Does anyone believe that the sins of the father are visited on his children?

I do believe that "the 'sins' of the fathers are visited upon the chldren unto the third and fourth generation" - and beyond; and here is why, gleaned from many decades of reading and experiencing.

First, consider the logicalities of the universal Law of Balance, or "Action - Reaction", otherwise known as Karma, and stated in the Christian Bible as "Whatsoever ye sow, that must ye also reap". By this law, you can INFER that any effect you can observe must have had a cause; and after all, this not only preserves a law of physics but also a law of justice.

Second: as I have found out in my researches, the way this karma is transmitted PHYSICALLY is through the DNA, through genetics; as it is a recording medium for all the talents, skills, - and transgressions - that a person makes during their life in physicality.
What is a transgression? Well, anything thought, said or done that is harmful or dishonours another person - as All Life Is One, and what you do to another, you do to yourself.
What did Jesus the Christ say? Words to the effect that "Not one jot nor tittle shall pass from the Law until all is fulfilled". That was just stating that everything must be balanced up, and that this is an exact process. What could be more logical and just than that?
(Of course that runs counter to the idea that "all your sins are forgiven"... to appearances, anyway. We get into complications here with some religious doctrines / dogmas; and here is where the thinking individual puts on their thinking cap and says, "now does this really make sense?" I leave the conclusions to you).

So how does one approach dealing with karma handed down through the genetics of our ancestors - sometimes (it turns out) from tens of thousands of years ago, and even more?

As has been stated above by others, one way to attempt this is to try to counterbalance the harm of the past by "doing good". To my understanding, though, that lays up "good karma" but doesn't erase the bad. What you really need to do is to get at those karmic records in the DNA and erase those.

To do that necessary detective work and release is a big project. At the first sign that there might be a karma being activated in your life, you need to start the process of discovering what it is all about, and everything you can to form as complete a picture of what happened to cause the initial, Original Cause of the karma - who your ancestor was in terms of what type of society and genetic lineages they had, and the motivations and emotions involved, with a view to completely UNDERSTANDING the karma. (What's the use of a karmic lesson if you don't understand it? And because this information is seldom taught, this is a big stumbling block to the process of "education through life" Non-understood karma GETS PASSED ON and / or repeats)!

When you have understood the karma to the best of your ability, and can truly, sincerely - from the bottom of your heart - forgive all those concerned, then you can release it in forgiveness, and ask for it to be healed. Your non-physical healing guides (spiritual guides) will then be able to oversee the healing process.

As you can imagine, that gives the "bare bones" of the process; and you might be able to see that with the thousands of ancestors in each person's ancestral tree, there could be an overwhelming amount of karma to process! Fortunately, we come into embodiment with a certain relatively small amount of karma that we have planned and promised to either fulfil or understand and release, so we have a "manageable" amount to process. But eventually ALL the karma has to be understood and forgiven - or experienced (and then the soul, if not the personality, understands it).

Well, the last time we just packed everything up and shipped them there. It was much cheaper.

No my friend. You are responsible for your actions only, not the actions of your parents. They will have to face their maker and answer for what they did in life, not you.

Yes.
It's not right at all. I've personally had plenty people judge me on who my family is, or does, etc.

ABSOLUTELY NOT! You are your own person and responsible for your actions alone. There's enough guilt and blame in the world. Don't go looking for more.

There is a good reason for this.....

We all agree that we are influenced good/bad by our upbringing.

the "sins of the fathers" bit just means that we tend to be something of our parents and their parents etc

just as we catch ourselves doing/saying something we 'swore we'd never do/say like our parents....it's there

We are accountable for our own actions,,,,just some of those decisions/actions are influenced by our upbringing

hence....sins of the fathers will be visited upon the generations

that's all it means

No, God is not unjust.
Each individual is responsible for his own life. Men's judgement may be wrong, but God's justice is absolutely infallible.

Your life is what you make it, no I do not believe the sins of the father are visited on his children.

