When you reach this level, you have learned to forgive yourself and others – you experience an “emotional clearing” and “spiritual purification.” We need to recognize the iniquities that our progenitors have passed on to us, and like Abraham choose to do right and thus change the curses to blessings. By such means they ascend to the son/servant level (Isaiah Decoded, pg. Then, having progressed that far in overcoming evil, they inspire others to do the same. Through a process similar to “repenting” of wrongdoing and “returning” to God, individuals come to terms with their iniquities - with inherited dysfunctional patterns - and clean up their lives. With each generation it becomes difficult to turn it around because of your upbringing, because of what you see and learn in your dysfunctional family.Īccording to Gileadi’s model of the ascent to heaven, to reach God’s son/servant level, you must overcome iniquity and sins, that your whole soul may be be cleansed and healed.Ĭovenant curses are the cumulative, generational effects of sin, the result of transgressing God’s law and word, on both the offender and his offspring.
Iniquities cause effects that ripple down several generations. It’s like the curse that follows the generational hatred passed on in families - the Hatfields and the McCoys. In the land of the Chaldeans, at the residence of my fathers, I, Abraham, saw that it was needful for me to obtain another place of residence (Abraham 1: 1)Ībraham broke the cycle. The generational curses were changed to generational blessings at that point and Abraham’s progeny could now enjoy blessings of the covenant. Abraham chose to live righteously, follow the voice of the Lord and thus he paid the debt of iniquity that he had inherited.
( Doctrine and Covenants 124:50)Īt one point, Abraham had to leave his home and his father’s house, because his father worshiped idols. It’s hard to turn it around, and these “covenant curses continue down the generations until finally reversed through righteous living” (ibid).Īnd the iniquity and transgression of my holy laws and commandments I will visit upon the heads of those who hindered my work, unto the third and fourth generation, so long as they repent not, and hate me, saith the Lord God. Everything has an effect, consequently wrongdoing, even if you repent, causes damage. “residual effects, that progeny may inherit from parents” (ibid). Iniquities have repercussions that effect the next generation - divorce, war, abuse, violence, drugs, etc. I would say that sins are personal, and iniquities are generational. I wondered, “how do I get rid of iniquities?” - If I didn’t cause them, then why do they fall on me?Īvraham Gileadi refers to “sins” as “individual wrongdoing” and “iniquities” as the “evil after-effects of wrongdoing” (Isaiah Decoded, ps.
The Lord is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation. You’re responsible for your own sins, but not for your fathers’ sins, yet the iniquities of your fathers are passed on to the third and fourth generation. We often lump sins and iniquities together as one.