Where is Christ called Emmanuel?

When it comes to proving that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh, it usually does not get any clearer than the prophecy of Isaiah that is found within the 1st chapter of the gospel of Matthew which the virgin birth came to fulfill. But, there is one section within this prophecy that still remains in dispute to whether or not it has indeed come to pass. This is the part where the baby within the womb of Mary shall be called God with us, Emmanuel.

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[22] Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying,
[23] Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.

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Although many of the arguments which attempt to disprove the divinity of Christ rest within the walls of a weak rebuttal, this one usually stands tall. The opposition says that Christ, although being born of a virgin, is nowhere called Emmanuel within the gospels and let alone the New testament. On the surface, this seems to be true. But, when we view this section of the prophecy through the lens of how Christ was treated by the people, it slowly starts revealing to the reader that this argument is not really as strong as many might come to think.

I am going to divide the answer to this argument into 2 parts, seeing as both stand true.

1) The first answer to the argument is that just because we do not read that he is called Emmanuel within the New testament, this doesn't mean that the people in New testament times did not view him as such.

I am going to explain what I mean by this through the use of the story of the wise men. Within the following passages, we see that the wise men traveled from afar to see the new born king of the Jews. They told the people in Jerusalem that they saw the star which symbolized his birth and therefore have come for the purpose of worshiping the child.

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[1] Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem,
[2] Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.

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Seeing that he was called a King, Herod started to become worried. His worry arose out of a fear of losing his throne to the child. So, Herod gets right to work trying to find out where Christ was to be born and how old he was at the present moment. He first goes to the priests and the scribes to ask them questions concerning his birth place in order to provide the magi with the answer they had asked for.

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[3] When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.
[4] And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born.
[5] And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is written by the prophet,
[6] And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel.

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After Herod’s meeting with the religious leaders, He calls the wise men unto himself to ask them what time the star had appeared in order to find out the age of the new born King. When they had told him, he sent them away to Bethlehem ( as told by the religious leaders) in search of the Messiah. He also ordered them to come back and make his location known unto him.

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[7] Then Herod, when he had privily called the wise men, inquired of them diligently what time the star appeared.
[8] And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, Go and search diligently for the young child; and when ye have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also.

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Now we come to the relevant passage which will help us understand the answer to the opposing argument. When the wise men went on their way, they saw the star which they had seen in the east. A star, by the way, according to scientific discoveries, is nothing more than a sun. Few come to realize that the Christ being symbolized by a sun further proves his divinity. For as without the sun life would not exist, without Jesus creation would not exist. As the sun was an ancient God to the pagans, this sun symbolized the TRUE God who came into the world.

When they reached the place where Jesus was, they provided him with gifts. They then fell on their knees and WORSHIPED HIM. As we know from the scriptures, no one is to be worshiped but God ALONE. Therefore, we can conclude that the wise men believed Jesus to be God in the flesh. But the question arises: how does this prove that he was called Emmanuel? Let us consider the following examples. If we see a sun worshiper worshiping the sun, whether we hear them call it God or not, we know by their actions that this is how they view it. We know by their worship that this is what they call it. If we see a Hindu bowing down to Krishna, even if they never tell us that they refer to him as God, we know by their fruits that indeed this is what they call him. In the same way, despite it not being written anywhere in the New testament that he was called Emmanuel, we see that by the actions of the wise men, mainly worshiping Christ as God, that they viewed him as Emmanuel. That they called him God with us. For by their actions we can see how they viewed him. By their worship we can see what they called him. They viewed him as God, and he was indeed with them. Emmanuel.

2) The second answer to this argument is that this section of the prophecy is not limited to New testament times.

When we read the prophecy of Isaiah, nowhere does it say that he would be called God with us ONLY during his time. Many who stand in opposition to the divinity of Christ put words into the mouth of the text to prove their beliefs. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the term Shall is used to say that something is expected to happen in the FUTURE. So just because the virgin birth came into fulfillment at that specific moment in history doesn't mean that this section of the prophecy is also limited to this exact moment in time as well. The fact of the matter is this: even if Jesus was not called Emmanuel by the people of his time ( which as we saw, is very unlikely) this prophecy still remains in effect to the people of our time and of future generations. The truth is that the majority of Christians within our world today call him Emmanuel and believe him to be God with us, bringing this prophecy into fulfillment.