After practicing deliverance ministry for at least 20 years, I recently learned that Satan is the author of it.  In fact, he has developed an intricate  curriculum of deliverance beliefs and practices ias a smokescreen to the real truth.  Consequently the "generational curses" doctrine plays an integral part in Satan's agenda so that we will not "come out from under the plagues" .  If you click the title link above, you will read a well written article taken from the website called "Let Us Reason."  The author clearly explains the fallacies within the generaltional curses teaching.

In my 5th book called "Come Out of Her God's People," the title is taken from Revelation 18:4.  The subtitle is also a part of the verse, namely "Don't Receive of Her Plagues."  A plague is a kind of curse.  A plague is what we should really be concerned about.  Here is an exerpt from the 10th chapter

      CHAPTER 10  THE PLAGUES OF IDOLATRY

As both the traditional and the charismatic  church  seek large crowds as its source of ministerial validation, many  have been deceived into believing  that overflowing pews is  evidence or confirmation that the Lord is in the mix. The truth is that sheep who follow crowds have various motives, the most significant reason being a desire to be in "the in crowd." This is the grand deception that keeps the elect committed to a dead work. People who judge success by numbers  of people  assembled in a beautiful sanctuary is a false sign to them that "this MUST be the Lord.  Yet facts prove that man has the brain power to do many great things.  The unsaved world proves this.  If an unsaved superstar can fill a stadium with thousands, so can a mega preacher.

An egocentric generation, most church goers don't seem to realize that Satan has had a seat in the church practically from its inception 20 centuries ago.  Satan's  overall strategy over time has been to release the angels that serve him to gradually yet perpetually tomove church doctrine and practices away from the cross and an understanding of repentance, rebirth, righteousness, and resurrection. Rejecting holiness, the church community in this nation and in several others  are being entertained with singers, dancers, comedians  and choirs to draw and keep the people comforted and satisfied.  The crowd today reject a hard word.  They'd rather watch a Tyler Perry movie.

 In our very hour, churchgoers  who run around claiming that they are blessed are in the hands of the devil even more than the un-churched heathen. Even if the church is salvageable, some of the problems are so deeply entrenched within the overall religious  system that it would need a total renovation from inside out.  I tried to do so myself, but it didn't work.  When  I started a church in 1996, I was  still in the Denomination..  Yet once  out on my own, I realized that the "church"  model was not working at my church  either.          

 So I thought things would work better if I revamped things.  For example, I stopped  a passive bible study where I did  all the work and the people just sit there in front of me.  I used to do four bible studies a week, two in the morning and two at night.  Even those in faithful attendance came to each bible study merely  out of ritual and tradition. So I started requiring each member  to  do an independent study based upon the message that they heard the previous  Sunday.  I asked them to  prepare what they had learned and "tell ME about it".  They were assigned to  prepare questions based upon what they did not understand in the teaching. The response of the members was lukewarm, to say the least.  After trial and much error,  it  finally became clear to me  that no one really wanted to actually study the word of God for themselves.  There goal was simply   to be  found in church. No one prepared anything. In fact, they appeared confused and  annoyed and by their utter passivity, refused to  study the bible on their own.  They were used to being spoon fed and they would have bible study no other way.

The problem is that in spite of all of the various denominations, branches and sects, the organized church is inter-connected and one church really cannot be separated from another. When one suffers, they all suffer.  As the founder and pastor of a church , experientially I know this to be a fact. Church is church, however you slice it. Even when it appears to be working, a close examination will find the same endemic problems from church to church, pastor to pastor, member to member.  The foundation is basically the same and that foundation is not the true Son of God. The foundation is actually the organization itself.

             It seems as if Christian television has tried to compensate for what is missing in the organized church.  Unfortunately, in the  world's system of media communication, preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ is not feasible because ratings are based upon program diversity. For this and other reasons,   mega TV preachers are prone to add to or take away from the pure and simple gospel. On  both radio and television,  Jesus crucified, buried and raised  doesn't play well. For example, Joyce Meyer primarily teaches Christians and rarely does she preach a salvation message.  Consequently, she has untold people who watch her, love her down to earth, practical focus on the joy of living, yet I have heard of  too many homosexual couples say that they love to sit and listen to Joyce together. Church on TV just don't convert and convict of sin.

It bares repeating that according to the prophet Daniel, God will allow His people to be deceived for a season  in the last days so that they may be tried and refined. (Daniel 11:35). In fact, Daniel predicted that the enemy will even prevail. (7:21). Therefore it stands to reason that to measure whether or not a work is from God or Satan's fallen angels based upon various criteria of success or failure according to church standards  is a major mistake.  Certainly the denomination looks down its nose at me, not realizing that my failures with the organized church were divinely designed to refine and purify me for "such a time as this."

After decades of refinement, I have come to understand over time that the worst of all the plagues of the organized church is for faithful churchgoers to assume that they are on the narrow path that leads to eternal life, never to discover in this life that they were actually  on the broad way that leads to damnation.  It's a  shocking reality  to discover that faithful church attendance may have even opened them up to curses and not to the blessings that they either seek or assume that they have by legal right.  For  to presumptuously take for granted ones salvation is very dangerous, to say the least.  It's a horrible thing to believe that you are safe,  when the reality is that you are not safe.  It's beyond my imagination to consider the ramifications of thinking you  in the secret place of the Most High when you are in the lion's den without any help.  It's the worst kind of plague.

It is ironic to note that the very conditions conducive to the pervasive emergence of the plagues of the organized church thrive in Her ability to weaken, distort, misapply and discard Her primary reason for existing, namely, the revelation of both the cross and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  The Lord's words to the first church age in His letter to the church at Ephesus speaks volumes in our time.  She has lost Her first love and in this generation, she is neither sorry nor ashamed.  Just as the Apostle Paul described in his letter to Timothy, men and women of the cloth, inspired by fallen angels who teach, speak lies as if they were truths and they have no conscience.  Subsequently, the plagues are spread by teachers who use scriptures out of context and those who allow denominational traditions to override scripture and make powerless the word of God.

 Paul  also warned the Galatians that anyone who adds to or detracts from the word of God brings a curse or in other words, "a plague" on both the culprits and the victims they teach. To the Galatians, Paul declared it this way, "if any man preach any other gospel, other than what I have preached, let him be cursed." (Galatians Ch.1:9)  Two thousand years have passed since Paul's rather serious proclamation.  I am not an historian, but I would imagine that any church or  religion professing to be Christian that either subtracts or adds to the gospel of Jesus Christ has reaped the fruit of this curse, from one generation to another.  Today, there are countless people who are being oppressed and tormented by demons because they are preaching "another gospel."

