Now, this is just from my own impression, I haven't asked them specifically, but from the way they speak it has made me question wether or not they believe (or know even) in God the Son. Everyone knows about the Son of God, but I'm seriously starting to doubt wether or not most Catholics know about God the Son. I have heard them say that they believe in: God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit as if this is supposed to be a confession of the trinity. You see the problem? Is this something that you have encountered as well amongst layman Catholics? Should the Church do a better job at teaching the Trinity?
Even when we look outside the Catholic Church I think that most people in the world (you could simply try this out for yourself by simply asking WHO was Jesus in the Bible?) who knows of Jesus, doesn't know about his divinity. Maybe the Church has put too much emphasis on the Son-part, and not so much on the God-Son part.
You have two separate instances of this happening at 6:36 (he even calls it classic catholicism) and 6:49
Maybe this is just a German thing… I don't know
Luke Gray
Interesting… I apologize for jumping to conclusions. It seems to me that (assuming it isn't a German-to-English translation error on the uploader's part) those are two individuals who either have a poor understanding of the Trinity and do not represent the entirety of Catholics or, based on that "classical Catholic" response (I'm not exactly sure what that means), they subscribe to the early Church's understanding of God (see: the Apostles' Creed) and are therefore in contradiction with Catholic teachings. By the way, you mentioned previously that All Catholics say the Nicene Creed at Mass, so it's more than just dogma. They should know the Trinity by heart, unless they're cultural Catholics who couldn't care less.
Okey, I didn't know this. Do they say something like: "I believe in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit"? If yes, then it would be strange to why some still are confused the matter.
ps I'm not a baptist, I'm not even a Christian. I'm just a person who's learning about the Catholic faith and hope to convert soon.
Landon Lopez
That looks like it was typed up by an adolescent who (mistakenly) believes that "Son of God" and "God" exclude one another. Heaven knows I spouted a lot of stupid things on the Internet when I was a child. I still do sometimes, kek.
Yes, except it's usually more wordy than that. Additionally, when we cross ourselves during Mass, the priest says "In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.", and we (the parishioners) affirm that with an "Amen". Likewise, when we cross ourselves outside of Mass, we say (be it verbally or mentally) "In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.", so the Trinity should be clear to everyone who calls themselves Catholic. That is indeed strange. Perhaps they're just cultural Catholics who fell out of Church at a young age and, for that reason, have a poor understanding of Catholicism. I'm glad to hear it user! I'm in the process of converting myself (my Confirmation is next month).
The reason you're (rightly) observing this phenomenon, is likely related to the issue discussed in the embedded vid.
Matthew Richardson
Catholic here. I'm not a native English speaker, and I've heard, in my language, the word "God" is used to mean "God the Father" when talking colloquially. This does not mean that they're confused. When asked about the Trinity you could hear someone say something along the lines of "It consists of Jesus, God, and the Holy Spirit". God means God, the Father. It's treated like his name, just like Jesus is the name of God the Son. So, again, when used colloquially, God has this double meaning of "God the Father" and "God - God". You could say it's a polysemic word.This does not mean people don't understand that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit all have the same divine nature. It's not a dogma or faith issue, but a language one. Is it confusing? Honestly, I had never noticed until I saw this thread. In mass and in the creed the trinity is laid clearly enough to every catholic.
Jayden Bennett
Not sure if Nestorian or abject fool
Oliver Turner
Yes Yes Yes Agreed.
I know many lapsed believers and many layman Catholics who don't know the fundamentals of what it is to be a Christian. The current consensus of the masses is that a Christian is similar to jehova witnesses in regards to theology. IE - God > some guy called Jesus with the title Son of God without knowing what the means and has no connection to God.
These days I always start conversations by pointing out the most obvious thing in Christian theology. That Jesus is God. Admittedly before my conversion I had no idea about this either, its something that elder people that know their faith probably take for granted and don't realize people don't know this due to the emphasis on Son of God. Rather than pointing out His divinity constantly.
Caleb Adams
I won't say it's truly indicative of anyone's Trinitarian beliefs, but casually speaking, some people don't speak like Trinitarians. I'm just surprised Catholics would be in that category. They pride themselves on St. Peter being the first bishop of their church, and he's most famous for being first to realize how profound Jesus' incarnation really was. I'd usually guess that it's a Protestant habit to forget this instead.
I mean, to me this is why Protestants recoil at titles for Mary like "Mother of God". Because it hasn't actually sunk in to them that Jesus is God. Therefore "Mother of God" is an appropriate title for her. They may confess that Jesus is God when formally pressed, but it hasn't seemed to sink into their subconscious and they end up letting it slip out that they don't like these terms for Mary, for example. They hate it even. Which is more than mere disagreement or semantics. Something is actually alarming them somehow, no different than a Muslim or Jew.
Zachary Evans
The same thing happens in English unfortunately.
Those are mutually exclusive statements. If Christians are using the name "God" to refer to The Father, under any circumstance, they're confused, period. The fact that this isn't even noticeable to most Christians like yourself just speaks to how widespread the confusion is. God as the Trinity is what separates us from Jews and Muslims, yet many Christians haven't even internalized this fact. This is what happens when you adopt the Filioque.
Julian Reed
Could you give me a brief explanation of the Filioque and why the Catholic position I wrong and how that relates to what we are discussing?
Isaac Brooks
watch the embedded vids of:
Elijah Sullivan
"Credo in Deum, Patrem omnipotentem, Creatorem caeli et terrae." Is the Apostles Creed confused? I think your statement might be a bit too strong. Using the name "God" to refer to the Father is not necessarily a sign of confusion. Regarding the Filioque, it's obvious to anyone that studies History that it was a political move more than anything else, but I fail to see it being too pertinent to the topic at hand.
In general, every Catholic here is probably able to avoid any confusion between the Father and God. When it comes to your regular granny who goes to mass to pray so her nice will pass her exams… well, the situation may be different.
Jeremiah Perez
That's too short of a quotation to provide context, and there is an important comma separating the statement of belief in God from the descriptions of who God is. The first description is of the Creator/Father, yes, but then it says:
