Apologetics

Why the Teaching of Generational Curses is Utterly False and Immensely Cruel

by J.W. Phillips
10/02/25
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Why the Teaching of Generational Curses is Utterly False and Immensely Cruel

Why a church would ever teach their people they are subject to generational curses is beyond me! The likely answer is: Their leaders have succumbed to intellectual sloth.

Let’s approach this subject in two ways, first addressing why it is utterly false; second addressing why it is immensely cruel.

Utterly False

One verse cited as supposed support for generational curses is Exodus 20:5, which says, “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.”

Taken in isolation, this verse seems to indicate that the children of God-haters will be punished because of their ancestors.

However, the very next verse begins with the words, “But God,” intending a dramatic contrast, namely: the great mercy that comes to those who love God. That lineage is blessed for a thousand generations, which would arguably include, if taken literally, most of recorded history in both the Old Testament and New Testament.

Whatever this verse means, it is clear what it doesn’t mean.

Generational curses are refuted by several scriptures, but perhaps none more forcefully than that given in Ezekiel 18 where Jehovah God, through his prophet, asks this pointed question: 

What do you people mean by quoting this proverb about the land of Israel: The parents eat sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge? As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, you will no longer quote this proverb in Israel. For everyone belongs to Me, the parent as well as the child—both alike belong to Me. The one who sins is the one who will die (Ezekiel 18:2-4).

God isn’t punishing Johnny for what Great-great-granddad did. The idea that some sin a distant relative embraced has set you up for spiritual bondage was emphatically denounced by God.

What is true, yet is not at all the same, is a doctrinal perspective called traducianism. This teaching was introdced by Tertullian in the third century, the same man who first spoke of the trinity. Many pastors are unaware of this doctrine, though it has been widely accepted. This doctrine affirms that the soul may have qualities that are derivative from prior generations.

We have all observed this fact to some degree, in that it is almost immediately apparent to us that babies are not “blank slates,” waiting the imprinting of environment and education to shape their personalities. As these babies grow up, they sometimes exhibit personal traits that have identifiable antecedents in a family’s genealogy. The book of Genesis seems to document this observation.

Take Adam, for example, who knowingly and deliberately sinned. That, of course, was bad; for unlike Eve, he wasn’t deceived, and yet Adam ate the forbiddenfruit anyway.

But then his first son comes along, and what does he do? He murders his brother! That, of course, was very bad.

Unfortunately, this pattern replicates in Scripture. Abraham was known to tell a lie or two, but his grandson Jacob took deceit to another level. He became, as his name indicates, a deceiver, a charlaton, a fraud, a cheat.

Jacob was always looking for an angle, always trying to engineer someone into his debt, always trying to gain an advantage, always trying to win at someone else’s expense. 

But did Jacob have to live like that? Had some generational curse scripted his life and cemented his destiny? No, he had the ability any day and every day to make a different choice, as do those people who grew up in a family of alcoholics.

They may have a greater propensity for drinking alcohol, yet never drink a drop. So this generational curse idea explains next to nothing.

When reflecting on these behaviors in Genesis, Dr. Rob Reimer, a writer who supports generational curses, intentionally ignores the theological perspective that should have been mentioned but instead chooses to confuse his audience by identifying this behavioral pattern in Genesis as compelling evidence for generational curses.¹ It is not.

Generational curses, you say? Galatians 3:13 says, “Christ has redeemed us from the curse.” He did that two thousand years before you were born. Generational curses have never been your problem.

Oh, but you say, that refers to the curse of the law. Which indeed it does, but note well—that’s the curse from which all the other curses draw their power. To say that Jesus got rid of one curse but many other curses are still active is half a gospel. It teaches that the salvation Jesus offered was only partial. John Eckhardt writes: “As far as eternal salvation is concerned, we are secure. Yet as far as curses are concerned, saints can still be affected.”²

Affected? To what extent? To the extent ruinous generational strongholds are established.

Really? Have you ever noticed that none of the apostles went about freeing believers from curses?

When the apostle John tells his flock to test the spirits, he goes on to say: You are of God, little children, and have overcome them (evil spirits), because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world (I John 4:1-5).

Overcame them, how? Because you broke a generational curse? No, the overcoming occurred because of Jesus. He did that once and for all on the cross.

The doctrine of generational curses is in sharp conflict with the assurances Scripture gives.

Consider the ramifications of generational curses. Unless a family’s sin pattern is disclosed, the ability to conquer a threatening sin when it subsequently manifests in an offspring may very well be insufficient, and perhaps futile. Without such disclosures, we are kept from freedom. Is this true?

Not according to Romans 6:14 which says sin shall have no dominion over you. And not according to Romans 8:37 which declares we are more than conquerors. And not according to I Corinthians 15:57 which says, “Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” And not according to II Corinthians 2:14 which says, “thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph.” And not according to II Peter 1:3 which says his divine power has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness.”³

Moreover, II Corinthians 9:8 boldly declares that “God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound unto every good work.” Notice the superlatives stacked in this verse—all, three times; abound, twice; and then the clincher, every and always! God’s assurances for daily victory are strong.