Even though I was taught by mega preachers  oppressed  by seducing spirits, I am amazed to find that I have never taught any doctrine that added to or detracted from the bible.  I may have momentarily considered or even practiced  a mixed doctrine myself.  However, by the grace of God, I didn't teach it to others.  For example, I was a faithful tither but I DID not insist that my members tithed nor did I urge them to  give offerings and expect to receive  a 100 fold blessing." I believed in healing but I didn't teach that God ALWAYS heals. I spoke in tongues for more than two decades, but I didn't teach others that they must also speak in tongues.  I fell slain in the spirit, even operated in that practice, yet I stopped laying my hands on people's foreheads  as soon as I became suspicious of the manifestation.

If you have not yet gleaned in the preceding chapters my reason for self disclosure, bluntly put, in the likeness of the prophet Joel, I am blowing the trumpet and sounding the alarm in what I believe to be very close to the last of the last days.  I stand in a unique place because I could not blow the trumpet or sound the alarm while still a part of Zion myself.   I am akin to a whistleblower or a defector from the ordained clergy, bellowing quite loudly with an urgent cry to churchgoers to "COME OUT OF HER, LEST YE RECEIVE OF HER PLAGUES."  To the unchurched, I simply say, "STAY OUT OF HER."

A benefit of longevity is the ability to look back at the past with new insightS that were out of reach in days gone by.  For example, when I consider my youth, undoubtedly I escaped the plagues that lurked in both the spiritual and the natural alleys of inner city life.  Sin, destruction and death set its deadly traps, yet without the shelter of religion or the protection of the organized church, I survived the ghetto unscathed.  Even the allure, domination and control of new age occultism couldn't keep me bound once the cross and the resurrection turned me into a new creation. My three years in the occult were very dangerous.  To say the least, the poltergeist occurrences alone could  have plagued  me with a lifetime of mental illness.  And let's not forget the manifestation of a being who resembled the fallen angel who calls himself "St. Germain" was enough to take anyone "over the edge." Not even seeking after God or the church, the Holy Ghost  still sought me out.  Not only did I escape occultism, I became born again.

Yet the biggest shock to both myself and Satan is that I was able to escape the organized church.  By now, the perceptive reader has come to realize that fallen angels have fought long and hard for 25 years, to obtain jjust enough ground in me to keep me perpetually deceived.  With every little bit of counterfeit guidance, manifestations of various chills and thrills to my body, whispers in my itching ears ever so softly, the religious demon thought that he had firmly secured his ground.  The beauty of the strategy is that without much effort  on the demons part, both my faith and my sincerity kept the deception alive.

The chief avenue of attack was directed toward building a solid, impregnable bridge between my natural propensity toward signs and wonders and a busy, intersecting freeway of clever counterfeits of the divine presence and operations of God.  Seemed foolproof.  By means of subtle suggestions, frequent and constant dreams, a few key visions, and outstanding prophecies of a future ministry lodged in my mind, I personally validated the overall deception by my own assumption that "it all was from God."

So how did I escape?  The road to freedom was as Jesus said.  My love for the truth consistently and continually shut down each and every road that led to the deception. First and most important, I faced truth about myself.  I did as James advised.  I resisted the devil by humbling myself and defeating personal pride. Moving  toward freedom began by  searching through my memory for  every supernatural experience that I have had in 32 years.  As each experience proved to have been sent to me by the deception of a fallen angel, I denounced it.  When I saw that my ministerial name had been inspired by a prophecy sent to me by a fallen angel, I  not only renounced the name I used for 25 years, I  no longer even repeat its name from my lips.  When I discovered that sermonizing is both human and demonic and not divine, I stopped delivering sermons. When I discovered that a fallen angel called me into deliverance ministry, I set casting out demons aside until I could find some more answers

As it stands, once I realized that I had been duped, I rejected all things supernatural including my own soul power.  For example, when I sleep at night, I've learned to place a stop sign that acts as a roadblock to the supernatural activities of my own soul.  Very few dreams get through my "roadblock."  On rare occasions, when a communication gets through, I will my mind to forget it and when I wake up, its gone.  The demons then find someone they can use to speak through to get their message across.  These human channels unknowingly come to me, sending me demonic messages. I've been known to  silently respond with a "get thee behind me Satan."

  Where my ministry was concerned, on July 8, 2007,   I was shown that those who assembled in the church I founded had been living two lives: a Christian face before me when we assembled and a worldly face at home, on the job and in the local community.  I  shut the church  down on July 8^th, 2007. However, members continued to assemble in the house of my assistant pastor.  I attended, but I did not preach or teach.  It took two years, but my assistant pastor finally  came to realize that I was right.  There was no fruit for Christ among us.

There are many who practice  a professing Christian religion who live under a curse because they have either added to  or taken away from the gospel of Jesus Christ.  I have found from our studies that demons are having a field day with professing Catholics, Mormons,(Latter Day Saints) Jehovah Witnesses, Coptics, Christian Scientists and others.  When you profess to be a Christian yet Jesus is not Lord and the Holy Spirit is not God in your  so called Christian faith, demons will use this fact against you as an occasion to rule in your life.  The demons will be successful because you are practicing a religion that has "added to the gospel." Others who claim to believe in Jesus Christ associate themselves with cultish groups such as freemasonry or participate in occult practices that are directly or even indirectly linked  to the religious rights of non-Christian religions, ie. yoga, transcendental meditation, chanting, reincarnation and the like. In fact, some mainline denominational churches are rapidly embracing what is now called "Christian Yoga."

Demons will bow at the name of Jesus Christ of Nazereth even among the heathen,--- those who have never believed on Him.  Why?  Because David declared it this way in Psalm 2.  When Jesus Christ was raised from the dead, the Father turned to Him and said "Ask of me anything. and I will give to You, My Son, the heathen for your inheritance."  I believe that Jesus asked the Father to give Him the heathen.  So if you are lost and do not have the Lord in your life, Jesus Christ is still your God, whether you believe in Him or not.  The problem for you, though, is that even though He has you, you cannot receive Him until the Holy Ghost draws you to the cross and you repent as an unclean sinner.  And since "you do not have Jesus", demons  will wipe up the dirty streets of the world with you and those assigned to you will destroy you, despite of the fact that Jesus owns you. 

