"The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father..." -- Ezekiel 18:20
"I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation..." -- Exodus 20:5
2007-04-25 05:59:21 · 23 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Ummm....I'm an Atheist.
2007-04-25 06:19:15 · update #1
Whatever it was in the Old Testament is wiped out by the crucifixtion and resurrection.Those old laws were nailed to the cross.(Collossians 2)
2007-04-25 06:03:37 · answer #1 · answered by AngelsFan 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
How about in Context? This is the way you can think critically about something you read:
19 “‘What?’ you ask. ‘Doesn’t the child pay for the parent’s sins?’ No! For if the child does what is just and right and keeps my decrees, that child will surely live. 20 The person who sins is the one who will die. The child will not be punished for the parent’s sins, and the parent will not be punished for the child’s sins. Righteous people will be rewarded for their own righteous behavior, and wicked people will be punished for their own wickedness. 21 But if wicked people turn away from all their sins and begin to obey my decrees and do what is just and right, they will surely live and not die. Ezekiel 18: 19-21
4 “You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. 5 You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations of those who reject me. 6 But I lavish unfailing love for a thousand generations on those[a] who love me and obey my commands.
Exodus 20: 4-6
In other words, those who put other Gods in front of me will be subject to my judgement, but, those who stop the cycle will not be punished. If your dad is an abusive man, your whole family suffers, right, but your family is not punished by the police that arrest your dad. same concept here.
2007-04-25 06:14:26 · answer #2 · answered by Steve M 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
What you do effects those who you come in contact with especially your family. It effects how they think and react in situations. This is visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children.
Ezekiel is talking about sharing the guilt for the transgression of the father. If the son is only responsible for his own actions not the action of his father.
This is why its so important for us to be good examples to our children. Why handicap them by showing them a bad example?
2007-04-25 06:07:24 · answer #3 · answered by Tzadiq 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
In Ezekiel these Israelites were using Exodus 20:5 as their excuse for sinning or being like they were, but that was not true. They were sinning at that moment their own sins and they were blaming it on their ancestors.
Generational sins are so many that we can't help but recognize them today. Porno father, porno son. Alcoholic father, alcoholic son. Drug father, drug son. Cigarette smoking father, cigarette smoking son. Father a compulsive liar, son a compulsive liar. Father beats wife, son beats wife.
2007-04-25 06:10:57 · answer #4 · answered by Jeancommunicates 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Those scriptures need to be read in their full context. Don't just pull out parts and try to see if they contradict each other. The one in Exodus is referring to worshiping false Gods and how those ones hated God and passed it on to their future generations. In Ezekiel, it's referring to those loving God.
2007-04-25 06:06:11 · answer #5 · answered by ♥LadyC♥ 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The Scripture you quoted was from the OT Law. We are under the NT dispensation of grace where each of us is responsible for our own sins and salvation in accordance to God's word. The Law serves to remind us of the fact that it would be IMPOSSIBLE to attain salvation WITHOUT death! If we still lived under the dispensation of law, we WOULD bear the sins of our fathers! Can you imagine how difficult it would be to answer for our FAMILY as well as ourselves? How could we ever get forgiveness? Since something (animals in OT) or someone (Jesus Christ NT) had to die, that means that since animals were no longer significant enough to cover our sins, without Jesus' sacrifice, WE'D ALL have to DIE to get forgiveness! How messed up is that?
2007-04-25 07:13:27 · answer #6 · answered by bigvol662004 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
What about the doctrine of Original Sin? Billions of people who never asked to be born are brought into this world with one foot already in the Lake of Fire due to something Adam 'n' Eve did. Just another horrible, horrible doctrine that's turned me into an agnostic...
2007-04-25 06:08:45 · answer #7 · answered by crypto_the_unknown 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
I often apologize to my ancestors and our gods for later ancestors who left them for a false god that never gave them anything.
I suspect in the future vastly more people will be doing the same.
2007-04-25 06:03:43 · answer #8 · answered by LabGrrl 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There are genetics and there are enviromental issues...both of which carry the messages of our forebearers. We are capable of changing this inheritance by our own lives. Be a part of the solution or you will remain a part of the problem.
2007-04-25 06:03:53 · answer #9 · answered by jmmevolve 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Depends on what you are bearing....Learned behaviors can be passed down and then there's those good ol genes that hand down some personality traits..Can you change them? Probably
some! Can we overcome? Yes, but it is a process.....
2007-04-25 06:06:14 · answer #10 · answered by blahblah 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