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Post by athanasius on Sept 25, 2014 7:07:28 GMT -5
Dr. Miller, When Hebrews 12 mentions "discipline" is this discipline as in scourging, that is, that this is a divine "whooping" or is this more like an Olympic athlete learning discipline?
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Post by vincent on Sept 26, 2014 1:35:36 GMT -5
I think it means trials. the type we all go through. like it said, we all have be disciplined by our dads. we do wrong, get punished, and it teaches us. we learn right from wrong. we do bad when we sin, why shouldn"t "Dad" punish us? not to be mean, but to teach us. to learn of righteousness. my opinion.
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Post by Mike Miller on Dec 23, 2014 11:54:14 GMT -5
I'm not sure we can make a distinction, since the writer of Hebrews did not do so himself. Contextually, he had been using an athletic example, so even though he switched to a parenting metaphor, I'm not sure he completely breaks the connection. He is encouraging them to endure the various trials they were facing, and then he explains that those trials are actually part of God's plan to discipline them as children. The comparison is made to earthly fathers, and a father's discipline takes many forms in order to train our children. Sometimes the discipline is punitive (like a whooping), sometimes it is preventive (like when we try to instill good habits and behavior), and sometimes it is formative (like giving chores). All these things seem unpleasant at the time to children, but they are for their good. We do it because we love them. As I have said to my kids many times, "I love you too much not to discipline you." We fathers are trying to build children of character. The various trials the original readers were experiencing were God's means of disciplining them, and the purpose was to build in them a Christ-like character.
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