A recent newspaper report stated that “The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) said the current law in England and Northern Ireland has created ‘grey areas,’ which mean there is sometimes a defence to physical punishment.”
The general view of ‘medical big-wigs’ is that it is perfectly moral and proper to kill unborn babies and it is very right to assist adolescents in their pursuit of the evil and perverted desire to change their gender. However, they reject God’s teaching on the right discipline of children.
This is a day of calling “evil good, and good evil”, of putting “darkness for light, and light for darkness” and putting “bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter”! (Isaiah 5:20).
This embracing of the ‘new morality’, which is in truth the ‘old immorality’, is the undercurrent which has brought forth the dreadful harvest of murders, abuse, rapes and violations that daily are reported in the news.
Despite the claims of possessing a ‘superior wisdom’ on the part of those who are the ‘influencers’ of the nation, they utterly fail to see the correlation between the new standards and the increase in immorality.
There is an undeniable and irrefutable logic to the simple truth of Galatians 6:7-8.
“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.”
That has been believed and embraced, at least in its intrinsic wisdom, even by the heathen!
The Saviour emphasised this truth. “Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit,” Matthew 7:16-18.
When there is an overwhelming ‘crop’ of evil being reaped by a nation simple logic would tell us that that nation is sowing the seeds that have brought forth this harvest of criminality, fraud and iniquity!
That logic was displayed in the parable of ‘the wheat and the tares’.
“Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares? He said unto them, An enemy hath done this,” Matthew 13:24-28.
There is ‘an enemy’ at work in our nation and that enemy is the depraved thinking of religious and political leaders which has overthrown the simple acceptance of the Law of God of which it has been wisely said: “The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes,” Psalm 19:8.
The endorsement of the benefits of obeying God’s law by the Psalmist is undeniably true.
“Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper,” Psalm 1:1-3.
Today, there is a very different ‘whatsoever’! WHATEVER men do to restore tranquillity to the nation brings forth the very opposite to ‘prosperity’!
Our national ‘leaders’ insist on seeking to ‘douse the flames by pouring on petrol’! More of the poison that has brought forth this flood-tide of depravity is deemed the only cure for it! Such is the madness that grips not just our nation but the whole world. Never were the words of John the apostle more true than today.
“The whole world lieth in wickedness,” 1 John 5:19.
One commentator said of this verse that it “refers to the passive and torpid state of a wicked world under the dominion of the prince of evil, as acquiescing in his reign; making no resistance; not even struggling to be free. It lies thus as a beast that is subdued, a body that is dead, or anything that is wholly passive, quiet, and inert. There is no energy; no effort to throw off the reign; no resistance; no struggling. The dominion is complete, and body and soul, individuals and nations, are entirely subject to his will. This striking expression will not unaptly, now describe the condition of the heathen world, or of sinners in general.”
That is the madness that springs from an abandoning of the only source of wisdom and truth in the world — the Word of God.
The call by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health is but another evidence of the ongoing attempt to replace God’s Law with man’s ‘thinking’.
“Where there is no vision (that is, no vision of God’s will given to prophets) the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he,” Proverbs 29:18.
However a TUV representative is quoted in the same news report as saying: “Criminalising parents is not a road we should be going down and the fact of the matter is that the law already protects children from violence and abuse.
Suggesting there is a grey area between loving discipline and abuse gives very little credit to our courts and risks creating a Big Brother state.”
There is an abundance of research showing that reasonable chastisement does not harm a child.
Furthermore, such a change in the law will result in genuine cases of abuse being missed, making the job of the police and social services more difficult to detect cases.”
Sadly, no mention is made of the supreme authority on how to discipline a child — the BIBLE!
Well, let us do that now!
I. PLEASE CONSIDER WHAT IS SAID OF THE MOST LOVING AND PERFECT FATHER’S DISCIPLINARY MEASURES.
“And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou 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. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby,” Hebrews 12:5-11.
Learn from these verses:
1. The Lord chastens those that are His children. Indeed, where there is an absence of the Lord’s chastening there is evidence that that person is NOT a child of God! Chastening by the Lord is an evidence of His particular love for the one chastened. The wicked are allowed of God to go on in their sin BUT, the one who is truly the Lord’s will be turned back from his sin by the chastening hand of God.
2. God’s chastening of those He loves is often ‘grievous’. The word means pain, groans, sorrow, mourning. God’s ‘rod of chastening’ is anything but ‘joyous’ while it is being applied. David sinned and was chastened of the Lord. of that chastening he said: “Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice,” Psalm 51:8. The phrase ‘the bones which thou hast broken’ is, I believe, allegorical and metaphoric. David’s bones were not literally broken by the Lord but the afflictions God laid upon him felt like a breaking of his bones! His sins were great and consequently so was his punishment from His Heavenly Father! He said on another occasion: “For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Selah,” Psalm 32:4.
3. Reverence for God is born out of chastening. “Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence.” There is almost a total absence of any respect or regard for parents today because proper and biblical discipline is absent. We see it every day in the aisles of the store and on the streets of our nation – children of the tenderest years defy the instructions of parents and shame them before all. Those chastened of God find a true reverence and regard engendered for Him within their hearts.
Referring again to Psalm 51, we find that God’s chastening of David resulted in a restored love of Him and a desire to once again be in His presence, comforted by His mercy and love.
“Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness. O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise,” verses 10-15.
Here is one who strayed away longing to be back in God’s presence and favour. That was wrought by God’s chastening of him. What happy families there would be if parents obeyed God and followed their Heavenly Father’s example when dealing with their children.
II. LET ME STATE CLEARLY WHAT GOD SAYS ON DISCIPLING CHILDREN WHO DO WRONG!
What is set down in the Bible regarding this matter is utterly and completely contrary to thinking of such bodies as ‘The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health’. However, where there is such contrary thinking, I as a Christian instantly go with the Bible and brand all conflicting notions as of the devil!
