{"id":3280,"date":"2024-05-20T03:25:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-20T03:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=3280"},"modified":"2026-10-02T01:32:24","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T01:32:24","slug":"punishment-or-consequence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=3280","title":{"rendered":"PUNISHMENT OR CONSEQUENCE?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I think it makes a big difference to our theology as to whether we think of death and separation from God as Adam and Eve&#8217;s punishment or as a natural consequence of their actions.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A punishment is like a parent saying, &#8220;If you touch that TV again, I&#8217;m going to spank you!&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A consequence is a parent saying, &#8220;If you touch that stove top, you&#8217;re going to get burned!&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I see the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden as a consequence more than a punishment.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If your child touches the TV again after you&#8217;ve told her not to, you get angry.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If your child touches the stove top and burns himself, you&#8217;re not angry &#8211; you feel pity.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Which one is more in line with God&#8217;s response in the aftermath of Adam and Eve&#8217;s terrible decision that fateful day?<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">How you answer makes a world of difference in how you view the relationship between God and fallen humanity.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I think it makes a big difference to our theology as to whether we think of death and separation from God as Adam and Eve&#8217;s punishment or as a natural consequence of their actions. A punishment is like a parent saying, &#8220;If you touch that TV again, I&#8217;m going to spank you!&#8221; A consequence is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3280"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3281,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3280\/revisions\/3281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}