As in the case of all false doctrines, this generational curse teaching also claims to come from the Bible. They are able to look for any Bible verse, for example, Exodus 33:34 and force it to mean their preconceived doctrine — completely ignoring the basic principles of Biblical interpretation and hermeneutics. Yet the real truth is that this teaching actually comes from traditional African beliefs. Its basic idea is that whatever you are, whatever you have (especially bad things), is inherited from your forefathers. In all fairness, we all inherit something from our parents, and their parents before them. That has everything to do with your genetic code and nothing to do with some voodoo spells and curses. Another similar belief like this comes from the Hindu culture; they call it Karma, and it also says that whatever happens to you is supposed to happen because of a certain spiritual ill-fate that was put on you before you were born. You see friend. It is not right to take wicked cultural belief systems and infuse them as part of the Christian doctrine. That is diluting the pure Gospel so it can fit into our wicked cultures.
What the doctrine of generational curse does is, to take every problem that mankind encounters and spiritualize it into something that cannot be explained in physical terms. For example, we all know that being sick is part of the human body; and one day we will all die with different kinds of diseases; including doctors themselves. Yet those who love the generation curse believe if you ever find yourself on the sick bed, someone must have put a spirit of sickness through your bloodline, or maybe some grandfather of yours committed a certain big sin that continues to haunt all generations after him. No wonder some extreme forms of this system do not believe in going to a hospital for healing. To them, since sickness is a spiritual curse problem, it can only be solved through visiting a spiritual man; a traditional healer or a new prophet in town. As a result of this damning heresy, many have lost their lives after being told to stop their pills to depend on their spiritual coaches.
The second issue with that doctrine is that it excuses sin and personal responsibility as the contributor to some of our problems, and instead, blames all that on witches and grandparents. For example, if you have a bad tendency of taking other people’s goods without permission (we call it theft), according to them, you are not responsible for that; it’s your uncle in the rural areas who put that spirit of theft in you. Do you see? Yet the true message of the Gospel says we are all culprits; we are responsible for the way we live, hence “a soul that sins shall die.”
Crowd control
Are you surprised that this generational curses doctrine became famous during the rise of the Charismatic “prophetic” movement that has taken over the Church in these last 2 decades? These guys came up with a clever plan to get crowds following them. That plan was to present problems among the people and then claim to have solutions to those problems. The same thing you would do when you create a virus and a vaccine at the same time. Therefore, these false prophets came to the people and said, “you all have curses, it doesn’t matter if you are a Christian or not; you have spirits and demons and curses that hinder you and you will not go anywhere in life.” When an average African churchgoer hears that, the only response is nothing short of fear and desperation. Then the “man of God” turns around and says, “don’t worry, because Me, your prophet, will solve all your problems; just come to my ‘breakthrough services’ and all your curses will be broken.” Is that really the message of the Gospel? This is the reason why we have seen the rise of the deliverance ministry churches, which attempt to solve these so-called “hindering spirits” through long sessions of deliverances and demon exorcism. In the end, masses return home and live to die in their sins because the true message of salvation has been hidden from them.
The real curse
If there is a curse that the true ministers of Christ must remind the world of, it’s the curse of sin. That all have sinned, there is none who does good, no, not one (Rom 3:10-12). That the wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23). That it is appointed for man to die once and after that, to face judgment (Heb 9:27). That message must always be followed by the Good News, not about a prophet in town but about a Savior; who has come, lived for our example, died for our forgiveness, risen for our justification and is currently seated in the heavenly for our intercession and sanctification. It is only Him, — I mean Jesus — who has redeemed us from all curses by becoming a curse for us on the cross (Gal 3:13). Hence through Jesus, there is no believer who is under any generational curse. All that are His sheep are blessed with all spiritual blessings in high places (Eph 1:3). Anyone who is in Christ is a new creature, old things are gone, behold all things have become new (2 Cor 5:17). Praise the Lord, praise the Lord!
Conclusion
Beloved, as the saying goes, “my people perish because they lack knowledge.” Most of us have accepted false doctrines like these because we lack sufficient understanding of the Gospel message. I appeal, therefore, to all believers, church leaders and Bible teachers, let us stop spreading this poisonous doctrine of generational curses. Instead, let us give people the real truth as it is written in Scripture, and point people to Christ the ultimate Savior. If you are a believer today, I just want to assure you, that you don’t have any curses, none! You are new in Christ, you don’t need any false prophet to deliver you from anything. Throw away that generational curse nonsense and live your life with joy and freedom Christ; rest in the finished work of your Redeemer. Amen.
Sinothi Ncube
Comments
Post a Comment