Ezekiel 18:1

Ezekiel 18:1 says. The word of the Lord came unto me again, saying, 

Verse two adds, What mean ye, that ye use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge?  God continued to speak to Ezekiel, He said that the fathers ate sour grapes and the children’s teeth were set on edge.  The people of Israel while in captivity were using this proverb to say that God was responsible for their situation because they were being punished because of the sins of their fathers instead of taking responsibility for their own sins.  I don’t believe that this means that children are responsible for the sins of their parents, but that parents can lead their children either toward God or away from Him.  The actions of parents can neither save nor condemn their children with God, but they will always be an influence on them.  Still, every person is accountable to God only for their own sins, no matter who or what their parents may have been.   

Verse three continues, As I live, saith the Lord God, ye shall not have occasion any more to use this proverb in Israel.  God said as He lived, the people would no longer have an occasion to use this proverb.  The use of this proverb was to be taken away even if people may have used it in the past.  Matthew Henry says this goes back to God saying at one time that the sins of the fathers would be visited on their children for more than one generation.  I believe this was a reference to when the people of Israel were all considered the people of God and when the fathers failed to obey God that their actions might affect several generations in their worldly situation and not that the next generation would be spiritually responsible for the sins of their parents.   

Verse four concludes, 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.  God now plainly states that each person is responsible for their own sins, and the soul of those who do not repent and ask His forgiveness will die, spiritually I believe.  From what the Bible teaches us, we know that the soul of everyone will live forever and it is just a matter of where they will be, heaven or hell.