divine envoy, a deceiver, or deceived. But he is neither a deceiver nor deceived. Therefore, he is a divine envoy.

a) Christ is not a deceiver. Whoever says he is a divine envoy, while knowing that he is not, commits a grave crime, especially if he leads many people astray; if not only in private but also in public, indeed before a judge, adjured in God’s name, he asserts his error and persists in it until death. But Christ is not a most wicked criminal; rather, he is a man distinguished by the holiest conduct, who confidently asked his adversaries, “Which of you will convict me of sin?” (Io 8, 46); whose whole life is so perfect an example of virtue as none other than he has ever been in the world; “holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners” (Heb 7, 26); “who committed no sin, and in whose mouth no deceit was found” (1 Petr 2, 22). The Jews indeed accused him as deserving death because he had called himself the Messiah and the Son of God, but the judge replied, “I find no cause in this man for the charges you bring against him” (Lc 23, 14), and “I am innocent of the blood of this just man” (Mt 27, 24).

But a man could not have been so holy and at the same time a most wicked impostor. Christ’s holiness is the effect of a wholly unique and miraculous divine providence, by which God could not have distinguished a man who wickedly pretended to be a divine envoy.

b) Christ was not deceived. A person who seriously and consistently proclaims himself an envoy of God, whose doctrine all must accept under penalty of eternal damnation, is insane if he is in fact not a divine envoy. But Christ was certainly not a man of unsound mind; he was most wise, as his most excellent doctrine shows, and most unbelievers concede this as well. Anyone who thinks that a deranged man could have led so exemplary a life, taught doctrine so holy and so suited to the condition of all human beings, and brought about so great a religious and moral renewal as Christ did—such a person is plainly deranged himself.

If Christ is compared with the outstanding teachers who arose among the pagans, with Pythagoras, Socrates, and Plato, a great difference immediately appears. They only try to discover the truth, admit their many forms of ignorance, despair of correcting vices and errors, themselves fell into errors and vices, could persuade only a few disciples of their doctrine, and their schools perished. Christ, however, spoke with absolute authority, certainty, truth, confidence, and simplicity. His doctrine is suited to everyone, even “little ones,” and yet so lofty that even the most gifted cannot exhaust it. His kingdom, that is, the Church, still stands, flourishes, and triumphs, producing men remarkable for talent and holiness. For not only did Christ’s own life perfectly agree with his holy doctrine, but he always had, and still has, many faithful followers who imitate the holiness of his life. Such are not the fruits of dreams produced by an unsound mind.

Nor can the matter be explained by Christ’s fanaticism or enthusiasm. First of all, Christ acts and speaks so calmly and prudently in every respect that it is scarcely possible to conceive of anyone more alien to fanatical frenzy. No signs of morbid agitation appear in him, no desire to rule, no trace of an arrogant spirit. His enemies, to be sure, object, “He has a demon and is mad.” But others immediately answered that his words “are not those of one who has a demon” (Io 10, 20 sq.). Moreover, enthusiasm may accomplish something for a short time, but violent impulses do not last; as the frenzy cools, they collapse. Christ himself, however, calmly persevered in completing his work until death, and his work has endured with the greatest stability up to our own times. Empty enthusiasm does not produce such things.

Therefore, since Christ was neither a deceiver nor deceived, he truly was an envoy of God.

129. Objection I. Jesus did not teach any theoretical propositions that all were bound to accept; he only showed people the practical way to worship God rightly. Therefore, he was not a divine envoy in the sense of having proposed some revealed doctrine.

I answer. I distinguish the antecedent: Jesus did not teach people with the aim that they stop at bare knowledge, but rather that they order their lives according to his doctrine, I concede the antecedent; he did not teach any theoretical truths that were the foundation of Christian life and religion, I deny the antecedent. For example, he taught that he is the Father’s Only-Begotten Son, that he alone knows the Father, and therefore that he can reveal the Father to others (Mt 11, 27). He said that he had come to give his life as a λύτρον ἀντὶ πολλῶν (Mc 10, 45), that he is the Lord of David (Mc 12, 35 ff.), and that he will come in the clouds of heaven to judge all people (Mc 13, 26 sq.). Jesus taught many other dogmas as well, as we shall see in the course of dogmatic theology. Christ as a pure, undogmatic moralist is not the true Christ, but a fiction of unbelief.

