Am I Suffering From a Generational Curse?

Does the Bible really teach that there are generational curses? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. Hi, this is Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. Here's the phone number. It's 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. You can also post your question on our Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter accounts. You can watch us on YouTube and send us a question that way, and you can email us your question at questionsatcorechristianity.com. First up today, here's a voicemail we received from one of our listeners.

Okay, I have a question. There's people that are going to make it to heaven, and there's people that aren't. And people that aren't going to be in heaven, there's going to be screaming and hollering in the fire because it's so hot. And if I can hear that from heaven, it's not going to be heaven to me. I don't want to hear anybody's suffering. How is that going to be? Can you explain that to me?

Thank you. Yeah, well, sister, you're assuming that when you're in heaven in the presence of the Lord that you're going to be able to be distracted by the sufferings of those who are not in heaven, who are outside of Christ and outside of God's kingdom. But I don't think that we have any indication of that. I mean, you think of the image that we're given of the new heavens and the new earth in the book of Revelation and Revelation chapter 21, I'm thinking in particular, and it's worship. It's worship around the throne of God. We're going to be occupied with the adoration of the Holy Trinity. And so we're not going to be distracted by suffering.

That's another beautiful picture that we have in the book of Revelation. God wiping away all of our tears. Now, we don't know.

I mean, we've received questions, other questions before related, sort of related to this. How am I going to be able to enjoy heaven if some of my loved ones aren't there? That kind of a thing. We don't know entirely what it's going to look like, but we do know that it's going to be so glorious that we're going to be there with the living God that we're not going to be distracted by other things. It's going to be pure joy and pure love. And so I think that your understanding of heaven needs to be modified a little bit. And I would say, open up the book of Revelation, go to chapter 21, read chapters 21 and 22, and that's what you want to look at. And that's what you want to put your confidence in, in terms of what heaven is going to be like. So God bless. No more crying, no more tears, no more sorrow. I mean, it's a day that we all have to look forward to.

And the whole issue of hell is a different matter entirely. But man, when we are with the Lord, we're going to be celebrating, right? Amen.

We are. It's going to be worship. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Here's the phone number. If you have a question, and we'd love to hear from you, our phone lines are open right now. Call us at 833-THE-CORE. You might want to make a note of that number.

833-THE-CORE or 1-833-843-2673. Now, we had a question that came in via voicemail about the media that we consume, particularly about television shows. Let's listen to that.

Thank you so much for your program. I really enjoy it. I have a question about movies that show Jesus and what you think the Bible teaches about if it's appropriate to watch those, or if we should stick to reading the Bible to see how he acts and things like that. I've heard good things about the movies recently, like The Chosen, and I'm just wondering about your opinion there.

Thanks. Yeah, I always say the book is better. Isn't that what they all say?

I'm joking there, but it is true. If we want to understand who Jesus was, we need to go to the Scriptures. Now, the early church and many Christians throughout church history have been against depicting God in images, and there's a really good reason for that.

One, God's law. You think of the second commandment, but also just the danger of misrepresenting God. This is one of my biggest fears as a minister of the gospel, as someone who does this broadcast, core Christianity. I tremble at the thought of misrepresenting God through his word. We have to be really careful, and a danger with these depictions of Jesus or depictions of God is that we can misrepresent the Lord. I always point people back to the word of God, and it seems to me like even the apostles who saw Jesus, they didn't focus on his physical appearance.

They didn't say, hey, we want you to know he was five foot ten and light brown skin. You don't get that anywhere in the New Testament. What they focused on was the message of the gospel.

Think about this. First John chapter one, John begins, that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and have touched with our hands concerning the word of life. The life was made manifest, and we have seen it and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us. That which we have seen and heard, we proclaim also to you so that you may have fellowship with us. Indeed, our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.

It seems to me that the apostles who saw and heard Jesus firsthand, they focused on proclaiming the apostolic message, the gospel, not on depictions of Jesus' physical appearance. Paul makes this very clear in Galatians chapter three. He says, I placarded Jesus before you. The word that he uses there in Galatians three one, it's a word that was used for ancient billboards, that kind of a thing. He says, I placarded Jesus before you.

