BURSTING THE MYTH OF GENERATIONAL CURSES

By Akin Ojumu

Generational curses refer to patterns of behavior that run in families. These are inherited and transmittable spiritual patterns passed from one generation to the next. Examples of these recurring generational curses include addiction of any kind or chronic illnesses and diseases. Generational curses are often attributed to the sins of previous generations. 

In nearly every society, generational curses are seen as a cross every living human being carry. It doesn’t matter whether you are the purest living saint or the most wretched sinner, everyone is affected by one form of generational curse or another. 

Even within the Christian faith, the vast majority of preachers believe that the average believer is logging around on his back the weight of the generational curses of his forebears. The only solution for a release is if the believer undergoes an exorcism therapy, aka deliverance, by a powerfully anointed man of God. 

Without going through a deliverance session, the believer will forever be beset by the generational curses that run in his bloodline. If an anointed deliverance minister does not pray over him to break the ancestral yoke, the believer will continue to be plagued with the woes and misfortunes of his ancestors.

Because many born-again believers have bought into the idea of generational curses, they often draw a direct causal relationship between every misfortune in their lives and the generation curses that run in their families. As far as they are concerned, their poverty, lack, sickness, infertility, unemployment, academic and professional setback are all due to generational curses.

Consequently, born-again believers, who have been redeemed by the Blood Christ, are known to run from prayer houses to crusade grounds seeking the prayer of anointed men of God who will pray for them to break the generational curses. Like the woman with the issue of blood, many believers suffer a great deal in the hand of charlatans. Some are known to spend all they have looking for deliverance, but instead of getting better, their situation only gets much worse.

Just as it is with many of the other popular practices in the modern-day Church, nowhere in the Scriptures is it taught that those who are in Christ are either under or subject to generational curses. The idea of a born-again believer being affected by recurring curses that run in their bloodline is nothing but a demon-spun lie straight from the pit of hell. 

What you’d find taught in the Scriptures is that generation curses running in bloodlines do not affect those who have been adopted into the family of God. The Bible tells us that every man is held accountable for how they live their own lives. This is what we find in Ezekiel 18, which is a chapter that clearly and explicitly refutes the lie of generational curses in the believer.

Ezekiel 18:20

“The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.”

And it’s not just in Ezekiel 18 that you’d find a repudiation of the foolishness of generational curses impacting the believer in Christ. A similarly explicit renunciation is also found in Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy 24:16

“Fathers shall not be put to death because of their children, nor shall children be put to death because of their fathers. Each one shall be put to death for his own sin.”

The idea that a believer in Christ, indwelled by the Holy Spirit, can still be under the influence of generational curses is just another way the promoters of this silly idea elevate man to the status of deity while they relegate God to the status of humanity. In this perverse worldview, man is all powerful, and God is so powerless.

Wittingly or unwittingly, champions of generational curses diminish the redemptive work of Christ, and they question the sufficiency of Scriptures. To such people, Christ’s death on the Cross is not enough to free us from the curses of sin and God’s promises in His Word cannot be trusted to break every yoke. The advocates of the generation curses farce believe you need the help of a powerfully anointed preacher to break the generational curses operating in your life. What the Omnipotent God is too impotent to do, the powerfully anointed man of God is more than capable of getting it done.

What the evangelists of generational curses don’t seem to realize is that they are proselyting the myth of pagan cults. Such individuals are inadvertently promoting the folklore of traditional occultic religions. Anyone who thinks he is imbued with the anointing and power to break generational curses in another human being is no more than a deluded shaman or a deceived sorcerer.

I know there are some of you who would outrightly denounce me for saying what I’m saying. Heck! What else is new? Because your revered daddies in the Lord believe in and promote generational curses, it won’t surprise me if you call me all kinds of NSFW names for dismissing the idea as a myth and a lie from the pit of hell. 

As a rebuttal, the few among my detractors who are a tad serious about the Bible may even ask, “What about Exodus 20:5 and Exodus 34:7? How do you understand those passages?” To which I’d say, “It’s good that you ask. Why don’t we examine what those Bible passages do actually say?

Exodus 20:5

“You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for 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.”

Exodus 34:6b-7

“The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”

Anyone who points to either of the two Bible passages above as prooftexts for generational curses is either deliberately distorting and twisting the Word of God or simply don’t know how to accurately handle it.

You don’t need a Doctorate degree in Theology to know that both Exodus 20:5 and Exodus 34:6b-7 are actually referring to the enemies of God. That these two passages are talking about godless unbelievers who are at enmity with God is clear if you carefully read the passages. There are qualifiers in both passages that reveal those subject to generational curses.

Exodus 20:5

“…of those who hate me...”

Exodus 34:7

“...but who will by no means clear the guilty…”

While the former verse talks about those who hate God, the latter refers to those who are guilty. Godless children of godless parents are bound to imbibe and continue in the ungodliness of their forebears. Born-again believers don’t hate God, neither are they guilty. So, these two passages don’t apply to those who have been redeemed. 

Unless and until they are saved and come to the knowledge of God, the children of enemies of God will reap the consequences of the seed of evil sown in the soil of their generation. However, the moment these children accept Christ as their Lord and Savior, the curse is immediately and forever broken. 

Our redemption breaks every yoke. Once you are saved, be rest assured that you are delivered from whatever generational curses are in your lineage. The precious Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ redeems us from any and every curse. Having put on the righteousness of Christ, you need not be afraid of generational curses because the vicarious death of Christ has set you free. 

Because the Holy Spirit resides on the inside of the born-again believer, it’s impossible for him to carry a generational curse. If you are in Christ, you do not need an exorcism in the hand of a deliverance minister. You are free in Christ, so live in the reality of the freedom purchased for you by Christ’s precious Blood.