Re: Bible Contradictions

"Are we punished for our parent's sins?
Ex. 20:5 For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generations. (Ex. 34:7)
Eek. 18:20 The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father."

Here are the WHOLE verses...
Exodus 20:5
5Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;

Ezekiel 18:20
20The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.

There is no contradiction at all. The first has to do with worshipping false gods where the children will be punished. The second has is on a more "personal" or immediate(if you will) level where as of this moment, if the father is not righteous, but then turns righteous(I'm referring to the WHOLE verse, that where most problems arise such as yours about the Bible contradicting itself, you see?) the son will not be punished. Vice-versa the father will not be punished for the son's sins.

The bible was written by people brought down to us by God. You have to read it in a human aspect as well. Haven't you ever said...if you have five children, you say to them "I don't care who broke the vase, if this vase gets broken, you all will get a whipping". Then to one of them, you say if you confess or tell me who did it(being righteous) I will not punish you. The first command is about everyone in general, the second command is more on a personal level. That's how we are. God made us, and He knows how to communicate with His children. Like I said before to another poster, you are not even asking the right questions.

I disagree with many things in your post, including the contradictions, however it is very long, and I won't write on them. But the Bible is the greatest book EVER written, it is the TRUE WORD OF GOD, and the Lord Jesus Christ is the only way to the Father. Mind you discrepancies aside(your intentions, not mine) it is still the most talked about, debated, loved, hated, controversial piece of work in the HISTORY of ALL mankind. A piece of work that compels, provokes, convicts, nurtures, changes, so many seems pretty God-sent to me!

:-)
God Bless
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