How? It was through the preaching. Preaching God's word gives us the clearest image, if you will, of Christ. And that's what God calls us to do, is to proclaim the word and to receive the word. And so that's my focus, sister, on the basis of God's word.

And I know that that might be controversial because a lot of people think, oh, just sort of harmless, that kind of a thing. But remember, we want to be so careful that we aren't misrepresenting the true and the living God. And that's why I take the position that I do.

Very important. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. And we've mentioned there's a variety of different ways to listen to our program. Now, some of the radio stations that air Core Christianity actually aired on a delayed basis later in the day. So we should tell you, if you want to call and talk to Pastor Adriel live in the studio, here's the time you want to call.

It's eleven thirty a.m. Pacific Time, which translates to twelve thirty Mountain, one thirty Central or two thirty Eastern Time for that half hour period. That's when you can call and reach us in the studio. Let's go to Rachel calling in from Massachusetts. Rachel, what's your question for Pastor Adriel?

Thanks for taking my call. So the question I have for you, at what point do you if a family members who are closest to you, including a son or daughter who is anti Christianity, who wants to engage in having a discussion about Christianity, not for the purpose of gaining knowledge, but for the purpose of arguing or proving how the falsehood of Christianity. At what point do you choose? And I know a lot of people struggle with this and I haven't gotten a straight answer yet.

What point do you do? So when it becomes. We, you know, get togethers or things of that nature, at what point, especially for as a parent, difficult because, you know, I want to reach out every holiday, I want to reach out every birthday. But when it becomes so disrespectful because of those discussions, at what point does a parent make a decision that maybe. I don't have the answer, so I guess that's what I'm reaching out for. Well, Rachel, first.

Yeah, you're right. This is something that a lot of people wrestle with, with loved ones, with friends. And the challenge here is there really isn't an easy answer because you're trying to gauge is this person who wants to have a conversation with me about God really interested in a real conversation or do they just want to hear themselves talk? I've been in a lot of conversations where it became very clear early on that this person actually didn't want to hear anything I had to say. They had already made up their mind and they were just happy basically speaking into the air. They wanted to hear themselves talk. And then I've been a part of other conversations where an individual might seem really combative, but you can tell they're searching. They're trying to get to the bottom of the truth.

And it sounds to me like with this family member, sister, you know, it sounds to me like your sense is they're more interested in just arguing. Now I think of the words of Titus in Titus chapter three, verse nine. Paul is writing and he says, avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless. As for a person who stirs up division after warning him once and then twice have nothing more to do with them, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful, he is self condemned. So you think of what Jesus said, not casting your pearls before swine.

But at the same time, you never want to give up hope on an individual. So I think, one, Rachel praying, praying for your son, begging God to show mercy, two, keeping the door open. So you can say, look, hey, it sounds to me like you're really not interested in having this discussion. If you actually want to talk about Christianity, why the gospel is true, let me give you some resources. We'd be glad to help you with that, Rachel. We have so many resources that are apologetic in nature that we encourage people to check out. Some classic works that you can look at, books like C.S.

Lewis's Mere Christianity. But there's just so much. And so if an individual is really interested, hey, you can say, there are resources, there are reasons why we believe the things that we believe.

If you want to go deeper, let's do that. But if not, well, then there's a warning. And that warning is true for every single one of us.

Look, if we reject God's word, if we reject the gospel, we will be judged by the Lord. And so we love one another. We love our children especially. And so we cry out to the Lord and we say, God, have mercy. Open my son's heart. Open this family member's heart so that they might receive your word, so that they might truly repent.

And God is able to do that, sister. So you don't have to be hopeless. Go to the Lord in prayer. Continue to gauge the situation. Is he open or is this just an argument? And if it's just an argument, avoid it. But be honest and say, look, you're really not interested in having this discussion. When you are, let's do it. But if you just want to hear yourself talk, then I'm not going to waste my time. I have better things to do. And so that doesn't mean you don't continue to love your son and spend time with each other and care for him and so on and so forth.

All of those things. Jesus calls you to love him, but you don't need to engage in those sort of foolish controversies that Paul was talking about when he wrote to Titus. And so may the Lord bless you and give you wisdom. Sister, thank you for reaching out to us.

