The American Wisdom Series

Presents
Pamphlet #4380

My Hi-lite:    Ezekiel 18:1  The word of the LORD came unto me again, saying,
2 What mean ye, that ye use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge?
3 As I live, saith the Lord GOD, ye shall not have occasion any more to use this proverb in Israel.
4  Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.

"Do children pay for the sins of their parents, and vice versa?"

It is truly amazing how people will accept a proverbial saying or supposed axiom as being Biblical without ever investigating it on their own. It is a lot like the main stream media who will characterize, which often means "demonize", an innocent person and the majority of the population will believe that it is true. This they often do by taking something a person said and "clipping it" out of context and making it "appear" as if they said something they did not! Thus they manipulate public opinion which is a form of mind control, isn't it? Yes, they are dangerous cult.

"We hold that religious freedom is an important, precious and constitutionally protected right in our country. However, when deception, mind control or fraud are present, a person's freedom of choice is undermined. Freedom to make "Real Choice" can only be exercised when one has access to all the information, and an understanding of the truth."
Here is an example:

Many "fundamentalist" Christians believe it is a sin to drink an alcoholic beverage, even wine. They are like the Women's Temperance Union years ago whose members marched around with signs quoting Proverbs 20:1 as their Biblical proof that you shouldn't drink wine or any other form of alcohol:

Proverbs 20:1
Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging!:

The problem is that they were guilty of using the same "device" as the main stream media in that they "clipped" the saying out of context and did not include the rest of the verse which reads:

 and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.
In other words, this verse does not say a person should not drink wine, for Christ himself turned about 120 gallons of water into fine wine at the wedding in Cana. What is does say is that if you allow it to influence you, as in becoming intoxicated whereby you are "deceived" into making bad decisions, then you are STUPID indeed! And yes, the scriptures will support that at that level it can become very sinful.

We could go on and on and cite numerous other verses of the Bible which are quoted out of context and made to support a "tradition of man", like 1 Thes. 4:17 . However, there is one verse in specific that relates to this 18th chapter of Ezekiel, and that is Deut. 5:9 which is also recorded in Exodus 20:5.

Many folks are under the impression that their children are punished for their sins, meaning the parent's sins, because of this verse which reads:

Exodus 20:5
Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation...
Though they will actually read with their blind eyes the rest of this verse, this is as far as their mind will go because they have "seen" what they ALREADY believe it says, i.e. that the sins of the fathers are passed down even unto the 3rd and 4th generations.

Note: It is not a good thing to quote Almighty God out of context. He certainly does not appreciate it any more than anybody else does when he or she is misquoted. And it is written that it infuriates Him when those who claim to be His ministers and teachers do it! Woe unto them! We must always be careful to rightly divide the Word and learning to read what is written in its proper context is a good place to begin.

The remainder of Exodus 20:5 reads:

of them that hate me;
If you CONTINUE in the sins of your parents, and continue to hate our Father and His ways, then you will continue in the consequences of sin, just like your parents. BUT, as the very next verse shows, if you turn away from the sins of your parents then He will show mercy unto you and anyone else who follows suit.
Exodus 20:6
And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
Our Father is ALWAYS completely fair and He is no respecter of persons. Each and every child of His is ultimately responsible for his or her OWN actions and will be judged accordingly. This is the Great Message of Ezekiel chapter 18. Just think, our Father gave an entire chapter in His letter to us to explain this in detail, so it must be important that we understand His equitable JUSTICE and complete FAIRNESS and never misquote Him or "buy in" to a false proverb perpetuated by fools!

We begin chapter 18 by understanding that the people, led by their iniquitous shepherds, were going around saying that they were paying the penalty for the sins of their fathers. In other words, they were saying that their father's sins caused the siege and the captivity and they were paying for it!

Ezekiel 18:1
The word of the LORD came unto me again, saying,

[2] What mean ye, that ye use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge?

When you bite into a lemon does it pucker the lips of your children? Of course not!
[3] As I live, saith the Lord GOD, ye shall not have occasion any more to use this proverb in Israel.
God is going to put a stop to people saying He is unfair and unjust! How dare they! The very fact that they would say that proves them to be unfair and unjust! The prophet Jeremiah, a contemporary of Ezekiel, who would have also been familiar with this proverb going around, gives a second witness to the fact that God is going to abolish this stupid and ignorant saying:
Jeremiah 31:29-30
In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children's teeth are set on edge.

[30] But every one shall die for his own iniquity: every man that eateth the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge.

When you bite into a lemon it is your own lips that pucker sucker!

You see, the reason they will have "none occasion" (an old 1611 English saying) to use this proverb anymore is because the whole world will soon know how unrighteous and wicked they are themselves. Everybody wants to blame everybody else, don't they? It is literally the oldest "cop out" in the BOOK. To wit, the first thing Adam said when God asked him about his own actions was, "You know the woman YOU MADE for me? She made me do it! It was her fault!" Wrong answer, Adam! Then Eve of course did the same thing and "passed the buck" to the serpent.

And so it continues to this very day. However, modern man has become increasingly more creative in shifting the blame from himself and he now accuses even inanimate objects, and their makers too, for his own evil actions. "Your honor, the gun was sold to me at a gun show without a proper background check and so I had no choice other than to take it and shoot someone. And it's really the gun maker's fault, because he made the gun in the first place. But my attorney says if you the government would have passed proper gun control legislation and rid society of these evil crime producing menaces, then I wouldn't have been able to commit the crime with the evil gun. Therefore, I the accused criminal, am really the victim here of a much greater social injustice and so I am suing the government for 25 Million Dollars (most of which my attorney will get) and when I win, the taxpayers will "fork over" the dough. I will then be released to perhaps become a victim once again to the unjust availability of inanimate objects that kill." (The Bible, including Ezekiel 18, is not allowed in our nation's courtrooms today.)

Well, that may work in a court of man's law, but read and understand the next verse from the Judge who will preside at the final trial, the trial for your life.

Ezekiel 18:4
Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.
You and I and every person of every race, color, and creed BELONG to God. He is our Father who created all of our souls and we are His children. When we give account to Him there will be no preachers, ministers, or defense attorneys there to help "pass the buck" and circumvent the laws of God. We are responsible for our own actions and to claim otherwise is declare oneself to be Biblically ignorant. How so? Because chapter 18 of Ezekiel is very easy to read and understand even at an elementary grade level. Just wait until someone tries to use Adam and Eve's same lame-brain excuse at their judgment trial and God says, "Hold it right there! I had my servants Moses and Ezekiel and Jeremiah and My Son, all tell you thousands of years ago that YOU are responsible for YOUR OWN actions! Haven't you read Ezekiel chapter 18? Now let's try this again. Give account for your own actions!"

To study the Bible is the noblest of all pursuits; to understand it, the highest of all goals.
We pray that with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, you accomplish both.

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