[This little piece below is a brief 2,500-word extract about so-called ‘generational demons’, which has been extracted from a detailed 20,000-word section with 22 topics dealing with the use of ritualistic exorcism by so-called ‘deliverance ministries’ in the wholly-updated upcoming second edition of my 1994 book, “The Serpent & the Cross”. Such ‘deliverance ministries’ have become a scourge in the churches over recent decades due to the widespread poor understanding of both Christian metanoia and the meaning of sanctification in the life of the believer. This piece has a read-time of 13 minutes. I hope that you find it helpful. There is a lot more where this has come from].

THERE IS A PREVAILING CRACKPOT BELIEF right through the whole of Christendom now that evil spirits come down the generations, maintaining that a person who has become a true believer can still be infested with umpteen demons because of the sinful behaviour or demon-infestation of someone in his or her family from an earlier generation. In his book, “Healing through Deliverance: The Biblical Basis”, Ellel Ministries’ Director, Peter Horrobin, wrote: “Demonisation can be carried on down the generation lines as a result of the sins of the fathers (Exodus 20:5; Leviticus 26:40 and Lamentations 5:7) which affect the children and the children’s children” (Healing through Deliverance: The Biblical Basis, Sovereign World, 1991, p.107. Again, in the same work, Horrobin states:

“The practice of freemasonry is idolatry. Idolatry is an anathema to the living God. The commandments warn us (Exodus 20:4-5) that the sins of the fathers in this respect will be visited on the children for three or four generations. And if during those four generations there is, for example, further masonic sin a new line of demonic control is established. Spirits of freemasonry will legalistically exercise their right over whatever congregation is gathered in that church for all time. They will hold the fellowship into the bondage of the past, unless the matter is properly dealt with through repentance for the sins of the ancestors (the Nehemiah principle of Nehemiah 1: 6-7, see also Leviticus 26:40) by the present-day leadership of the church and by effective spiritual warfare against the ruling spirits through praise, worship and deliverance ministry. Effective cleansing of both church and individuals requires specific ministry to deal with the legalistic rights that a demon has” (Ibid., p.99).

One of the proof-texts which is commonly used to justify this ludicrous belief in generational spirits being in ‘Christians’ is where the Lord is described as “visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation” (Exodus 20:5). What an absolute travesty of Bible misinterpretation it is to use this text to justify the idea of evil spirits being passed down the family line today among those in the New Covenant in Christ. In Exodus 20:5, the Lord is actually ascribed with bringing judgement on future generations because of serious sin. This was to be expected in the theocratic Mosaic Covenant relationship which was primarily blood-based in families and tribes. Breaking the Mosaic Covenant echoed down the generations, and judgement would be upon children and children’s children. This text is all about judgement, not demonisation! This judgement on future generations was spelled out clearly in the Mosaic Covenant curses in Deuteronomy 28, where we see how those future generations would be affected by the sins of their fathers and the resultant divine judgement (Deuteronomy 28:18,32,41,45-46 & 59). Unless one insists on reading it into the text by a wild stretch of the imagination, there is nothing remotely connected with generational demons here. In fact, there is primarily a deterrent value in Exodus 20:5. As Matthew Henry puts it in his comment on Exodus 20:5:

“Children are dear to their parents; therefore, to deter men from idolatry, and to show how much God is displeased with it, not only a brand of infamy is by it entailed upon families, but the judgments of God may for it be executed upon the poor children when the parents are dead and gone”.

What a deterrent this judgement was for God’s ancient covenant people, the Children of Israel, who were involved in a covenant of blood-tied families. However, it is completely unnecessary to ascribe that judgement to some sort of generational demon possession. It cannot remotely be inferred from the text. In fact, to ascribe that judgement to generational demon possession takes away our personal responsibility for our own sin before God. People could just plead that the reason that they beat up their children is because they were helplessly in the power of a generational “spirit of child abuse” which came down from a deviant ancestor in the family. It is very revealing that when the children of Israel — hiding behind the skirts of Exodus 20:5 — tried to plead that their difficulties were the result of an earlier generation’s sins, the Lord told them in no uncertain terms that each person bears responsibility for his own sin and cannot blame an earlier generation (See Ezekiel 18:1-32).