Immensely Cruel

Now consider how the teaching of generational curses sabotages all that.

Dr. Rob Reimer states that “family sin patterns have unusual pull on our souls.”⁴ Therefore, according to Reimer, “dealing with this issue is an essential first step to gaining the victory.”⁵

Well, is it now? Who knew? Scripture never said that.

With tortured logic Reimer then says not to deal with this issue is to dishonor God.⁶

To understand the issue of generational curses for his own life, Reimer interrogated one grandmother to gain more knowledge about her sexual history, only to discover that there were troubling experiences not previously disclosed.

So what good did that do? Was he then less at fault? Was he then more likely to get sanctified? Must granny’s sins be renounced before grandson can gain a victory?

After ferreting out all the sordid details, Reimer makes precisely that argument in his book, Soul Care, saying: “…if I didn’t understand it, I may never have been able to battle it appropriately.”⁷

In this quest to learn his family’s history, Reimer also talked several hours with his brother.⁸ So important is this effort, according to Reimer, people should do a genogram.⁹

The genogram, a concept used by family systems therapists, assumes that counseling an individual is a doomed enterprise without first scrutinizing the whole the family tree. So they spread refrigerator paper on a kitchen table, upon which they write down each known fact the client discloses about each family member in the family tree as far back as they can go.

The therapist guides the process, asking questions the client never would have thought to ask, or answer. This investigation goes back generations. Typically, gaps of knowledge then commence a process where the client begins to search for answers from others in the family.

Dr. Reimer writes, “It often helpful to be talking with family members when you are seeking to heal your past hurts and wounds.”¹⁰ The premise for this comes from two heretical inner-healing movement convictions: 1) You can’t know who you are until you know who they are, and 2) Others in your family tree may have hurt you without you or they knowing about it.

How so? Because an immoral episode by Great-grand-father flows in the bloodline! It is a generational curse!

Once you get this genogram information, you must renounce every curse and make confession. For their sins? O, yeah. You’re part of the family!

Reimer says, “I have done a total life confession with several people. It is a liberating feeling to get up in the morning, look yourself in the mirror, and know that you have no secrets.”¹¹

This is nuts. It was never a secret in the first place. A mystery, maybe. But the totality of what has occurred in one’s family’s history remains a mystery for everybody simply because so much of that in not known and is not discoverable. So what’s the point?

At work here is the agenda of the inner healing movement and certainly not Scripture’s agenda. Nowhere do we find anything like this in Scripture. To rivet attention on the past, and go that far back before then myopically inspecting each perceived hurt, is not biblical. 

Resonating to this adopted agenda, Reimer adds to it: “It helps to grieve the hurts and losses you have suffered;”¹² “you must process grief and pain for your soul.”¹³

But is this what Scripture says?

In Philippians 3:8 Paul said the opposite. Having suffered the loss of all things, he counted them as rubbish—something to discard, regard useless, not worthy of attention and therefore not getting it.

Now, when one considers all the suffering Paul experienced, is it not instructive, in the face of this inner healing agenda, that we don’t see this focus on processing and grieving pain and loss? 

Paul does precisely the opposite, saying in II Corinthians 4:18, “… we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” 

By unseen, Paul doesn’t mean the unconscious realm; he means the eternal, the truths of God that govern the spirit.

By contrast, Reimer and the inner healing proponents fix their eyes on all the wounds of the past and then go to extraordinary lengths to seek healing by reexperiencing them in order to get healing for them. They call this healing memories.¹⁴

The obvious question that is really unanswerable is: How can I ever be spiritually strong if there are many generational curses undermining me and I can’t possible discover all of them?

Not to worry, Dr. Reimer quotes the Joel passage that speaks of God’s peopleprophesying, seeing visions, and dreaming dreams. Reimer then utterly distorts Scripture by saying “God sanctifies our imagination with his prophetic pictures”¹⁵ Reimer declares: “God can give you a prophetic picture that can heal a past memory.”¹⁶ 

So was that what Joel was talking about and what Peter was talking about when he quotes Joel, how God helps us to heal our memories? No Reimer imports his view to the text, and like all false teachers he doesn’t extract it from it. 

My response? Well, to use Paul’s language in Philippians 3—rubbish! Reimer is forcing upon Scripture, and on anyone who listens to him, a view Scripture does not teach.

In vain, trying to find additional support, Reimer cites Psalm 139, verses 23 and 24 where David says, “Search me, O God, and know my heart;Try me and know my anxious thoughts; And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way” (NASB).

In response to this citation, it should be pointed out that more translations don’t use the word “anxiety” and simply say “know my thoughts,” “know my concerns,” or “know my paths.”

John Gill, predecessor to Charles Spurgeon, noted the background of these words from David: “The occasion of it was Shimei, the Son of Gera, reproaching him and cursing him as a bloody man (2 Samuel 16:5).”

