How dare you use Solomon’s writings to justify spanking!
Question:
The fact that your website tells parents to strike or hit (you call it spanking) children of any age is bizarre and totally sick. I never have read anything where Jesus strikes a child out of anger or discipline. If you refer to "spare the rod" that was Solomon, certainly one of the evilest men to ever live on earth. It is bizarre you don't see that. Finally, to tell parents to spank to get their "point" driven home is tantamount to sexual abuse, especially if the child is of the opposite sex and is pre-teen or teen. The advice from the sicko who wrote it does not indicate an age to stop such abuse. I understand your feelings on the Scriptures and even your feeling the Bible is inerrant, but I don't think my God would want anything to do with your church or your sick views.
Answer:
I take it from your diatribe that you don't think much about the Scriptures and believe the Bible contains errors, yet you claim to know what God feels about a topic, congregation, and individual without source material to back up your claim.
"But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written: Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him." But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual" (I Corinthians 2:7-13).
"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work" (II Timothy 3:16-17).
Interestingly, though you claim that Solomon was "one of the evilest men to ever live on earth," a claim unsupported by the Bible by the way, yet his writings are quoted as proof. Some examples are:
- Paul quotes Proverbs 1:16 in Romans 3:15
- James refers to Proverbs 2:6 in James 1:5
- Paul refers to Proverbs 3:3 in II Corinthians 3:3
- Paul refers to Proverbs 3:4 in Romans 14:18
- Paul quotes Proverbs 3:7 and 26:12 in Romans 12:16
- John quotes Proverbs 3:11 in Revelation 3:19
- Paul refers to Proverbs 3:16 in I Timothy 4:8
- Paul refers to Proverbs 3:27 in Galatians 6:10
- Peter quotes Proverbs 3:34 in I Peter 5:5
- Jesus refers to Proverbs 4:18-19 in John 12:35
- Jesus quotes Proverbs 4:23 in Matthew 12:34
- Paul refers to Proverbs 6:20 in Ephesians 6:1
- Jesus refers to Proverbs 8:32 in Luke 11:28
- Peter quotes Proverbs 10:12 in I Peter 4:8
- James refers to Proverbs 11:30 in James 5:20
- Peter roughly quotes Proverbs 11:31 in I Peter 4:18
- Paul refers to Proverbs 12:4 in I Corinthians 11:7
- Paul quotes Proverbs 14:12 in Romans 6:21
- Paul refers to Proverbs 15:21 in Ephesians 5:15
- Paul refers to Proverbs 16:4 in Romans 9:22
- James refers to Proverbs 16:27 in James 3:6
- Jesus refers to Proverbs 18:13 in John 7:51
- Jesus refers to Proverbs 18:21 in Matthew 12:37
- Jesus refers to Proverbs 21:2 in Luke 16:15
- Paul quotes Proverbs 24:12 in Romans 2:6
- Jesus quotes Proverbs 24:12 in Revelation 2:23 and 22:12
- Peter quotes Proverbs 24:21 in I Peter 2:17
- Jesus uses Proverbs 25:7 as the basis for a parable in Luke 4:7-11
- Jude quotes Proverbs 25:14 in Jude 12
- Paul quotes Proverbs 25:21-22 in Romans 12:20
- Peter quotes Proverbs 26:11 in II Peter 2:22
- Jesus refers to Proverbs 29:13 in Matthew 5:45
- Jesus refers to Proverbs 29:23 in Matthew 23:12; Luke 14:11; Luke 18:14
- James refers to Proverbs 29:23 in James 4:6
And I haven't even begun to list allusions and the teaching of the same doctrine.
In proving the need for trials in one's life, the writer of Hebrews quotes Proverbs 3:11-12 and then parallels God's discipline to the discipline (spanking) given by a father. "You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin. And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: "My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD, Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; For whom the LORD loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives." If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it" (Hebrews 12:4-11). You claim it is bizarre that I don't see spanking as wrong and that God won't approve of it, but it appears in inspired writings of both the Old and New Testament.
My point is that the Bible is not a book in which you can pick some parts and reject others. It is a fabric woven together. If you reject the teachings of Solomon, then you must reject those who based some of their teachings on Solomon: Paul, Peter, James, Jude, John, and Jesus. Rapidly you have nothing left that you would accept.
The true problem is not that the Bible teaches that spanking is useful in the raising of children, years of history has shown that spanking works. The real problem is that you have elevated the fickle teachings of men over the stable wisdom of God. "These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men" (Matthew 15:8-9).
