visiting the iniquities of the fathers

[Dan_79]

18 ‘The Lord is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.’ Numbers 14:18

The Lord...visits the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation. (Exodus 34:6-7 = Deuteronomy 5:8-10)

What does this refer to?

What is this iniquity? I have data mined the bible for this word but I get so many different meanings of what this specific iniquity is being told it could mean if a paticular sin then what?

 

Can anyone define exactly how long is a generation in scripture please? 

Thanks

Edited April 28, 2018 by Dan_79

[Deborah_]

Iniquity is a very general word, like 'sin'. It's not referring to any particular sin.

Nor does a generation have a precise length. "To the third generation" means to your grandchildren.

You may find this article helpful (it's too long to put in a reply here):

https://deborahsbiblestudies.wordpress.com/2012/07/28/the-sins-of-the-fathers/

[Dan_79]

Yes that was helpful.

The point made of the environment is a crucial one.

Could an unholy union between man and woman mean the same thing?

For example, say I was born out of parents that were not married etc, after 3 or 4 generations the institution of marriage is still not observed, could this mean iniquity of the father?

Edited April 28, 2018 by Dan_79

[Deborah_]

1 hour ago, Dan_79 said:

Yes that was helpful.

The point made of the environment is a crucial one.

Could an unholy union between man and woman mean the same thing?

For example, say I was born out of parents that were not married etc, after 3 or 4 generations the institution of marriage is still not observed, could this mean iniquity of the father?

It could be an example of iniquity. Sexual immorality has a way of embedding itself into human culture. What the first generation finds shocking, the second finds acceptable, and the third considers normal.

[Sower]

7 hours ago, Dan_79 said:

The Lord...visits the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation. (Exodus 34:6-7

I was raised in a dysfunctional family, alcoholism. Though I am not an alcoholic, nor if I never had a drink, I would still pass on to my children dysfunctional habits/traits/ tendencies  and coping methods learned as a child. Even as a believer, it took a very long time to recognize many of my warped coping mechanisms I had developed. And, I warned my children they would also be affected. We can do all things in Christ. It just takes time.

[Dan_79]

Gregor Mendel's works regarding the inheritence of physical characters and traits of heredity was around and to be published roughly at a similar time as the (more popular and soon to be state endorsed) works of Charles Darwin.

Heredity was big business and a topic you were encouraged to discuss openly without censorship in those days.

Mendels works showed and successfully proved that physical injury (or call it a condition or disability or increased susceptibility to disease) can be visited upon plants, animals and mamals, purely by the unions of previous parentage and thus dictated by heredity mainly through admixture (allowing a disease carrier to enter a healthy population and multiplying the carriers).

Im not suggesting like some have in the past that healthy equals riteous and disability is a (generational) curse and thefore evil, however it IS something that can be clearly evidenced by the union of previous generations even when faith, guidance on health and sanitation and church attendance is applied afterwards. 

During the Edwardian and Victorian breeding crazes of plants and then animals, the projects of dogs, pigeon breeding allowed the breader a learned, documented insight to new genetic weaknesses and succeptability to genetic deformities as being determined purely guided by the genetics of heredity (outbreeding vs inbreeding and resulting health from crosses or pedigree).

Many of these debilitated specimens did not become apparent straight away during the breeding processes or shown in the immediate generations (f1 f2 etc) and were discarded (judged by the breeder as useless).

Today we have a much more enlightened view of the same only the screening of such has become valuable to preventative measure using DNA screening (examples are genetic diseases being a result of two matching genes in any population being the cause and given a odds per appearance like 1 in 100,000).

I wondered what the possibility could be in context of the biblical verses regarding man like in the examples above.

Is there such a thing as an unholy hetrosexual union in the bible and could it of been warned of in the above verses of the bible as something that could visit someone 3 generations later?

How does the scripture found in the bible approach this topic?

 

 

Edited April 29, 2018 by Dan_79

[Dan_79]

6 hours ago, Yowm said:

So, whatever curse due to a certain iniquity is being referred to, it no longer applies. (IMHO)
 

Ok. If a physical disability is not to be regarded as a generational curse (or a blessing) how does it still come to directly effect a single generation?

Physical and mental conditions and disabilities are clearly on the increase (autistic spectrum, adhd, aspergers etc) whether caused by diet or pharmacuetical drugs I don't claim to know but increasing they are (as a population grows so does the availability of disease it is carrying become amplified)

Does scripture have an answer as to why this is?

 

Edited April 29, 2018 by Dan_79

[Guest shiloh357]

48 minutes ago, Dan_79 said:

Ok. If a physical disability is not to be regarded as a generational curse (or a blessing) how does it still come to directly effect a single generation?

Physical and mental conditions and disabilities are clearly on the increase (autistic spectrum, adhd, aspergers etc) whether caused by diet or pharmacuetical drugs I don't claim to know but increasing they are (as a population grows so does the availability of disease it is carrying become amplified)

Does scripture have an answer as to why this is?

 

Bible teaches that we are fallen creatures and we live in a broken world.  Our bodies breakdown.  There are no generational curses and the Bible does not say that God curses children for their parents' sins.

[Dan_79]

29 minutes ago, shiloh357 said:

Bible teaches that we are fallen creatures and we live in a broken world.  Our bodies breakdown.  There are no generational curses and the Bible does not say that God curses children for their parents' sins.

What about the verses at the top of this thread?

 

 

Edited April 29, 2018 by Dan_79

[Dan_79]

7 hours ago, Yowm said:

One thing it DOESN'T mean, which a movement 20-25 years ago tried attaching to it, was a thing called 'generational curses' even amongst Christians. That concept is refuted here...

Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:
(Gal 3:13)

So, whatever curse due to a certain iniquity is being referred to, it no longer applies. (IMHO)
 

 

Jesus did not say this though did he?

Mathew 5:17