Heed these verses dear parent if you would, in love to your child, seek to direct it on the path that ends in heaven and bring peace and joy to your home.
“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it,” Proverbs 22:6.
“Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him,” Proverbs 22:15.
“Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell,” Proverbs 23:13-14.
“Correct thy son, and he shall give thee rest; yea, he shall give delight unto thy soul,” Proverbs 29:17.
“The proverbs of Solomon. A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother,” Proverbs 10:1.
“A foolish son is a grief to his father, and bitterness to her that bare him,” Proverbs 17:25.
The father or mother who cast aside these exhortations and promises will reap what David did when he foolishly indulged his son Adonijah. “Then Adonijah the son of Haggith exalted himself, saying, I will be king: and he prepared him chariots and horsemen, and fifty men to run before him. And his father had not displeased him at any time in saying, Why hast thou done so? and he also was a very goodly (fair, physically good looking) man; and his mother bare him after Absalom,” 1 Kings 1:5-6.
David spoiled both Absalom and Adonijah and they both turned out to be rebels against him, bringing much suffering and shame upon him and his kingdom. The shame he endured is written up as a warning to all parents today.
III. LET ME REMIND EVERY CHRISTIAN PARENT WHAT GOD HAS PLAINLY STATED LIES BEFORE ALL WHO DEFY HIM.
Those who rail against physically punishing disobedient children and who label such actions as cruel abuse and most unkind to children fly in the face of God’s Word and furthermore, display a total ignorance of what lies ahead for the sinful, the defiant and the ungodly for all eternity.
The United Kingdom is close to the point of being united in its rejection of God’s views on parenting. Wales made any type of corporal punishment, including smacking, hitting, slapping and shaking, illegal in March 2022, while Scotland introduced a similar ban in November 2020.
Family magazines have for many years been advocating a rejection of the traditional disciplinary methods and have sought to have parents to substitute all sorts of stupidly naive alternatives to proper discipline such as the ‘naughty step’, ‘just ignoring the tantrums’ etc. The results of these antics are seen every day in the homes, shops, schools, streets and courts of our land!
Let me be clear on one thing. The devil has ever sought to pervert ‘the right ways of the Lord’ and he has done that extensively regarding the punishment of children. The Bible is not speaking of abuse and cruel beatings, such as we see reported every day regarding the terrible murder of children by those termed ‘fathers and mothers’. One has only to look at the images of these drunken, drug besotted, devil possessed beings to see that they are not acting at all under any influence from the Bible. Rather, they show every indication of acting as does their “father the devil”, and the lusts of their father fill their hearts and minds. They act toward their offsprings as does the devil. “He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it,” John 8:44.
No we neither advocate nor sanction the abuse of children but seek to uphold that form of discipline and punishment which under God, will serve to deliver the wayward child’s “soul from hell”.
Sin will be punished eventually. Let all learn that. Punishment for sin for the Christian was borne by Christ at the cross. He ’took my sins and my sorrows. He made them His very own. He bore the burden to Calvary and suffered and died alone.” That is the teaching of the gospel within which is set forth Christ the sinners’ substitute. Those who believe that truth and embrace Christ’s sufferings and death as their sacrifice know ETERNAL deliverance from the punishment of sin. Christ has said: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life,” John 5:24.
But that is not so for those who live to defy God.
Paul wrote the following to the Church ar Corinth. “For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world,” 1 Corinthians 11:31-32.
What the apostle is saying is that the true Christian will constant examine and act in judgment against their sin and wrong-doings or, failing to do that, will suffer chastening at the hands of the Lord. This is in order that the believer will not “be condemned with the world.” Yes, there is a day of condemnation coming for the world.
“And he shall judge the world in righteousness, he shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness,” Psalm 9:8.
“Before the LORD: for he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth: he shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth,” Psalm 96:13.
“Before the LORD; for he cometh to judge the earth: with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity,” Psalm 98:9.
“Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead,” Acts 17:31.
The response of most to this truth is like that of those to whom Paul preached to in Athens, as is recorded in the passage in Acts 17. “And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked: and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter, ” verse 32.
But man’s laughter and sneering does not change the fact that a day has been ‘appointed’ by God in the which He will, judge ungodly men and PUNISH them for their disobedience of Him.
1. That punishment will be unspeakable dreadful. “And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works,” Revelation 20:11-13.
“But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death,” Revelation 21:8.
2. In the light of this, the comparatively mild chastenings that the Bible urges parents to carry out upon their wayward children in order to save ‘soul from hell’, is a most wise, kind and loving course of action to take! How many parents, even Christians, are unwittingly training up children for hell by their ignoring of God’s teaching on chastening children and instead heeding the foolish notions of men, the fruits of which folly fill our land today!
The latter-day apostasy entails many points of disobedience and defiance of God and the rejecting of His Word.
One of them is, according to Paul’s summary of that time of apostasy, the ‘perilous times’, is “disobedient to parents”, 2 Timothy 3:2. The rebellion in the home, nurtured by the failure of parents to obey God and follow His way of discipline, has spread to every corner of the nation.
It will end at the “great while throne” of judgment. There God will terminate man’s defiance and punish him everlastingly in the lake of fire. Dare I suggest that a universal cry within that place of eternal torment will be, ‘why did not my father and mother chastise me and curb my waywardness by proper discipline and turn me from the path that has brought me here?’
Christian parent, close your ears to the foolish notions of men and open your eyes to what God has said in His Word and so govern and rule your home and thereby you and your children will reap the eternal joy that springs from obedience to God.
Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd)
19th April 2024