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Family Estrangement Versus Honoring Father and Mother

Family Estrangement Versus Honoring Father and Mother

Last updated on: October 13, 2026 at 11:18 am by Kermit Zarley

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Family Estrangement Versus Honoring Father and Mother 2026-10-13T11:18:43-07:00 Kermit Zarley

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Ten Commandments from the King James Version of the Bible.

Socialists claim the U.S. is experiencing a tipping point in family estrangement that began to accelerate during the pandemic, in about 2021, and is now going full blast. It is being generated mostly by children accusing their parents of abuse, resulting in distancing themselves from their parents, perhaps even to the point of disowning them. For, the definition of “estrangement” is to treat a person as “a stranger.” It usually involves a reduction of family relationships, with little or no communication over extended periods of time.

Family Estrangement

This movement reportedly is being energized by various sources, including social media such as Tik Tok and some psychology therapists. A typical complaint is that especially adult children in their twenties or thirties claim their parents don’t accept their identities, which the children regard as abuse worthy of separation. Sociologists say such grievances often lead to a rejection of compulsory kinship, thus families breaking apart.

Perhaps the epitome of this family estrangement is children rejecting their parents by officially abandoning their surname (last name). Often in the news is the teenage children of now divorced parents Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, two of Hollywood’s most famous actors. Some of their six children, all of whom reside with Angelina Jolie, have officially abandoned their surname Pitt.

The Commandment to Honor Father and Mother

The Bible has much to say about this, and some of it includes prophetic pronouncements. It starts with the Ten Commandments. One of them says, “Honor your father and your mother” (Exodus 20.12 NRSV). But this commandment has an attachment, a promise, that reads, “so that your days may be long.” Now, these Ten Commandments were given to the nation of Israel by God through Moses on Mount Sinai. Therefore, the rest of this commandment reads that “your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.” This is a promise about living a long life.

Gentile Christians accept the Jewish Bible, the Old Testament, as part of their Bible. Thus, Christians have always accepted the Ten Commandments as applicable to their lives, perhaps with the exception of one of them, “Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy” (v. 8). Christians often have said Sunday is the sabbath day, and they keep it holy by attending church services. But that isn’t quite right. The sabbath was Friday sundown to Saturday sundown, and this commandment says it is kept holy by not doing any work.

Jesus Predicted the Latter-Day Apostasy Among Families

During Passion Week, Jesus prophesied to his apostles about what it will be like during the latter days before the so-called “end of the world” and the simultaneous return of Jesus with the glorious kingdom of God. He said “many will fall away” from that which is good and righteous (Matthew 24.10). The apostle Paul later referred to this as “the rebellion” (2 Thessalonians 2.3). This word in the Greek text is apostasia, from which we derive our English word “apostasy,” meaning “falling away.” Jesus explained in that sermon that this falling away would be characterized by a severe estrangement in familial relations. He said, “Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death” (Mark 13.12).

John the Baptist Came to Restore Families

But God sent John the Baptist to change this. Before he was born, his father Zechariah was ministering his duties in the temple at Jerusalem as a priest when “there appeared to him an angel of the Lord, standing at the right side of the altar of incense” (Luke 1.11). The angel announced to Zechariah,”Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will name him John. … He will turn many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. With the spirit and power of Elijah he will go before him, to turn the hearts of parents to their children, … to make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (1.14, 16).

This actually is a promise that appears at the very end of the Old Testament in the Christian Bible. God says to the nation of Israel through the prophet Malachi, “Lo, I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the LORD comes. He will turn the hearts of parents to their children and the hearts of children to their parents, so that I will not come and strike the land with a curse” (Malachi 4.5-6).

Thus, the Bible predicts that familial relations will become severely strained in the latter days and that, at least in Israel, a prophet in the tradition of the powerful Elijah will appear in the very last days to turn around this tragedy among families as a preparation for the coming of God through the person of his Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth. For, when John the Baptist was born, “On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him Zechariah after his father. But his mother said, ‘No; he is to be called John'” (Luke 1.59).

Preparing the Way for Jesus to Return in Glory

Then we read, “Then his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke his prophecy: ‘Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has looked favorably on his people and redeemed them. … And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the forgiveness of their sins'” (Luke 1.67, 76). How was this child, who would become John the Baptist, to prepare them? One way was to “turn the hearts of parents to their children and the hearts of children to their parents.”

Orthodox Jews believe that because of Malachi 4.5-6, Elijah will come to restore families right before the appearing of the promised Messiah in glory. Interestingly, Jesus once took his three closest apostles, “Peter and James and his brother John up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. … As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, ‘Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.’ And the disciples asked him, ‘Why, then, do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?’ He replied, ‘Elijah is indeed coming and will restore all things; but I tell you that Elijah has already, and they did not recognize him, but they did to him whatever they pleased. So also the Son of Man is about to suffer at their hands.’ Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them about John the Baptist” (Matthew 17.1-3, 9-13).

Apparently, a prophet will appear in Israel in the last days in spirit and power of Elijah and John the Baptist to restore families as preparation for the coming of the promised Messiah of Israel in glory. I believe he will be Jesus of Nazareth at his so-called “second coming.”

General Christian

About Kermit Zarley

Born & reared in Seattle, WA., Kermit lived 38 years in metro Houston, now in Scottsdale, AZ. He graduated from University of Houston w/ BBA in 1963 and played on the PGA Tour full time from 1964-1982 and Senior/Champions Tour in 1991-2001. Kermit co-founded the PGA Tour Bible Study in 1965 and was senior leader most of next 17 years. Kermit has three adult children and six grandchildren. You can read more about the author here.

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