Rachel, thanks so much for your call. You know, Adria, we often talk about Greg Kochel, one of the authors that we recommend here on Core Christianity. Greg actually has a book called Tactics, a game plan for discussing your Christian convictions. I'm reading that book right now, and it's very helpful for situations like she's discussing where you're actually asking questions to the skeptic rather than arguing your point.

And that can be very effective as well. So let's get to another question. This one from Julia in Bellevue, Illinois. Julia, welcome to the program. Good afternoon, y'all. Thank you so much for taking my call.

I always love listening and learning so much from you every day. I got a question about, I'm trying to understand, I read in Matthew chapter 28, verse 19, what Jesus said about being baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and Holy Ghost. And then in Acts 2, 38, he said to be baptized in Jesus' name. I'm just trying to understand is this, you know, the difference or if it, you know, what you mean, you know, I try to understand the difference because I know where I go to church, it's taught that it has to be Jesus' name or it's not legitimate. So I'm just trying to understand because I just, you know, wanted to get clarity on it, if you could, please.

Yeah. Well, Julia, one, thank you for your encouragement. First, sister, I hope that we continue to be a blessing in your life. And I would take a different position on this than it sounds like the church that you attend. We baptize, as Jesus said in Matthew 28, when he gave the Great Commission in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, these triune baptisms, what the church has done since the very beginning. And then in the Book of Acts, you have instances where individuals are, it's said that they're baptized in the name of Jesus.

I think that they're actually still being baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. But the reason Luke, who wrote the Book of Acts, records it in this way is because it really was this identification. Baptism is this identification with Jesus Christ in his death and resurrection. The apostle Paul talked about this in places like Galatians chapter three, in Romans chapter six, the beginning of Romans chapter six.

And so there's no contradiction. You have to imagine Peter was one of the apostles of our Lord Jesus. He had heard from Jesus, go into all the world and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. So it's strange to think that on the day of Pentecost, as he's preaching and people are being baptized, he would do it in a different way. But the reason why you have this language of being baptized in the name of Jesus is because of that focus on identification with Christ as the Messiah there in the early days. They were still being baptized in the triune name, I would say, but it really was helping these people. In particular, on the day of Pentecost, Jews who were converting to the faith recognized the identity of Jesus Christ.

They're being associated with him in and through baptism, and so that's why you have that language there. Thanks for your question, sister, and for calling us again. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and if you or someone you know is struggling with depression, we actually have a free resource that we would love to tell you about today. Yes, please get a hold of this resource. It's called Nine Things Everyone Should Know About Depression. It's yours, as Bill said, for free when you sign up for our weekly newsletter. This is just an area where I think the Church could use a lot of help, where we can grow in our understanding of mental illness. So we made this resource. It's meant to encourage you and to help you to be able to encourage others who are wrestling with depression, battling with depression.

So get a hold of this resource over at corechristianity.com forward slash offers to download Nine Things Everyone Needs to Know About Depression. You can also call us for that resource or any one of our resources. Here's the phone number. It's 833-The-Core.

That's 833-843-2673. Let's go to a voicemail that we received yesterday about generational curses. Hi, I have a question. I need to know about generational curses. Someone keeps mentioning it in my family, and it sounds like they're excusing the person from their sin because of a generational curse. I need to know more about generational curses.

Can you please elaborate? I love your show and thank you so much. Bye-bye.

Hey, thanks for the encouragement. So what's the idea here? The idea here is that an individual or a family is cursed with a particular propensity to sin. Maybe there's spiritual warfare at play there, that kind of a thing, and the Bible does say that sin brings with it a curse, the curse of the law. Read Deuteronomy chapter 28. The second half of the chapter in particular talks about the curses for disobedience. Now what you need to know and what your family needs to know is if you're a Christian, if you're in Jesus Christ, Christ has taken the curse of the law for you so that you might be justified, forgiven, cleared.

Galatians chapter 3 verse 13. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree. Brothers and sisters, if you are in Jesus Christ, you are not cursed.

