Tucker Carlson and “Blood Guilt”
Blood guilt as expressed by Tucker Carlson is not the historical and exegetical biblical meaning of blood guilt. When he said, “blood guilt,” he wasn’t using it in a scriptural sense, even though he implied that was what he was doing. Blood guilt is unique enough to sound theological, even though what he meant was another concept.
Tucker Carlson says to Megyn Kelly in that interview, “We don’t believe that you are born guilty.” No, we do believe that you are born guilty, because scripture teaches that. As many of you reading here know, David said in Psalm 51:5, “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.” And it is because of something passed down through your parents, starting with Adam. The Apostle Paul writes in Romans 5:19:
For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
Carlson also said to Kelly, “Guilt or virtue are not in your DNA,” to buttress his point, albeit in contradiction to aforementioned scripture.
No Eternal and Spiritual Judgment for Sins of Parents
It is true that God will not judge individuals spiritually or eternally for the sins of their parents, and scripture teaches this.
Deuteronomy 24:16, “The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own sin.”
2 Kings 14:6, “But the children of the murderers he slew not: according unto that which is written in the book of the law of Moses.”
Ezekiel 18:4, 19-20, “Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die. . . . Yet say ye, Why? doth not the son bear the iniquity of the father? When the son hath done that which is lawful and right, and hath kept all my statutes, and hath done them, he shall surely live. The 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 himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.”
As well, God can and does deliver someone from a characteristically awful or sin-saturated line or family. God wants, allows, and causes salvation for sinful people out of horrible situations. This proceeds from the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That’s all true, but it does not undo what the Bible teaches about corporate guilt, based upon collective responsibility. This is something still different about individual judgment as referenced above.
Yet the Concept of Collective or Corporate Guilt
The Bible frequently addresses the concept of collective or corporate guilt, where an entire nation, city, people group, or generation bears responsibility and receives judgment for widespread sin, even when not every individual is equally guilty. God judged all humanity except for eight people, which included women and children (Genesis 6:5-7). With the exception of a few from Lot’s family, God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, including all the women and children (Genesis 18:20, 19:24-25). God killed all the firstborn in Egypt as part of that judgment (Exodus 11:4-5, 12:12, 29-30).
God repeatedly judged Israel, a covenant curse for national disobedience (Deuteronomy 26:15, 36-37; Judges 2:11-14; 2 Kings 17:7-18). God says He judges nations collectively (Jeremiah 18:7-10; Isaiah 24:1-6). The latter includes guilt and punishment that passed to later generations.
Exodus 20:5, “Thou 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.”
Lamentations 5:7, “Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we have borne their iniquities.”
God spared the entire Assyrian empire because of the short term repentance of Nineveh, when Jonah went there to preach repentance (Jonah 3:5-10).
New Testament Corporate Guilt
While the New Testament emphasizes individual salvation, corporate judgment is still present — Jesus on cities that reject the gospel:
Matthew 11:20–24: “Then began he to upbraid the cities wherein most of his mighty works were done, because they repented not: Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! . . . And thou, Capernaum… shall be brought down to hell. . . .”
The Apostle Peter brought forward this same principle as Jesus in an early sermon in Acts.
Acts 2:23, 36, 40, “Him . . . ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain. . . . Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. . . . Save yourselves from this untoward generation.”
The book of Revelation foretells judgments on nations and “Babylon” as corporate entities.
Revelation 18:4–5, “Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.”
God holds entire nations, cities, and people groups accountable for pervasive wickedness. National repentance can avert corporate judgment (Nineveh, Jer 18:7–10). On the contrary, national persistence in sin brings corporate punishment, often affecting the innocent along with the guilty, such as plagues on Egypt, exile of Israel, and destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. Iniquity can be “visited” on later generations (Exodus 20:5), showing a form of inherited corporate consequence. Even in the New Testament era, cities and nations can be judged together for rejecting God’s message.
Case Study: Psalm 83
Psalm 83 offers a great Old Testament example of collective guilt and punishment — a divine explanation. Here is the text of the Psalm:
1 <A Song or Psalm of Asaph.> Keep not thou silence, O God: hold not thy peace, and be not still, O God.
2 For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult: and they that hate thee have lifted up the head.
3 They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones.
4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
5 For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:
6 The tabernacles of Edom, and the Ishmaelites; of Moab, and the Hagarenes;
7 Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; the Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre;
8 Assur also is joined with them: they have holpen the children of Lot. Selah.
9 Do unto them as unto the Midianites; as to Sisera, as to Jabin, at the brook of Kison:
10 Which perished at Endor: they became as dung for the earth.
11 Make their nobles like Oreb, and like Zeeb: yea, all their princes as Zebah, and as Zalmunna:
12 Who said, Let us take to ourselves the houses of God in possession.
13 O my God, make them like a wheel; as the stubble before the wind.
14 As the fire burneth a wood, and as the flame setteth the mountains on fire;
15 So persecute them with thy tempest, and make them afraid with thy storm.
16 Fill their faces with shame; that they may seek thy name, O LORD.
17 Let them be confounded and troubled for ever; yea, let them be put to shame, and perish:
18 That men may know that thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the most high over all the earth.
Our church sang this entire Psalm a few weeks ago as we sing our way through our Psalter. Nations, which are the enemies of Israel, and it might sound familiar, say in verse 4, “Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation, that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.” And then in verse 12: “Let us take to ourselves the houses of God in possession.”
What does Israel say in God’s Word here, who really are religious foes? “Make them . . . stubble before the wind. As the fire burneth a wood. . . . . Fill their faces with shame; that they make seek thy name O LORD. . . . Let them be put to shame, and perish: That men may know that thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the most high over all the earth.”
No Rescinding of Unilateral Covenant or Command to Drive Out Canaanites
God neither rescinded His unilateral covenants with Israel or His commands to drive out or dispossess the inhabitants of Canaan. You can read many, many passages where God says to Israel something like Deuteronomy 9:1-5:
Hear, O Israel: Thou art to pass over Jordan this day, to go in to possess nations greater and mightier than thyself, cities great and fenced up to heaven. . . . Understand therefore this day, that the LORD thy God is he which goeth over before thee; as a consuming fire he shall destroy them, and he shall bring them down before thy face: so shalt thou drive them out, and destroy them quickly, as the LORD hath said unto thee. . . . Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart, dost thou go to possess their land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee, and that he may perform the word which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
This doesn’t sound like a two state solution.
More to Come