Generational Sin?

[DiannaK]

Mods, please move this to the appropriate forum, if need be.

Ok … so I am a podcast junkie, and listen to many parenting podcasts, while I clean, or drive to work, etc. One of my podcasts (about raising teens) discussed ‘generational sin’, or issues that seem to plague your family for years, through generations — alcoholism, drug abuse, failed marriages, etc. They discussed the importance of praying to remove these sins/curses from your family.

On one hand … I can look back at things that have happened to myself, as well as watching my younger siblings struggle with life, and feel like there was not an appropriate role model in our lives. In other words, tumultuous, toxic relationships have always been a part of our lives, and it’s hard to escape, and rise above the only thing that you know.

On the other hand, I don’t know if this is just a Protestant thing, or some sort of ‘pre-destination’ kind of stuff …

Anyone have any thoughts??

 

[MarieVeronica]

Hi Dianna. I don’t know if this will be of help to you, or not… but I found this one site, which had a prayer for “Release from Ancestral Curses”. It is a Catholic site, according to the Home page.

I hope it will help and may God bless you and your family. I wish you a Happy Easter. You are in my prayers.

MV :harp:

holymotherchurch.org/Precious_Blood_Devotion.html

 

[DiannaK]

Thanks, Marie!

What a crucifix on that site! I was reminded of Jesus in The Passion of the Christ movie.

 

[jwashu]

I believe it’s a Reformed Theology (Protestant). Generational sin is more of an OT idea and I, I admit that I don’t know every line though, seeing much about it in the CCC.

Remember that when we go to confession our sins are erased, generational sin doesn’t really fit into our Theology IMHO. Even if there is a website devoted to it.

You might post on the Ask and Apologist section to verify though.

Joe

 

[CatholicSam]

I believe it’s a Reformed Theology (Protestant). Generational sin is more of an OT idea and I, I admit that I don’t know every line though, seeing much about it in the CCC.

Remember that when we go to confession our sins are erased, generational sin doesn’t really fit into our Theology IMHO. Even if there is a website devoted to it.

You might post on the Ask and Apologist section to verify though.

Joe

The website isn’t devoted to it, Joe. It’s just got one little prayer on there among many other prayers.

You’re right. Our sins are washed away in Confession. But the consequences of our sin remain, remember?

From what I understand of generational curses, certain demons sometimes attach themselves to certain family blood lines. The demons like to hang out with the family and try to cause trouble. Some demons are specialized in various sins, such as alcoholism, impurity, violence, selfishness (family/marital problems) etc. And so you get a demon or a group of demons who, say, like to tempt people to impurity, hanging out with a particular family generation to generation to generation. This same thing happens in physical locations too. You will have a “gang” of demons specializing in drug abuse, for instance. And the sign of that would be a big drug problem in a certain part of town. Another area might have a gang of theft demons, where many robberies and burglaries occur. And yet another section might be plagued by demons of greed, where people virtually worship money and possessions as their idols.

So I wouldn’t really call it generational *sin *as much as a generational curse. The victim in the curse isn’t always to blame for giving into sin. Sometimes the demons cause other people to sin against the victims, or they might distract the victims so that they make poor choices. There is also the case of demons causing physical problems for their victims (such as some instances of accidental injury or a disease).

And that is what I understand about this topic. I might be mistaken on a point or two, but hopefully if that’s the case, someone more knowledgeable will be able to jump in here with the answer.

 

[DiannaK]

T
From what I understand of generational curses, certain demons sometimes attach themselves to certain family blood lines. The demons like to hang out with the family and try to cause trouble. Some demons are specialized in various sins, such as alcoholism, impurity, violence, selfishness (family/marital problems) etc. And so you get a demon or a group of demons who, say, like to tempt people to impurity, hanging out with a particular family generation to generation to generation. This same thing happens in physical locations too. You will have a “gang” of demons specializing in drug abuse, for instance. And the sign of that would be a big drug problem in a certain part of town. Another area might have a gang of theft demons, where many robberies and burglaries occur. And yet another section might be plagued by demons of greed, where people virtually worship money and possessions as their idols.

So I wouldn’t really call it generational *sin *as much as a generational curse. The victim in the curse isn’t always to blame for giving into sin. Sometimes the demons cause other people to sin against the victims, or they might distract the victims so that they make poor choices. There is also the case of demons causing physical problems for their victims (such as some instances of accidental injury or a disease).

And that is what I understand about this topic. I might be mistaken on a point or two, but hopefully if that’s the case, someone more knowledgeable will be able to jump in here with the answer.

ding, ding, ding … ringing the bell.
Thanks for putting it much better than I did in my original post.

