THE DOCTRINE OF INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY IN EZEKIEL 18:1-32 VIS-À-VIS THE BELIEF IN TRANSGENERATIONAL RETRIBUTION AMONG PRESENT-DAY CHRISTIANS

Abstract

The idea that the sufferings and misfortunes encountered by the present generation are a consequence of the sins of its ancestors is common among many preachers in the contemporary Nigerian church. Such a belief was held by the Jewish exiles in Babylon. The exiles had held that their calamities and the exile were caused by the sins of their forebears. This belief finds support in several OT passages (Exodus 20:5 = Deut 5:9; Exodus 34:7). Exodus 20:5 (cf 34:7) portrays God as “a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the parents upon the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.†Similarly, in Lam 5:7 the people lament: “Our forebears sinned … and we bear their iniquities.†Apparently, this belief in transgenerational retribution was an appeal to Ezekiel’s pre-587 oracles in chapters 16 and 23, which refer to the sins of their ancestors as the reasons for the fall of Jerusalem. Ezekiel tackles the question of retribution in chap18.