Responsibility

“The soul who sins is the one who will die. The son will not share the guilt of the father, nor will the father share the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous man will be credited to him, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against him.” Ezekiel 18:20
This verse sums up Ezekiel 18. God goes into more detail, describing a godly man who had an ungodly son, who then had a godly son. He pointed out that the grandfather and son would have their righteousness credited to them, and the father would have his wickedness credited to him. As far as salvation went, neither righteousness nor wickedness would be credited to the next generation, or the previous generation, in the family.
We are each responsible for our own sin, and our own walk with God. This has two contrasting aspects that I want to touch on briefly.
First is the saying, ‘God has no grandchildren.’ Just because your parents may be Christians, or even pastors, does not mean that you are a Christian as well. We must each come to God and be born again as a child in His family.
Second is the issue that springs up from time to time concerning generational curses. This is a common concern for Christians whose parents or grandparents etc. have been involved in Freemasonry or the occult, etc. In the Old Testament we see the concept of generational curses in Deut. 23:2-3. But is this concerning our salvation, or concerning consequences in this life? We have read here in Ezekiel that the sins of the father will not pass on to the children. So our salvation is not affected. But it may well be the case, that just as a drug addict may give birth to a child who then suffers from drug addiction, these things may affect the quality of life of the next generation. I’m not sure. My grandfather was involved in Freemasonry, and I prayed for deliverance from it. I didn’t notice a huge change, but a friend of mine in the same situation said her life improved dramatically after she prayed for deliverance from these generational curses (some of the rites in Freemasonry involve placing curses on your descendants). All I can say is, decide for yourself; if in doubt, pray – it won’t do any harm.