Dear Friends:
I am back from an exciting trip to beautiful Hong Kong, China. As promised, I will refute the heresy of generational curses in more detail. For those of you who might not have had the chance to see the first posting on this subject, I strongly urge you to do so in order that you might understand the context of my words. It is my intention to be clear in my challenge to this demonic teaching that has invaded the Lord’s Church.
At this point, I want to give some biblical examples as to why this doctrine is nothing more than the enemy’s attempt to discourage God’s people and to rob them of their hope. As it relates to the notion that children pay for their fathers sins to the third and fourth generations, and that the children are destined to repeat the sins of their fathers is a contradicition to the many examples of Scripture.
Consider David. David killed a man and committed adultery, but we don’t read of his son, Solomon doing the same. The outcome of their lives was quite different. Or consider the kings of Judah. King Hezekiah was Judah’s most righteous king next to David (II Kings 18:4), but his son Manasseh was the most evil! Manesseh’s grandson, Josiah, however, was a righteous king who brought a revival of Yahwism to the land! What happened to the mercies God promised to show Hezekiah’s progeny for thousands of generations?
What happened to Manesseh’s curse to the 3rd and 4th generation? They do not exist, which ought to clue us into the fact that Deuteronomy 5:9 and following is not about time limits on God’s mercies and curses, but about the greatness of God’s mercy over against His jugment. Another point to consider is Jesus’ statement in John 9:3. Upon seeing a man blind from birth the disciples asked Jesus, “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus responded, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.” Contrary to the disciples’ belief, he was not paying for his ancestors sins. In fact, his infirmity was unrelated to sin. It was for the glory of God.
Ezekiel 18:1-5 (please read) counters the idea that God punishes the children for the fathers’ sins. The prophet expands on this idea in the verses that follow in much more detail, pointedly declaring that if the son of an evil man does not repeat his father’s sins (which contradicts the interpretation of the “generational curses” passages that the children are destined to repeat their fathers’ sins) he will not be punished, but only the father. The same goes for the corollary in which a righteous man’s son commits evil. The father will be blessed, but the son will be punished. Ezekiel very powerfully summed up the matter by proclaiming:
“The soul that sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son; the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself. But if a wicked man turns away from all his sins which he has committed and keeps all my statutes and does what is lawful and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die.” (Ezekiel 18:20-21)
In light of such clear teaching concerning personal responsibility for sin, any interpretation of Deuteronomy 5:9 and following that yields a contrary notion needs to be reconsidered. Unfortunately, many understand these passages as referring to the cycle of psychologically and socially-influenced negative behavior patterns that tend to be repeated from one generation to the next (e.g. alcoholism, spousal abuse, uncontrolled anger). According to this interpretation one’s upbringing, not God, is responsible for the curse.
While it is true that the human tendency is for children to repeat the sins of their parents, this is not due to the fact that God has cursed them so that they must repeat the same sins. There is nothing supernatural about it. It is simply a phenomenon of human nature. To sum this post up, I want to say that while our observation that children tend to repeat the behavior pattern of their parents is true, that idea is not being taught in the four passages of Scripture I cited.
For those who remain unconvinced, consider Christ. Jesus bore our curses by being made a curse for us, for it is written, “Cursed is every one that hangs on a tree” (Galatians 3:13). If any such thing as a generational curse does exist, that curse over our life would have been broken by Christ. In Christ we receive the mercy of God, not a curse. We have the victory in Christ Jesus!
“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:1) .
