The Myth of the Ancestral Curse

Part One

by G A N James

This is the first part of a two-part series of messages on the ancestral curse doctrine entitled The Myth of the Ancestral Curse. These messages are intended to dispel the myth of the misleading doctrine of the ancestral curse and to show that the doctrine has no foundation in the Word of God.  In the first part we will look at (1) what is the ancestral curse doctrine; (2) do the Scriptures support the ancestral curse doctrine; and (3) God’s rejection of the idea of ancestral curse.

 What Is the Ancestral Curse?

We know that, according to the Scriptures, the fall of Adam into sin brought the curse of sin and death upon the entire human race and, as a result, every human being inherited by birth the corrupt and sinful nature of Adam. Rom 5:12 tells us: “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.” In that sense, one can conclude that from Adam and Eve, all human beings from generation to generation were born under the curse of sin, from which God has provided full salvation by the redemptive work of His Son Jesus Christ.

However, this is not actually the idea being uphed by those who propagate the so-called ancestral curse doctrine. The ancestral curse is considered to be a specific curse, distinct from the general curse of sin. This ancestral curse is said to be a curse in the form of some evil omen which plagues an individual or a family as a result of some particular iniquity or sin committed by an ancestor. Clearly, the doctrine is steeped in superstition and occultism. Victims of ancestral curses are said to have no power over the evils that plague them. They are considered to be innocent and inescapable victims of their cursed fate. Their doom arises not from their own wrongdoing but out of the fact that someone in their past genealogy committed some sort of wickedness, or might have even been innocently the victim of a curse, for which they, as descendants of that cursed ancestor, must bear the pernicious consequences.

Usually, the curse is thought to have been imposed on the ancestor by some sort of sorcery and is destined to be transmitted from generation to generation. It is believed that even Christians, though considered saved in Christ, may be victims of the so-called ancestral curses. This occultist belief is upheld by many in the Christian religion usually because of misperception of certain Scriptures.

The first reference in the Bible to what seems to be a basis for an ancestral curse doctrine is in Exo 20:4-5: “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me.”

Later in Exodus, the same statement is mentioned when God revealed Himself to Moses. Exo 34:6-7: Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, ‘The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in loving-kindness and truth; who keeps loving-kindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.’

The portion of these Scripture passages which some propose to be a Scriptural basis for the doctrine of the ancestral curse is the part where God is said to visit “the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations.” Let us closely examine these Scripture passages and see if truly the context in which the statement appears provides any real basis for Scriptural support for the ancestral curse doctrine.

Do Scriptures Support the Ancestral Curse Doctrine?

To show that these Scripture passages support the ancestral curse doctrine, one would need to assume that God will judge or condemn the innocent or punish people for wrongs which they are not guilty of. In other words, God holds innocent people accountable for the iniquities of their ancestors.Can one rightly infer this about God’s dealings with mankind from these Scripture passages?

Let us closely examine the Scripture passage in Ex 34:6-7, which gives a context for the statement of God "visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me." This Scripture passage refers to the revelation of the character of God to Moses by God Himself. Exo 34:6-7: Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in loving-kindness and truth; who keeps loving-kindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations."

We see in this Scripture passage, the Lord first reveals Himself as "The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in loving-kindness and truth; who keeps loving-kindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin...."

In other words, contrary to unjustly punishing the innocent, by His very nature or character, the Lord extends mercy and forgiveness to the guilty who turn to Him in sorrow and repentance of their iniquities. Then the Scripture goes to reveal that "yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations."

What then is the Scripture implying by this latter statement? At first, it seems to contradict the former statement in which God is described as "The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in loving-kindness and truth; who keeps loving-kindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin."

Why would God declare that that He forgives iniquity and transgression and sin, then, at the same time, states that He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations? On the surface, there may appear to be a contradiction or inconsistency in God's dealings with sinners. However, on closer examination, what seemed to be an inconsistency vanishes. Two categories of people are dealt with in the Scripture passage -- the forgiven and the guilty. The forgiven are those who humbly turn to God in repentance of their sins and accept forgiveness through God's compassion, grace, and loving-kindness. They can be no longer considered guilty because they have repented and received God's forgiveness. The guilty then are obviously those, who, as evidence shows, continue in iniquity rather than repenting and receiving God's forgiveness.

