The Sins of Your Ancestors

We blame the gun after I pulled the trigger, the cigarette company because I smoked, or the prostitute because I get a disease. Fans blame the coach for losing the match.

Mormons have a great plan for your dead ancestors. You get baptized in their place, their sins are forgiven, and they enter the kingdom of God.

Others have another take on the sins of your ancestors. You’re guilty of their sins 300 years ago and must pay the price through social justice. It’s Mormonism without the water!

Should you be held responsible for the sins of your ancestors? How would you know those sins? How many generations back will you go?

No one today, nor of the past, has clean hands. No tongue, tribe, nation, skin color, or individual – past or present – is innocent of horrible things.

Africans enslaved Africans over thousands of years. In the 1400s, the Inca in South America murdered their neighbors in violent religious rituals. Pacific islanders stole from one another and then ate each other. Five hundred years ago, Roman Catholics killed Protestants and Lutherans killed Anabaptists. My great-grandfather defrauded his neighbors with rotten potatoes. The whole world is a guilty mess!

What do you mean when you use this proverb concerning the land of Israel: “The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge?”

“As I live,” says the Lord God, “you shall no longer use this proverb in Israel. Behold, all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine; the soul who sins shall die” (Ezekiel 18:2-4).

In the days of the Jewish prophet Ezekiel, people blamed each other for the sins of their ancestors, even creating a proverb about it. God told Israel to stop repeating the proverb because it wasn’t true. God holds each sinner personally responsible for his own sins and not the sins of others.

When Adam sinned, he blamed God and Eve. Eve blamed the serpent. The serpent was the only one in the Garden who didn’t pass the buck (Genesis 3:8-13). Blaming someone else (or their ancestors) is always easier than looking in the mirror to see where I miss the mark.

God saves and forgives individuals one-by-one by grace through faith in Christ. God’s Saviour meets the sinner where he is, not where his great-great-great-grandmother was.

Children of the Heavenly Father – Caroline V Sandell-Berg (1855)

Children of the Heavenly Father
Safely in His bosom gather
Nestling bird nor star in heaven
Such a refuge e’er was given.

God His own doth tend and nourish
In His holy courts they flourish
From all evil things He spares them
In His mighty arms He bears them.

Neither life nor death shall ever
From the Lord His children sever
Unto them His grace He showeth
And their sorrows all He knoweth.

Though He giveth or He taketh
God His children ne’er forsaketh
His the loving purpose solely
To preserve them pure and holy.

Lo their very hairs He numbers
And no daily care encumbers
Them that share His ev’ry blessing
And His help in woes distressing.

Praise the Lord in joyful numbers
Your Protector never slumbers
At the will of your Defender
Ev’ry foe man must surrender.

As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear Him. For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust (Psalm 103:13-14).

Disagreement at Marburg

(L) Luther, (R) Zwingli

Over four days in October of 1529, Martin Luther, the Protestant leader in Germany met with his Swiss counterpart, Ulrich Zwingli. It was hoped a Protestant alliance would have more impact reforming Roman Catholicism. The men had known each other by correspondence for years before meeting in Marburg, Germany. Their differences were minor except concerning the Lord’s Supper.

The popes taught that the bread literally became the flesh of Jesus and the wine literally became the blood of Jesus. Luther believed that Jesus was somehow present in the bread and cup but couldn’t explain how. Zwingli said the Lord’s Table was a symbolic memorial to Christ’s death.

When Jesus instituted the Communion meal, He said, This is My body (Matthew 26:26; Mark 14:22; Luke 22:19; 1 Corinthians 11:24). Luther said this meant the bread and wine were somehow Christ’s body and blood; Zwingli said the elements only sybolized His body and blood.

The dispute became known as The Great Controversy and the two men couldn’t agree. In fact, when Zwingli left for Zurich, Luther thanked Zwingli’s companion for coming and begged forgiveness for any harsh words he may have spoken. Luther then refused to shake Zwingli’s hand and criticized the Swiss Reformer openly. While Zwingli disagreed with Luther, he didn’t believe the matter should separate them or their followers in preaching Jesus in the Scriptures.

From the beginning of the meeting, Luther was hostile. He began by saying he wasn’t there to debate but to explain his belief and show why Zwingli was wrong. To the Word of God one must yield. It is up to you to prove that the body of Christ is not there when Christ himself says, ‘This is my body.’ I do not want to hear what reason says. Luther then took a piece of chalk and wrote on the table in Latin the words This is My body, then laid a tablecloth over the words.

To every argument made by Zwingli, Luther would lift the tablecloth and repeat the words. Zwingli met Luther’s assertions by asking how Christ’s physical body could be everywhere at one time.

We can look at the Marburg Colloquy as a failure. It was not. Both men argued from Scripture alone as the foundation for both Christian faith and practice. They lived up to their commitment to God’s Word and not the traditions of men, and God’s Word still stands today!