When I heard the podcast, it was like a bell went off in my head … generations of folks in my (own) family with failed marriages, children out of wedlock, alcoholism, etc. I was like … I can’t send this ‘legacy’ on with my children/grandchildren.

Basically, I wanted to post here, to see if anyone knew anything further, or if it was something I could easily dismiss. Make sense?

 

[CatholicSam]

There used to be an awesome SOLT (Fr. Corapi’s order) priest in our area who would offer generational healing Masses every month. If you don’t have something like that at your church, maybe you could just get a normal Mass offered for the “spiritual protection of the XYZ family” or something to that effect.

There are also certain prayers that are known for their use in spiritual warfare. The Rosary, of course, and the St. Michael prayer come to mind. There is an extended form of the St. Michael prayer too (the one we commonly hear today is the abbreviated form). Maybe you could pray either form of the St. Michael prayer every day for the protection of your family from every evil influence.

Whether your family is under a generational curse or not, it’s always a good thing to pray for your family’s spiritual protection! Offer up your Holy Communions regularly for this intention. A parent’s prayers for his/her children are extra powerful!

 

[jwashu]

The website isn’t devoted to it, Joe. It’s just got one little prayer on there among many other prayers.

You’re right. Our sins are washed away in Confession. But the consequences of our sin remain, remember?

From what I understand of generational curses, certain demons sometimes attach themselves to certain family blood lines. The demons like to hang out with the family and try to cause trouble. Some demons are specialized in various sins, such as alcoholism, impurity, violence, selfishness (family/marital problems) etc. And so you get a demon or a group of demons who, say, like to tempt people to impurity, hanging out with a particular family generation to generation to generation. This same thing happens in physical locations too. You will have a “gang” of demons specializing in drug abuse, for instance. And the sign of that would be a big drug problem in a certain part of town. Another area might have a gang of theft demons, where many robberies and burglaries occur. And yet another section might be plagued by demons of greed, where people virtually worship money and possessions as their idols.

So I wouldn’t really call it generational *sin *as much as a generational curse. The victim in the curse isn’t always to blame for giving into sin. Sometimes the demons cause other people to sin against the victims, or they might distract the victims so that they make poor choices. There is also the case of demons causing physical problems for their victims (such as some instances of accidental injury or a disease).

And that is what I understand about this topic. I might be mistaken on a point or two, but hopefully if that’s the case, someone more knowledgeable will be able to jump in here with the answer.

I don’t care about that site, I was just pointing out that there are a lot of sites on the Internet that are not theologically correct.

 

[jmcrae]

Father Iannuzzi, who is an exorcist from Rome (he is personally acquainted with Father Amorth) always does an exorcism of generational curses, every time I have ever heard him speak. I should think that his theology would be pretty orthodox.

One of the keys to breaking the curse is to shine the light of truth on it. TELL your children about it, so that they can adjust their behaviour accordingly.

If a child in a family that has alcoholism is simply told, “Don’t drink, or else the Devil will get you,” he will do whatever his friends are doing. But, if he is sat down and told, “Our family is under a curse of alcoholism. Your friends may drink, but you may not, because your friends, who are not under this curse, will be okay if they drink - but you will most likely not be okay.”

Or else if your family has the curse of promiscuity, where it seems like every generation is coming to parenthood earlier and earlier, your kids need to know about this, so that they can adjust their dating habits accordingly. “Other girls may stay out late with boys, but you may not,” is going to elicit the question, “Why not?” and you really do have to teach your child and explain to him or her about the generational curse.

Unfortunately, a lot of parents who have had to deal with these curses in their own lives, hide these things from their children in the hopes that their children will somehow have a lucky escape, or that by not knowing about it, the child will never be tempted by it. Or they worry that the child will use the existence of the curse as an excuse to misbehave on purpose, and say, “Well, I couldn’t help it - the Devil must have made me do it.”

But I strongly believe that “sunlight is the most effective disinfectant” - shine the bright light of truth on the situation for your child, and give them the tools they need to make smart decisions, even when their peers are tempting them to do things that have always turned out badly for the previous generations.

 

[Liberanosamalo]

The Bible did say the sins of the father are visited on the children down through multiple generations.

I know someone who married into one such family. She said that Satan was handed down on the Y chromosome in that bloodline. Even people who never MET each other in that family (the men) behaved just like each other. And it wasn’t pretty.

I think it’s spiritual and a mix of learned behaviors. Some things are acceptable and parents allow children to do stuff because they did it and “they turned out all right.” I once talked to a father who spoke of not having contact with his son and he said “I didn’t know my father and I turned out all right.” Well, that was HIS opinion. And his son didn’t do well without a father.

And yes, it goes for the womenfolk too. Unwed pregnancy is just the first thing that comes to mind.

