Did Jesus have a Generational Curse?
It's a crazy question, I know, but if you take the doctrine of generational curses to its logical conclustion, the answer you come up with is yes - an answer that one particular deliverance ministry does not shy away from affirming.
According to the deliverance ministry curriculum compiled by Chester and Betsy Kylstra, Jesus inherited the iniquity of his earthly mother, Mary. (1) Although
For more on what these ministries mean by inherited iniquity, see my article on Exodus 20:5.
In summary, one of the foundational verses behind the generational curse doctrine is Exodus 20:5 which says, "I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me..." (KJV)
This verse is interpreted to mean that the iniquity of the fathers, or the inner drive to commit specific sins, is visited upon the children, or passed on to the children, becoming part of their nature.
The bottom line is that if your father had a problem with a certain sin, that sinful tendency will become part of your spiritual inheritance from him. There will be an increased pressure for you to commit the same sins as your father (unless your father took the necessary steps to break the curse).
In looking for support for the doctrine of generational curses, proponents often turn to the stories of Abraham and David. Abraham seemed to have a problem with telling the truth in the midst of difficult situations. On several occasions, Abraham lied to protect himself from potentially negative outcomes. Abraham's son Isaac told a similar lie to King Abimeleck when facing a similar trying situation. Isaac's son Jacob lied to Isaac in order to cheat his brother Esau out of his birthright. Lastly, Jacob's sons lied to him about selling Joseph to slave traders. Clearly, there was a pattern of dishonesty in Abraham's descendants. However, the generational curse proponents teach that this lying tendency is more than learned behavior picked up from your parents, and more than the result of the fallen nature within humanity - they see it as a case of God judging Abraham's sins by allowing Satan "legal rights" to increase the temptation within the family in this particular area.
David's family line seemed to be riddled with the sins of adultery, deception, conspiracy, and murder. David sinned in all those areas. David's son Amnon later raped Tamar. Absalom murdered Amnon. Absolom later conspired against David. Solomon later fell into the trap of pursuing fleshly lusts. The sins of David's descendants is seen as the result of the outworking of the generational curse brought on by David's sins. These teachers indicate that David's descendants would not have faced the same pressures to commit those sins if David hadn't committed them initially. Therefore, one must wonder what generational curses David was under to commit those sins in the first place. These teachers go back further to David's great-grandmother Rahab, who was a prostitute. When you go further and further back, you get to Judah, who was one of David's distant ancestors. Judah was involved in sexual immorality too; and of course Judah's father was Jacob, who is descended from Abraham and that line of deception and conspiracy. According to the generational curse teaching, each time someone enters into a specific sin, the tendency to commit that sin becomes "inserted" into the family tree, so that there is extra pressure within that family tree to enter into the same sin - and if your forefather didn't commit the initial sin, you wouldn't be faced with the same temptation and pressure.
This brings us to Jesus. According to Chester and Betsy Kylstra, Jesus would not have been able to be tempted unless he had inherited Mary's iniquity - defined by them as Mary's sinful tendencies:
"Jesus was able to be tempted precisely because He did have a human mother and did receive the iniquity of the Israelite family line through Mary."
While they don't come out directly and say that Jesus had a generational curse, this is exactly what they are implying. According to them, when your ancestor initiates a generational curse through their sinful choices, the curse is worked out in you as the tendency to continue in those sinful choices. They say you only inherit iniquity when you are under a generational curse. Therefore, Jesus inherited Mary's iniquity as the result of being under a generational curse. While the Kylstras would say that the iniquity Jesus inherited didn't make him guilty, the entire notion of Jesus possessing iniquity flies in the face of sound Christian doctrine. Deliverance minsters equate iniquity as something akin to the sinful nature. One of the core tenets of Christian theology is that Jesus did not posses a broken sin nature, that he didn't have any inborn propensity to commit sin. This was one of the main reasons Jesus had to be conceived supernaturally, to escape the sinful nature passed along from Adam. Jesus came to earth in the "likeness of sinful flesh" (Rom. 8:3) - He did not actually possess sinful flesh. Just as Adam was created without a sinful nature, the second Adam was born without a sinful nature.