 Since Jesus is the one with the keys to hell and death, He will be the one who will incarcerate you in hell for eternity in spite of the fact that He died for you. In fact, I can cast demons from you today and they WILL come out in fear of His name.  Even so,  Jesus said that they  will come back with a fury seven fold stronger than your original state if you do not receive Him as your Lord. (Matthew 12:45)   The good news of the gospel is that we can set you free in the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth also. In fact, it is easier to set the heathen free from a non-religious demon  than those who are worshipping a false "so called Christian"  god. Those who have experienced His power in setting them free will most often bow to His Lordship and become truly saved.

A word of warning.  Just because you have not yet felt the ramifications of a plague, does NOT mean that you have escaped it.  It may manifest at the end of your life or even in the lives of your children and grandchildren.  For example, freemasonry in the church is a major example of how the Fake Jesus has established a seat in countless organized churches.  In fact, many of the  mainline denominations were even founded by practicing freemasons, with freemasons in the pulpits yet today.  I suggest that you read a rather understandable and concise teaching from an internet article found at www.saintsalive.com/freemasonry/fmwitchcraft.htm  Here is an excerpt.  "The Masonic temple is a temple of witchcraft!  There is no doubt about that.  Veiled within its symbols are the deities and even the working tools of witchcraft!  The blazing star at the center of the lodge is the witch's pentagram, symbol of the god of Satanism, Set.  The letter "G" stands for generativity, sexual potency."

Religious and witchcraft demons  are not easy to cast out because they require the captive to disavow the actions of not only their church families but also their own personal family.  Most captives refuse to do so and as a consequence, they shall remain bound.  Even so, what is impossible with man is possible with God.  What you need to know is that God will give you grace, but as James points out, God resists the proud. As you draw near to God through the humility of repentance, you can   cleanse your own hands if you will disavow both your Christian church and those family members who have transgressed through the practice of freemasonry and other forms of witchcraft that have either added to or taken away from the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Such an admonition is made to those who enter every church who has added to or taken away from the gospel.  For example, those in the word of faith movement have been adding to and taking away from the gospel for the last 3 decades with the prosperity gospel, name it and claim it, and countless other doctrines and teachings. Denominational churches are known for accepting freemasonry, yoga, and forms of worship that counterfeit the Holy Ghost.  If you have "been there and done that," I warn you that the curse is near you.  So draw near to God by humbling yourself and admitting your error, and God will give you grace and lift you up out of your bondage. ( James Chapter 4)

 At the present time, I need power to remove the veil of confusion and blindness that is causing churchgoers to be deceived into worshiping the Fake Jesus..  I need  God's power to draw people who are in bondage to religious angels---people trained in false doctrine and idolatry. The enemy's mission is  certainly moving toward its culmination. Yet even though I believe that fallen angels have empowered thousands of  churches and ministries that preach prosperity to the exclusion of the gospel of Jesus Christ, my biblical understanding tells me that those who are a part of the remnant in the last days shall  be  totally immersed in God's power and therefore it is imperative that the elect  be able to discern what is truly of Him from the supernatural manifestations of fallen angels. Since a  remnant is a piece of an old garment,  I suspect that implicit in the word's meaning is a symbolic message that the last generation of believers shall be as empowered as the first one was, for they are cut from the same cloth.

If you have gleaned anything from my testimony thus far, you should now realize that no one can really demonstrate God's power with his own goodness, human wisdom or intelligence. The truth is that there is no therapy, no method, no 12 steps, no approach or technique that can contend with the might and strength of the devil and his fallen angels.  The Bible records in Acts 10:38 "how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power, who went about doing good and healing ALL that were oppressed of the devil, because God the Father was with Him." If God was with Jesus and the remnant are with Jesus and Jesus IS God the Son, then wherever the remnant go, God is going with them.

 That  is why I had to examine myself, seek the Lord's face, cry out in prayer for Him to "expose the darkness that surrounds me."  And He did so.  I backed up and fell prostrate before Him.  I  backed up with my  intelligence, my personality my charm, my  human wisdom and human know how, with my opinions, interpretations   and perceptions because all these things are human power and human power is NO POWER against the devil.  In fact, all the devil was doing was mocking me when my healings failed, when the demons I thought were cast out were still there. When the word I preached of righteousness and holiness fell on wayside, thorny and stony ground.  It was a sheer mockery.

The bottom line is that any faith that does not preach the gospel of Jesus Christ as presented in the bible is participating in the worship of Satan in a different form.  You may not be drawing a pentagram and having a black mass, but you might as well.  You are not worshipping the Father.  The devil has tricked you into worshipping him with false doctrine. People in religious bondage cannot be drawn by human wisdom. We can't even draw them by arguing the scriptures.  I look at the advice that was written to Titus Ch 3:9.  "Avoid foolish disputes, genealogies, contentions and strivings about the law.  They are unprofitable and they are useless."  It is useless to come against people about their faith with arguments and disputes--- trying to persuade them that Jesus is the only way.  What we have to do is demonstrate who Jesus is and that Jesus is in us and that Jesus  is alive.

My testimony has evolved as I have picked up my cross and followed Jesus.  If I have learned anything at all, I have learned that in order to demonstrate power,  I must die daily---in other words, be crucified with Christ, and thereby allow Him to live out His life through me.  Crucifixion comes before resurrection.  Resurrection is the demonstration of power.  Crucifixion is realizing that as a human being, I have nothing that I can use to serve God with that is going to be useful against the devil.  Not  by human power.  Not by human might or strength but by My Spirit, saith the Lord.!  My personality cannot do it.  My charisma cannot do it.  My human ability cannot do it.  Paul was one of the most educated men of his day.  But when we look at the text, Paul wrote to the Corinthians, he exclaimed,  "I didn't come to you in my human wisdom.  I didn't come with my human abilities.  But I came to you demonstrating the power of God."

Beside preaching the gospel so that the Holy Spirit can convict and convert, the most important responsibility of the church of Jesus Christ  is to tend the sheep.  Jesus was very particular about the mandate of safety and protection  when He revealed to the Apostle Peter that the best way a minister can demonstrate love for Him is not only to   feed but to tend them.  To feed is to teach, nurture and guide but to tend is to protect from all harm and danger, particularly from the wolves. Consequently, when the  organize church can not protect its own people, both the babes , then this clear and convincing evidence that a plague is in operation.

My own case is a glaring example of the plague in operation.  A babe in Christ with serious background in new age occultism, what do I find operative in my first church with my first pastor?  Charismatic witchcraft.  Church should be a place where a babe in Christ can learn to walk in the spirit and to not fulfill the lust of his or her flesh.  What did I find?  Preachers operating as sexual predators.  One non-denominational preacher opened my eyes to the fact that my occult practices of necromancy, channeling, astrology and reincarnation were of the devil, yet that same man introduced me to the charismatic teachings of the non-denominational churches, which are also simply another form of witchcraft. A root in dry ground, I thank God that when I walked into church doors for the first time, I was already saved.