You don't have the curse of the law on you. Christ took that curse for you so that you might stand justified in God's sight. Now, sin in the family, being exposed to sin, you think of things like sexual sin, alcoholism, even being sinned against, thinking of physical abuse or sexual abuse, can have devastating effects on a person. Most things don't excuse our personal sins later in life, but we do need to take account of them and really, I think, seek out the help that we need in order to get healing. Our parents, their sins are not excuses for us, but sometimes they do reveal areas of our own lives where we're going to need extra help, things we need to take to Jesus. So don't excuse sin, but turn from it and get the support and accountability that you need.

A pastor, a counselor, a therapist, especially when you've been exposed to sin or sinned against at a very young age, that kind of a thing, it's really important that we get the help that we need, the body of Christ, but know that you're not cursed because Jesus took your curse on the cross. God bless you. Amen. That's a great response and very helpful for those folks that maybe have experienced some of the pain in the past or some kind of a genetic predisposition towards something that could lead to temptation and lead to sin. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Let's go to Dimitri in Springfield, Missouri. Dimitri, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? Yes. Good afternoon and bless your program.

It's a wonderful program. My question is, oh, it's a heavy one because it's about abortion and it's a horrible, horrible thing we will re-allow in this country. And it basically is, I do not believe I'm being too exaggerating or too mean, mean-spirited.

I'm not a mean-spirited person. By calling abortion what it is, I am not ashamed to call it the murder of an unborn child. And I will say that to the president. I will say that to anybody. And it just burns my heart every day about abortion.

I want to know that I think too many, even believers, many believers are too cavalier about this. We've gotten so used to it that we think, we begin to think it ain't that bad. It's still horrible. It is. It is. And if your question is, what is my take on abortion, I would agree with you, brother. And we do and can sort of be desensitized when you think about all the things that are happening around us that you hear over and over again.

But let's call it what it is. It is a heinous sin. It's devastating.

It destroys life. You think of what the psalmist said in Psalm 139, verse 13, You formed my inward parts, You knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. It is a heinous sin, but it's not the unpardonable sin. And there is a God in heaven who is gracious to sinners, even to people who have had abortions. When we go to Him and we say, God, forgive me for what I've done, He forgives us, and the blood of Jesus Christ is able to wash away our sins.

And so we have to have those two things, I think, together, Demetri. One, we have a high view of sin. We recognize what it is, we call it what it is, and we stand against it.

And we do. With abortion, we stand against it. And at the same time, we recognize that there are families that have been devastated by this sin, individuals who have sinned in this way, and we hold out to them the grace of God and the promise of the gospel, that there is forgiveness for them, there is forgiveness for you. If you're listening right now and you've had an abortion and you're struggling with the guilt and the shame, let me just say, turn to Jesus.

He's gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and the blood of Jesus is able to cleanse you. And so we have to have those two things together, Demetri. Thank you for giving us a call. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Let's go to Laverne in St. Louis, Missouri.

Laverne, what's your question? Oh, praise God. It's only God. Listen, you helped me out once before with my friend with the blue-eyed white Jesus, not accepting that. And you let me know that God would not go out and come back boy. And so that changed my life. And God always had me doing missions, but sometimes it takes so long to come to pass sometimes.

Oh, what I want to do now is ask you. I have to read my word every day because if I don't read it, I can't really, really function. But what I'm asking for you right now, this time, could you take me to a scripture that I can put in my daily reading that will help me not lose heart on the weight of what God want me to do? Yeah, well, sister, praise God.

I thank you for your encouragement. A scripture for you, you know, not to lose heart in terms of what God wants you to do. Well, gosh, I think specifically you're talking about, you know, as you're sharing the faith with others, and you talked about your friend that you were sharing with. Let me tell you one passage of scripture that really, really encourages me. It's found in the Gospel of Matthew. And this one for me, as a minister of the Gospel, is what gives me hope every day to continue doing the work that I do. It's what Jesus said to Peter. He said in Matthew 16, verse 18, you are Peter and on this rock, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Sister, as you share Jesus with others, the kingdom of God is advancing.

And you can rest in the fact that Jesus, not you or me, is building that kingdom and the gates of hell will never prevail against it. Thanks for listening to CORE Christianity. To request your copy of today's special offer, visit us at corechristianity.com and click on offers in the menu bar. Or call us at 1-833-843-2673. That's 833, the CORE. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this program. And be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's word together.