But if there was any anxiety, it wasn’t due to a fear of Shimei. David was simply doing a double check before God to make sure that he was in good standing with him. 

That’s it! The verse just does not support what inner-healing enthusiast like Reimer imply: that we would need to inventory our whole life to see if there are any anxieties there. 

Like many other modern-day deliverance ministers, Neil Anderson believes that the need to identify and renounce past sins to be free of them is not limited to the sins in one’s own life but extends back to the sins of some ancestor.

Given this belief, a Christian may repent of a personal sin; nevertheless, the stronghold could still remain because personal repentance and subsequent forsaking isn’t enough. Rob Reimer insists, “You have to overcome the pull of your family sin pattern.”¹⁷ So that’s why there must also be a verbal renunciation by the believer for every sin noted on that refrigerator paper.

Never mind the total lack of scriptural support for this procedure, can you not see the utter futility of it? For example, what if you don’t know all your ancestors did—which of course you don’t—does that mean the curse remains? If the answer is yes, then you’re doomed! But if the answer is no, then why go through this lengthy procedure in the first place? It just doesn’t make sense.

One has to wonder how Scripture might have read if Neil Anderson, another proponent of generational curses, had been the one who met the woman at the well.

Let’s see, now: five husbands and currently living with another man? Well, a lengthy interrogation is certainly due here!

One can even imagine how the conversation would begin. Tell me about your parents. Did they have a history of multiple marriages, or were they even married?

Ah, let me back up. Do you even know who both of your parents are?

Long discussion.

Most likely, this woman came to the well during the hottest time of the day so she could avoid (because of her reputation) embarrassing exposure to others.

But tough luck, lady! Neil Anderson is waiting for you; and, nice man though he is, he’s going to let you feel the heat for a long time—and much of that won’t be from the sun.

Given these insights from Dr. Anderson, it appears that Jesus failed to do what should have been done that day.

And what about Matthew? Hmmm, let’s see, a tax collector? Well, there had to be a lot of ground to cover with Matthew! After all, tax collectors were considered thieves and serial liars. In fact, their reputation was so low they couldn’t testify in any Jewish court.

Of course, Satan is a thief and liar, so there had to be a connection here. 

But for some reason, there is no account of an extensive inventory undertaken to see what curses and demons were controlling this man. A very odd omission! 

So Neil cries out to the departing Messiah. “Jesus, you can’t just ask him to follow you! You need to check for demons! You need to check for generational curses. You need go through some steps with this guy.”

One could also scan the record for all the cities Paul visited: Corinth, for example, where there was much occult activity; Ephesus, where brothels and temple prostitution were legendary. So, do we find Paul making the rounds, identifying generational curses? We do not. 

Well, then, do we find specific instructions in his letters for doing any of this? We do not. But why not? Since Paul’s letters provide extensive pastoral guidance for spiritual growth, one would think there would be something in there that sounds a little bit like Neil Anderson.

Check it out: there isn’t. What Anderson writes is more inventive than inspired.

Just know that it is common for those who hold the belief in generational curses to also hold the belief in demonization of Christians, which they claim is common. The linkage is a logical one, given that the symptoms of each are much the same. Those sharing precisely that view include John Echardt, Derek Prince, Randy Clark, Neil T. Anderson, Kathryn Hick, Mike Signorelli, Isaiah Saldivar, Alexander Pagani and Vlad Slavchuck.

Generational curses thinking also conflates with the heretical inner healing teachings of Agnes Sanford and Leanne Payne and the heretical teachings of Dallas Willard and Richard Foster. Just one pile of heresies! ¹⁸ Do you really want to associate with these folks, false teachers, every single one?

Stay away.

Notes:

1. Rob Reimer, https://www.bing.com/videos/search?&q=apologetic+critique+of+Rob+Reimer+soul+care&docid=603489501225624149&mid=6F218191894FA75AD4DC6F218191894FA75AD4DC&view=detail&FORM=VDRVRV&ajaxhist=0

2. John Eckhardt, Deliverance and Spiritual Warfare Manual, (Lake Mary, Florida, Charisma House, 2014), p.226.

3. Chuck Smith, “Christian Possession—The Scriptures Say No!” Costa Mesa, Calif.: The Word for Today, 1979.

4. Rob Reimer, Soul Care, (Franklin, Tennessee, Carpenter’s Son Publishing, 2016), p.132.

5. Ibid., pp. 120, 121.

6. Ibid., p. 157.

7. Ibid., p.104

8. Ibid., p.155.

9. Ibid., p.84.

10. Ibid., p.143.

11. Ibid., p.145.

12. Ibid., p.166.

13. Ibid. p.166.

14. Ibid., p.167.

15. Ibid., p. 168.

16. Ibid., p.187.

17. Ibid. p. 248.

18. For a much more-detailed study of these subjects, see my book, Swatting the Saved, HCC Publishing, 2024, available on Amazon, a 438-page book with almost 700 endnotes.