Question : Mrs Saramma Mathew

There are preachers who speak of the visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children quoting the Old Testament, “Our fathers have eaten sour grapes and our teeth are punt to edge’’ an adage in Jeremiah 31:29; Ezekiel 18:2; Job 21:19. How correct is this doctrine and its use?

Answer:  Jacob Parappally MSFS

Preachers of all religions have a tendency to instil fear of God in the minds of people by presenting God as a punishing God. Religions claim that they are the ways of liberation but some teachers and preachers of all religions bind people with their preaching and convince them that they are in the fetters of God’s punishments for their sins and the sins of their ancestors. Gullible people believe the erroneous teachings of such preachers because they know their own sins and weaknesses as well as the misery and misfortune they experience in their everyday life. When they are told emphatically and convincingly that their sicknesses, sudden death in the family, business failures, accidents, false cases filed in the court against them, loss of their property, unemployment or sudden loss of job, failure in all what they attempt to do etc., are caused by the sins of their ancestors, they would certainly believe.

There are Christian preachers of mainline Churches and various Pentecostal denominations who quote the verses of curses and punishments from the Old Testament to prove that they are right in affirming that God’s punishment for the sins of ancestors fall on the children up to fourth or fifth generation! What God are they proclaiming? The compassionate and loving God revealed through Jesus Christ or the misunderstood God of Jewish religion for whose sake Jesus was crucified? More harm is done to the Church and its faith by ignorant priests, preachers and teachers of faith with their biblically and theologically unsound and erroneous preaching and teaching than the sworn enemies of the Church!

The tragedy for the Church is that some of the authorities of the Church seem to be deaf to such erroneous preaching or they seem to share the same idea about God that they fail to prohibit such preaching that misleads and misguides the believers. Some of them might know that in some retreat centres some preachers preach about God’s punishments visiting not only the listeners but also their future generations. But they ignore it because they know that there are many immediate advantages even though such preaching only deepens the infantile faith of the believers. The authorities of the Church may overlook such perverted use of the Scripture thinking that they are means for the conversion of the people. It is obvious that if the Church promotes an infantile faith that is nurtured by the preaching of a fearful and punishing God, it is not only that this is against the revelation of God in Jesus Christ, but also in the course of time, the churches would become empty as it is happening in Europe!

The preachers emphatically affirm that the misfortunes and misery which the believers suffer are due to the sufferings of their forefathers in purgatory. They would even narrate the visions of some saintly people to support their arguments. They drill into the minds of the believers such false teachings which do not flow from the teachings of the Magisterium of the Church. Since the authorities of the Church do not seem to prevent them from teaching such false doctrines some preachers are emboldened to continue their preaching quoting the texts of the Old Testament concerning God’s punishment due to the offenders visiting their children even to fourth generation.

Old Testament God:  Punishing or Loving God
One may wonder why the preachers of renewal in the retreat centres are fond of citing certain texts like Jeremiah 31:29; Ezekiel 18:2; Job 21:19 or still older texts like Exodus 20:5-6 God’s warning to the chosen people concerning idol worship in the context of the commandments, “You 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 upon the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments”. Such warnings are also found in Exodus 34:7. God “visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” It is said that the best commentary of the Bible is Bible itself. Against a few texts like those referred to as God punishing the children of third or fourth generation for the sins or the iniquity of the parents, one can show about twenty other texts from the Old Testament to show that it is not the case. Old Testament unambiguously reveals that each one is responsible for his or her crimes against God, humanity and the creation.

Ezekiel 18:2-3 says, “What do you mean by repeating this proverb concerning the land of Israel, ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge’? As I live, says the Lord GOD, this proverb shall no more be used by you in Israel.” If this proverb cannot be used in Israel according to God’s command, how dare the preachers of God’s word disobey God and preach such pernicious doctrines in the Church which is the New Israel and frighten the faithful by presenting the image of a fearful God for whatever reason. It was reported that a catholic priest preaching at a retreat centre had the temerity to preach that the mentally challenged children are born for those parents who are immoral in their lives! The erroneous doctrines of such preachers create great fear and trembling among those who have infantile faith. Surprisingly, those who have authority over such preachers do not seem to bother about such erroneous teachings and their heretical preaching is accepted by a large majority of the faithful because of certain miraculous powers attributed to them.