My case aside,  I observed the plagues operate within the Denomination from the very beginning. In fact,  I have forgotten more instances of tragedy  that befell Sojourner Truth members and even pastors than I can remember today. In most cases, the suffering seemed almost an embarrassment  for people who are supposed to have   a covenant with God.  I couldn't understand it.  Most of the people  simply repeated the same ole platitudes of " who can know God?  We'll all understand bye and bye."

 The first one who stood out for me was Brother Tommy.  Tommy belonged to a prominent family who were among the founding  members of Sojourner Truth.  A married man, Tommy tried to be discrete but it was well known in the church that he  constantly "played around." However, his sins didn't keep him out of the pulpit for his ability in congregate prayer made room for him not only in the Denomination but in several churches in the region.  Even the ministers could not compete with Tommy.  The man  worked himself up--- supposedly "in the Holy Ghost,"  to such an extent that  the entire   congregation went  into  a frenzy. By the time Tommy  finished the prayer,  he was soaking wet with sweat. By then, practically  the entire congregation had already   leaped up off of the pews, shouting, dancing and falling out  in the aisles. Even the ministers respected Tommy's praying ability.   Everyone automatically assumed  that Tommy was  simply anointed and called by God to preach. However, when frequently asked by others if he was going to enter the ministry, Tommy vehemently responded in the negative.

On the day Tommy died, his girlfriend dreamt that he knocked at her door but when she went to open it, no one was  there.  Others had similar dreams. It was rather eerie, to say the least. The last time I saw Tommy was in church that Sunday morning.  I was sitting in the pulpit along with the pastor of the church, and I watched Tommy nervously looking for his eyeglasses which apparently he had lost.  After midnight, Tommy was found crushed between two  huge machines at his job while working  the midnight shift.  No one found him and he died a slow and  painful death. I remember thinking, "to lose one's glasses is symbolic of spiritual blindness."  Tommy's mother was  one of the old mothers, a pillar of the church, and she too died an unseemly death.  Old and mentally challenged, Sistah Clarkson went out blaspheming and cussing from her nursing home bed.

Yet there were so many others who suffered weird and unusual circumstances that I  noted in my mind seemed  strange to be happening to God's people.  It didn't dawn on me then that perhaps these  were not really God's people but that they were either worshiping the Fake Jesus by ignorance or that they were reprobate imposters, un- concerned about sin. I can remember a time when I was drawn into the case  of a dying member with a brain tumor.  I had a dream that she would be healed and live to see the birth of a grandchild.  To encourage Sister Perry I told her the dream.  She smiled and looked puzzled because all of her children, except one daughter, were homosexual.  Yet  a few days later, Siste Perry was astonished to learn that one of her gay sons had very recently  impregnated a young woman. Now confident that my dream  was frp, God, I went forth and laid hands on Sister Perry.  She died a few weeks later.

In retrospect, clearly Satan mocked both of us by  sending me a supernatural  sign to instill false hope.  Shortly after her death, I was informed that Sister Perry had gone to a root worker to seek a healing. Not sure whether she had done so before or after my dream, I rationalized that God intended to heal her but that Sister Perry shortened  her own life by seeking the services of the idolater.  Perhaps.  Yet I can't help but remember how mocked I felt. It was like the demons were actually laughing in my face. No excuse could hold water. Without a doubt, that  dream came from the enemy bent on  mocking  us both, and to make me look and feel  like a fool. Shortly after her death, Sister Perry's husband slept with her best friend and there was much scandal about it.  Sister Perry's husband remained  an alcoholic up until his own  recent death.  Their sons have remained  homosexuals.  Even the one who married and had several more children has maintained an effeminate appearance over the years.

I could actually write a book not only about the Denomination's members, but I also witnessed  similar cases among the Pentecostals, including but not limited to  mental health breakdowns, criminal convictions, strange diseases and  other unusual plagues.  Close to home, in spite of my faithfulness as a pastor, I also observed signs of the plague among members of my own congregation. For example, as much as I tried to stop it, some of my members were predators. For example, if a drug addict were to visit my church for the first time, he would not be safe from those in the congregation who tried to cover up their own problem.

    Certainly all  babes in Christ need someone to feed them the word of God.  They need to be able to ask  personalized questions and receive answers relevant and specific to their needs.  Even a Christian talk show can be deceiving because people who are untrained and unskilled in the word of God will take the advice they hear sent to a particular caller, and improperly apply it to their own particular situation.  After I was saved and still a babe in Christ, I fed myself off of the tapes of  Kenneth Copeland, Kenneth Hagin, Fred Price and several others.   I pumped one tape after another into my head.  I misapplied the scriptures on faith to some real life situations where if I had had a  personal teacher, I could have learned a lot quicker and avoided the pitfalls. Instead, I took  what these preachers taught out of context,  and wrongfully applied  their teachings  to my own life. 

Along these lines, TV preachers cannot answer personal questions.  As clear as I myself  tried  to keep it simple  when I preached in my own church, invariably, someone misread or misinterpreted  my teachings.   To counteract this problem,  anyone who wanted to contact me by email or by phone to ask me a question about something that I taught could  do so. However, with an emphasis on a continual increase in church membership, the average pastor does not devote his time to the needs of the individual.

I truly hope that I am wrong but historical evidence that I laid out in "The Fake Jesus" suggests to me that the damage done over  centuries  by  previous generations is beyond repair.  Sin is  now so intrinsic that it is almost impossible for the organized church on a whole  to repent.

Generational Curses

"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, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments." (Exodus 20:5,6)

"Know therefore that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His lovingkindness to a thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments; but repays those who hate Him to their faces, to destroy them; He will not delay with him who hates Him, He will repay him to his face." (Deuteronomy 7:9,10)

Oftentimes when a passage is unclear it is used to support false teachings. Because when many Christians are unsure of the meaning of a passage, they are less able to discern erroneous teaching based on the verses in question. This is surely the case for the popular teaching on generational curses that is based on the Biblical passages cited above. Many popular books published in the last thirty years claim that Christians are subjected to unknown generational curses that have detrimental effects on their lives. The writers of the books offer their special knowledge that can break the curses.

In this article we will examine the Old Testament passages about generational curses. By careful exegesis centering around the whole counsel of God, we shall show that these passages do not support the idea that Christians are cursed because of the sins of their parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents. We shall also make it clear that these verses do not teach that demons have the right or ability to inhabit Christians because of generational curses nor that Satan has the right to inflict curses upon Christians because of ancestral sins. On the contrary, Christians have the "blessing of Abraham" because of their relationship to Christ.

