By Fr David Ihenacho
A very strange development among Christians of today is the overwhelming popularity of a false doctrine that claims that many people cannot make progress or get ahead in life because of curses, yokes, destinies, ancestral spirits, karma and all what not they inherited from their fathers, forefathers and ancestors.
Many people believe that they cannot do much to help themselves out of a terrible situation as a result of an inherited evil, which they are not responsible for. Such is a very popular doctrine today that is drawing big crowds for pastors, priests, and adoration ministers who claim to have the magic wand to remove, overcome, defeat and tame these malignant problems.
This false doctrine arose from a resuscitation of some resistant aspects of our traditional religion and a poor understanding of the Holy Bible. When these two dispositions or realities, namely, the resistant paganism, and poor reading of the bible come together, the result is some strange doctrines that scare people and create an opportunity for criminals, and religious swindlers to thrive in their exploitation of the poor and innocent people.
The lack of a historical reading of the Holy Bible especially the Old Testament is largely responsible for this terrible misunderstanding that is beginning to dominate modern Christianity. This type of a false belief is usually what one gets when one confusedly or knowingly mixes up some aspects of the Christian belief with paganism. And this comes from the way the Holy Bible is read among the ordinary Christians.
When one reads the Bible without any help whatsoever, and without any direction from people who have been trained in the art of reading it correctly, and without the guidance of the Church of the Apostles – the church that wrote the bible and put it together, one reaches a conclusion even though based on some passages in the Bible that is totally false and largely overtaken in the history of God’s people. Many wonder-claiming pastors, and priests are capitalizing on the ignorance of bible readers on the correct way to read the bible to swindle, and exploit them.
The whole upsurge of bible-based ministries of today is based on falsehood, and the desire to exploit, and manipulate innocent people, and take their money. Money is the root of all evils. The proof is in today’s Pentecostal ministries. The whole thing has nothing to do with the Spirit of God. It is all driven by the desire to make more money, and build an earthly kingdom that will rot away sooner than later. People of today are serving God, and mammon. What a strange world we are living in.
There are so many criminals today masquerading as pastors, priests, and adoration ministers. Their strategy is to scare, and threaten people with Bible passages whose interpretations have long changed. We live in a very strange time indeed. Good Christians should beware of people who claim to have the power to remove a problem that is never there in the first place.
True Christians have absolutely no inherited curses, yokes, karma, or spiritual problems to break free from. They have been totally freed by Our Lord, and Savior Jesus Christ when hanging upon the cross he declared that it is all finished (John 19:30). The baptism of a Christian is the great moment of liberation from everything inherited from the past.
When Christians are baptized, they become new creatures (2Cor 5:17), and break free from any inherited nonsense! Those who claim to do liberation other than that achieved through baptism are liars. There could be incidents of renewal of baptismal promises. But no more liberation after one has been liberated through the sacrament of baptism. This has been the teaching of Christianity, which originated from the apostles. Who are those changing this divine doctrine through their invention of another liberation, which is a total falsehood? They do so to make money. And ignorant Christians are patronizing them!
But how did we arrive at this current misunderstanding of the Holy Bible, which criminal pastors, and swindling adorations ministers are exploiting today? The earlier books of the OT hold a kind of belief, which claims that children inherited sins, and evils from their ancestors. In fact, such was the belief of the most ancient Israel in the Holy Bible. Israelites of Moses’, and Aaron’s time believed strongly that evil, and curses could be inherited. But as time went on in the history of Biblical Israel the belief changed completely. God made more revelations on the matter through the prophets.
Around 1,500 BC, in ancient Israel, the belief was that God visited the children with the sins of their fathers. This is clearly stated in such passages as Exodus 20:5; 34:7; Num 14:18; Deut 7:9; Ps 109:4. But around six hundred years before Jesus Christ was born the belief was discountenanced, and discontinued. In fact, God spoke through the prophets especially the Prophet Ezekiel that the belief that he visited sons with the evils of their fathers was totally incorrect, and not the way he operated as the fair, and just God, which He is.
What led to this change, people may ask? The little Jewish nation of Judah, and Jerusalem was defeated by the Babylonians led by their great champion called Nebuchadnezzar. The best among the Jews of that time were taken to exile in Babylon. Many Jews thought that they were being punished by God not because of their own personal sins but as a result of the sins of their fathers, and forefathers, which they had inherited. As a result of that belief, a proverb or adage arose among the Jews: “Fathers have eaten green grapes, thus their children’s teeth are on edge.”
This proverb became so prominent during the time of the Prophet Ezekiel that he received an oracle from God to challenge it. God denied that the claim of that popular proverb was true (cf. Ezekiel 18:1-30). The whole chapter of Ezekiel 18 is absolutely instructive on how God debunked the claim of that proverb that had taken over the thinking of the Jews long before Jesus Christ would be born.
