Bible Questions with Michael Pearl
Episode 042: Is the teaching of Generational Curses scripturally sound?

Episode Transcription:

Michael Pearl:  All right. We're going to answer some bible questions here, Jared, before I spread this manure.

Jared:  Is teaching generational curses scripturally sound?

Michael:  That teaching got real popular about, what, 30 years ago or something like that? That's another one of those things, that fad doctrines that men think up from time to time. The way you discover that, the way I did, take your Bible and look up "visit the sins upon the children" "visit the sins". Start, type, "Visit the sins", look it up every time it's used in the bible. And if you have a good computer program, bible program, that works better. If you don't, just get your regular, complete Strong's Concordance, look up the word "visit" and look at every time it's used.

What you'll discover is ‑ see the bible has its own, built‑in dictionary. It has parallel passages that can be detected, if you're using a King James Bible, can be detected by taking a common word like "visit" visit the iniquities. And quite a few times, God uses that phrase, and, every single time, what He's talking about is the judgment that comes as a result of the father's sin.

He's not saying that the sin becomes innate or inherent in the child, that there's some kind of residue of evil inclination something... some kind of twist in the character of the child that is passed on genetically through its birth or to the transmission of the soul.

I know where the doctrine comes from. You see a drunk, a slothful drunk, he'll have a son and the son turns out to be a slothful drunk and his son turns out to be a slothful drunk and you get ten generations of slothful drunks. Or you have a man that's an entrepreneur and rich and wealthy and intelligent and his kids are three, four, five, eight, ten, 15 generations. And so people, say, see, those sins of the fathers are passed down to the children.

Oh, no, just look it up in scripture. The sins of the fathers is the result to the third and fourth generation, He said, which is very interesting. In other words, the judgment plays out to the third and fourth generation. You find that true in scripture, in the judgments God brought on the Nation of Israel.

He'd bring judgments on them and after the three or four generations, the judgment would be lifted. That is, the Nation of Israel would sin with idolatry. God would send them into captivity and, after 70 years, three or four birth orders, they would come forth and the judgment would be lifted on the people.

So, there's just no scriptural support for it, if you look at what the scripture actually says, so it actually interprets the phrase, "visit the iniquities." It would be inconsistent with God and His nature, it would be inconsistent with human nature, to suggest that a baby could inherit the propensities to sin, the guilt of sin from his father.

What is it that you think would be ... what change would take place in the father that would end up in his semen that'd be transmitted into the womb of the woman that would make the soul of a child evil? Man, that's weird, that's kind of witchcraft‑type stuff or something, but it's not scriptural, it's not godly, it's not wholesome.

It's a false doctrine and it's something somebody adopted because it's a convenient way of excusing our inability to deal with the sin that's in a child, just blame it on his father and cast his father's devils out of him. Now, that's another subject.

If a child inherits evil spirits from his father, which he can do, he can inherit them from anybody. Certainly, if a man has command over a child, he could inherit his father's devils if, when he grows up, he's compliant with the evil spirits. But that's not about passing, that's not about God bringing this judgment for the sin to the third and fourth generation, that's a totally different matter, it has nothing to do with the issue at hand.

So, go get your Bible and look it up yourself, look up "visit the iniquities." You'll be shocked. The bible's a wonderful book, it answers a lot of questions. It's so plain and simple. Saves us a lot of wondering.

Announcer:  If you would like to ask a Bible question, email us at [email protected] or call at 931‑805‑4820.