Am I doomed by my upbringing in a certain family or church situation?
It is a vile trick of Satan to make God’s people feel hopelessly trapped by their history. Perhaps you have committed certain sins, been exposed to patterns of sin, or been subjected to certain sins. Perhaps you have been bombarded with false teaching over many years. Are you doomed to replicate those patterns, as perpetrator or victim, or – perhaps – both?
Consider it along two lines. First, nature: are you somehow genetically obliged to commit certain sins, or fatally inclined to particular patterns of wickedness? Suppose someone is separated from their parents at birth or lives as an orphan? Will they simply replicate their parents, including particular sins? Certainly, there will be a genetic inheritance, and that might show itself in both appearance and behaviour. In that sense, all of us are likely to be ‘a chip off the old block’. People in this situation have sometimes found family members again after many years and been stunned by likenesses of attitude, appetite, and action, not to mention appearance.
