The following “Question” was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, and “Answered” by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed by Anjela Paje of Spokane, WA, from the tape, GC 70-24, titled “Questions and Answers Part 52.”  A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE.  ©2003. All Rights Reserved.

Questioner

My question’s pertaining to the passage in Deuteronomy 24:16. It says, “Fathers shall not be put to death for their sons, nor sons be put to death for the fathers: every one shall be put to death for his own sins.” My question is, why there are times when God allows men to judge or God Himself  judges people, children for the sins of their fathers, such as Dathan and Abiram had little children who were swallowed up by the earth because they (Dathan and Abiram) sinned against, rebelled against Moses and Aaron. And, the wives and children of the accusers of Daniel were thrown into the lions den with them, and seven of Saul’s descendants were executed by the Gibeonites because of Saul’s sin against them.

John MacArthur's Answer

Right. The question is a big question, and the question is, Deuteronomy 24, and Ezekiel 18 is the parallel passage to that. Ezekiel 18 is a very important passage. And, what it says there is, “The sins of the fathers are not visited upon the children.” What it also says there is that the sins of the children are not visited upon the parents, so, that every person stands before God accountable for his own sin. Okay? In other words, there, God is not going to punish me for what my father did. God is not going to punish you for what your parents did. God is not going to punish your parents for what you did. That’s Ezekiel 18, a very, very important portion of scripture.

Then, the question you're asking, I think I understand it, is why then in the Bible, do you have illustrations of the fact that God seemed to act in judgment against a whole family? For example, probably the most notable one is Achan. You remember that Achan stole and he hid, and when God came, they punished his whole family. And the best answer to that, and I think, that the answer that is the correct one, is that there was complicity there. Because God is going to be true to His own word. God is going to be faithful to His own word. We can assume, then, that that family was involved to some degree in what was going on. There was some level of complicity at that point. In other words, they were engaged somehow as partners in the crime, the sons of Saul, another illustration of those who had engaged themselves in the same kind of sin and iniquity and patterns of unrighteousness that their father, Saul, had engaged in.

And, the other question, of course, that has to be asked is, does anyone deserve to live another day and take another breath? And, the answer is, no, because the soul that sins, it shall die. The wages of sin is death. And, if God chooses to take the life of anyone, He cannot be questioned, because all have sinned. All. And, so, the fact that God takes a life, could never be an act that is unjust, could never be a violation of God’s holy justice. Every soul sins. Every soul, therefore, deserves to die. And, there are times in the accounts that we’ve mentioned that Achan and Saul, and times like that when God knows the complicity of that family and that evil, or knows that the sins of some people have penetrated the lives of their children so that there is culpability and guilt and God roots it all out, almost like making sure you get all the tumor when you do a cancer surgery.

So, I think, that’s the way we have to understand it, but in cases like that, those children are not being punished for any sin committed by the father. They’re being punished because they share in culpability in those things. They bear their own guilt.

Questioner

So, we’re assuming these children were old enough and mature enough to comprehend what their fathers were doing and, therefore, they pay the price. They’re not toddlers.

John MacArthur's Answer

In the case, in the case of those children, and that’s the next part of the question I want to answer, those children, taken by God are again a demonstration of God’s power and judgment on life. But, as I point out, in the new book, Safe In The Arms Of God, I believe those children are taken into the presence of God. So, in a sense, for those little ones, it’s a rescue operation. And, I think, that’s one of the reasons you have such high mortality rates, high infant mortality rates in the unchristian, non-Christian cultures. The more pagan, the more distant a culture is from anything Christian. It seems, the more primitive it is, the higher the mortality rates typically tend to be, and, I think, God is always in a rescue operation. He may be taking the parents because of their sin, and taking the children to rescue them from the same kind of life the parents would have.

But, all of that, you know, in the end of the discussion, it’s in the mind of God, and only He knows what His specific purpose is in each situation. But, one thing is absolutely clear, that is, no child will ever be directly punished for the sin of a parent. And, no parent ever punished for the sin of a child. There’s no stigma there. It doesn’t cross over before God, and it should not cross over with us, either. In other words, if you know a child that’s sinful and wicked, and some great disaster comes on his life, it doesn’t conclude anything about his father. Or, the reverse, if a father is terribly wicked and there’s something that happens in a disaster in the family, and might even include one of his children, it’s not necessary to conclude that they’re being punished for the father. Where there is culpability, mutual culpability or consent to a crime, then, I think, like with Achan, I think everybody was involved and that was very clear. And, again, back to the children. When the Lord takes the children, I think, it’s a rescue operation.

But, at the end of the day in God’s mind He knows why He does everything, and the question is answered best like this, shall not the judge of all the earth do right? And, God will always be consistent with His word.

Added to Bible Bulletin Board's “MacArthur's Questions and Answers” by:

Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
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