Elopement: What a parent can do about elopement

Many parents have had to deal with this. A young child running off, perhaps in a store or beside a busy street. Most parents are at a loss as to what to do when a child runs into a busy street. Many American parents punish their children in some way for running into a busy street or eloping in a store. The fact of the matter is that children in biblical times were swaddled next to the bosom of their mothers in swaddling blankets.

Swaddling blankets are part of the Christian doctrine of mutual submission. See Colossians 3:20-21 KJV:

Children, obey your parents in all things: for this 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 secure, vulnerable rest in the love and submission of parents. Children are to rest securely in the sacrifice of parents, just as parent believers rest securely in the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ. This commandment lifts up the customary law in biblical times that commands a secure attachment in the family home between parent and child.

The Greek root word translated "provoke...to anger" is ερεθιζο (Latin: erethizo) and refers to damages or offenses, namely the slightest of personal offense perceived by a child, including, but not limited to, the slightest of offensive touch or speech perceived by a child, stemming from entitlement. This commandment was intended by the Apostle Paul, and understood in its original context, as a moral statute prohibiting all forms of punitive parenting, including any punishments or controlling demeanor towards children. In the Old Testament, punitive parents were put to death by way of bloodletting, after punishing their children one last time. Parents who punished their children were charged with kidnapping, with "kidnapping" being defined under the Law as the slightest of damages or offenses stemming from hostage-taking - child punishment was seen in biblical times as holding your child hostage merely for things that they did wrong, thereby treating your child as a quartered slave. Paul here was lifting up the Law in order to convict a group of Greek Christian parents who brought their pagan custom of spanking and punishing children into the church. Paul, contrary to popular legend, was anti-spanking, and opposed any and all punishment of a child in his writings. 

Elopement of young children is a modern problem. The ancients in biblical times protected their children from running off and perhaps hurting themselves, and they did so by way of the art of swaddling. This was imperative then, because children could be bit by a venomous snake or a scorpion when out and about with their mother.

Young children in biblical times, meaning children up until age 6, were swaddled next to the bosom of mothers in swaddling blankets, with children being tucked underneath the thin, revealing dress of mothers. Milk-dependent children were breastfed in public. Swaddling blankets were worn on the mother's body, meaning tied to the left breast of the mother, and then across the dot to the right leg of the mother, or vice versa, or both in the case of twins. The swaddling blankets were made of velvet, which was grown by Christian farmers. That way, the child could not possibly elope, because they were being held constantly by mothers.   

Elopement did not happen much in biblical times. Some children squirmed out of the swaddling blankets, in which case the rule was that the child stay beside the mother. These stand-beside-me children would today be diagnosed as having autism, bipolar disorder, and/or ADHD. Elopement otherwise was a non-existent issue, because mothers protected their children by swaddling them up next to their bosom. That way, the child could not run anywhere, and had to stay with the mother. 

The depraved and entitled parents who provoke their children to anger through punitive parenting will not inherit the Kingdom of God! Lett them forever be cast into the lake of fire and burning sulfur, which is the second death prepared for Satan and his accomplices! Let them descend into the abyss which is the ever-burning Hell of fire and torment, suffering God's Wrath forever and ever! Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!