130. Objection II. Jesus Christ had no doctrine of his own other than that God is our Father and we are children of the heavenly Father. The rest was taken from Judaism and passed into Christian doctrine either through Jesus’ own accommodation to the religious opinions of his contemporaries or through the application of those opinions to Jesus by his disciples.

I answer. I deny the assertion. For the principal dogmas of the Christian religion, such as the Trinity, the Incarnation, and the Redemption, were not taught among the Jews in Christ’s time. Christ abrogated the whole Mosaic law and instituted a new religious society, which the Jews, from the very beginning, pursued with the greatest hatred as opposed to them. Far from accommodating himself to the prejudices of the Jews, Jesus opposed them throughout his public life. As for the religious doctrines revealed before Christ, Jesus certainly acknowledged them and also proposed them to his disciples as things to be believed, because what is true and revealed by God can never become untrue. The principal object of Christian faith is Christ himself, according to what he revealed about himself. “God so loved the world that he gave his Only-Begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him should not perish but have eternal life… Whoever believes in him is not judged, but whoever does not believe is already judged, because he has not believed in the name of the Only-Begotten Son of God” (Io 3, 16, 18). This matter is most insistently emphasized in the First Epistle of John.

131. Objection III. Christ did certain things that are unbecoming for a divine envoy, such as when he became angry, drove the sellers from the Temple, sent the demons into the swine, cursed the fig tree, and the like (Mc 3, 5; Mt 21, 12 ff.; 8, 30 sq.; Mc 11, 12 ff.). Therefore, his holiness of life was not so great that anything can be proved from it.

I answer. I deny the antecedent. Christ became angry and did other things in accordance with the judgment of right reason. There is a good anger by which one becomes angry at offenses against God, as Christ became angry because people had made God’s house a den of robbers. He allowed the swine to be beset by demons so that, by this manifestation of his power, he might teach the people of that region who he was and from what dreadful servitude he wished to free them. If this miracle had been morally evil, God would not have performed it. The same holds for the fig tree: by its miraculous withering Christ showed the Jews their future fate if they remained a bad and fruitless tree (cf. Lc 13, 6 ff.). If Jesus had allowed himself to be carried away by immoderate agitation, he could not have said to people so confidently, “Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Mt 11, 29).

132. Objection IV. There were also false prophets who called themselves envoys of God and performed great works, such as Mohammed. Therefore, nothing can be concluded from Christ’s testimony and works about the truth of his divine mission.

I answer. I distinguish the antecedent: There were false prophets who can be recognized as false prophets from their works, I concede the antecedent; there were false prophets whose holiness and works can be compared with Christ’s holiness and work, I deny the antecedent.

It is an insult to Christ to compare him with Mohammed. For Mohammed was a sensual man, who practiced polygamy himself and permitted it to others, and promised his followers a paradise of pleasure; he was also a violent man, who taught that his religion should be propagated by force of arms. The Arabs, stirred up by him to fanaticism, did indeed subjugate many regions and for a time produced a certain outward culture; but the worst corruption of morals and the destruction of civilized life followed Mohammedanism everywhere. Just as Christ’s work proves his divine origin, Mohammed’s work proves quite the contrary.

Proposition XIV. Jesus Christ taught that his entire doctrine must necessarily be embraced by all people.

133. Position of the question. Since Jesus is a divine envoy, we ask whether he was sent only to the people of Israel, like most of the prophets of the Old Testament, or whether his revelation pertains to all people. As for his own preaching, he explicitly said, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Mt 15, 24). And although he sometimes preached to the Samaritans (Io 4, 40 sq.) and did not refuse contact with Gentiles (Mt 4, 23; 8, 5 ff., 28 ff.; 15, 21 ff.; Io 12, 20 ff.), nevertheless almost his entire ministry was devoted to the people of Israel (cf. S. Thomas 3, q. 42, a. 1).

