Hebrews 12:5-6: Why this passage is not a pro-spanking passage

Many parents use the Bible to justify their choice to punish their children. This is a common attitude amongst American parents. Most American parents use punitive measures in parenting. The core of the pro-spanking argument is stated in Hebrews 12:5-6. However, this passage is interpreted in error by pro-spanking pastors and theologians.

God's Word is stated in Hebrews 12:5-6 KJV:

And ye have forgotten the exhortation that speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. 

This passage, when understood correctly, can be comforting to me. The Greek root word translated "scourgeth" is μαστιγόω (Latin: mastigoó) and can have a figurative meaning to it. God doesn't literally reach down from the heavens and whip His children. However, God does send trials and tribulations the way of the believer. The rod here is a metaphor for enduring hardship, with this kind of language known as "rod language", and was found in many ancient languages. In the Early Church, you wouldn't say "I had a long day at work", but instead you would say "God whipped me hard today". This passage was intended to reassure the Hebrew Christians in their persecution from Rome. 

God doesn't literally reach down from the heavens and whip His children. However, God does punish His children, like only He can. But, earthly parents only punish their children when it harms them. However, God only punishes His children when it doesn't harm them. Heb. 12 only discusses divine parenting, meaning how God deals with us as His adoptive children. God never intended for earthly parents to use His methods, as an earthly parent would get it wrong. 

The Bible does touch in on the spanking issue in the New Testament. 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 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. The offensive touch here included, but was not limited to, spanking and other forms of corporal punishment. However, it is not enough to stop spanking or punishing children. You need to avoid the slightest of offense in children, as child abuse is defined in the Bible as entitlement leading to offense. The only way to avoid offense in a child is to apologize to a child whenever you hurt their feelings, lest it become offense, period. Even bumping into a child in public can count as child abuse, meaning offense period when the adult isn't willing to apologize for invading a child's personal space. 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 term roughly translated to "power to the parent", including the power to impose punitive sanctions on children, such as spanking and other forms of punishment. Most Greek parents in the Greco-Roman world used an open-handed spanking to punish their 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, obeying God over men.

Spanking is a parenting tool that is pagan in origin. Spanking was a means of correcting young children who misbehaved by the parent's standard. When Rome took over, Emperor Constantine and the rest of the Roman Catholic Church wanted to keep a tradition going, and so they grossly mistranslated the Latinate Bible. 

The translation of the Bible alone is not God's Infallible Word. Instead, the original Scripture, in Greek and Hebrew, as understood in context, is the Infallible Word of God. All English-language translations are written in error. However, some translations do tell the Truth on parenting, and one of them is Col. 3:21.

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!