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ABOUT CHILDREN 
1. What Training Should I Give My Children? The Bible says that we are to bring up our children in "the training and admonition of the Lord" (Ephesians 6:4). It also says that "foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction will drive it far from him" (Proverbs 22:15). More than anything else, a child needs to know love, because a child's relationship with a loving father will teach him the love of God. Parents must show their children loving concern, fairness, and stability.But along with love must be a measure of physical punishment to teach right and wrong, good and evil. That is what God gives us. He gives us love, fairness, and stability, but He also punishes us if we go wrong because He loves us. Children cannot be allowed to be subject to their own biological or emotional needs at the expense of everybody else. A loving parent will set certain guidelines for his children, and let them know in a kind but firm fashion that these limits must be observed. Then, as they get older, they may be given more freedom and responsibility. They must depend less on their parents and rely more and more on God. The goal of child rearing is to produce mature, responsible adults whose lives are governed by the Bible and centered in Christ.
2. Is Physical Punishment Of Children Sexual and physical abuse of children is unlawful, immoral, and deplorable. Loving discipline, however, is absolutely necessary to produce mature, well-rounded adults who can handle the give-and-take of marriage, child rearing, and a competitive world. A self-willed, undisciplined child who grows up to be a husband or wife is a danger to society. When a child flies into a rage, or breaks something, or displays behavior that is obviously malicious and wrong, there is nothing wrong with smacking him sharply once or twice on his bottom. That is much better than berating him for an hour verbally. It is much better to administer punishment and get the matter out of the way than to let the thing fester or to let the child think he can get away with doing something wrong. We face a great danger in society from those who abuse children sexually or physically. But an even worse danger could come from public officials who, in overreacting to abuse, might forbid intelligent parental discipline--giving us a generation of youthful tyrants and emotionally stunted adults (see Isaiah 3:12). We forget that indifference also is a form of child abuse.
3. Does The Bible Permit Artificial Insemination These new scientific techniques open up a Pandora's box of problems that can lead to incredible abuses. Such methods of fertilization are already in use in the beef industry. A prize cow is implanted with frozen semen from a prize bull. Then the little embryo is removed from the prize cow and put into another cow who will act as host until birth. Then, two or three months later, that same prize cow is again implanted by a prize bull and another top-quality embryo is created. In this way, one prize cow can have three or four calves a year, and the quality of the cattle can be greatly improved. Now these techniques are being transferred to human beings. But one cannot regard a human being made in the image of God in the same way that one regards a cow. We have the ability to worship, to create great works of art, to build cathedrals, to rise to the very heights in Jesus Christ. Some scientists view human beings as no better than cattle. If an embryo transplant in a top-grade cow is deformed, it will be killed. If there is some accident of birth because of the implant procedure, the top-grade cow can be destroyed without remorse, because it is an animal. But what happens when human babies are frozen for periods of time and then later implanted into the wombs of mothers? What happens when wealthy women begin to hire poor women to bear their children for them? What happens when human embryos are left in test tubes so they can be used as organ repositories? What happens when we learn how to clone human beings, so that we can take bits of cell tissue from one human and make somebody almost like him to function as a subhuman servant? The things that are being developed by our scientists seem benevolent, but they have the possibility of absolute horror in the wrong hands. The Bible tells us that we should not mix different kinds. For example, we should not plow with an ox and a donkey linked up together (see Deuteronomy 22:10). We should not wear linen and flax mixed together (see Deuteronomy 22:11). These prohibitions may have been placed in the Bible as a guideline for us in other matters as well as the ones they directly relate to. The most serious danger today of mixing various species comes from the technique that we call recombinant DNA. Scientists can actually enter the genetic code, which organizes the development of the cell structure of living beings, and begin to manipulate and change it. The problem is that there are millions of variables. We might set out to create some kind of superrace and end up with people who have no resistance to disease. Or, we might come up with a new life form that could destroy us all. We are entering into God's province--an area where we do not belong; an area of potential danger to mankind greater than the atomic bomb. Was God thinking of these developments when He forbade the intertwining of different types of animals and plants? Despite the good things that have come about through plant engineering, there could be dangers ahead. Suppose, for example, that we have developed a strain of wheat that yields much more abundantly. What would happen if that same wheat, after we came to depend on it for most of our acreage, turned out to be absolutely unable to survive in a time of cold or lack of moisture? It could be that the hearty, resistant plants we had before, which did not yield quite so much grain, might have been the thing that would have saved humanity during a prolonged drought or cold spell. The new hybrids we have created might totally fail and leave us in desperate straits. We simply do not have the ability to determine which characteristics best equip nations, or individuals, or animals to survive the extreme changes that occur periodically in our world. We simply do not know what God knows. When we begin to enter into God's marvelous world of genetic engineering, we are asking for trouble. Any thinking person has cause to fear what might emerge from the Pandora's box of technology, just as we fear the specter of nuclear annihilation that the scientists of World War II gave us.
4. Should Grown Children Continue Jesus condemned the Pharisees for breaking this commandment. They did so by saying to their parents, "Whatever profit you might have received from me is Corban," which means dedicated to God (Mark 7:11). They did not give the money to God; they merely dedicated it to the temple for a future time and thereby avoided their obligation to their parents. People today need to understand that grown children owe their parents the duty of material financial support as a part of honor and respect. The apostle Paul said that if a believer will not take care of his own, "He has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever" (I Timothy 5:8). The Bible also teaches that in marriage "a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh" (Matthew 19:5). At that point the husband and wife are responsible before God for the conduct of their marriage. Despite their position in life or their marital responsibilities, they still owe honor and respect to their respective parents. The Bedouins of Saudi Arabia in 1925 bore some resemblance to the early Hebrew nomads of the Bible. To illustrate true honor for parents on the part of these people, we have only to consider the late King Abdul al-Aziz ibn Saud who so honored his father that, even after he had conquered most of what is now Saudi Arabia, he knelt on the ground before his father so that the old man could dismount from his horse or camel by stepping on his son's back. It is a wise parent, however, who avoids presenting a grown child with a conflict between marital responsibilities and the honor due the parent. That should not occur if the relationship between parent and child is right. |
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