{"id":32235,"date":"2012-03-21T21:21:00","date_gmt":"2012-03-22T02:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=32235"},"modified":"2021-02-18T21:26:12","modified_gmt":"2021-02-19T03:26:12","slug":"should-a-preacher-say-i-break-all-generational-curses-on-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-a-preacher-say-i-break-all-generational-curses-on-you\/","title":{"rendered":"Should a preacher say, “I break all generational curses on you”?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t

Question:<\/h2>\n

Why do so many preachers pray over people by saying “I break all generational curses on you”?<\/p>\n

I read what you wrote about\u00a0God visiting the iniquities of the fathers on their children<\/a>, but I still need biblical verses to disprove these preachers and convince myself.<\/p>\n\t

Answer:<\/h2>\n

“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables<\/em>” (II Timothy 4:3-4).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I don’t believe this statement is popular in my part of the world, but then the belief in curses is not as prevalent here either. You will find false teachers who will tell people anything they want or expect to hear in order to gain followings.<\/p>\n

The claim is that God curses a family because of an ancestor’s sins and the descendants are being punished. I demonstrated in “Can you explain what it means that the sins of the fathers are put on the children?<\/a>” that this isn’t what God meant by the phrase “The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge<\/em>” (Ezekiel 18:4). It is what people claimed was happening, but God said that He would (and did) show in Ezekiel 18 that people are punished for their own sins, not because their ancestors sinned.<\/p>\n

God has pronounced curses because of people’s sins. We all suffer because of Adam and Eve’s sin. Women have labor in childbearing and men have to work to earn a living. But in part, we suffer from Adam’s sin because we continue sinning. “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned<\/em>” (Romans 5:12). God, through Noah, cursed the descendants of Canaan. It started with Ham’s sin, but we later learn that the Canaanites had gone from bad to worse over the years. The reason why a parent chooses to sin is too often taught to their descendants.<\/p>\n

But think a moment what these preachers are saying. Men might curse someone else, but they don’t really have the power to bring it about, especially after their own deaths. The only curses that have power behind them are those pronounced by God. These preachers are saying that they, as individual human beings, are stopping what they claim God set to happen. If they claim it isn’t really them, but God doing it through them, then they are claiming that God is going up against God. God doesn’t bow to the whims of men and He isn’t inconsistent as these preachers imply.<\/p>\n

I did a search of the Bible and there is no mention of breaking curses that I can find. Thus, they are claiming to do something that the Bible doesn’t even teach.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Question: Why do so many preachers pray over people by saying “I break all generational curses on you”? I read what you wrote about\u00a0God visiting the iniquities of the fathers on their children, but I still need biblical verses to disprove these preachers and convince myself. Answer: “For the time will come when they will…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[1567,478],"class_list":["post-32235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-curses","tag-false-teachers"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":26749,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-are-blessings-and-curses\/","url_meta":{"origin":32235,"position":0},"title":"What are blessings and curses?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 20, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: A student of mine asked this question and I'm not sure how to answer. I appreciate any help you can give me. Thanks. I want to know what are curses and what brings curses upon a person? And what is a blessing? How can a person be blessed? Answer:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7118,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-one-person-put-a-curse-on-another\/","url_meta":{"origin":32235,"position":1},"title":"Can one person put a curse on another?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 22, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: A friend asked me about someone putting curses on others and what does the Bible have to say about it?\u00a0 Could you share some thoughts in this regard?\u00a0 He feels like he is cursed by what his great-grandfather did years ago. Answer: Your question doesn't deal with a matter\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":49956,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-think-you-misused-some-verses-in-careful-what-you-say\/","url_meta":{"origin":32235,"position":2},"title":"I think you misused some verses in “Careful What You Say”","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 14, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: This is something I think can be especially difficult among the churches of Christ just because of our tradition. There is a very popular way of reading the Bible in the churches of Christ that goes way back to our roots and the reasoning is that a belief or\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25097,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-there-any-hope-for-me\/","url_meta":{"origin":32235,"position":3},"title":"Is there any hope for me?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 28, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I went through your article, \"A Sin Leading to Death.\" Like so many other articles on the sin that leads to death and apostasy, there seems to be no final consensus on what are these sins, what are their consequences, and the chances of reversing these consequences. So the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7272,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/for-god-to-break-a-curse-do-you-have-to-pay-more-than-what-was-paid-to-the-witchdoctor\/","url_meta":{"origin":32235,"position":4},"title":"For God to break a curse, do you have to pay more than what was paid to the witchdoctor?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 10, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I saw on a Facebook post where a \"Pastor\" says that if a person pays millions to a witch doctor for a protection charm and later wants a man of God to break the curse, he or she needs to pay an amount greater than what was paid before\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":70411,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-does-the-bible-say-about-wishful-thinking\/","url_meta":{"origin":32235,"position":5},"title":"What does the Bible say about wishful thinking?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 21, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What does the Bible say about wishful thinking? Answer: Wishful thinking is the act of forming beliefs based on what is pleasing to the person instead of on evidence or reality. I might wish to believe there is no school tomorrow, but that doesn't change the facts. The problem\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32235\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}