Expanding child abuse definitions: Why the Bible calls for more laws on the books protecting children

Many parents think that the Bible has no concept of childhood, let alone child abuse. This is a common belief amongst American parents. Most American parents support the current definitions of child abuse, and cite the Bible as an excuse for abusing children. However, the Bible does have a concept of child abuse - whatever the child victim perceives as abuse. Anything perceived as abuse by a child objectively is such. 

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 a parent who is 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 parent anger directed towards a child in biblical times was deemed entitlement. 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 offenses or damages, 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. It is not enough to avoid spanking or punishing children - you need to avoid the slightest of offense perceived by a child. The only way to fully avoid guilt under this commandment is to be willing to give a meaningful apology to a child whenever you offend them. Whenever a child is upset by how you deal with them, including in the case of set limits, you have offended your child, and thus you need to apologize. Refusal to apologize to a child for hurt feelings alone comes from entitlement. As long as you are willing to apologize to a child when they perceive offense, you are free from guilt under this commandment, as the offense being discussed here in Col. 3:21 being the type coming from a certain sense of entitlement in parents. Any defensiveness surrounding offending your child alone comes from entitlement. This commandment cross-references the Eighth and the Tenth Commandments, with the Apostle Paul here convicting a group of Greek Christian parents who brought into the church their pagan custom of patrias potestas, which is a Latin phrase roughly translating to "power to the parent", including the power of parents to spank and punish children. Paul, contrary to popular legend, was anti-spanking, and opposed any and all punishment of a child in his secular writings. Attachment parenting was banned under Roman law, but the Early Christians did it anyway, in civil disobedience to Rome. 

The Greek root word translated "they be discouraged" is αθυμέω (Latin: athumeo) and refers here to long-term damages, namely trauma. The ancients in the Bible did have a concept of childhood trauma. Whenever a child grew up to be atheist, it was seen as a sign of childhood abuse, as opposed to someone simply being a "lost soul". 

Child sexual abuse is defined under God's Law by the Greek root word denoting fornication, which is πορνεία (Latin: porneia), and refers here to the slightest of sexual advances perceived by a child, even if the child liked it. The word ερεθιζο here refers to anything offensive to God being perceived by a child, as fornication is a blasphemy offense. The age of marriage then was where it always should be - at the age of majority. God draws an even better line to understand - if she isn't my wife, she isn't for me. 

Child abuse was prosecuted in the Early Church starting with the council. Whenever a child was being spanked by their parents, they usually confided into a church elder or deacon. From there, the parents were summoned before the council, and if the parents defended their "rights" as opposed to answering to the court with a plea of "yea" or "nay", they were excommunicated from the Early Christian Churches of God. When parents were excommunicated, children were given a choice - go with parents or go with pedophiles. Usually, children went with the pedophile, but in the case of the pedophile being rejected by the child, the pedophile fell under suspicion of child sexual abuse - child sexual abuse was banned even in the case of pedophiles caring for children, as child saviors then operated off of a charity model as opposed to a barter model. 

The Bible is an anti-spanking document. All 88 books of the Bible - from Genesis to Revelation - were written with an anti-spanking bias. All of the biblical writers were Jewish, with no Jew worth mentioning ever defending the punishment of children. Even King Solomon recommended attachment parenting for the little ones, while reserving the rod of correction for adults convicted of a criminal offense. 

The Bible is a founding document of this country, even above the Constitution itself. America is a Christian nation, with our social norms a a society, as well as out legal codes, being based off of the Good Book. It just so happens that the Bible prohibits all forms of punitive treatment of children. This moral law will become physical law in due time, at least here in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. God chose Israel as a moral model to the world because He foreknew a spanking ban that was passed by the Supreme Court of Israel in 2000. Even before then, Israel - in ancient times or modern times - never had a legal defense for "reasonable chastisement".

The depraved and entitled parents who provoke your 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!