A further point of contention is the fact that Jesus was tortured for our iniquities, not his own.
"But He was pierced through for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities;
All of us like sheep have gone astray,
Each of us has turned to his own way;
But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all
To fall on Him. " (Is. 53:5,6)
How could he stand as our substitute and bear our iniquities if he inherited his own iniquities?
This idea of Jesus inheriting Mary's iniquity opens up the possibility of an even more horrid notion, that Jesus could have been born with demons in him. While no deliverance minister would say as much, their doctrine easily can lead to such a conclusion. According to Chester and Betsy Kylstra, "Some demons apparently come down the family line. We suspect that they are present even as the child is being formed... They are able to enter at this early age because of the "legal ground" from Sins of the Fathers (and mothers). Because of the curses resulting from generational sin, or because of others cursing the family line, the demons are able to pass from generation to generation to carry out the curses." According to them, the only way to avoid your child being born with demons is to protect them with prayer and spiritual warfare, or to break the generational curse. It is unclear whether or not Mary would have known how to perform the necessary prayers and spiritual warfare to protect Jesus from being entered by demons in the womb as the result of the "legal ground" given to the demons by Mary's generational curse - but I suspect Mary would have been clueless because the "truth" of this teaching has only surfaced within the last 50 years.
While the doctrine of generational curses and "legal ground" inescapably leads to these peculiar possibilities, there is one simple reality that destroys one of the pillars of this doctrine. If you only suffer certain temptations because of what your ancestors have done, what generational curse was Adam under through which Satan had an open door to apply pressure for sin? If Adam didn't need to inherit any iniquity to be susceptible to temptation, neither did Jesus.
1. Restoring the Foundations. Chester and Betsy Kylstra. 2nd ed. 2001.
It's a crazy question, I know, but if you take the doctrine of generational curses to its logical conclustion, the answer you come up with is yes - an answer that one particular deliverance ministry does not shy away from affirming.
According to the deliverance ministry curriculum compiled by Chester and Betsy Kylstra, Jesus inherited the iniquity of his earthly mother, Mary. (1) Although
For more on what these ministries mean by inherited iniquity, see my article on Exodus 20:5.
In summary, one of the foundational verses behind the generational curse doctrine is Exodus 20:5 which says, "I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me..." (KJV)
This verse is interpreted to mean that the iniquity of the fathers, or the inner drive to commit specific sins, is visited upon the children, or passed on to the children, becoming part of their nature.
The bottom line is that if your father had a problem with a certain sin, that sinful tendency will become part of your spiritual inheritance from him. There will be an increased pressure for you to commit the same sins as your father (unless your father took the necessary steps to break the curse).
In looking for support for the doctrine of generational curses, proponents often turn to the stories of Abraham and David. Abraham seemed to have a problem with telling the truth in the midst of difficult situations. On several occasions, Abraham lied to protect himself from potentially negative outcomes. Abraham's son Isaac told a similar lie to King Abimeleck when facing a similar trying situation. Isaac's son Jacob lied to Isaac in order to cheat his brother Esau out of his birthright. Lastly, Jacob's sons lied to him about selling Joseph to slave traders. Clearly, there was a pattern of dishonesty in Abraham's descendants. However, the generational curse proponents teach that this lying tendency is more than learned behavior picked up from your parents, and more than the result of the fallen nature within humanity - they see it as a case of God judging Abraham's sins by allowing Satan "legal rights" to increase the temptation within the family in this particular area.
