Excerpt from a chapter in a new book currently under development Chapter title: "O Wretched Child that I am"

Excerpt from a chapter in a new book currently under development

Chapter title: "O Wretched Child that I am"

We can in fact see this idea being expressed by Paul in Scripture. It is found in I Corinthians 2:11. “For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him?”

This is a most important scripture. There is a “spirit” in man. There is a spiritual side to man. But, this spiritual side takes time to develop! As quoted earlier, man takes time to develop and grow up: “At two and three he is a pig, groping in the garbage.” (ibid.) A two or three year old does not have inner spiritual man operating in the same way as an older child!

It shows that man himself cannot know even the things of the flesh unless through the spirit which is in man. This condition exists when a child is born and continues well into the time about up to age three or four. (depending on the individual)

By age five, children have some general awareness about life on a day to day basis, but prior to that time, they are certainly human, but the “spirit of that person, which is in him” has not yet developed and become aware of what it really means to be human.

Now, if we go back to the example that Paul gives us of his own experience as a grown, highly educated, experienced, seasoned man knowing all aspects of life, he found in his own life an inability to do what is right by his own admission. Let us rehearse what he said: “For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.” (Romans 7:18)

So, now we have to ask ourselves a question. Why is it that today many well intentioned Christian advocates of child rearing are so focused on punishing little children for sin (often starting before these little children of God are still babes in arms) before the time when these children even have an awareness of what human life is all about? They do not have experience with life, have no concept of what sin is and they do not yet even know the difference between right and wrong much less have a desire to do what is right, yet they are introduced to complex ideas about sin and punishment well before the time when their minds are even working at a level to comprehend even the most basic aspects of life.

The fact is, “the spirit of that person, which is in him” is not yet “in” little children under about age five, yet the preferred Christian approach today by many is to treat that little child, not as a totally innocent being, who not only does not “have the desire to do what is right”, but also does not even know what “the desire to do what is right” is, as a guilty sinner in the same category as that which aware humans who themselves (like Paul) “do not understand my own actions.” (Romans 7:15) No, little Tommy or Suzy has to understand that they are wrong, evil sinners who deserve to be punished starting preferably while they are still babes in arms while us grown ups acknowledge that we have the “desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out” and we ourselves “do not understand my [our] own actions.”

In my book, it just does not seem fair.