Only Marcion of Sinope (d. 160) taught that the God of the Old Testament is a cruel God who punishes humankind and the God of the New Testament is a loving and compassionate God. The Church condemned such heresies through the writings of the Fathers of the Church. The OT reveals a loving and compassionate God though there are some texts which present the warnings to those who do not follow God’s commandments. Deuteronomy says, “Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love Him and keep His commandments, to a thousand generations” (7:9).The God whom prophets present is a loving God who loves and cares more than a mother does (Is 49:15) and whose affection is lavished on the people like that of a loving father on His children in spite of their offences. “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. The more I called them, the more they went from me; they kept sacrificing to the Baals, and burning incense to idols. Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk, I took them up in my arms; but they did not know that I healed them. I led them with cords of compassion, with the bands of love, and I became to them as one, who eases the yoke on their jaws, and I bent down to them and fed them” (Hos 11:1-4). There are a number of such texts of the OT which reveal God’s infinite love and compassion for the people in spite of their rebellious attitude towards God and their refusal to follow his guidance for their own well-being and redemption.

Individual’s Offences and Its Consequences
Being created in the image and likeness of the Trinitarian God or the absolute communion humans are communitarian by nature. As humans are inter-related as members in a body what happens to one affects all others. The goodness of a person as well as the evil a person does affect the entire community of humanity. This universal truth is clearly seen in the concrete situation of family relationships. If the father of a house is just, generous and compassionate the children also receive respect from the society in which they live. If the father of a family is a murderer or if he commits any crime it affects the good name of the entire family and it may remain for generations. Generations of that family may have to carry the burden of that shame because of the crime on one among them. It is not any punishment of God visiting the following generations but the simple consequences of the crime itself. It is obvious that the biblical authors have extended such a social phenomenon of attributing to the children and the children’s children the guilt and shame of a crime done by their father or grand-father to God’s ways of dealing with humans. However, the Old Testament emphatically states that each one is responsible for his or her sins and offences and God would deal with them individually.

The Biblical revelation affirms that God has given freedom to every human being and everyone is responsible and accountable for his or her attitudes, behaviour, relationships and actions. Though every decision and action of a human being would affect the entire humanity because of human inter-relatedness, each one is responsible for what he or she does. Some examples from the Bible itself shows it. The text from 2Kings says, “ But he did not put to death the children of the murderers; according to what is written in the book of the law of Moses, where the LORD commanded, “The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, or the children be put to death for the fathers; but every man shall die for his own sin.” Or in Jeremiah we read, “But every one shall die for his own sin…” (Jeremiah 31:30). According to Ezekiel 18:20 “The soul that sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father 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.” God “ judges each one impartially according to his deeds” (I Peter 1:17). Every crime has its own punishment and the sufferer is the one who commits the crime. But collateral damage is done to the entire community of humans because every person is in a net-work of relationships.

Fishing in troubled Religious Waters
It is a strange phenomenon that religions seem to thrive and gather more people for worship and other religious activities when the priests and preachers speak more about a punishing God rather than a loving, compassionate and forgiving God.According to human thinking a human person who is offended and angry can be appeased by various means. They apply same logic to humans’ relationship with God. Preachers suggest ways to please God through spiritual and material offerings. And mostly it ends in collecting material offerings.

The problems of relationships faced in the individual and family life, sicknesses caused by modern life-style, superficiality of relationships, craving for securing more money with fewer efforts and investments, desire for more comfortable life and luxury, failures in all aspects of life leading to frustration and anxiety etc., create a fearful and terribly frustrating situation for many people. In this situation an angry and punishing God makes sense to many vulnerable people who are seeking answers for their misery and misfortune. They easily blame the crimes and sins of their forefathers for their present miserable situation and see them as a punishment of God. Some preachers evoke and re-enforce such false beliefs basing their preaching on a few Old Testament texts that seem to support their views. What they preach is not on the merciful and compassionate God revealed through Jesus Christ or taught by the Magisterium of the Church.