The Sins of the Fathers

The first passage in the Bible that mentions God's warning about the consequences of idolatry affecting the third and fourth generation is found in the Decalogue (the Ten Commandments). It says "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" (Exodus 20:5b). This is a warning about the grave consequences of worshiping other gods. The Old Testament record is replete with such warnings as well as narrative passages that describe the horrible consequences of idolatry in the life of Israel. Even this warning is tempered with a greater promise of God's mercy: "But showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments" (verse 6). This will be important to our understanding of the second commandment and similar passages.

At Sinai, God entered into a covenant relationship with Israel and took her to be His own people. They were to honor that covenant from their hearts, by loving God and obeying Him. Worshiping other gods was covenant-breaking in its worst form, analogous to spiritual adultery. They were persistently warned of the consequences of such behavior, yet it was all too common. The consequences would even mean that God would "visit the iniquities to the third and fourth generation." What does this mean? On the surface it appears that God would punish the children and grandchildren for sins that they did not personally commit. But Deuteronomy 24:16 provides  good reason to reject this interpretation: "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." Later we shall examine Ezekiel 18 which deals with this issue in more detail.

Biblical scholars have pointed out that if the children turn to God they shall avert this punishment. For example, John Calvin commented about Exodus 20:5 that, "[W]hen God declares that He will cast back the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of the children, He does not mean that He will take vengeance on poor wretches who have never deserved anything of the sort; but that He is at liberty to punish the crimes of the fathers upon their children and descendants, with the proviso that they too may be justly punished, as being imitators of their fathers.¹ Contemporary Old Testament scholar Walter Kaiser writes, "Children who repeat the sins of their fathers evidence it in personally hating God."² Kaiser takes "those who hate Me" to apply to the children as well as the fathers. The children themselves carry on with hating God as shown by their continued idolatry and covenant breaking. God is just and merciful and nothing in this passage suggests otherwise.

Jewish scholars make several interesting points concerning the sins of the fathers being visited to the third and fourth generations. One is based on this passage in Jeremiah:

'Ah Lord God! Behold, Thou hast made the heavens and the earth by Thy great power and by Thine outstretched arm! Nothing is too difficult for Thee,  who showest lovingkindness to thousands, but repayest the iniquity of fathers into the bosom of their children after them, O great and mighty God. The Lord of hosts is His name; great in counsel and mighty in deed, whose eyes are open to all the ways of the sons of men, giving to everyone according to his ways and according to the fruit of his deeds; (Jeremiah 32:17-10)

Here is a Jewish interpretation of this passage: "Perhaps the strongest Scriptural support for the interpretation that ?poqed 'avon abot 'al banim' [visits the iniquities of fathers on sons] applies only to children who continue the sinful ways of their father has been brought from Jeremiah 32:18-19. There, in two consecutive verses, the prophet cites God's attribute of cross-generational reward and punishment immediately followed by the principle of individual accountability."³

There is another mention of this principle in a passage that suggests that the key point is God's mercy, not His wrath. In this following section of Torah, God shows His great power through His mercy and pardon, with reference to the idea of the third and fourth generation:

"But now, I pray, let the power of the Lord be great, just as Thou hast declared, 'The Lord is slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generations.'  Pardon, I pray, the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of Thy lovingkindness, just as Thou also hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now." So the Lord said, "I have pardoned them according to your word." (Numbers 14:17-20)

What is so interesting here is that Moses cited the passage from the second commandment that warned about the consequences on the third and fourth generation when pleading for mercy and pardon from the Lord. This is strong evidence that Moses himself considered the passage to show a limitation on God's wrath and evidence of His mercy. Some Jewish scholars have seen it this way: Some have interpreted the concept of cross-generational retribution as associated with God's mercy. In Numbers 14:18 Moshe cites this characteristic of God in his prayer for forgiveness. This may be understood as asking God in His mercy to postpone punishment to later generations, to allow the present generation the opportunity to mend their ways or at least to keep the Covenant alive.⁴

As a matter of fact, in the case of those who came out of Egypt, God judged the parents for idolatry and unbelief, but it was the children who actually entered the promised land.⁵ God showed great patience with His chosen people. Rather than wipe out the unbelieving and idolatrous generation that grumbled in the wilderness, God allowed them to live and raise their children, so that the promise would be kept alive through a future generation that would be faithful to the covenant.  As we shall see, God's mercy goes much farther than his wrath.

Showing Lovingkindness to Thousands

Another passage that mentions this warning is Exodus 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 lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness 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 often miss the contrast in both the Exodus 20 passage and the one here between God's greater love and mercy that tempers His just punishment of sin. These verses in Exodus 34:6,7 emphasize this. The "third and fourth generation" is a limitation on God's punishment in the context of His greater mercy.

The context of this section of Exodus 34 is God revealing Himself to Moses on mount Sinai. What God said about Himself here was so important in His self-revelation to His covenant people that is was often restated, like a creed. What was oft repeated was this: "The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth."⁶ This became so much impressed on the minds of the Jews that even Jonah, when he wished to see the Ninevites destroyed because of his hatred for them, repeated this concept. Here is how Jonah responded after the blood-thirsty, pagan Assyrians (Israel's enemies) repented after hearing Jonah's preaching and were saved from God's wrath:

"But it greatly displeased Jonah, and he became angry. And he prayed to the Lord and said, "Please Lord, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore, in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that Thou art a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity." (Jonah 4:1,2)

This came right from God's revelation of Himself to Moses in Exodus 34. Even the reluctant preacher Jonah knew that what was promised was not that the children would be destroyed without recourse unto the third and fourth generations, but that God was more willing to show mercy because of His gracious and compassionate nature. Jonah was right to expect that God would show mercy, and the events proved this correct.

Consider the fact that the Assyrians, whose capital city was Nineveh, were well known in the ancient world for their viciousness and brutality. They were Israel's greatest enemies for a good part of her history from the divided kingdom to just before the Babylonian captivity. They were polytheistic idolaters. Yet Jonah, when called by God to preach the imminence of Gods wrath, ran from his call. The reason, as shown in Jonah 4:1,2, was that Jonah knew that the only reason God was sending him to preach to the pagan enemies was because God was intending to show them mercy. Jonah did not want that. These Ninevites who repented clearly had evil ancestors. Their parents and grandparents had hated the God of Israel and made the Jews their enemies. Yet God forgave them when they repented. His wrath was forestalled. That this special theology lesson from the mouth of Jonah came from Exodus 34:6 should tell us a lot about the meaning of the passage. God could have justly destroyed Nineveh. He chose to show His mercy.

