2530.—Iniquity of the Fathers upon the Children.
By Editor
Please explain these two passages of Scripture: The second commandment says, "I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me." Eze. 18:20 says "the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son." How do these harmonize? There are results of some sins that are inherited that affect posterity physically and mentally. For instance, the man who utterly ruins his health thru whisky, drugs, or vice, may leave a weakened and diseased constitution to his children. Physical defects of father or mother may be perpetuated for three or four generations; thus, it seems to us, the commandment is to be understood. The results of the iniquities of the fathers are visited upon the children. Sometimes the fathers are wicked, and God has suffered them to go into captivity, or slavery, and when their children are born, they are born slaves; thus also the result of the father's iniquities are visited upon the children. On the other hand, the actual sins which the father commits will not be charged against the son. The son will not be held responsible for the actual deeds of wickedness which the father does. The second commandment has reference to the results of the sins of the parents, while the passage in Ezekiel has to do with the very motive in the sinning, and yet God is able to save the children from the results of their fathers' sins. "Where sin abounded, grace does much more abound."