Ezekiel 18:19-20 (ESV Strong's)
“Yet you say, ‘Why should not the son suffer for the iniquity of the father?’ When the son has done what is just and right, and has been careful to observe all my statutes, he shall surely live. 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.
Tag: Reparations Are NOT God’s Ways!
We have a lot of talk in our country about reparations for the past failures of those who have gone before us. We have had, truly, evil practices by our forefathers. We will, no doubt, in generations to come, have society look back at us and ask, “why did they do that?” Every generation tends to judge the morality and ethics of the generation(s) before them through their current moral and ethical lens. However, there is no doubt, that in any generation the treatment of others ought to be righteously rebuts. However, in the above passage we read God’s thoughts on second and their generational reparations. God is saying that the sins of the father SHOULD NOT be visited upon the children. The context of the above passage is found in Ezekiel, who is prophesying to the nation of Israel about their doom and destruction. They, themselves, had disobeyed God and would suffer the consequences for that disobedience. God was not punishing the children for the sins of their fathers. God was punishing the children because they, like their fathers, failed to walk in obedience to Him. God does not punish the righteous because their fathers were unrighteous. God punishes the unrighteous. The entire 18 chapter of Ezekiel is written to make sure the nation of Israel knows that the punishment they are experiencing (and about to experience even more) was NOT based upon the theory of “reparations.” They were being judged for their current behaviors that they themselves were committing. That is the entire point of today’s talk of reparations. We have plenty of sin we are currently doing that needs to be fixed, much less paying for the sins of our fathers.
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