Pro-social friendship: An aspect of child surrender

Many parents say "I am your parent and not your friend". In the United States, many parents don't want to be friends with their child. However, children need a good, adult friend, and it should be their parents, not some guy on the street. I myself have no qualm with pedophiles being friends with children as long as they are respectful to the child, but parents should be their child's first friends.

The doctrine of mutual surrender is in Colossians 3:20-21 KJV:

Children, obey your parents in all things: as is well pleasing unto the Lord. Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.

The Greek root word translated "obey" is υπακουο (Latin: hupakouo) and refers to listening to parents, but in a specific way rooted in trust. Replace "obey" with "trust" and you come to a roughly better translation. But, we are talking about a specific type of trust, meaning that which is borne out of maternal warmth and sustenance. Hebrew mothers especially were best friends with their children, in the form of a secure parent-child bond. Children were breastfed everywhere in ancient Israel and adjoining churches until age 3. Children co-slept with their mothers especially until adulthood, and even into adulthood in the case of a dependent adult, or an adult with a developmental disability that may be illiterate as to the Law due to their disability. Children surrender to parents by running to their loving arms, with parents being their best friends. This means children should be able to tell parents whatever is on their mind, and expect absolutely no punishment or retribution in return, meaning open and honest communication between parent and child.

The Greek root word translated "provoke...to anger" is ερεθιζο (Latin: erethizo) and refers to a provocation to anger imposed upon a child, meaning offenses against children, as defined as the slightest of personal offenses perceived by a child. This was intended by the Apostle Paul to include a prohibition of any punishment or control of children, including the corporal punishment of children. Paul here was rebuking Greek Christians for their idolatrous and pagan customs of spanking children, which were excused under Roman law but not Jewish law. Corporal punishment only existed in the Old Testament, and only as a sentence for crime for all ages of ADULT offender, including elder abusers when caught under the Law. Corporal punishment was closely associated with the death penalty under Jewish law, meaning was a last resort for court-appointed parents or elders before putting an offender to death. Christ abolished the death penalty and all corporal punishment linked to capital punishment by experiencing both as a Sacrifice for His children, the elect. Spanking does not come from Proverbs, but is an idolatrous Greco-Roman tradition that was absorbed into the Roman Catholic Church, meaning it is a made-up teaching that started with Catholicism and spread throughout Europe as an anti-Christian myth associated with Christianity. Stopping the European pagans from beating their children was a hard sell, so the church simply hid the anti-spanking context and absorbed the spanking tradition into the church doctrine as a teaching, and it snowballed from there.

Ancient Hebrew culture supported strongly the tradition of befriending children. Children were seen as extensions of God, meaning they were revered as signs of God, with their vulnerability being feared and revered as the "least of these" (think an old lady in a wheelchair - that kind of respect). Children were best friends with their parents in the sense that they demanded needs and wants from their parents, and got most of what they wanted from parents, with unattainable wants being interpreted as needs of some sort, such as special time together. Cries were met with reverence, as the child was so small that no adult wanted to be seen as wanting to "quash" a child's upset, thus provoke them to anger. Children naturally rebelled, and parents were expected to keep children happy and content, with this meaning filling their time with their child's time, especially with mothers. Mothers usually stayed home. The could hold jobs in the Early Church, usually posts as deacons, but most women chose their children over work, feeling that being a mother was a woman's highest calling. Being a father was a man's highest calling in a different way - they motivated his work ethic, alongside his wife.

The depraved and entitled parents who provoke children to anger will not inherit the Kingdom of God! Let them burn in the lake of fire and burning sulfur, which is the second death, which is Satan's final resting place! Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!