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Podcast
Immigration
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Transcript
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Hi, I'm Dave DeWitt and today I'd like to talk about the subject of immigration, defined
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in the sense of a person coming to live permanently in a different country.
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With many variations, there are two basic ideas prevalent among Christians on this subject.
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View number one says, as Christians, Jesus wants us to be merciful and compassionate
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toward those in need, and that includes those from other countries seeking asylum in our
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country.
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Abraham, Jacob, Ruth were immigrants.
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Many immigrants are escaping poverty and oppression and want a better life for their families.
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The second view says, as Christians, Jesus wants us to protect our families and our neighbors
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against violence, immorality, drug use, foreign religions.
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So immigrants should be legal and properly vetted.
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Illegal immigrants have broken the law and should be treated as all other lawbreakers.
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In this podcast, I'd like to add another perspective to this issue.
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I'm not the only one who recognizes this, but most authors on the subject seem to just
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mention it only in passing, and I think it's foundational principle that should steer our
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thoughts on the whole subject.
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Here's the third one that I think should be added.
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Compassion is for individuals.
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Immigration regulation is for governments.
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In other words, individuals should not make rules and regulations for others.
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That's for governments.
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And governments should not be operating with compassion.
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That's what individuals are to do.
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For example, if you know someone who needs help, whether they're an immigrant or not,
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whether they arrived legally or not, you should have compassion and help them in any way you
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can without breaking the law or jeopardizing the safety of your family.
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But the role of government is protection and justice, not mercy and compassion.
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People are to love their neighbors.
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Governments are to protect their citizens and enforce the nation's laws.
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Jesus gave no commands for governments.
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The words of Jesus should never be used to guide government politics.
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Everything Jesus said was addressing to individuals.
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Jesus said only three things about government.
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First he was not forming one.
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Jesus said, my kingdom is not of this world.
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Second, we should pay our taxes, render to Caesar the things of Caesar and to God the
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things that are God's.
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And his authority came from heaven, not from any government or religious authority.
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In Luke 20 we read this, the chief priests and scribes with the elders confronted him
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and they spoke saying to him, tell us by what authority you do these things or who's the
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one who gave you this authority?
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Jesus answered, said to them, I'll also ask you a question and you tell me, was the baptism
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of John from heaven or from earth?
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Well after some discussion, we read they answered that they did not know where he came from
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and Jesus said, nor will I tell you by what authority I do these things.
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Jesus did not address governments because his focus was heavenly.
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What Jesus did that turned Jerusalem on its ear was to bring an eternal perspective.
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Jesus' total focus was on a heavenly kingdom, not an earthly one.
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That's why Jesus had nothing to say about governments.
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When God addresses governments, their judgment was always on this earth.
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God judged Egypt, Babylon, Israel as a nation and the nations that surrounded Israel here on earth.
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He'll also judge the future government of the Antichrist here on earth.
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When Jesus comes back, the government will rest on his shoulders and his name will be
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called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace, Isaiah 9.6.
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But two things should be observed about our earthly government.
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One, they are not eternal.
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None of them will send people to heaven or hell.
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All corporate judgment, that is the judgment of a body politic, is always carried out on earth.
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And number two, governments govern individuals who disagree with them.
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Those individuals cannot be adequately judged by governments.
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Individuals can only be adequately judged at the end of their life, when their life
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is completely over.
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So the directive for individuals are very different than those for governments.
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And Jesus focused on eternal individuals, not temporal governments.
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Individuals ought to be merciful and compassionate to other individuals.
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Matthew 9.13, go and learn what this means, I desire compassion, not sacrifice.
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I did not come to call righteous, but sinners, Jesus is quoting Hosea 6.6.
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In Matthew 9.36, seeing the people, he felt compassion for them because they were distressed
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and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.
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In Luke 10.33, but a Samaritan who was on a journey came upon him and when he saw him,
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he felt compassion, the story of the good Samaritan.
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Colossians 3.12, so as those who have been chosen of God, holy, beloved, put on a heart
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of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.
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Applying to government what Jesus said to individuals ends in perversion.
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I recall Hillary Clinton some time ago saying the Democrat Party is more like Jesus than
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the Republican Party because it helps people.
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But Jesus said, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments.
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But Jesus' commandments were all for individuals.
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If we take Jesus' commandments and apply them to government, as in what the government should
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do about immigration, we will have a disaster.
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Let's see what happens when we take Jesus' commands and direct them to government.
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This is an example, let's take Jesus' sermon on the level place in Luke 6.20-33 and let's
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apply it to government.
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Here's just a few of his statements taken for a government mandate.
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Blessed are you who are poor.
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Well, if that was about government, then government should all be poor.
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So the economically poorer the government is, the better.
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Jesus said, blessed are you when men hate you.
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Woe to you when all men speak well of you.
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Well, if we apply that to government, then everybody should hate the government.