Furthermore, to cite Exodus 20:5 in support of this generational demon theory must surely hold no weight whatsoever in the life of the Christian believer, even if we ignore for the moment the fact that the believer is not under the Mosaic Covenant, of which Exodus 20:5 is an integral part (cf. Leviticus 26:40-42.). For Exodus 20:5 makes it very plain that “the iniquity of the fathers” is only visited “on their children to the third and fourth generations” of those who hate Him! The text actually says that clearly (cf. Deuteronomy 5:9). The Christian believer can hardly be numbered among those who hate the Lord! However, according to these so-called “deliverance ministries”, truck-loads of these alleged spirits are just heaped up in the hearts of Christian believers, no matter how much they love the Lord! They are living in a cloud-cuckoo land of unbelieving alienation from the cleansing love of Christ and are enemies of the true Gospel of the real deliverance, not to mention being a blight on the church as a whole. These bogus ‘deliverance ministries’ play straight into the hands of Satan by diminishing the power of the Gospel and undermining the security of the disciples of Christ. They are more than a disgrace: They are a blasphemous blot on the Ekklesia.

Similarly, to use Nehemiah 1:6-7 and other similar verses as being supportive of generational demons is to play fast and loose with Scripture in a major way. In those verses, we see Nehemiah practising the believer’s art of intercession. It has nothing whatsoever to do with demonisation passing down the family lines, and there is nothing at all in any of these so-called proof-texts to support such a theory. Nehemiah was not only confessing the sins of Israel but also his own sins: “which we have sinned against You. Both my father’s house and I have sinned”. The essential element here — the real “Nehemiah Principle”, if you will — is sin and the confession of it, leading to repentance and divine forgiveness — NOT the demonic infestation of believers and subsequent bogus ‘deliverance ministry’.

The very concept of “generational demons” is something which is being wilfully read into the text (known in Bible interpretation circles as “eisegesis”) in order to prop up a self-styled, whacked-out philosophy of demons. We don’t need ‘deliverance ministries’. We only need to confess our sins and stop practising them! ‘Deliverance ministries’ are run by control freaks playing at manipulative ‘psychiatrists’ who deny the freedom we have in Christ and remove personal responsibility from the believer. You can just blame your ‘demons’ instead of your failure to confront your own sinful ways of behaviour and mortify them, put them to death, as prescribed in Scripture (Romans 8:13; Colossians 3:5). How foolishly these ‘deliverance’ cults twist the Scriptures to force them to agree with their own false ideas!

It has to be said that, like all grand deceptions, the teachings of so-called ‘deliverance ministries’ on demons is loosely based on a truth. All satanic deceptions mingle truth with falsehood in order to fool the less discerning. This is what we can call the “Rat Poison Strategy”. If one feeds neat poison to rats, they won’t touch it. But if you give some grains of rice a thin dusting in the poison, they will eat the rice and then die. So it is with Satan when he wants to deceive believers into accepting his poisonous teachings. He uses Scriptures which — to the unsuspecting — appear to back up his teachings; but the way that they are used completely undermines the truth which lies behind them.

Thus, it is indeed true, and can be shown from Scripture, that demons can gain a temporary kind of ‘legal’ right in the life of a believer if he or she misbehaves — but in the individual believer only, not in his successors for the next four generations. The apostle Paul makes it plain that Satan can be given a “place” (Greek, topos), i.e. a real foothold or opportunity in a believer’s life, through the unfettered, impenitent practice of a sin — in this case, Paul cites bitter, sinful anger as being the action responsible, as we can see in Ephesians 4:26-27. But the answer to this for the believer is not exorcism or ‘deliverance’ from demons or therapy of any kind (for ‘catharsis therapy’ is all that ‘deliverance ministries’ practise). Such an idea is abhorrent to the Word of God and the Gospel of grace and cannot possibly be extrapolated from the texts used by these ‘deliverance’ cults. For the believer is not in any kind of bondage to Satan, and only has to “resist the devil” (i.e. confess his or her sin and wilfully eschew the devil’s temptations and deceptions) and the old serpent will make a hasty getaway (James 4:7). That is the whole point! Coming to Christ is the only true and necessary deliverance. That is the essence of the Gospel. Maintaining a holy way of living, mortifying one’s sin, engaging in good works towards all, is the only way that the Bible reveals in order for disciples of Christ to stay pure and undefiled from unclean spirits (Romans 6:22; 12:1-2; 2 Corinthians 7:1; 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8; James 1:27). Therefore, so-called ‘deliverance ministries’ undermine completely the work of the Gospel and the Holy-Spirit-inspired progressive sanctification of the disciple of Christ.

