At times, parents have become so appalled over the actions of a child, especially when that child goes completely against everything the parent stands for and has taught the child, that the parent rejects the child, in effect saying, “You are no longer my child. You are dead to me.” The chasm can be so great that the parent refuses to speak to the child at all or even acknowledge the child’s existence.
Before his disobedience, Adam was told that the day he ate of the fruit, he would die. Yet, according to Bible history, Adam lived on 930 years. Some have pointed to a possible solution for this seeming discrepancy. As personal reflection, it dawned on me that Jehovah is never again recorded as speaking to Adam. So just as the parent in the above illustration treated his child as dead, perhaps in a similar vein Jehovah treated Adam as dead. (His allowance of Adam and Eve’s life and reproduction, ensured God could carry out the prophecy of Genesis 3:15 as well as settle the issues that Satan raised.)
Thankfully, as deeply as Jehovah was hurt by the rebellion in Eden and even though he never spoke to Adam again, he (Jehovah) was still open to working a solution that Adam’s descendents could come back to his family. In fact, Paul spoke of the solution as working out (on an individual basis) being “adopted” as sons.
Indeed, Paul went on to speak about a time at the end of the millennial reign when Jesus hands over the kingdom to his Father after both having eliminated all opposers and hindrances and unifying all intelligent creation. At that point, those loyal ones on earth will join in adoption as sons just as those who were taken to heaven had earlier been adopted.
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