ho receives and follows these prophetic teachings, that have ever been
proclaimed afresh from the beginning of the world down to the present
time, and are summed up in the Old Testament. Such a one is enabled even
now to rescue his soul from the rule of the demons, and may confidently
expect the gift of immortality.

With the majority of the Apologists "Christianity" seems to be exhausted
in these doctrines; in fact, they do not even consider it necessary to
mention _ex professo_ the appearance of the Logos in Christ (see above,
p. 189 ff.). But, while it is certain that they all recognised that the
teachings of the prophets contained the full revelation of the truth, we
would be quite wrong in assuming that they view the appearance and
history of Christ as of no significance. In their presentations some of
them no doubt contented themselves with setting forth the most rational
and simple elements, and therefore took almost no notice of the
historical; but even in their case certain indications show that they
regarded the manifestation of the Logos in Christ as of special
moment.[448] For the prophetic utterances, as found from the beginning,
require an attestation, the prophetic teaching requires a guarantee, so
that misguided humanity may accept them and no longer take error for
truth and truth for error. The strongest guarantee imaginable is found
in the fulfilment of prophecy. Since no man is able to foretell what is
to come, the prediction of the future accompanying a doctrine proves its
divine origin. God, in his extraordinary goodness, not only inspired the
prophets, through the Logos, with the doctrines of truth, but has from
the beginning put numerous predictions in their mouth. These predictions
were detailed and manifold; the great majority of them referred to a
more prolonged appearance of the Logos in human form at the end of
history, and to a future judgment. Now, so long as the predictions had
not yet come to pass, the teachings of the prophets were not
sufficiently impressive, for the only sure witness of the truth is its
outward attestation. In the history of Christ, however, the majority of
these prophecies were fulfilled in the most striking fashion, and this
not only guarantees the fulfilment of the relatively small remainder not
yet come to pass (judgment, resurrection), but also settles beyond all
doubt the truth of the prophetic teachings about God, freedom, virtue,
immortality, etc. In the scheme