The contrast between "thousands" and "third and fourth" shows the greatness of God's mercy and grace. His lovingkindness extends far beyond His just punishment of sin. The text says, "He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished." In the context this shows that no one should presume upon Gods lovingkindness (hesed in Hebrew, one of the most important words in the Old Testament about God's nature). If someone was to think that because God is long suffering, slow to anger, and merciful, then there is no reason to concern one's self with loving God and keeping covenant, that person would find out that God will visit the iniquity to the third and fourth generation. No child can assume covenant benefits solely on the ground of his father's faith.

Calvin also comments on this in his commentary on the second commandment: "We must, however, observe, that in these words grace is not promised severally to all the posterity of the saints, as if God were bound to each individual who may derive their race and origin from them. There were many degenerate children of Abraham, to whom it profited nothing that they were called offspring of the holy patriarch."⁷ Calvin, commenting on the contrast between the thousands and the third and fourth generations, states that, "He extends His mercy further than the severity of His judgment."⁸ The warning in these passages, however, is to not presume on covenant blessings based on ancestry or ancestral promises. God punishes covenant breakers who thereby show that they hate Him.

God Repays Those who Hate Him

There is a passage in Deuteronomy that sheds light on these passages in Exodus because it also mentions God's mercy to thousands, as well as His justice: "Know therefore that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His lovingkindness to a thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments; but repays those who hate Him to their faces, to destroy them; He will not delay with him who hates Him, He will repay him to his face" (Deuteronomy 7:9,10). Deuteronomy is Moses' "sermon" to Israel before his death. In this book he brings the people face to face with all the implications of their covenant relationship with God. In this passage we see Moses applying terminology from the second commandment which had been reiterated in Deuteronomy 5:9,10.

To love God is the primary requirement of the Law, as was emphasized in Deuteronomy 6:5. To "hate" God in the context of covenant terminology was to reject the covenant and God as a covenant partner.⁹ Concerning the phrase "to the face" in this passage, Eugene Merrill states that, "This expression occurs only here and probably means that the judgement would not be reserved for unborn generations but would fall immediately upon those who had sinned in this manner, right there and then."¹⁰ Otherwise, the Israelites would misunderstand the 2nd commandment to mean that the children would be punished for the father's sins and the ones who sinned would escape. This verse says that those who reject the covenant (hating God) and refuse to love Him would bear their own immediate punishment. Although the third and fourth generations are not mentioned in Deuteronomy 7:9,10, the wording of "a thousandth generation" brings to mind the previous passages. This interpretation gives weight to what Calvin and Kaiser said, that it is the haters of God themselves who are punished, not children who refuse to participate in their parent's sins.

The Parent's Sour Grapes

This brings to mind the teaching of Ezekiel 18. Evidently the second commandment was misused later in Israel's history to claim that God was unjustly punishing righteous children for the sins of unrighteous parents. The complaint took this form: "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'"? (Ezekiel 18:2). The people in Ezekiel's day had reason to so misinterpret this commandment because they were the generation that was living during the Babylonian captivity. This captivity happened after many generations of idolatry and the warnings of many prophets. Ralph Alexander comments that, "They reasoned that the present generation was being judged because of the past wickedness of their forefathers."¹¹

It is likely that the sour grapes proverb expressed a misuse of the warning attached to the second commandment of the Decalogue. Alexander argues that this was the case and explains what he believes to be the proper understanding of it:

This principle of the Decalogue teaches that children would be affected by their father's sin. . . . Parents model for their children. The sinful behavior of parents is readily followed by their children. Regrettably, therefore, children frequently found themselves practicing the same sinful acts as their father. Likewise they must accept the same just punishment for such actions. However, each child is still individually responsible. He can abort the "sin-punishment-inheritance" progression at any time. But he must repent and do what is right.¹²

The point of the captivity was to purge Israel of pagan idolatry that was covenant breaking in its worse form. The second commandment forbade this pagan practice. The Israelites of the captivity, rather than complaining of being unjustly punished because it was their parents who were the idolaters, are urged to return to the Lord in covenant faithfulness, and thus "live." There is to be no fatalistic interpretation of the principle of the third and fourth generation.

Ezekiel made this very explicit: "Yet you say, ?Why should the son not bear the punishment for the father's iniquity?' When the son has practiced justice and righteousness, and has observed all My statutes and done them, he shall surely live. 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" (Ezekiel 18:19,20). This chapter of Ezekiel concludes with a call to repent and live. The point was that those who were in captivity because of the nation's rebellious ways, could still be blessed if they turned to the Lord in faith. Some, like Daniel, did and the Lord brought a remnant out of captivity.

One of the most beautiful prayers in the Bible is that of Daniel in Daniel 9. Daniel exhibited the complete opposite attitude to those who were complaining by use of the sour grapes proverb. Though Daniel himself refused to succumb to the pagan idolatry that was all around him in Babylon, he realized that God's purposes were at work in the captivity. He read in the prophet Jeremiah that the captivity was to last 70 years (Daniel 9:2), so he began to pray as the time for release approached. He confessed both God's justice and mercy:

And I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed and said, "Alas, O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and lovingkindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments, we have sinned, committed iniquity, acted wickedly, and rebelled, even turning aside from Thy commandments and ordinances. . . . Righteousness belongs to Thee, O Lord, but to us open shame, as it is this day__ to the men of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and all Israel, those who are nearby and those who are far away in all the countries to which Thou hast driven them, because of their unfaithful deeds which they have committed against Thee. Open shame belongs to us, O Lord, to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, because we have sinned against Thee. To the Lord our God belong compassion and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against Him." (Daniel 9:4,5,7-9)

Daniel had the correct understanding of their covenant relationship to the Lord and His self-revealed nature. Though captive in Babylon because of Israel's long history of idolatry and rebellion, Daniel saw God as righteous, compassionate and forgiving. Yes God had visited the sins of the fathers, just as He said would, but Daniel found great mercy and blessing because of his own faith in God. Nothing any of his ancestors did, as sinful as it was, kept Daniel from having a humble attitude of faith and trust. Daniel was blessed in spite of external suffering because of the sins of previous generations.