But since Jesus also sent his disciples to preach the doctrine, we ask whether he wanted these disciples to preach only to Israelites or to teach other peoples as well at some point.

Certain rationalists, such as A. Harnack (Die Mission und die Ausbreitung des Christentums in den ersten drei Jahrhunderten², Leipzig 1906, 33), deny that Christ ever thought of evangelizing the Gentiles. The Modernists agree; this is their opinion: “Christ did not teach a fixed body of doctrine applicable to all times and all people, but rather initiated a certain religious movement, adapted or to be adapted to different times and places” (Denz. n. 2059). M. Meinertz wrote the already-cited book Jesus und die Heidenmission against Harnack.

We therefore establish as a certain and evident fact that Jesus wanted his Gospel to be preached to all people at some point, and that all people should receive this Gospel.

134. Argument. Christ foretold that the doctrine he had revealed would be preached to all nations, and gave his disciples the command to preach this doctrine throughout the whole world. Therefore, he wanted this doctrine to be accepted by all to whom the preaching would come.

Proof of the antecedent. a) Christ foretold that his doctrine would be preached to all people. “This Gospel of the kingdom [the Messianic kingdom] will be preached throughout the whole world² as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come” (Mt 24, 14). “The Gospel must first be preached among all nations” (Mc 13, 10). “Wherever this Gospel is preached in the whole world” (Mc 14, 9). “I have other sheep that are not of this fold [of Israel], and I must lead them too; they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock and one shepherd” (Io 10, 16). For this reason Christ is the light of the world (Io 8, 12; 9, 5); here “the world” means all people. Since the apostles were appointed to preach to everyone, he said to them, Ὑμεῖς ἐστὲ τὸ φῶς τοῦ κόσμου (Mt 5, 14). And if many Jews will reject this light, many Gentiles will receive it. “I tell you that many will come from the East and the West and recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, but the children of the kingdom will be cast into the outer darkness” (Mt 8, 11 sq.). At the last judgment Christ “will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the end of the earth to the end of heaven” (Mc 13, 27). “And all nations will be gathered before him” (Mt 25, 32).

b) For this to happen, Christ commanded the apostles to preach the Gospel to all nations after his departure from the world. “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you all days, until the consummation of the age” (Mt 28, 18 ff.). “Go into the whole world and preach the Gospel to every creature. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; but whoever does not believe will be condemned” (Mc 16, 15 sq.). “It was necessary for Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and for repentance and the forgiveness of sins to be preached in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things” (Lc 24, 46 ff.). “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Act 1, 8).

c) The reason why the Gospel of Jesus must be preached to all nations is that “there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved” (Act 4, 12). “Is God the God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles too. Since indeed there is one God, who justifies the circumcision [that is, the Jews] by faith, and the uncircumcision [that is, the Gentiles] through faith” (Rom 3, 29 sq.). “For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, since the same Lord is Lord of all, rich toward all who call on him. For everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. How, then, will they call on one in whom they have not believed? Or how will they believe in one whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? And how will they preach unless they are sent?” (Rom 10, 12 ff.).

These things establish that the apostles understood themselves to have been sent to preach to the Gentiles. Since they had received the command to preach first to the Jews, they remained among them until God indicated that they should now go to the Gentiles (Act 8, 4 ff.; 9, 15, 29; 10, 1 ff.; 11, 1 ff.; 13, 1 ff.; 15, 1 ff.; 16, 1 ff.). From the very beginning, Christians had no conviction other than that the Gospel should be preached to Gentiles just as to Jews. It is an irrational supposition that everyone misunderstood Christ’s will from the very beginning (cf. 1 Petr 1, 1 ff.; 2, 10, 12, 25; 4, 3 sq.). “The apostles became preachers of the Gospel to us [Gentiles] by the Lord Jesus Christ; Jesus Christ was sent by God. Christ, therefore, was sent by God, and the apostles by Christ; and both were done in due order according to the will of God” (Clemens. Rom., 1 Cor.* 42, 1 sq.).