 

[jwashu]

The Bible did say the sins of the father are visited on the children down through multiple generations.

I know someone who married into one such family. She said that Satan was handed down on the Y chromosome in that bloodline. Even people who never MET each other in that family (the men) behaved just like each other. And it wasn’t pretty.

I think it’s spiritual and a mix of learned behaviors. Some things are acceptable and parents allow children to do stuff because they did it and “they turned out all right.” I once talked to a father who spoke of not having contact with his son and he said “I didn’t know my father and I turned out all right.” Well, that was HIS opinion. And his son didn’t do well without a father.

And yes, it goes for the womenfolk too. Unwed pregnancy is just the first thing that comes to mind.

Again that is Old Testament… While even some Priests are preaching this I just do not believe it’s big “D” Dogma of the Catholic Church.

Christ washed away our sins. Infant Baptism or even Baptism removed original since from babies and all sins from adults.

 

[judechild]

I have a different understanding of “generational sins”, please tell me if you think it is valid.

The Bible did say the sins of the father are visited on the children down through multiple generations.

True, but I don’t think it means for sins to be seen like some kind of curse that rolls on down the family line, like a genetic disease (well, I guess original sin is like a genetic disease…). We know that God doesn’t punish innocents for the crimes of others. Instead, I think it’s more like this: my parents are atheists, so I was born an atheist. If it hadn’t been for God’s mercy, my children (if I ever have any) would have been brought up as atheists. In each generation, therefore, the sin of incredulity is passed down from generation to generation, and there’s where we get generational sins.

 

[MJE]

The prayers of exorcism @ Baptism for an infant would suggest some sort of generational sin might be present, wouldn’t it?

 

[PeliganPelican]

The doctrine of gernerational curses stems from the Jewish misinterpretation of Exodus Ch 20:1-6 - – Moses said in Duet 24:16
Fathers shall not be put to death for their sons, nor shall sons be put to death for their fathers; everyone shall be put to death for his own sin.

Moses would not have made a contradiction in this matter and also we find God correcting this false belief in Ezekiel 18:1-4 & Jeremiah 31:29-30 which mentions the Jewish beleif of teeth being set on edge.

If you look into the books of 1 and 2 Kings you will notice that many Kings walked in the sin of their father Jeroboam although not his actual son.

1Ki 22:51 Ahaziah the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah. And he reigned two years over Israel.
1Ki 22:52 And he did evil in the sight of Jehovah, and walked in the way of his father, and in the way of his mother, and in the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin.

2Ch 28:1 Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. But he did not do the right in the sight of Jehovah, like David his father.

If you also read Exodus 20 you will note that there is a blessing to a 1000 generations of those who love the Lord.

Therefore if you applied the same generational principle you would only need a very distant relative to pass on blessing.

The true meaning of the text in exodus is basically “that God will punish the children for committing the same sins as the fathers to four generations”

This punishment is “corrective” in order to restore a family line.

The sad reality is that for God’s people this corrective punishment seems to cease after four generations.

For the heathen four generations sees their sin reaching full measure as in the case of the Amorites. They were not correctively punished in this four generation period but judged at its end by invading Israel. “But in the fourth generation they shall come here again, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full measure”. Genesis 15:16

You will note in Kings that the Captivity takes place after four genrerations of kings sin in the same manner without repentance.

I have a very indepth study on this subject which shows the abuses of this “curses doctrine” if anyone would like it.

 

[CatholicSam]

I have a different understanding of “generational sins”, please tell me if you think it is valid.

True, but I don’t think it means for sins to be seen like some kind of curse that rolls on down the family line, like a genetic disease (well, I guess original sin is like a genetic disease…). We know that God doesn’t punish innocents for the crimes of others. Instead, I think it’s more like this: my parents are atheists, so I was born an atheist. If it hadn’t been for God’s mercy, my children (if I ever have any) would have been brought up as atheists. In each generation, therefore, the sin of incredulity is passed down from generation to generation, and there’s where we get generational sins.

Makes sense to me! Like Liberanosamalo said, many parents ignore or accept certain behaviors because they did them themselves and are either used to it or think they “turned out fine”. I think this is definitely a big part of what goes on. We know that God uses the natural laws that He created, while only using supernatural phenomena comparitively infrequently.

But that’s not the whole story. As I said previously, there are “gangs” of demons who for some reason or another, are drawn to particular families and cause trouble. The demons are their own individual beings, separate from the victims. With God’s permission, the demons are more or less free to bother or not the victims. So it’s not all dependent on the actions of the family members, you know? The curse might not be a sin, but maybe something like depression or a physical ailment or early death (not saying all cases of these things are caused by a curse, of course).