Ezekiel 18 lays to rest any notion that the "visiting of the iniquities to the third and fourth generation" removed responsibility from anyone. Those who rebelled against God come under the curses of the covenant. Those who humbly trust God, by faith, shall be blessed no matter what their ancestors did. Also, God's continued faithfulness to His covenant promises is never ultimately thwarted by man. God had promised Abraham that through his seed, all the families of the earth would be blessed (Genesis 12:3). That many of Abraham's children ended up putting themselves under a curse because of their own idolatry does not thwart God's plan to bring forth blessed children of Abraham.

This principle of covenant blessing and individual responsibility is also shown in God's covenant promises to David. The term "visit" in regard to sins is used in Psalm 89:

My lovingkindness I will keep for him forever, And My covenant shall be confirmed to him. So I will establish his descendants forever, And his throne as the days of heaven. If his sons forsake My law, And do not walk in My judgments, If they violate My statutes, And do not keep My commandments, Then I will visit their transgression with the rod, And their iniquity with stripes. But I will not break off My lovingkindness from him, Nor deal falsely in My faithfulness. My covenant I will not violate, Nor will I alter the utterance of My lips. Once I have sworn by My holiness; I will not lie to David. (Psalm 89:29-35)

As we see in Ezekiel 18, this Psalm confirms God's justice in His dealings. God made an unconditional promise to David that he would have a son whose throne and kingship would last forever (see 2Samuel 7:13,14; Isaiah 9:7; Jeremiah 33:15-21). Between the time of David and the fulfillment of this promise through Messiah, David would have many unfaithful sons (meaning descendants). The passage in Psalm 89 says they will be punished, but God's covenant with David would continue. Covenant blessing does not offer comfort to rebels and idolaters. But God will be faithful and raise up a person (Messiah) and a people (those who put their trust in God through Messiah) who will be truly blessed.

The Key to Blessing

To summarize the Old Testament material, we can say that the passages about the "third and fourth generation" show a limitation on Gods judgement, since they are mentioned in the context of His lovingkindness shown to thousands. The key to blessing was to be in right covenant relationship with God. This meant putting ones faith and trust in God alone, and loving Him alone as the One who had chosen them. Whenever this was the case, even in a situation such as Daniel's where the external affects of the rebellion of previous generations was all around him, God's blessing is still there. However, for those rebellious sons who may want to claim covenant blessing based on their genetic relationship to the patriarchs, they can expect to be repaid "to their faces." They shall bear the punishment and curse for their own idolatrous ways.

Now we can look at what the New Testament says about the matter of blessing and cursing and put to rest the false teachings that are being perpetrated on many Christians who are being told they are suffering from "generational curses" even though they know Jesus Christ as Lord and trust His finished work for their salvation. In Galatians 3:8 Paul quoted Genesis 12:3 to prove that God justifies Gentiles by faith. He then says, "So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer. For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, ?Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, to perform them'" (Galatians 3:9,10). Paul was warning the Galatians that to try to find blessing by going back to the stipulations of the old covenant (circumcision in particular) was to put one's self under a curse. The true blessing is obtained by faith, which was true in the Old Testament also as shown in the faith of Abraham.

Again the issue comes down to covenant faithfulness. For Christians, under the New Covenant, our blessing is because of the love and trust relationship we have with God through Jesus Christ. Paul goes on to say this, "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us__ for it is written, ?Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree' -- in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith" (Galatians 3:13,14). If you have been regenerated as are all who have true faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, then you are inheriting the blessings of God and are delivered from the curse of the Law. The cause of the curse is sin. God Himself pronounced the curse. God's wrath must be appeased. Christs substitutionary death on the cross has appeased God's wrath against sin for all believers and has removed the curse. We are blessed "sons of Abraham."

Just as in the Old Testament, our physical ancestry is not the issue. John the Baptist told the religious leaders of his day that since God can raise up "sons of Abraham" from stones if necessary, their claim to blessing through genetic descent was not going to avail (Matthew 3:9). Likewise, people who have nothing going for them through their ancestors (pagan Gentiles) can receive covenant blessings if they put their hope and trust in God through Messiah, the true "seed" of Abraham. Even if our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents were atheists, occultists and blasphemers, God will pour out the full blessings of the New Covenant upon us if we truly come to Him through the cross.

On the other hand, those who put their trust in man (Jeremiah 17:5) are cursed. That is the essence of the Galatian heresy. By putting people back under a system of works, the false teachers would surely put them under the curse of the law. The Biblical teaching on this is very clear and it holds from Genesis through Revelation. Those who trust God (Jeremiah 17:7) are blessed.

False Teachings on Curses

With what we have learned from this study of the Scriptures, it will not be difficult to see the error of contemporary teachings on generational curses. They uniformly claim that putting one's faith in Christ alone does not break these curses. Something more is necessary. It is this "something more" that refutes everything that Bible says about the matter and makes these teachings insidious. Both the Galatian and Colossian heresies were similar in that they claimed "something more" (in the one case works, and in the other special knowledge and religious experiences) had to be added to the finished work of Christ for Christians to have fulness or to be pleasing to God. Modern false teachers promote the same errors.

For example, Neil Anderson teaches, based on the Exodus 20:4-5, that demons are passed from generation to generation and that these demons have ground in the lives of Christians because of generational sins.¹³ To get the curse of these demonic strongholds out of their lives, Christians supposedly need to find out what they are, use utterances (called "prayers" in the book) to break them, and need counselors with special knowledge of these things if they are severe cases.¹⁴ The words that are to be repeated are provided, including, "I cancel out all demonic working that has been passed on to me from my ancestors. . ."¹⁵

These utterances (I would call them "incantations") sound very pious and references to Christ and the cross are even given. However, there are obvious problems. One is that Exodus 20:4,5 said nothing about Satan or demons. It was God who promised to punish covenant breakers. Another problem is that according to Colossians 2 we are already complete in Christ (verse 10) and that the principalities and powers that dominated us before we met Christ were disarmed through the cross. The reason was that the true power they had over us, our sinfulness in respect to God's law, was taken away. Neil Anderson teaches that the demons have strongholds in our lives as Christians until we gain knowledge and command the evil spirits to go. These spirits supposedly have their places in us because of ancestral sins. Let me point out a problem with this: if the cross is the basis of victory, which Anderson admits, then why would God leave us in demonic bondage after we come to know Jesus through the cross? That is, unless we gain revelation knowledge and say the right prayers and utterances. This is the Colossian heresy all over again. We supposedly need Christ plus knowledge and some religious process to gain victory over the forces that are deemed to stand between us and "completeness" in Christ.¹⁶

Another teacher who has written a popular book on spiritual curses is Derek Prince. He also quotes Exodus 20 to show that generational curses are operating in the lives of Christians.¹⁷ He writes:

A person who comes from such a background is heir to a curse that may be compared to a weed planted in his life, linking him to satanic forces outside himself. This weed has two kinds of roots: one long tap root going straight downward, and other less powerful lateral roots. The tap root represents the influence of ancestors who worshiped false gods.¹⁸

It is true that the Bible calls occult activity a serious sin and that God does judge idolaters and occult practitioners. The problem arises when we are told that coming to Christ under the terms of the new covenant still leaves these curses operating in our lives unless something more is done.

