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 answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona, for ﬂesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter: and upon this rock [evidently upon this confession of Peter's faith in him as the Messiah] I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." (Matt. 16:13—18.)

The religion of Jesus the Christ is the religion of Jesus "the Messiah," of him who claimed to be the deliverer of the Jews and who claimed to come in fulfilment of Old Testament prophecies. If there is one fact that stands out with more distinctness in his claims than another it is his assertion of his Messiahship. On his trial before the Sanhedrin the high priest asked him, "Art thou the Christ [that is, the Messiah], the Son of the Blessed? And Jesus said, I am." (Mark 14:61—62.) Christianity as a religious system is based upon the Messiahship of Jesus.

Now let us look at some of the prophecies upon which the Jews based their hopes of a deliverer, an Anointed One, or a Christ—a Messiah.

One notable thing which we shall find in