It is such guilty people who by no means will be left unpunished because they despise and reject God's mercy and forgiveness.  Jesus made this very clear to Nicodemus in John 3:17-19: “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes on Him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than the Light, because their deeds were evil.”

So contrary to the misleading perception that God punishes the innocent, the truth is that there are always those who, though guilty of sins, turn to God for mercy and find His forgiveness and escape condemnation, while there are those who, also guilty of sin, reject God's offer of forgiveness and bring condemnation upon themselves. Divine justice invariably provides forgiveness and cleansing for every sinner who repents and trusts in Christ. 1Jo 1:9 states: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Hence, if no man can be condemned according to Divine justice for sins of which he was never guilty, or of which he has found forgiveness from God, then the Scriptural statement that God visits the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations categorically cannot imply that God imposes the punishment of guilty fathers on their children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren, up to the fourth generation of descendants, who themselves are not guilty.

What is true is that if ancestors practiced iniquity and failed to turn to God for forgiveness and were judged by God, and then their posterity from generation to generation continued in their ancestors' evil ways which they received by tradition from their ancestors and do not repent and seek God's forgiveness, these descendants too, like their ancestors, would be judged for these ancestral iniquities which they keep practicing and are thus guilty of, in their respective generation. Human society is a cultural entity, in which sin and wickedness, as well as the curse of sin and the judgment of wickedness, are transmitted from generation to generation. This generational transmission of evil is not due to any inevitable mystical phenomenon but is actually a cultural transmission of evil habits and practices from generation to generation. However, every generation, as well as every individual of a generation, who adopts and practices iniquity according to the evil traditions of their ancestors has the option to seek God's forgiveness and escape condemnation, or to reject God's forgiveness and suffer condemnation. No generation or individual under God's justice innocently is made to bear the judgments of the iniquity of previous generations.

God Rejects the Idea of Ancestral Curse

Interestingly, the Scriptures indicate that God categorically forbids His people to uphold the idea of ancestral curse. For instance, we read in Eze 18:1-4, 20, 25-27, 30-31: Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, “What do you mean by using this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, ‘The fathers eat the sour grapes, But the children's teeth are set on edge'? “As I live,” declares the Lord GOD, “you are surely not going to use this proverb in Israel anymore. Behold, all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine. The soul who sins will die. The person who sins will die. The son will not bear the punishment for the father's iniquity, nor will the father bear the punishment for the son's iniquity; the righteousness of the righteous will be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked will be upon himself. Yet you say, 'The way of the Lord is not right.' Hear now, O house of Israel! Is My way not right? Is it not your ways that are not right? When a righteous man turns away from his righteousness, commits iniquity and dies because of it, for his iniquity which he has committed he will die. Again, when a wicked man turns away from his wickedness which he has committed and practices justice and righteousness, he will save his life. Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, each according to his conduct,” declares the Lord GOD. “Repent and turn away from all your transgressions, so that iniquity may not become a stumbling block to you. Cast away from you all your transgressions which you have committed and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! For why will you die, O house of Israel?”

In this Scripture passage, we see that the children of Israel were propagating a proverb: ‘The fathers eat the sour grapes, but the children's teeth are set on edge.' Such a proverb clearly suggested belief in what is today known as the ancestral curse. To God, however, this occultist proverb being propagated by His own people was a sinister affront to His justice. It meant that the people were shamelessly advocating that 'The way of the Lord is not right.' God’s straightforward response to this was: “As I live,” declares the Lord GOD, “you are surely not going to use this proverb in Israel anymore. Behold, all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine. The soul who sins will die. The person who sins will die. The son will not bear the punishment for the father's iniquity, nor will the father bear the punishment for the son's iniquity....”

So in concluding, we see that the misleading doctrine of the ancestral curse has no basis in the Scriptures. It is an affront to God’s character of mercy and Divine justice and is denounced by God. Therefore, the ancestral curse doctrine is a myth. In our next message on the myth of the ancestral curse, we will show that the new covenant of grace removes the curse of sin and bestows blessings upon all believers in Christ.

If you have been blessed by any of our messages and want to let us know, or have questions, or need prayer, you are welcome to contact us.
     Click here.