I
imroc
Guest
Hi everybody! Long time no chat for me here.
I was skimming through some internet information pages and decided to stop by “catholic answers” last night. as usual, my skimming got deeper than expected. I was reminded of an incident that happened a couple years ago and wanted to share it with you and see if anybody else has had a similar situation.
As a background, I was raised as a protestant, lived as a pagan in youth even though I attended sunday services at baptist (sbc) church and youth functions on wed and fri at the assembly of God. Catholic church attendance by me was for special occasions on my dad’s side of the family. I ended up only going to catholic church as an adult with girlfriend and eventually my wife and converted a few years ago after 10 years of marriage. simple enuff?!
Well, after reflection of my live I never really knew anything about the Trinity. I would go further in stating that the Trinity was a term thrown around in my life, never explained nor understood but oddly enough I knew the Trinity contained the Father, the Son and the holy Spirit (or Ghost in my calvanist youth terminology). I still find myself in awe by listening or reading more explanations, but pretty much all that I do understand of the Holy Trinity is because of catholic teaching.
Well, here we go: I was visited by some Jehovah’s Witnesses one day and became the one doing the questioning as usual. Well, needless to say, the lady and her fellow quiet partner didn’t really have time to answer my questions and took off rather rapidly and I was quite disappointed because I didn’t know much about what they as individuals personally believed and wanted to know them more personally. Anyway, I was talking to my mom on the phone soon after and kinda passingly brought up the visit I recieved. I quoted the lady to my mom and it went something like, “…and she said, ‘Do you believe that Jesus is God?’”
Oddly, my mom interjected and said,'No…" I stopped and asked her what she just said. She said “No” I was kinda dumbfounded and asked her why she would say that. My mom was raised in the same baptist church that I was. She never really went back since she was a teen, but always managed to send me on that bus every sunday morning. I figured she would know a bit more than I did about the Trinity. Well, needless to say she began to chastise me on the phone for stating that Christ is God and I could tell she was blaming my seemingly blasphemous claim on my recent conversion to catholicism. I didn’t argue the point at all and she called my grandma and told/asked her. Now, I must add that my Grandma the very FIRST member of this baptist church and has been taught Baptist “doctrine” since her youth. So, we’re talking 80+ years of devout Christian life when we speak of my grandma. After my mom contacted my grandma, I found out, much to my surprise, gradma had no idea that Christ is God either!!! I figured my lack of attention span and possibly my mom’s contributed to our lack of Trinitarian understanding, but Grandma? Come on now! She attends Sunday morning AND evening service as well as Monday night bible study!
Well, my grandma, in turn called my pentecostal Aunt and approached her about “Johnny’s claim” of Christ being God. Thankfully, my aunt confirmed this belief and it ran back through my grandma and mother to me. They were surprised. I talked to my mom a little about it, but as always, I didn’t beat it in to her.
I see my grandma as a devout Christian women and have no doubt that her path will lead straight to heaven. But! for some reason, I have this uneasy feeling about the whole issue that 3 generations have passed through this baptist church of devout Christians, but none of us knew much about the Trinity, I highly doubt our Father will drill my grandma and state that she never really knew him because she didn’t know Trinitarian doctrine. After all, she knows Christ deeply in a personal relationship and knows the Father through him, right! No, this is not my concern at all. Rather, my concern is the logical conclusion due to the lack of teaching and understanding from this Church and the impact of it’s congregation!
I really have to say that a combination of a lack of motherly example in church attendance and somewhat superficial youth bible classes of coloring pictures depicting key “memory verses” was enough to remind me throughout my pagan years that there is a God. However, even after a few alter calls and the holy Spirits deep convictions in my heart, I really didn’t know Him. If this has occured in just a couple generations, what will the status of those people be in a few more?
I was skimming through some internet information pages and decided to stop by “catholic answers” last night. as usual, my skimming got deeper than expected. I was reminded of an incident that happened a couple years ago and wanted to share it with you and see if anybody else has had a similar situation.
As a background, I was raised as a protestant, lived as a pagan in youth even though I attended sunday services at baptist (sbc) church and youth functions on wed and fri at the assembly of God. Catholic church attendance by me was for special occasions on my dad’s side of the family. I ended up only going to catholic church as an adult with girlfriend and eventually my wife and converted a few years ago after 10 years of marriage. simple enuff?!
Well, after reflection of my live I never really knew anything about the Trinity. I would go further in stating that the Trinity was a term thrown around in my life, never explained nor understood but oddly enough I knew the Trinity contained the Father, the Son and the holy Spirit (or Ghost in my calvanist youth terminology). I still find myself in awe by listening or reading more explanations, but pretty much all that I do understand of the Holy Trinity is because of catholic teaching.
Well, here we go: I was visited by some Jehovah’s Witnesses one day and became the one doing the questioning as usual. Well, needless to say, the lady and her fellow quiet partner didn’t really have time to answer my questions and took off rather rapidly and I was quite disappointed because I didn’t know much about what they as individuals personally believed and wanted to know them more personally. Anyway, I was talking to my mom on the phone soon after and kinda passingly brought up the visit I recieved. I quoted the lady to my mom and it went something like, “…and she said, ‘Do you believe that Jesus is God?’”
Oddly, my mom interjected and said,'No…" I stopped and asked her what she just said. She said “No” I was kinda dumbfounded and asked her why she would say that. My mom was raised in the same baptist church that I was. She never really went back since she was a teen, but always managed to send me on that bus every sunday morning. I figured she would know a bit more than I did about the Trinity. Well, needless to say she began to chastise me on the phone for stating that Christ is God and I could tell she was blaming my seemingly blasphemous claim on my recent conversion to catholicism. I didn’t argue the point at all and she called my grandma and told/asked her. Now, I must add that my Grandma the very FIRST member of this baptist church and has been taught Baptist “doctrine” since her youth. So, we’re talking 80+ years of devout Christian life when we speak of my grandma. After my mom contacted my grandma, I found out, much to my surprise, gradma had no idea that Christ is God either!!! I figured my lack of attention span and possibly my mom’s contributed to our lack of Trinitarian understanding, but Grandma? Come on now! She attends Sunday morning AND evening service as well as Monday night bible study!
Well, my grandma, in turn called my pentecostal Aunt and approached her about “Johnny’s claim” of Christ being God. Thankfully, my aunt confirmed this belief and it ran back through my grandma and mother to me. They were surprised. I talked to my mom a little about it, but as always, I didn’t beat it in to her.
I see my grandma as a devout Christian women and have no doubt that her path will lead straight to heaven. But! for some reason, I have this uneasy feeling about the whole issue that 3 generations have passed through this baptist church of devout Christians, but none of us knew much about the Trinity, I highly doubt our Father will drill my grandma and state that she never really knew him because she didn’t know Trinitarian doctrine. After all, she knows Christ deeply in a personal relationship and knows the Father through him, right! No, this is not my concern at all. Rather, my concern is the logical conclusion due to the lack of teaching and understanding from this Church and the impact of it’s congregation!
I really have to say that a combination of a lack of motherly example in church attendance and somewhat superficial youth bible classes of coloring pictures depicting key “memory verses” was enough to remind me throughout my pagan years that there is a God. However, even after a few alter calls and the holy Spirits deep convictions in my heart, I really didn’t know Him. If this has occured in just a couple generations, what will the status of those people be in a few more?