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Love your enemies.
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Do good to those who hate you, Jesus said.
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If that's about government, our government should do good to terrorists, dictators, genocidal
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maniacs, and anyone else that hates the government and is trying to destroy us.
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Jesus said, whoever hits you on the cheek, offer him the other also, and whoever takes
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away your coat, do not withhold your shirt from him either.
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So when Osama bin Laden attacks the Twin Towers in New York, we should offer him the Empire
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State Building as well.
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Obviously, if we direct Jesus' commands to governments, we have a disaster.
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The apostles saw government as responsible for justice.
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Peter wrote, submit yourself for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether to
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a king as the one in authority or governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers
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and the praise of those who do right.
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Paul said essentially the same thing to the Romans in chapters 13, 3, and 4.
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Like Jesus, the apostles had no advice for governments.
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Their commands were for individual believers, and they included a submission to the government.
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And keep in mind that the one most of the apostles were in submission to was the Roman
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government of Nero.
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But if we look at their commands from the government side, we can see what God expects
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the government.
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In these passages, the job of the government includes the one who bears the sword, punishing
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the evildoers, the praise of those who do right as a minister of God, being an avenger
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and bringing wrath upon those who practice evil.
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But individuals are to speak out, fellowship, instruct, and correct.
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Governments are to regulate, control, manage, and contain.
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Individuals are responsible to discern, approve, condemn, forgive, discipline, and show compassion.
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Governments are responsible to enforce laws, execute justice, use the sword, reward, and
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punish.
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Can the directive to one be applied to the other?
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Yes, but only within limited parameters.
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For example, a government can apply compassion to free its slaves, but not to free its criminals.
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Individual parents can apply government to their family, but not to use the sword to
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do it.
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Therefore, when it comes to immigration, individuals can show compassion, but government has a
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responsibility to vet those wishing to come into the country.
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If immigrants are not properly vetted by the government, there's no way to know if
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they're going to keep the laws of the land.
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Quite often an immigrant is a refugee fleeing from an oppressive government, but they may
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also be fleeing from a government that is oppressive because it's following an evil
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culture or an immoral religion.
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If that's the case, then the question is, are they bringing that evil culture or immoral
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religion with them as they immigrate to a new country?
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Because if they are, then they will likely reproduce the problem they left when they
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get to wherever it is they're going.
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Old Testament Israel treated immigrants as guests, not citizens.
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Whereas the church is not a government, but a plurality of believers living under different
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governments all over the world, Israel was a government.
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So what can we learn from God's commands to the nation Israel about immigration?
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First of all, we must say that the immigrants living in Israel were not exactly the same
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as the immigrants into our country.
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Since Israel was a racially oriented theocracy, foreign immigrants were never completely assimilated.
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The closest Hebrew word to immigrant is a common Hebrew word, gar, G-E-R in English,
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gar.
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It usually translated alien or aliens or sojourners, strangers.
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Here's the three relevant principles.
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No gar, immigrant, was to be immediately assimilated into the nation, especially if they had a
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history of treating Israel poorly.
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In Deuteronomy 23, 3 and 4, no Amorite or Moabite shall enter the assembly of the Lord.
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None of their descendants, even to the 10th generation, shall enter into the assembly
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of the Lord.
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Because they did not meet you with food and water on the way when you came out of Egypt,
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and because they hired against you Balaam, the son of Beor in Mesopotamia, to curse you.
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Number two, no immigrant, gar, was to be treated unjustly just because they came from
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a different country or were of a different race.
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The government was to instruct its citizens to support every immigrant, the one who needed
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support, as they would their own, orphans and widows.
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Deuteronomy 24, 17 and 18 says, you shall not pervert the justice due an alien or an
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orphan, but you shall remember you were slaves in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you
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from there.
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Ezekiel 22, 29 says, the people of the land have practiced oppression and committed robbery
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and they've wronged the poor and the needy and have oppressed the sojourner.
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There's our word gar again, without justice.
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Three, every gar, every immigrant who immigrated into the nation was to keep the religious
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customs of the nation.
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They were not allowed to import their religious customs.
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And Exodus 20, 10, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God, in it you
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shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male or your female
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servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you.
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Well, in conclusion, individuals should treat immigrants as they would any neighbor.
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Immigration policies are to be determined by governments.
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Christians should not expect or encourage their governments to follow the compassion
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oriented commands of Jesus or the apostles because those were given to individual
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believers, not governments.
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If we see Jesus commands as turning the other cheek, loving your enemy and giving to those
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who hate you as pertaining to government, then government would not carry out its two
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prime objectives of protecting the people and defending justice written into its laws.
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So as a conclusion, compassion is for individuals, immigration regulation is for
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government.
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Well, thanks for listening.
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If you want a longer paper on this, my immigration paper is on our website,
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relationalconcepts.org.
