Sadly, the faith of many Christians is threatened when tested by those who intentionally or unintentionally twist biblical passages that on the surface may appear puzzling. Some of the Bible is challenging to understand, even when hearts are pure and simply wanting to understand. However, far too often this twisting is intentional, as the Apostle Peter indicated in 2 Peter 3:16 when he wrote that “some things are hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.”

For example, some insist there is a discrepancy in the Bible regarding the subject of how God deals with the children of sinful people. Moses records God stating in Exodus 20:5 “For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me.” The prophet Ezekiel records God’s instructions in a seemingly contradictory verse: “The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.” (Ezekiel 18:20). Are these scriptures contradictory? Those who twist these verses into an alleged contradiction do not recognize that there is a difference between bearing the guilt of a parent’s sin and suffering negative physical and/or emotional consequences due to that parent’s bad decisions. Unfortunately, we see that far too often when children really do suffer it is because of a parent’s sinful behavior. It may be direct physical or emotional abuse, or a child may suffer because of a parent’s irresponsible behavior. They may go hungry because of a gambled away paycheck, but this is a far cry from the child inheriting the actual sins of that parent.

Another example is found where the prophet Jeremiah was told by God not to marry nor have children in Israel because truly horrific things were going to happen.  Observe the language God uses, stating they would “… die gruesome deaths; they shall not be lamented nor shall they be buried, but they shall be like refuse on the face of the earth. They shall be consumed by the sword and by famine, and their corpses shall be meat for the birds of heaven and for the beasts of the earth.” (Jeremiah 16:4). Why would God allow this horrible end? Skeptics may be quick to answer with verse 11: “‘Because your fathers have forsaken Me,’ says the Lord, ‘they have walked after other gods and have served them and worshiped them, and have forsaken Me and not kept My law’” (16:11). But that is not the whole story! God goes on to say in the next verse (12), “And you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, each one follows the dictates of his own evil heart, so that no one listens to Me. Therefore I will cast you out of this land into a land that you do not know, neither you nor your fathers; and there you shall serve other gods day and night, where I will not show you favor.’” So, we can see that there were negative consequences suffered due to their ancestors’ sins, but even more so because of their own sins.

Without doubt the sin of the parents can be “visited” upon their children in the form of consequences. God condemns Israel (Jeremiah 19:5) because they had replicated the sins of the Canaanites by sacrificing their own children to the false Canaanite god Baal. But of course, these children did not bear the guilt of those sins! Ezekiel wrote “The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son” (Ezekiel 18:20). Bearing the guilt of sin is altogether different than bearing the physical consequences of the actions of others. To assume these are the same is to confuse the meaning of these verses, or worse, to twist them and allege a biblical contradiction.

In the New Testament, the Apostle John records an event that demonstrates this mistaken belief persisted into the Christian era. In John 9:1-3, we have his record that “Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, saying, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’” Even Jesus’ own disciples mistakenly believed that this man’s blindness was due to sin – either his own or that of his parents. Jesus corrected them in the next verse when he said, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.” That is, his blindness was not due to any sin at all but existed only to show a miracle from God by Jesus healing him.

The truth is that God did not leave us with a message that could not be understood. Paul wrote to the church in Corinth, “For we are not writing any other things to you than what you read or understand.” (2 Corinthians 1:13). Also, God would not expect us to “test the spirits, whether they are of God…” (1 John 4:1) if we are not able to understand his revelation. Finally, Paul said that to be “approved of God” a person must be “rightly dividing the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15). This would indicate that the Bible can be understood and is a good warning for us to be careful not to twist God’s word so that we can be approved by him.

Got questions? We’d love to study with you!  You are invited to worship with us at 11am every Sunday, and to join our Bible study at 10am on Sundays and 6:30pm on Wednesdays.

Buz Turk

Blanco Hills Church of Christ

blancohillschurch.com

blancohillschurch@gmail.com

830-554-0701