...What is the idea of original sin in the world? Does not Ezekiel 18 remove any guilty transferred from our ancestors? Will all the Chinese people before Jesus' crucification go to hell?
There are actually four separate questions here that are all related to each other Let's break our answer down.
There seems to be 2 ways of thinking about this issue.
There are verses in the Bible that would answer "YES" to your question. Look up Exodus 20:5, Deuteronomy 5:9, Exodus 24:6-7 and 1 Cor. 15:22. All these verses indicate that children do bear the sins of their fathers.
On the other hand, there are verses in the Bible that would answer "NO" to your question. These include Deuteronomy 24:16, which states "everyone shall be put to death for his own sin" and Ezekiel 18:20, which states:
The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall upon himself.
So where does this leave us? We must recognize there is a fundamental difference in what the two sets of verses are trying to say. The first set of verses (Exodus 20:5, etc.) are part of God's covenant (i.e. agreement) with humanity and deal with the consequences of sin.
Let me expand. At its core, the Bible a story about the relationship between God and mankind. How God relates to mankind is through covenantal agreement. Like all agreements, there are rewards (Exodus 20:6,12) for obedience and punishments (Exodus 20:5,7) for disobedience. These rules apply to the family unit. If a father (as the head/representative of the household) disobeys and sins against God, the children will suffer the consequences, often for several generations. If he willfully rejects God, and leads his children to live sinful lives, the children will suffer the consequences, often for several generations. You have to understand that sin has a "ripple effect" (think of person stepping into a perfectly calm pool); it has consequences that last for many generations. For instance, there are many individuals that can attest to how much of a negative influence their father's alcoholism (or any other sin) had on their family, including their own children.
On the other hand, the second set of verses (i.e. Deut. 24:16 and Ezekiel 18:20) deal with the legal aspects of the Jewish court system. So if you look at Ezekiel 18:20, what the verse is saying is that the son should not take the punishment for a crime the father committed. This is different than the first set of verses about the consequences of sin.
As for your last question, "Will all the Chinese people before Jesus' crucification go to hell?" I have answered it in a previous post HERE. Thanks for writing. Keep 'em coming.
[Answered by Pastor HM, who has one son of his own]
