[stfassisi]

Sorry but the Church has not always understood adoption to be united with the love of Christ.

Wrong! Nothing you posted proves this wrong

Also,Nothing you posted in the writings of a few Church fathers denied adoption is united with the love of God like I said , nor did they say anything about possibly falling from that love.

Sorry, dear brother , but you're grasping at straws.

[HarleyD]

Sorry, dear brother , but you're grasping at straws.

Not at all. Even the word "adopt" is inconsistent with your explanation that adoption is "united with the love of Christ". It is more than that. Adoption is a legal term of ownership:

a·dopt [uh-dopt] Show IPA verb (used with object)

1. to choose or take as one's own; make one's own by selection or assent: to adopt a nickname.

2. to take and rear (the child of other parents) as one's own child, specifically by a formal legal act.

3. to take or receive into any kind of new relationship: to adopt a person as a protégé.

Dictionary.com-Adopt

I would point to several verses in scripture pertaining to adoption:

Gal 4:5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

Heb 12:5 And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? "My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. Heb 12:6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives."

It is not only apparent that God adopts us as children, but He is more than willing to discipline us as His children. I thought it would be interesting to check the Greek on the precise meaning of adoption:

G5206 υἱοθεσία

uihothesia hwee-oth-es-ee'-ah

the placing as a son, that is, adoption (figuratively Christian sonship in respect to God): - adoption (of children, of sons).

And just to not be mistaken in my viewpoint, I refer you to the Council of Trent:

CHAPTER IV.

A description is introduced of the Justification of the impious, and of the Manner thereof under the law of grace. By which words, a description of the Justification of the impious is indicated,-as being a translation, from that state wherein man is born a child of the first Adam, to the state of grace, and of the adoption of the sons of God, through the second Adam, Jesus Christ, our Saviour. And this translation, since the promulgation of the Gospel, cannot be effected, without the laver of regeneration, or the desire thereof, as it is written; unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.

Clearly they used the term adoption as part of the regeneration process. Something far more happens than a simple union. 1) According to the dictionary we legally belong to God. 2) God disciplines those who He legally owns. 3) And according to the Council of Trent, this legal adoption takes place the moment we're regenerated.

Has the Church lost it's understanding of what "adopt" means?