This is the trap Prince falls into. He writes, "Before he can enjoy true liberty and the fullness of the new creation in Christ, this weed must be completely pulled out, with all its roots."¹⁹ He then quotes Matthew 15:13 about the pulling out of weeds that the Father has not planted. This passage is in the context of the disciple's discussion of the Pharisee's being offended by Jesus' teaching. The disciples were told "let them alone." God would root those plants (the Pharisees) out Himself. This has nothing to do with the removing of curses that are supposedly still operating in Christian's lives. At issue is whether coming to Christ in faith and fully trusting His finished work removes us from being under the curse of sin or whether it does not. If it does, then God is not going to allow demons to work in our lives because of unknown sins of ancestors. We were all cursed by ancestral sin, that of Adam! (1Corinthians 15:22). If we are in Christ the curse of sin is removed.

Current popular teachings on generational curses leave little hope for anyone. If Christ has broken all curses once for all for all those who know Him, then there would be no reason to write books to Christians telling them what processes and knowledge they need to break the curses. If Christ has not removed the curses, then by definition all people are likely to be under one. For example consider Derek Prince's conclusion about generational curses:

Conversely, any one of the four generations preceding us, by having committed these sins, could be the cause of a curse over us in our generation. Each of us has two parents, four grandparents, eight great-grandparents, and sixteen great-great-grandparents. This makes a total of thirty persons, any one of whom might be the cause of a curse over our lives. How many of us would be in a position to guarantee that none of our thirty ancestors was ever involved in any form of idolatry or the occult?²⁰

Obviously, we can never be sure of freedom from curses if we accept Prince's premises.

These teachers also give lists of common human maladies that are possibly caused by curses. They also provide anecdotal evidence of Christians who were struggling with problems that turned out to be caused by spiritual curses that needed to be broken through the therapies they propose. They define the problem so that everyone is included, deny that coming to Christ through the gospel effectively removes the curse (by using born again Christians as examples of people with generational curses needing breaking), and then propose their knowledge and their therapeutic processes as the answer.

I wrote earlier about Marilyn Hickey's book that claims Christians are cursed for not keeping certain Levitical laws from the Old Testament.²¹ Others follow the same error in their teachings on tithing, invoking the curse of God on people who do not tithe as prescribed in the Old Testament law. For example consider this citation from a recent book: "If you aren't tithing, you are taking that which rightfully belongs to God and using it for yourself. Not tithing is a clear violation of God's commandments. . . . Not only are you robbing God but you are bringing a curse upon yourself."²² This author then cites Malachi 3:9 as a proof text. As I argued in the earlier article on this matter, if we are cursed for not keeping one aspect of the Mosaic Covenant, then we are also cursed for not keeping any of the other 613 laws prescribed therein.

One more example of this insidious teaching should show how wide spread it is. Rebecca Brown and Daniel Yoder write, "Sadly, we have found that very few Christians have any knowledge of those things that the Lord proclaims to be unclean. Thus their lives and homes are cluttered with unclean things which enable curses and cursing into their lives."²³ They claim we need revelations and special knowledge to get free from these curses and that Satan has legal rights to curse Christians and send demons our way if we do certain things wrong. Among them are such things as "living on cursed ground, living in cursed housing, having cursed objects," and many others.²⁴ Even "circumstances beyond our control" may leave Christians cursed.²⁵ The subtitle for this book is "hidden source of trouble in the Christian's life." Any problems we may have could be caused by unknown curses, and its our lack of revelation knowledge that is supposedly destroying us. As with all of these types of false teachings, the Christian is left with no hope or assurance. We may be victim of unseen forces and curses no matter what our relationship with Christ is.

Conclusion

We need to reject as unbiblical any teaching that says that those who put their hope and trust in Christ are likely cursed. God has pronounced us blessed. Balaam could not curse God's blessed people, neither can anyone else. The Bible says, "Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord And whose trust is the Lord" (Jeremiah 17:7). That is the simple version. The false teachers are hopelessly confused and give no hope or assurance. They put us back in bondage, and thus the teachings themselves and their perpetrators are accursed (Galatians 1:8) according to God's Word.

Issue 68 - January/February 2002

End Notes

1. John Calvin, Harmony of the Law, Vol. 2, "Exposition of the 2nd Commandment"
2. Walter Kaiser, "Commentary on Exodus" in The Expositors Bible Commentary, Vol. 2 (Zondervan: Grand Rapids, 1990) 423.
3. From http://shamash.org/tanach/tanach/commentary/j_seminar/volume4/v4n22 Copyright © 1997 Sephardic Institute.
4. Ibid.
5. Hebrews 4:1-6 says that the people did not enter the promised rest because of unbelief and disobedience.
6. See Numbers 14:18; Nehemiah 9:17; Psalms 86:15; 103:8; 145:8; Joel 2:13; Jonah 4:2.
7. Op. Cit Calvin
8. Ibid.
9. Eugene H. Merrill, "Deuteronomy" in New American Commentary, (Broadman and Holman, 1994) 181.
10. Ibid.
11. Ralph Alexander, "Commentary on Ezekiel" in The Expositors Bible Commentary, Vol. 6 (Zondervan: Grand Rapids, 1986) 823.
12. Ibid.
13. Neil T. Anderson, The Bondage Breaker, (Harvest House: Eugene, OR, 1990) 201.
14. Ibid. 202, 203.
15. Ibid. 203.
16. I will address the Colossian heresy in detail in the next issue of Critical Issues Commentary.
17. Derek Prince, Blessing or Curse You can Choose, (Grand Rapids: Chosen Books, 1990) 61-63.
18. Ibid. 64.
19. Ibid.
20. Ibid. 74
21. See Bob DeWaay, Are Christians Cursed?, Critical Issues Commentary; Issue 40, May/June 1997.
22. Dr. Norman K. Roberston, Tithing ? God's Financial Plan, (Norman Robertson Media: Matthews,  NC, 1994) 21.
23. Rebecca Brown and Daniel Yoder, Unbroken Curses, (Whitaker House: New Kensington, PA, 1995) 16.
24. Ibid. 18,19.
25. Ibid. 19.

Published by Twin City Fellowship