The whole idea of ‘generational demons’ could only occur among a people who have no understanding whatsoever of the sovereignty of God, no proper concept of what it means to be transformed into a disciple of Christ, zero knowledge of how to interpret the Bible, and who themselves are under the influence of demons that must be revelling in diverting those who claim to represent Christ into anachronistic and even dangerous psychologically-manipulative practices..

[To see just how dangerous these practices are, please download my free eBook, Swept Under the Carpet: The Scandal of Spiritual Abuse in Churches Today: https://diakrisis-project.com/2023/08/23/new-book-swept-under-the-carpet-the-scandal-of-spiritual-abuse-in-churches-today/ ].

In closing this little piece, let us here set up an imaginary (but in a sense very real) dialogue between the ‘deliverance ministries’ and the Holy Spirit concerning the life of a believer and his or her relation to demons. Both are battling for the mind of the believer and address him or her directly:

Holy Spirit: “He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13-14).

‘Deliverance’ Ministries: Well that’s not exactly true. You haven’t yet been delivered from the dark spirits which came into you at birth because your granddad was an adulterer and a freemason. The Bible also says that his sins will be attributed to you from as much as four generations ago and that you will be under the power of his controlling demons, from which you need a human agency to deliver you rather than God. Come to our luxury mansion for a few months of therapy at a price and we can do that for you.

Holy Spirit: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

‘Deliverance’ Ministries: Well not quite all things have been made new or passed away. There are still quite a few things which remain untouched by being in Christ and by becoming a new creation. The Bible teaches that demonic bondage cannot be made new by Christ as generational spirits plainly have not passed away after becoming a believer, as is proven by those who come to us for ministry. Only our deliverance ministries have the power to make those things new. The Holy Spirit only does a partial job and it is up to ministries like us to finish that job properly.

Holy Spirit: “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7).

‘Deliverance’ Ministries: Precisely! It is not God who has given you a spirit of fear, this is true. But Satan has given you this spirit of fear and God has no control over the work of Satan in the life of a believer so you need deliverance therapy from us to get free of that.

Holy Spirit: “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God… You, little children, are from God and have overcome them, because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:1 & 4).

‘Deliverance’ Ministries: Er… Erm… er… but… er… well… erm… er… but… er… etc., etc…

“The One in you is greater than the one in the world” (1 John 4:4). That text should surely render these phoney ‘deliverance ministries’ a decisive blow on their philosophy. No doubt they would claim that I have presented a straw man in the above dialogue. But even though they may not actually say these things overtly, this is, in effect, what they are implying; for they deny the plain fact of deliverance from the power of darkness which occurs when one responds positively to the Gospel, and the fact that genuine believers have overcome spirits which are not from God. One cannot possibly have the indwelling Holy Spirit and be riddled with indwelling demons. To suggest that one can do so must surely be a blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, we can say that absolutely everything which the ‘deliverance ministries’ stand for is undermining of the cleansing gospel of Christ. Their very existence is a slap in the face of the Gospel. A genuinely transformed person who has truly been saved could never come up with such faithless nonsense, for they know who they have believed and what that belief has worked in them. Like all false gospels, they are saying that the Gospel itself isn’t enough. You need the Gospel plus something else if you want to get free from Satan and the power of darkness. According to them, you must first come to Christ, then go for a lengthy course of deliverance therapy to get rid of all the nasty things which Christ and the indwelling Holy Spirit were apparently, in their view, powerless to deal with. All this is a blasphemy.

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© Copyright, Alan Morrison, 2025
[The copyright on my works is merely to protect them from any wanton plagiarism which could result in undesirable changes (as has actually happened!). Readers are free to reproduce my work, so long as it is in the same format and with the exact same content and its origin is acknowledged]

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