That is to say, even among the Jews of ancient Israel, and from the revelation of God himself, people are not punished, and victimized with the sins of their ancestors. God treats everyone of us according to our sins. If one is suffering it is never because of any inherited sin or predetermined destiny or anything of that nature. The Judeo-Christian God is not the unforgiving, vindictive and heartless God, which the old belief tried to portray Him to be. No.
God is ever merciful. God is absolutely just, and fair. He treats everybody fairly, and justly. He would not punish you with another person’s sins. That would make him an unfair God. When we suffer, it is either because of our own sins or because God wants us to take a second look at the course we are treading. Suffering may not be punishment. It may be a source of future blessings.
However, it is in Jesus Christ that the revelation of God is perfected and completed [Heb 1:1-2]. God in Jesus Christ wiped away our sins with his blood [1Jn 1:7; 1Pet 1:19]. Jesus Christ cancelled all previous debts ascribed to us [Col 2:14]. Jesus loved us and washed away our sins with His blood [Rev 1:5].
What these few passages of the New Testament declare is that a Christian is indeed a new creation [1Cor 5:17]. He has nothing to do with the belief of the most ancient Israel. That belief belongs to our past. It is a part of our patrimony in the Judeo-Christian religion. But it has long been abrogated in Israel. This was done 600 years before Jesus was born.
Then Jesus Christ came, and sealed our new nature as children of God with his blood on the cross. That is to say, any true Christian will not talk of an inherited curse or a yoke from his or her fathers, and ancestors. There is no karma for him or her to endure. He or she has no nemesis from the past except the one he or she causes for himself or herself. He or she is totally free from the attack of the evil spirit. The so-called ancestral spirits have no power over him or her. The truth is Jesus cancelled, and removed all that with his blood on the cross. A true Christian is a free being. He or she enjoys an enormous freedom in Jesus Christ’s victory over the devil.
However, the problem with Christians of today is that having been made free by Jesus Christ in the sacrament of Baptism they are declaring themselves prisoners of a defeated devil once again. And the devil, which had been rendered impotent by our Lord is happy to repossess them. The criminal pastors, and adoration ministers are deceiving them into making themselves prisoners of the devil that has long been defeated by our Lord Jesus Christ.
All that our Lord Jesus Christ requires to regain their freedom is nothing but a solid faith, and a total refusal to cooperate with the devil. But their exploiters, and manipulators are not allowing them to do that. This is because if they assert their strong faith, and reclaim their hard-won freedom in Jesus Christ their exploiters will go out of business. They will die of hunger. As a result, the criminal pastors, false priests, and adoration ministers are always frightening them with all sorts of false claims that keep them affiliated with them so that they will continue to patronize their criminal business.
If you are a Christian reading this little comment, never ever accept the teaching that you inherited any curses or evils from your fathers, and ancestors. You inherited nothing that is spiritually evil from anybody. You have been freed. Do not make yourself a slave once again. Do not become a slave to any pastor who is trying to enslave you with a false teaching that what is preventing you from getting ahead is an inherited curse. That is a lie. You must not accept that. If you do, you are indeed ignorant, and a fool who allows yourself to be exploited by a criminal.
However, if you inherited poverty from your parents work really hard, and you will overcome it. If you have no skills learn one and you will get ahead. If you inherited illness or anything that is physical, and biological, pray and work hard, God will surely give you the breakthrough you are looking for because you are His beloved child.
God does not love a bishop, priest, pastor, and adoration minister more than He loves you as His child. You are as important to Him as any of those people you hail, and run to as men of God. God has no favorites [Acts 10:34]. By your baptism you were anointed, and made an anointed of God. Every baptized person is an anointed person. The anointed does not mean only one who has been greased with the holy oil of chrism at an ordination. No. Baptism is the first anointing with the Oil of Chrism. And every baptized Christian enjoys this anointing, and is an anointed person.
Do not let people deceive you. Many false prophets, and ministers are operating in the world of today, and deceiving people. The false prophets are pulling all the crowds today. Run away from the so-called wonderworkers! They will lead you to hell. All the tithe-demanding, and seed-sowing ministers of today are all false prophets, and evil ministers. Do not allow them to lead you astray. You have been warned. You have not been cursed, and you have inherited no evil from your fathers and ancestors.
Some of them were good men, and women, and enjoying their deserved rest in heaven while you are here allowing yourself to be deceived by a criminal preacher who specializes in criminalizing the legacies of your great forebears. Do not be afraid of anybody or anything because Jesus has overcome all your problems, and worries with His Blood on the cross. You are a free being through Jesus Christ. Do not allow yourself to become a slave of the devil once again through the sweet tongue of a criminal preacher!