The doctrine of gernerational curses stems from the Jewish misinterpretation of Exodus Ch 20:1-6 - – Moses said in Duet 24:16
Fathers shall not be put to death for their sons, nor shall sons be put to death for their fathers; everyone shall be put to death for his own sin.

I have a very indepth study on this subject which shows the abuses of this “curses doctrine” if anyone would like it.

No, I think you’re thinking of something else. We’re not talking about future generations being held responsible for the wrongdoings of their ancestors. We’re talking about groups of demons who attach themselves (through their own “free will” and God’s permission) to certain families. Although all this talk in the Bible about blessings and curses going down through the generations would indicate that something can in fact be passed down. We’re not saying that every sin will have a consequence in future generations (although who but God knows for sure?), but that *sometimes *it can attract demons who hang out in certain families for generations on end.

Does anyone know about the generational curse that is incurred when someone joins the Freemasons?

 

[MarieVeronica]

The prayers of exorcism @ Baptism for an infant would suggest some sort of generational sin might be present, wouldn’t it?

That’s the one we ALL inherit. “Original Sin”. :sad_yes:

 

[gardenswithkids]

Again that is Old Testament… While even some Priests are preaching this I just do not believe it’s big “D” Dogma of the Catholic Church.

Christ washed away our sins. Infant Baptism or even Baptism removed original since from babies and all sins from adults.

Yes, Christ washes away all our sins in Baptism, yet the tendency towards sin remains. See CCC 1264 “Yet certain temporal consequences of sin remain in the baptized, such as suffering, illness, death, and such frailties inherent in life as weaknesses of character, and so as, as well as an inclination to sin that Tradition calls concupiscence, or metaphoriacally, ‘the tinder for sin.’; since concupiscence if 'left for us to wrestle with, it cannot harm those who to don’t consent but manfully resist it by the grace of Jesus Christ.’…”

Generational sin might be better described as the tendency towards certain sins that run in families. Secular research shows certain behaviors such as child abuse and alcoholism tend to run in families. While researchers generally attribute this to “learned behavior” or “genetics”, perhaps spiritual forces are also at work.

It is Christ provides us with the grace to resist sin, yet we must co-operate with His grace and refuse to submit to whatever sin most tempts us. When we fall, we must turn again to Christ for His grace through Confession and prayer. The sin that most tempts us and that we struggle with the most may be the same sin that tempted our fathers, our mothers, our grandfathers, our grandmothers, and/or great-grandparents. By resisting sin (or giving into it), we establish patterns for future generations.

 

[Marianne_Ph]

There is a lot of information to be found on this subject in the book, Healing Your Family Tree, A God-designed Solution for Difficult Problems , by John H. Hampsch, C.M.F. It is very convincing of the Catholic view and Scriptural foundation for these views. My eyes were opened with this book, and I am considering contacting a priest for a healing Mass for our family. There are many sad reasons too numerous to list. Fr. Hampsch recommends praying for healing especially when receiving Holy Communion and having faith in the power Christ has through this Sacrament. In the meantime, I pray Ephesians 6:10-17 often!

 

[shannyk]

I have a different understanding of “generational sins”, please tell me if you think it is valid.

True, but I don’t think it means for sins to be seen like some kind of curse that rolls on down the family line, like a genetic disease (well, I guess original sin is like a genetic disease…). We know that God doesn’t punish innocents for the crimes of others. Instead, I think it’s more like this: my parents are atheists, so I was born an atheist. If it hadn’t been for God’s mercy, my children (if I ever have any) would have been brought up as atheists. In each generation, therefore, the sin of incredulity is passed down from generation to generation, and there’s where we get generational sins.

This is how I think of it as well. The temporal effects of sin effect us and those around us, sometimes for generations. It’s fairly easy to see how the same types of sin seem to repeat themselves within families. Another good reason to avoid sin int he first place because it IS going to effect everyone around you. People often want to think sin is a private matter, but it’s really not.

 

[Marianne_Ph]

It has been a year since I posted my comment about generational sin based on the book written by a Catholic priest I mentioned a few posts back. The many remarks by members of this site since then are confirming and appreciated. Unfortunately, my family is living proof of generational sin in the most twisted and sad ways imaginable. Here’s why I believe so strongly: some things were kept secret in my family until recently, and now with this information, the effects are unmistakable. Although some still people prefer not to accept generational sin as a possibility from their understanding of today’s Catholic theology - and I am no expert - one thing we must all remember is that Our Lord has given us tools to use for protecting ourselves and our lineage against evils such as generational sin. From the book it is suggested to use prayer especially after receiving the Eucharist and the Mass itself as powerful tools. I thank God that I am Catholic and have been given the undeserved gift of faith.