Child punishment: Why punishing or reprimanding your child is sin

Many parents believe that child punishment is biblical. Most American parents cite the Bible in punishing their children. However, not only does the Bible prohibit the punishment of children, but instead, the idea is to never get angry at your child, at all.

The Greek root word translated "covetous" is πλεονέκτης (Latin: pleonektés) and cross-references the Tenth Commandment. In this context, the word refers to parental entitlement, which is defined as, officially speaking, wanting things from children, to the point of imposition. When children perceived this entitlement imposed on a them, it became child abuse under the Law. See Colossians 3:21 KJV:

Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.

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, but not limited to, any punishments, reprimands, or other controlling demeanor towards a child. 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 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 Christians who brought their pagan custom of spanking or punishing their children into the church. Paul, contrary to popular legend, was anti-spanking, and opposed any and all punishment of a child in his secular writings. Paul may not have gotten along with the women of the church, but he sure loved children, and even took in a few orphaned children in his time. Indeed, Greco-Roman fathers got out the scourge of cords to punish their children, but NOT the Christians among them - the Early Christians were persecuted largely for being "too soft" on their children.

The way the abovementioned verse is to be interpreted as, ideally, not getting angry at children. The Early Christians did not get angry with their children, with that feeling being absent in the emotional complexes of parents. Anger at a child, in biblical times, was seen as becoming of a viper or a monster. 

Many parents who switch to gentle parenting report their anger going away. It first starts with parents showing their canines to their children, in traumatic format. If you find yourself showing your canines to your child, as opposed to yelling at them, you are actually a step in the right direction.

Controlling anger and controlling entitlement go hand in hand. The idea behind controlling your anger is to deprive yourself of all deservances. Entitled anger comes from feeling deserving of things in life. When you feel that you are deserving of something in life, and you don't get it, that leads to a temper tantrum, and that temper tantrum is the moral crime of entitlement. When you feel that you are deserving of respect from your child, and your child doesn't give you what you want in that regard, what are you going to do? If you throw an adult temper tantrum for not getting the respect that you feel that you deserve, that alone is entitlement. 

Most entitlement towards children come in the form of entitled demands. Usually, the parent imposes a deservance onto the child. Then, when the child doesn't give parents the deservances that they feel deserving of, the parent throws a temper tantrum, usually in the form of entitled demands. Child abuse is when the child, at minimum, takes personal offense when entitlement is imposed on them. 

The depraved and entitled parents who provoke their children to anger through punitive parenting will not inherit the Kingdom of God! Let them be cast forever 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 day and night forever and ever! Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!