| | Does God punish (curse) children because of their fathers' sin? This misconception existed almost from the beginning of time. I think its time to look at it again.
Neither Job nor Abraham needed the first commandment to tell them not to worship other gods. Worshiping the one true God was written on their hearts, received by faith and accounted to them as righteousness (Gal 3:6). After several generations in Egypt, however, the sons of Israel became more like the Egyptians than the Egyptians. They were especially not being delivered from Egypt because of their inclination to serve the one and only God, as Moses tells us in Deut 9:4-6 and Deut 29:4. They were "children of disobedience", taught by their fathers (not Abraham, Isaac nor Jacob) to worship other gods, and so they needed to be told not to. In the phrase following the commandment about God "visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me" (Ex 20:5b), the antecedent of "those who hate me" applies conjointly to the fathers and the children, not to the the fathers exclusive of the children, and it applies especially to those who had been taught by their fathers to turn from the one true God to worship other gods. Moses makes this specifically clear in 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". So with regard to the just penalty for this (worshiping other gods) or any sin, I conclude from these passages that God specifically does NOT punish children for the sins of their fathers, deliverance from Egypt was entirely an extension of God's mercy to unbelieving sons of Israel, and the Law was given only to provide a vehicle for repentance leading to the forgiveness of sins.
One might think that Moses put this issue to rest, but during the moral decline leading up to the exile to Babylon the prevailing thought was that it was the natural order of things for God to curse children - exemplified by the horrific proverb going around at the time, "the fathers ate the sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge" (Ezk 18:2). Even the prophet, Jonah, would have rather died than see the Ninevites forgiven. Ezekiel answered this reprehensible proverb with the passage that follows in Ezk 18, explaining again that each is responsible for his own sin, that God takes no pleasure in judgment and that repentance leads to life.
One might think that Ezekiel put this issue to rest, but when Jesus' disciples asked Him about the man who was born blind, "Who sinned, this man or his parents?" (Jn 9:1), clearly the misconception prevailed. God answered by sacrificing His blood line (Jesus, Who was not worthy of death), for our blood line. This was the EXACT OPPOSITE of bringing judgment upon a child for his father's sins. It was bringing forgiveness to guilty children of guilty fathers by means of guiltless, and familial love loss, Father of Son. The character of God, living Love, answered once and for all how we were created to reflect His image, but it also defined our advocacy for each others' children.
One might think that God in Christ put this issue to rest, but the Church invented a "covenantal nature of sin", and misinterpreted God as being predisposed against Jews in honor of the angry mob at Christ's crucifixion who yelled "His blood be upon us and our children" (Matt 27:25), over and against the prayer of His Son to forgive them (Lk 23:34). Hitler would never have gotten others to participate in genocide if he didn't have this as a "theological" basis for persecuting the Jews.
One might think the historical conclusion to this line of thinking in WW II would put this issue to rest, but Bible believing churches, in varying degrees, justified discrimination against African Americans based on a notion that judgment for the sin of Noah's son, Ham, was being executed on his dark skinned blood line today. (The account in Gen 9:25 only shows Noah, not God, cursing Ham while praying for the other two sons). To be sure, other churches didn't especially preach this bigotry, but didn't make it an issue to speak out against it either. African American churches, of course, didn't buy it - but some abandoned their trust in the Bible as God's Word in part because it was being misused in this way against them.
Now that we have an African American president there seems to be a consensus that God isn't cursing Ham's children, but when Jesse Jackson appears in the media talking about "the curse of Ham", I don't think most people know what he's talking about. So called "evangelical" churches still preach that God dispenses favor, and executes judgment, along blood lines. How else could we turn a blind eye to media video of phosphorous (chemical) bombs exploding over populated areas in Gaza, and scorched earth warfare followed by a blockade of food and medicine. Main stream evangelical "authorities" are still calling Palestinians "Philistines", and bible-believing Christians are accepting this in conjunction with prophetic distortions as justification for violence, without checking it out in the Bible-that-they-believe!
I have found ample evidence in Scripture of man cursing himself, and its effects. But from God I find only opportunity for repentance leading to life. He was always ready to sacrifice His Son, should it have to come to that (and it did). I suggest everyone look to His Word and rethink the things that we have been told about love and grace. Sure as sure can be, He will judge the living and the dead. "But when the Son of Man comes", Jesus asked, "will He find faith on earth?" (Lk 18:8). By embracing the One True God, and by faith accepting Who He has revealed Himself to be, today we don't have to wait around to find out.
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| | Posted 3/7/2009 12:27 PM - 21 Views - 2 eProps - 2 comments
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