David's family line seemed to be riddled with the sins of adultery, deception, conspiracy, and murder. David sinned in all those areas. David's son Amnon later raped Tamar. Absalom murdered Amnon. Absolom later conspired against David. Solomon later fell into the trap of pursuing fleshly lusts. The sins of David's descendants is seen as the result of the outworking of the generational curse brought on by David's sins. These teachers indicate that David's descendants would not have faced the same pressures to commit those sins if David hadn't committed them initially. Therefore, one must wonder what generational curses David was under to commit those sins in the first place. These teachers go back further to David's great-grandmother Rahab, who was a prostitute. When you go further and further back, you get to Judah, who was one of David's distant ancestors. Judah was involved in sexual immorality too; and of course Judah's father was Jacob, who is descended from Abraham and that line of deception and conspiracy. According to the generational curse teaching, each time someone enters into a specific sin, the tendency to commit that sin becomes "inserted" into the family tree, so that there is extra pressure within that family tree to enter into the same sin - and if your forefather didn't commit the initial sin, you wouldn't be faced with the same temptation and pressure.
This brings us to Jesus. According to Chester and Betsy Kylstra, Jesus would not have been able to be tempted unless he had inherited Mary's iniquity - defined by them as Mary's sinful tendencies:
"Jesus was able to be tempted precisely because He did have a human mother and did receive the iniquity of the Israelite family line through Mary."
While they don't come out directly and say that Jesus had a generational curse, this is exactly what they are implying. According to them, when your ancestor initiates a generational curse through their sinful choices, the curse is worked out in you as the tendency to continue in those sinful choices. They say you only inherit iniquity when you are under a generational curse. Therefore, Jesus inherited Mary's iniquity as the result of being under a generational curse. While the Kylstras would say that the iniquity Jesus inherited didn't make him guilty, the entire notion of Jesus possessing iniquity flies in the face of sound Christian doctrine. Deliverance minsters equate iniquity as something akin to the sinful nature. One of the core tenets of Christian theology is that Jesus did not posses a broken sin nature, that he didn't have any inborn propensity to commit sin. This was one of the main reasons Jesus had to be conceived supernaturally, to escape the sinful nature passed along from Adam. Jesus came to earth in the "likeness of sinful flesh" (Rom. 8:3) - He did not actually possess sinful flesh. Just as Adam was created without a sinful nature, the second Adam was born without a sinful nature.
A further point of contention is the fact that Jesus was tortured for our iniquities, not his own.
"But He was pierced through for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities;
All of us like sheep have gone astray,
Each of us has turned to his own way;
But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all
To fall on Him. " (Is. 53:5,6)
How could he stand as our substitute and bear our iniquities if he inherited his own iniquities?
This idea of Jesus inheriting Mary's iniquity opens up the possibility of an even more horrid notion, that Jesus could have been born with demons in him. While no deliverance minister would say as much, their doctrine easily can lead to such a conclusion. According to Chester and Betsy Kylstra, "Some demons apparently come down the family line. We suspect that they are present even as the child is being formed... They are able to enter at this early age because of the "legal ground" from Sins of the Fathers (and mothers). Because of the curses resulting from generational sin, or because of others cursing the family line, the demons are able to pass from generation to generation to carry out the curses." According to them, the only way to avoid your child being born with demons is to protect them with prayer and spiritual warfare, or to break the generational curse. It is unclear whether or not Mary would have known how to perform the necessary prayers and spiritual warfare to protect Jesus from being entered by demons in the womb as the result of the "legal ground" given to the demons by Mary's generational curse - but I suspect Mary would have been clueless because the "truth" of this teaching has only surfaced within the last 50 years.
While the doctrine of generational curses and "legal ground" inescapably leads to these peculiar possibilities, there is one simple reality that destroys one of the pillars of this doctrine. If you only suffer certain temptations because of what your ancestors have done, what generational curse was Adam under through which Satan had an open door to apply pressure for sin? If Adam didn't need to inherit any iniquity to be susceptible to temptation, neither did Jesus.
1. Restoring the Foundations. Chester and Betsy Kylstra. 2nd ed. 2001.
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