Blake,Thank you for your comments about my article...

2005-12-08T13:58:00.000-06:00

Blake,

Thank you for your comments about my article on parenthood. You have a good question, but a detailed answer to your question would require me to write a whole article on the subject. I may do so later, but probably it will not be until next year.

In the mean time, without much explanation, let me say that Ezekiel 18 revokes what was said in Exodus 34:7. The complete explanation requires presenting a historical background, which time does not allow me to do so now.

Thank you for your comments. And thank you for visiting my web page. I hope you will visit it again. Your comments are always welcome.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament

I think you are right that there is a hopeful mess...

2005-12-06T11:24:00.000-06:00

I think you are right that there is a hopeful message here for parents. How, though, do you balance the Ezekiel 18:20 passage against passages like Exodus 34:7? ("Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.")

There seems to be an equal and opposite divine policy that does hold us accountable for the sins of our parents; in Adam, we all fell and all suffer the effects of the curse. I guess the good news is that God also imputes righteousness vicariously -- in Christ we shall all be made alive.

As a father, I stand in fear and trembling, knowing the long-ranging consequences my actions can have with my children and with their children. I also stand in joy and hope when I see faith and righteousness echoed in their actions, a faith and righteousness that is surely not mine, but only inherited, as was my father's before me.

Thank you for a thought-provoking posting.

Comments on Dr. Claude Mariottini - Professor of Old Testament: The Challenges of Parenthood

Blake,Thank you for your comments about my article...

I think you are right that there is a hopeful mess...