To Spank or Not to Spank?

[Dad Ernie]

Greetings All,

Today, I listened to a sermon by Chuck Swindoll on "child discipline". It was very good, if any of you can catch it.

Blessings,

Dad Ernie

 

[Jesus My Wisdom]

There is no Biblical evidence to show for your point, in fact we can see from the Old Testament that there is no other punishment mentioned until the time a rebellious child that will not repent is stoned. Praise God we are not under the law.

Precisely.

But spanking is the best form of punishment and gives the best results when done properly. I am raising four children and we used to use spanking rather sparingly and had horribly disrespectful children. We sat down and came up with a plan and changed all punshiments to some form of spanking. We now get compliments on how well behaved our children are. We do it in close to the same manner as jessangel described. It works wonders. I was spanked and it worked for my parents, and it worked for their parents, and for theirs. Backing off on spanking goes right along with the rest of the departure from the teachings of the Bible that we have in society and the creeping relativisim that permeats even the church today.

Spanking creates a condition of fear based decision making out of the flesh similar to the rules of the Mosaic Law. Perfect love casts out all fear.

A time comes when they must be free to suffer consequences and you treat them as God would treat his children in love. If you wait til they are teenagers they will just find that way by themselves in rebellion.

Jesus My Wisdom

 

[Momzilla]

Jessangle, your mom was a very wise woman! We don't spank in our household, but if we did, what you described is how we'd do it. So far, fortunately, carefully administered time outs (following the basic outline you described) have been effective for us.

 

[EdmundBlackadderTheThird]

Spanking creates a condition of fear based decision making out of the flesh similar to the rules of the Mosaic Law. Perfect love casts out all fear.

A time comes when they must be free to suffer consequences and you treat them as God would treat his children in love. If you wait til they are teenagers they will just find that way by themselves in rebellion.

Jesus My Wisdom

Your statements directly contradict God's word on the matter "rebellion is bound in the heart of a child and the rod of correction will drive it far from them". I think I will trust in the inspired and unerring words of scripture rather than pop psychology or modern relativisim. There is instruction for discipline in the scripture and I fully believe in following that instruction. You are saying not to follow scripture and that is a dangerous slope to be standing on. I for one would not want to stand before the Lord God Almighty and have to explain when he asked "Why did you instruct My sheep to not follow My words?", but that is just me. My wife just wrote and excellent entry on her blog dealing with this: http://usr-bin-mom.com I think she hit it spot on. You can do what you want but I would respectfully advise not telling that following scripture is wrong, I am sure I can back that advice with scripture as well.

 

[Jesus My Wisdom]

Your statements directly contradict God's word on the matter "rebellion is bound in the heart of a child and the rod of correction will drive it far from them". I think I will trust in the inspired and unerring words of scripture rather than pop psychology or modern relativisim. There is instruction for discipline in the scripture and I fully believe in following that instruction. You are saying not to follow scripture and that is a dangerous slope to be standing on. I for one would not want to stand before the Lord God Almighty and have to explain when he asked "Why did you instruct My sheep to not follow My words?", but that is just me. My wife just wrote and excellent entry on her blog dealing with this: http://usr-bin-mom.com I think she hit it spot on. You can do what you want but I would respectfully advise not telling that following scripture is wrong, I am sure I can back that advice with scripture as well.

You have not learned from the Bible well. And nobody said the Scripture is wrong. You are just not listening.

Are you going to spank your 10 year old too?

How about your 12 year old?

How about your 15 year old?

How about your 18 year old?

How about your 25 year old?

How about your 50 year old child?

Catching on yet?

JMW

 

[EdmundBlackadderTheThird]

You have not learned from the Bible well. And nobody said the Scripture is wrong. You are just not listening.

Are you going to spank your 10 year old too?

How about your 12 year old?

How about your 15 year old?

How about your 18 year old?

How about your 25 year old?

How about your 50 year old child?

Catching on yet?

JMW

I have learned very well. Biblically a child stopped being a child at 13 years of age. This is where the cut-off for spankings is in my opinion. Past that they will suffer the direct consequences of their actions as they would if they were an adult. The word child in the verses related to discipline is directly related to the concept of an age of accountability and during this time it was 13. Physical discipine is laid out and no other form of discipline is ever mentioed. The entire system was setup from children to adult on the premise of swift and just discipline and then returning the offender to their proper place in society. Repeat offenders were cut off from society. This is the same concept for the discipline of children. The Bible is clear that he who spares the rod hates his child.

I would also caution against statements like "You have not learned from the Bible well." as you do not know my education, my level of Bible study, or my understanding of the original languages. You might find that you end up being wrong with statements like that. It is you who are not listening, you are not listening to God's propositional communication with us. You are picking and choosing what you want to believe and apply and that again is dangerous. I follow the Bible in discipline and nothing less, I refuse to follow man's wisdom and especially someone who is teaching what goes directly against His word.