Twisting Scripture to Justify an Invasion

“Welcome the sojourner.”

“Love the stranger, for you were strangers in Egypt.”

“Love your neighbor.”

“Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of my brethren you did it to me.”

For decades, these Bible verses (or slightly modified versions) have been thrown into the face of even the most reticent Christians who would dare to advocate for strong and strict borders in their nations. More specifically, Christians in the US, UK, Australia, South Africa, France, Germany, and a short list of Western or Western-influenced nations are constantly told their advocacy for fewer foreigners pouring into their nations flies directly in the face of the most basic of biblical orthodoxy: “welcoming the foreigner.”

It’s time that this particularly heinous form of Scriptural butchery was addressed in specific detail because we know that our Adversary delights in the twisting of Scripture. In the potentiality of a “mass deportation” of illegal immigrants from the US, Bible-believing, faithful, spirit-filled Christians need to be able to clearly articulate what is good, true, and righteous in such a situation without fear of being “unbiblical” or “unchristian.”

A Modern-Day Horror Story

Before getting into the specifics of how Christian compassion is exploited and Scripture twisted to justify the current mass invasion of the West, we should make sure we are clear on what is actually going on.

There are many names for it. “The Migrant Crisis” and “The Refugee Crisis” are the preferred terms for cable news, but more biblical-sounding terms like “sojourners” are used by leftist evangelicals and their allies. Christians need not be ashamed to use the term, “Invasion,” as it’s the most descriptive of what’s currently happening. The terminology matters because those seeking to promote the Invasion will attempt to dominate the language surrounding the debate. For this reason, it’s vital to be clear about what those who defend the Invasion are, in a practical sense, actually defending (in the US specifically, but the same applies to a number of Western nations):

• A massive human trafficking network/market that starts in other nations but sees much business in the US. Recent estimates are over a million people in the US are currently entrapped in some sort of trafficked slavery, usually forced sex work.
• An unfathomable amount of deadly drugs poured through our borders, arriving in every corner of the nation and causing WWII-level death. Fentyal, a drug with the potential to easily kill with only one use, now sits at only around $1 a pill. 
• An endless amount of revenue for multi-national drug cartels, solidifying their control over many regions and even entire nations.
• Economic strain on native-born citizens because of the billions of dollars spent on migrants (entitlements, education, healthcare, etc.), the flooding of the job market, and competition for housing in an already unaffordable housing market.
• A wave of preventable crime – rape, murder, drug use and trafficking, illegal squatting, and sophisticated shoplifting networks.
• The collapse of social programs (like Social Security and Medicare) that native citizens have paid into their whole lives, bankrupted by those suddenly appearing on entitlement rosters.
• The disastrous social effects of families being split up by migration (this is rarely discussed, but migrant families are very often plagued by dysfunction, domestic violence, and a host of social ills).

Whether they identify themselves as Christian or not, these are the travesties being defended by the “pro-immigrant” activists and those who support them. Not an abstract “care for the poor,” or “justice for the sojourner,” but rather a catastrophic tangle of mass violence, displacement, abuse, rape, death, and despair.

To be in support of the Invasion is already a profoundly un-Christian position. To defend such a position with Scripture rises to a shocking level of exegetical carnage.

“My People Are Destroyed for an Inability to Think in Categories“

In Romans 13, Paul reminds the faithful in Rome the following:

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. (Romans 13:1-4)

It is a bitter truth that many Christians have been imparted only a half-application of the above passage. The most familiar use of this application in recent times has been when church-goers were reminded incessantly of their “Romans 13 duty” to obey all government COVID-19 measures, no matter how draconian.

The typical discussions surrounding the application of Romans 13 concern how those under governmental authority should behave, as most of us aren’t in positions of civil authority. But some of us are, and probably more should seek to be. In Romans 13 we are presented clearly with the baseline responsibility of the state: to protect its people. Not the people of other states, not an abstract concept of people, but living, breathing individual souls that make up a nation. The Greek word, “exousia” from which “governing authorities” is translated signifies “designated authority and jurisdiction,” so a real, tangible state or nation governing a real, tangible people.

These scriptural details are crucial because they provide a specific category of a sphere of authority to which Paul identifies the Christians’ obligation: to “be subject,” or “subordinate.” Each Christian’s level of subjection may look a little different depending on his station in life (for example, Cornelius the Centurian is a direct servant of Rome, so he has both more authority and responsibility in his subjection).

Unfortunately, many subversively progressive Christian organizations and leaders have capitalized on a general lack of understanding of biblical categories to exploit the compassion of Christians for political purposes. They tactfully employ carefully chosen scriptural commands, stories, and parables to shame Christians who want to enforce the law by deporting those who’ve broken it by entering their nations illegally.

Twisting Scripture

Progressives have been attempting to shame Christians into their policy preferences for many decades. The tactic of misapplying basic hermeneutic principles is applied to a host of political/social issues: taxes, abortion, gay marriage, immigration, international disputes, and the list goes on. There are several ways in which these misapplications are made Here are some commonly used when discussing illegal immigration:

• Vague appeals to love: A verse like “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” might simply be used to insist on welcoming anyone into your country because “they are your neighbor.” Such vague applications leave out any love for the neighbors living within your borders.
• Old Testament passages mentioning “The sojourner:” In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word, “rea“ (“ray-ah”) refers to “another,” “alien,” or even “friend.” Most of the time the word is used it’s in passages encouraging or commanding good treatment of outsiders living among the Hebrews. There’s a general principle of not mistreating outsiders that could be taken from these passages, but it’s the height of absurdity to go from this basic application to welcoming the entire world, including a countless number of criminals, to the resources and future of native-born citizens. The threat of invasion in Old Testament Israel was dealt with through military action. 
• Using Jesus’ words or actions: “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me water.” This passage is a favorite of open border advocates. Again, the application is personal and specific and has nothing to do with importing millions of people from far away to exploit those who live close by.
• Using prophetic texts: Passages like Amos 5 (which contains the verse, “Let justice roll down like waters”) that address specific prophecies in specific contexts are used to make either extremely broad applications (“there shouldn’t be borders at all because Christians are supposed to be welcoming”) or extremely particular policy prescriptions (“illegal immigrants should be able to receive driver’s licenses). The issue is that these out-of-context applications of biblical prophetic texts ignore Scriptures that do have an application to the situation because they don’t align with their purposes.

The informed Christian doesn’t need to be intimidated by the misuse of Scripture to justify the current mass illegal migration. Scripture is meant to be interpreted and applied in context, not bent to the whims of progressive political goals.

Nothing to Be Ashamed of

The Christian who desires to see his nation’s borders respected, the fruits of his labor secured, and the security of his family maintained desires no evil thing. His desires are in keeping with the most basic biblical principles concerning civil duties. He isn’t motivated by hatred of “the sojourner,” but rather by love for those who God has entrusted to Him. He has nothing to be ashamed of.

Conversely, the one who would twist Scripture to manipulate Christians toward his destructive ends has very much to be ashamed of.

May God confound his plans.