Child punishment: Why punishing or reprimanding children is sin

Many parents support the punishment of children. Most parents in America support child punishment, to some degree. This is a commonly held opinion amongst American parents. However, the fact of the matter is that the Bible prohibits all forms of punitive parenting. 

The Greek root word denoting parental entitlement, and cross-referencing the Tenth Commandment, is πλεονέκτης (Latin: pleonektés) and is defined as, officially speaking, wanting things from children, to the point of imposition. Once the child perceives such imposition of want, it becomes child abuse. 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 forms of 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 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 Christian parents who brought their pagan custom of spanking and 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 in the church, but he sure loved children, and even took in a few orphaned children during his time as a deacon. Indeed, Greco-Roman fathers got out the scourge of cords in order to punish their children, but NOT the Christians among them - the Early Christians were largely persecuted for being "too soft" on their children.

Christian parents in biblical times never got angry with their children. Anger towards a child was seen as something akin to a viper or a monster. Parenting in biblical times was not motivated by anger, but rather by worry or concern. Any anger alone towards a child was a moral crime. Punishing a child was out of the question immoral. When anger towards a child was discovered, it was a huge moral outrage. In the Early Church, even getting angry with your child was grounds for excommunication.. 

The rat race among Christian parents in the Early Church did not involve parents wanting to be seen as mean. Instead, parents wanted to be seen as babying or coddling their children. Children were regarded as extensions of God, meaning God extended children to their parents at their doorstep, with children being the "least of these" deserving of God's love and charity.

Punishing children with sexual correction was not a practice in the Early Church, or among their Jewish predecessors. Instead, fathers dealt with their sexual attachment to their children by way of righteous masturbation, meaning masturbation in order to stay out of trouble. In other ancient cultures, fathers used their sexual attachment to their children as a form of behavioral modification. But, in Ancient Israel and the Early Church, that form of child rape was seen as fornication by way of rape/sexual assault.

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!