Redefining child abuse: Why the Bible calls for expanding child abuse definitions

Many parents want the child abuse definitions under the secular law to stay the same. Most American parents believe that the Bible has no answers concerning child abuse. However, the fact of the matter is that the Bible has its own concept of child abuse, meaning whatever the child victim perceives as abuse.

The Greek root word denoting parental entitlement is πλεονέκτης (Latin: pleonektés) and is defined as, officially speaking, wanting things from children, to the point of imposition. Unofficially speaking, parental entitlement consists of parents who are sorely disappointed when they don't get what they feel that they deserve from children. Parents are deserving of absolutely nothing from children just for existing. Any anger at a child was deemed parental entitlement in biblical times. When this sense of entitlement in parents was perceived by a child as offensive or damaging, it was deemed child abuse. See also 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 here 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 was 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 child. In the Old Testament, punitive parents were put to death by way of bloodletting, after punishing their children one last time. The parents who punished their children were initially charged with kidnapping, with "kidnapping" being defined 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 Christians 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 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 during his time as deacon. 

The Greek root word translated "they be discouraged" is αθυμέω (Latin: athumeo) and refers here to long-term damages, namely trauma. The ancients had an understanding of trauma. When a child grew up to be atheist, it was seen as coming from childhood trauma, meaning not just a person being a "lost soul". 

Prosecution of child abuse in the Early Church usually started with a child confiding into a church official that they were being abused. The parent was then called in to testify before the council, in their own defense. The council consisted of a panel of 3 elders who heard the fate of entitled parents. If the parent was at all defensive, the council handed down a guilty verdict, and excommunicated the entitled parents. 

The Bible is an anti-spanking document. All 88 books of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, were written by Jews, and no Jew worth mentioning ever endorsed punitive parenting of any kind. Even King Solomon recommended attachment parenting for the little ones, with the rod of correction in Proverbs referring to the 40 minus 1 lashes, meaning a sentence for a crime. The reason for the rod verses was that otherwise, fathers would refuse to whip their sons. The harsh punishments in the Old Testament were abolished by Christ doing His Work on the cross.

The Bible is a founding document of this country, even above the Constitution itself. America is a Christian nation, founded on Judeo-Christian family values. We as a society glean from the Bible and its context as to how to live as a society. It just so happens that the Bible was written with an anti-spanking bias. 

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!