Confused on a Bible verse

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Matthew 24:36

"However, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows.

Jesus Christ is equal to God right. Shouldn’t He know the date of Judgment Day?
 
coolcatholicguy said:
Matthew 24:36

"However, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows.

Jesus Christ is equal to God right. Shouldn’t He know the date of Judgment Day?
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I’m not a scholar, but I think the Son is deferring to the Father there.
 
Truly God and truly man, Jesus was making a point as a man amongst others. Only God knows the time and we don’t need to be concerned about it. Jesus made plain that our focus as human beings is not the future, but living day to day in charity…in love of God and love of others.

God bless,
Trishie
 
coolcatholicguy said:
Matthew 24:36

"However, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows.

Jesus Christ is equal to God right. Shouldn’t He know the date of Judgment Day?
Click to expand...
What MelanieAnn and Trishie said 👍

Your real problem is trying to understand the Mystery of the Trinity - through our imperfect human terms … ie Father, Son and Holy Spirit - they are colectivly One God …

Three Persons [though not as we might understand ‘person’ as in unigue individuals … but in the Greek sense of persona … how we relate to the One God and the One God relates to us …] coupled with God entering into time in the Person of Jesus …

No human can understand the the Mystery in any fullness …

I think that because God entered into time in a unique way our minds tend to want to seperate God the Father and God the Son … though we speak of One God -we relate to them seperately - not as a whole …

When we [God willing] enter into Heaven - we shall probably understand the Trinity more fully [at least I pray it is so] …

Every Priest [includin one Bishop] I have ever met and known well has said that no one can fully inderstand the profoound Mysteries of the Faith … we just approach them wher we are in our journey of faith … and do the best we can 👍
 
Trishie said:
Truly God and truly man, Jesus was making a point as a man amongst others. Only God knows the time and we don’t need to be concerned about it. Jesus made plain that our focus as human beings is not the future, but living day to day in charity…in love of God and love of others.

God bless,
Trishie
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I agree with this. What do you think of Jesus chasing the money changers from the temple though? Would you describe His action as Jesus chasing the money changers as man, as God or both? In what capacity was Jesus acting in this case? I ask because the question came up in a discussion on Force vs Pacifism on another thread and I would like some light shed on this.
 
We can speak of a ‘blind corner’ even though the corner itself is not blind. We are. Christ was said not to know, as He did not wish to communicate the day to us. This is how St. Augustine explains it. Also, even though He is true God and true man, in one Person, one existing subject, at times He can speak as God, at others, as man.
 
The meaning of this verse is that the human intellect of Christ does not know this. Because the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity is true God and true man, he has all the things that necessarily make up a man, i.e., intellect and will, which are perfectly united to his divine intellect and will in the Hypostatic Union.
 
“However, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows.”

This verse is making known to us that ONLY the Father knows - not the angels and not the Father’s Son (in whatever capacity).

What the mechanics of this is, as discussed above, we are not able to know.

I always took this verse to indicate that ‘the day and hour’ would be determined by God the Father.
 
coolcatholicguy said:
Matthew 24:36

"However, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows.

Jesus Christ is equal to God right. Shouldn’t He know the date of Judgment Day?
Click to expand...
Of course. But the authors of the Gospel didn’t necessarily know everything about Jesus Christ, i.e. that he was fully human and fully divine, as the Church later explicitly defined in the 4th century.
 
diggerdomer said:
Of course. But the authors of the Gospel didn’t necessarily know everything about Jesus Christ, i.e. that he was fully human and fully divine, as the Church later explicitly defined in the 4th century.
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The Gospel is inspired by the Holy Ghost; ergo, it can’t teach error.
roveau said:
I always took this verse to indicate that ‘the day and hour’ would be determined by God the Father.
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All the actions of the Blessed Trinity outside of Himself (i.e., everything other than the relations between the Persons) is done by God as a Trinity (e.g., the Creation, the Incarnation, even though we speak of this ‘by the Holy Ghost,’ it is an act of all three Persons, and the end of time).
 
IntegraCatholic said:
The Gospel is inspired by the Holy Ghost; ergo, it can’t teach error.

All the actions of the Blessed Trinity outside of Himself (i.e., everything other than the relations between the Persons) is done by God as a Trinity (e.g., the Creation, the Incarnation, even though we speak of this ‘by the Holy Ghost,’ it is an act of all three Persons, and the end of time).
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Not teaching error is different from teaching everything that is true.
 
Jesus is saying that it is by The Father’s Will that these things will happen. its not His will. that is why only The Father knows the day or time, because it is by His Will, not The Son’s
 
Jesus Christ, as a human being on earth, was not omniscient. He needed to receive revelations from the Father; He still needed to read books and listen to people speaking to him.
 
EphelDuath said:
Jesus Christ, as a human being on earth, was not omniscient. He needed to receive revelations from the Father; He still needed to read books and listen to people speaking to him.
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Jesus Christ, as the second person of the Trinity incarnate on earth, was omniscient.
 
diggerdomer said:
Jesus Christ, as the second person of the Trinity incarnate on earth, was omniscient.
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No, He was not. Else He was not a human being. Luke 2:52: “And Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and grace with God and men.” How can Jesus ‘advance in wisdom’ if He is already omniscient? Clearly this cannot be in an ethical sense, since He is and always was perfect.

Cf. Summa III, Q. 9, article 4. St. Thomas Aquinas says, “Therefore there was in the soul of Christ an empiric knowledge, which is acquired knowledge.”
 
EphelDuath said:
No, He was not. Else He was not a human being. Luke 2:52: “And Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and grace with God and men.” How can Jesus ‘advance in wisdom’ if He is already omniscient? Clearly this cannot be in an ethical sense, since He is and always was perfect.

Cf. Summa III, Q. 9, article 4. St. Thomas Aquinas says, “Therefore there was in the soul of Christ an empiric knowledge, which is acquired knowledge.”
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Well, if he wasn’t omniscient, then he wasn’t God.

Which is it? Human or God? (hint: look at the Creed Catholics pray at Mass)
 
Diggerdomer, isn’t that the point of the mystery of the Incarnation? Welcome to the wonderful world of paradox. Sometimes - to our finite intellects - it seems startlingly close to contradiction.

(Please note: I don’t disagree with you. But I also find the post you were citing irresistibly compelling.)
 
diggerdomer said:
Well, if he wasn’t omniscient, then he wasn’t God.
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Please cite Church documents and/or a compelling metaphysical argument as to why this is the case.
diggerdomer said:
Which is it? Human or God?
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Both: fully God and fully man. Christ as the Son chose to humble himself to be a human being, and while on earth, gave up His omnipotence and omniscience. Hence why it is said that Christ “learned” on earth (how can you learn if you already know everything?), and that is why Christ prayed to the Father for miracles as opposed to summoning them in His own right.
diggerdomer said:
(hint: look at the Creed Catholics pray at Mass)
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“By the power of the Holy Spirit, He was born of the Virgin Mary, and became man.”
 
EphelDuath said:
Please cite Church documents and/or a compelling metaphysical argument as to why this is the case.
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No…you, please, cite where Christians believe God is not omniscient. That’s a classic understanding of God from both Jewish and Christian traditions. If you think God is NOT omniscient, in a Catholic forum, the burden of proof is on you to show where the Church teaches such.
EphelDuath said:
“By the power of the Holy Spirit, He was born of the Virgin Mary, and became man.”
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Exactly. He became human…prior the the Incarnation he was only divine. Or are you suggesting that Jesus was created ex nihilo at the Incarnation?
 
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