No. With all due respect I believe that's a superstitious idea. I think "sins" were made up by church to control people's behavior in ancient times. (Which made sense back then). However, modern legislation is more efficient and less emotionally costly for the people.
Your parents may have been good or bad, but you are the author of your own life. I mean, **** can happen to you, but you decide if you wanna take it as a victim or get up and keep going.

Yes, as i have learnt being a christian, there is generational curses thay can go back as far as 'the the 6th generation'

I think that would be a terrible punishment for anyone to have to pay for sins of their ancestors! I don't believe it's true.
I think it's true that social maladies such as poverty and joblessness can be generational because people growing up in a home just learn and accept that "this is life". same is true for people born into homes involved in gangs or drugs or other crime. They only know one way of doing things, and it's very hard to change or do anything different when that is all you know.
but I think this is a different situation... No, sins of your father are not repaid by you. Even if the bible says it, it's too stupid to be true.

NO! My father was a great,loving man!


My sisters and I were well and truly LOVED!


I cannot say ANYTHING AGAINST my DAD!....I LOVED HIM!!

On a spiritual level .. yes I do believe it but not as sins necessarily but as debt .. just like all things generations as whole has left us good and also bad legacy's...individually the same can be applied as well.. Karma can be passed down as well.. in theory.. to repay a karma debt .. your's or other's one must use virtue to repay this debt.. virtue of gratitude .. be grateful for all the things you have been able to experience in your life .. and the not so good ones too because those are part of our lessons if you like.... to learn and grow as an individual.. You're all right also... you can't use it to blame others... for you to prosper one has to show and give gratitude,,, give out what you want back at you... think of the things that you want to see change in your life and work to making them happen./..the others are right you need to address yourself and not blame past generations any longer.. So yes indivertedly you are reaping what they have sown.. but all you have to is to deny that legacy and work on being who you want to be and to enjoy those things .. take back your control and individualism .. and gain your own harmony and if you believe in that theory than your legacy to your children will be one of great properity...

I do, it's the original sin thing. There is nothing else that can explain my misfortune in life. I have been a pretty good girl, for the most part, but I am constantly being "****" on. I can only imagine that it is because my mother and father had me out of wedlock as teenagers and have not led the most sinless lives.

Well that's generally what constitutes original sin. There are other examples in the bible where certain acts will bring downfall upon each child up to the third, if I recall correctly, and I think in one example they might've said up to the seventh??

But personally, I don't believe such, one's life is what one makes of it.

Yes. Too long to go in to. But nothing that cant be put right with the Blood of Christ. If your that worried about it, go and get sprirtual healing from a church leader that you trust.

You should be careful however, and understand that you are a "distinct" individual, seperate from your ancestors and their actions does not define you. I personally think you should not spend too much time understanding this but rather, get healing and moving on to the person God wants you to be.

Yes, I do not know anyone who is not effected by what their parents did good or bad. It does not mean you have to follow them, it just means you will have a more difficult time not following them. You will be pulled in the same sinful direction they went but you can overcome this and break the cycle. Those who abuse their kids, their kids will grow up with the ablity to abuse their kids and they have to realize this and overcome it.

no not at all. if that was the case than i probably would have been struck down by lightening by now. my father has alot coming to him for al the ppl he has hurt and all the bad things he has done. just whatever you do in life, if you mess up and do something characteristic of your parents that makes you ashamed of yourself make sure you work extra hard to correct that flaw within yourself verses just excusing it as a genetic flaw. it was very easy for me to just say i have a bad temper because both my parents do but i realized i was just using them as an excuse not to take responsibility for my own actions. you are your own person. god will not punish you for you parents actions only for your own.

I think children start their lives from what they learn from their family. Then, you have to recognize what you are doing wrong and try to fix it. My family has a history of panic attacks that lead to my mother being verbally abusive. I, in turn, used to be verry panicky about boyfriends and the people around me. I have had to grow up and try to not be like that.

Also, my X grew up with an alcaholic father who wont work. He always said he would not be that way, but lo and behold he is exactly like his dad. He acts the way he saw his father while he was growing up because he thinks that is the way people live.