Generational curses or consequences?

[tonychanyt]

Exodus 20:

4 You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me,

Call it a generational curse or consequence. It makes no difference in terms of breaking it.

1 John 1:

9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

After the generational curse, there is also the generational blessing, Exodus 20:

6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

Love God. That's how you fight the generational curse or consequence. Focus on love, not on the curse. Focus on the present, not on the past.

2 Corinthians 5:

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

 

[linux.poet]

It's both a generational curse and a consequence. It's the consequences of Adam and Eve's sin that the sin nature is inherited and passed from parent to child. Such is the nature of the Fall - all humankind is condemned until they accept Christ as savior from said condemnation.

It also means that you are more likely to commit the sins that your immediate parents committed, and also that the children will receive the consequences for the parent's sins. Even modern psychology agrees with this, as children inherit consequences of dysfunction and mental illness as a result of parental sins committed against them.

 

[Bobber]

It's both a generational curse and a consequence. It's the consequences of Adam and Eve's sin that the sin nature is inherited and passed from parent to child. Such is the nature of the Fall - all humankind is condemned until they accept Christ as savior from said condemnation.

It also means that you are more likely to commit the sins that your immediate parents committed, and also that the children will receive the consequences for the parent's sins. Even modern psychology agrees with this, as children inherit consequences of dysfunction and mental illness as a result of parental sins committed against them.

I can agree with that but think some are way off in suggesting anyone has to confess the sins of their decedents. There's some that get off into that. Every time they get some type of physical affliction they draw a correlation to what their grandparents might have done. They even have a chart with all afflictions. eg. diabetes is caused by strife....sore leg is caused by greed....and the list goes on and on. (I made up the causes in the last sentence but they do have charts of each afflation) They can be 70 years old and succumb to an affliction.....they go to a chart....grandparent was probably doing this, I mean the whole thing gets crazy and puts a cloud over people's head. Such teaching is not from God.

 

[linux.poet]

I can agree with that but think some are way off in suggesting anyone has to confess the sins of their decedents. There's some that get off into that. Every time they get some type of physical affliction they draw a correlation to what their grandparents might have done. They even have a chart with all afflictions. eg. diabetes is caused by strife....sore leg is caused by greed....and the list goes on and on. (I made up the causes in the last sentence but they do have charts of each afflation) They can be 70 years old and succumb to an affliction.....they go to a chart....grandparent was probably doing this, I mean the whole thing gets crazy and puts a cloud over people's head. Such teaching is not from God.

That is the OP's verse taken to an unhealthy extreme that God didn't intend. I said "consequences" in the last post, not "punishment". Science is good at understanding the how of things, and I think that psychology explains how a sinful parent can give their child a mental illness that begets more sin and so on. That should quell these medical superstitions. But perhaps if they aren't convinced by science, they may be convinced with theology and scripture.

The main point of the verse is that the sin nature is inherited from parent to child. Parents are not to blame for their child's sin, and aren't punished for it. Frankly, we aren't even 100% punished for all of our own sin - otherwise we would be in hell right now already. The idea that we are punished for other people's sin is magical thinking that has no basis in reality.

“In those days they will no longer say,
‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes,
But it is the children’s teeth that have become blunt.’

30 But everyone will die for his own wrongdoing; each person who eats the sour grapes, his own teeth will become blunt.

See also Ezekiel 18, most specifically:

19 “Yet you say, ‘Why should the son not suffer the punishment for the father’s guilt?’ When the son has practiced justice and righteousness and has kept all My statutes and done them, he shall certainly live. 20 The person who sins will die. A son will not suffer the punishment for the father’s guilt, nor will a father suffer the punishment for the son’s guilt; the righteousness of the righteous will be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked will be upon himself.

 

[Bobber]

Science is good at understanding the how of things, and I think that psychology explains how a sinful parent can give their child a mental illness that begets more sin and so on. That should quell these medical superstitions. But perhaps if they aren't convinced by science, they may be convinced with theology and scripture.

I agree with that....my problem is when Christians teach (not all do but some) that one needs to get out charts of what their grandparents did wrong, confess their sins and now have them plead to God to forgiven them from decedents wrong doing, in order for they who pray this can get free.

 

[Yekcidmij]

That is the OP's verse taken to an unhealthy extreme that God didn't intend. I said "consequences" in the last post, not "punishment". Science is good at understanding the how of things, and I think that psychology explains how a sinful parent can give their child a mental illness that begets more sin and so on. That should quell these medical superstitions. But perhaps if they aren't convinced by science, they may be convinced with theology and scripture.

The main point of the verse is that the sin nature is inherited from parent to child. Parents are not to blame for their child's sin, and aren't punished for it. Frankly, we aren't even 100% punished for all of our own sin - otherwise we would be in hell right now already. The idea that we are punished for other people's sin is magical thinking that has no basis in reality.



See also Ezekiel 18, most specifically:

Also Deut 24:16

"Fathers shall not be put to death for their sons, nor shall sons be put to death for their fathers; everyone shall be put to death for his own sin.