d) Consequently, all people are bound by the duty of embracing the entire doctrine of Christ. For anyone to whom divine revelation is proposed with sufficient certainty as applying to and binding him is without doubt bound to follow it, because it is not permissible to refuse assent to God who speaks, and because God must be worshiped in the way he himself prescribes (cf. above, n. 49). Until someone has sufficient certainty that revelation has been made, he must inquire, because it is not permissible for a person to be indifferent about things necessary for salvation. If one who does not believe cannot be saved, religious indifferentism is harmful and detestable. A lengthy discussion of this matter may be found in Ottiger, Theologia fundam. I, 273 ff. The doctrine of religious indifferentism has often been condemned by the Church (cf. Denz. n. 1715 ff., 1789, 1810).

135. Objection I. Jesus thought that his second coming was about to take place, and wanted only that before this coming the apostles prepare the people of Israel for the kingdom of God that was soon to come. For he said, “When they persecute you in this city, flee to another. Amen, I say to you, you will not finish the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes” (Mt 10, 23). And again, “Amen, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things happen” (Mt 24, 34). Therefore, he did not think of evangelizing the Gentiles.

I answer. I deny the antecedent. And as for the added reason: in the very context of that discourse he says to the apostles, “You will be led before governors and kings because of me, as a testimony to them and to the nations” (Mt 10, 18). We must not suppose that by these and the other words cited above Christ so plainly contradicted himself about the calling of the Gentiles as to mean that the apostles would never leave the land of Israel. Elsewhere he says, “They will be led captive among all nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled by the Gentiles until the times of the nations are fulfilled” (Lc 21, 24). The apostles also understood Christ’s words in this way: “A partial blindness has come upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles enters, and thus all Israel will be saved” (Rom 11, 25 sq.). Therefore, in Mt 10, 23, either the words “until the Son of Man comes” are not understood of Christ’s final coming, but of his resurrection or the destruction of the city of Jerusalem, as not a few Fathers and exegetes explain; or, if this concerns Christ’s final coming, “the cities of Israel” means all cities, including those outside Palestine, in which there were Jewish communities, as others explain. In fact, we see the apostles in their apostolic missions visiting those Jewish communities, as is recounted in many places in Acts (Act 13, 5, 14; 14, 1; 17, 1 sq., 10; 18, 4, etc.).

In Mt 24, 34, “this generation” means the Jewish people, so that the sense is: The Jewish people will not be extinguished until Christ’s second coming. We see this prophecy fulfilled daily in the fact that the Jews, dispersed among other peoples, continue as a separate nation.

136. Objection II. The Apostle Paul says that the Gospel was preached to the Gentiles because the Jews were unwilling to receive the doctrine of Christ. Therefore, if the Jews had received this doctrine, the apostles would not have preached to the Gentiles. “Through their offense salvation has come to the Gentiles” (Rom 11, 11).

I answer. I distinguish the antecedent: The Apostle says that because of the Jews’ unbelief the Gospel was preached to the Gentiles sooner, I concede the antecedent; he says it would not have been preached to the Gentiles at all if the Jews had believed, I deny the antecedent. “It was necessary to speak the word of God to you [Jews] first; but since you reject it and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles. For so the Lord commanded us” (Act 13, 46 sq.).

137. Objection III. According to Christ’s doctrine, charity is what makes a person pleasing to God. Therefore, whoever believes anything will be saved, provided that he has charity.

I answer. I deny the argument’s supposition. No one can have the charity of God who does not believe the things God proposes to be believed. “Whoever does not believe is already judged” (Io 3, 18). St. John, who commends charity so highly, writes: “This is the victory that conquers the world, our faith. Who is it that conquers the world, except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” (1 Io 5, 4 sq.).