WWJD – Who Would Jesus Deport?

“Anybody who would turn away a busload of children is ‘not human.’” “This is a humanitarian crisis!” “Keep the kids, deport the bigots!”

Besides hurling accusations like the statements above, and quoting a Bible verse about welcoming strangers, illegal immigration activists like to pose the question, “Who would Jesus deport?”

All this makes Christians defensive, and often confuses the issue and cuts off the conversation. The raging debate over the thousands of unaccompanied minors crashing our nation’s southern border has left many good folks tied up in knots.

On one hand, our hearts go out to the kids, most of whom are teenage boys aged 14 and above. Yet we know there is something fundamentally wrong with simply letting these minors loose in our cities. (And that’s what happens in most cases, because 90% of them don’t ever appear for their immigration hearings.)

We need a clear biblical worldview to sort things out. The answer to the problem is not as simple as throwing out a single Bible verse in isolation to the whole counsel of God.

So what’s the right thing to do?

The immigration issue brings up the critical matter of jurisdiction. Here is where many people are not thinking clearly. We must respect the fact that God has established order in His world. We must do what is right in various areas of responsibility as an individual—and in the family, in the church and in knowing what governments are supposed to do. Keeping these distinct responsibilities in mind, let’s look at this issue through the lens of the Bible.

THE INDIVIDUAL, THE CHURCH AND THE STRANGER

“… I was a stranger and you took me in…”

Some appeal to these words of Christ in Matthew 25:35 to insist we have an absolute obligation to help every immigrant. Then they extrapolate that our national laws ought to reflect this ethic. Is this sound? No, and I will show why.

The admonition to take in a stranger is part of a larger passage that includes a list of other kinds of people to whom Christians have a moral obligation—the hungry, thirsty, naked, sick and imprisoned. The stranger in this case refers to an alien who is by implication a guest.

Jesus is appealing to the Old Testament. There are four Hebrew words in the Old Testament that refer to the immigrant. Unfortunately, they are inconsistently translated as “stranger,” “sojourner,” “settler,” etc…. The distinctions between immigrants are lost unless you go back to the original Hebrew text. There you find two distinct classes of immigrants: those who assimilate and those who don’t. Different biblical laws apply for each class of immigrant.

In Matthew 25:35 Jesus uses the Greek word that refers to those who came into to Israel and refused to assimilate. They were characteristically deceitful. In the Book of Proverbs the feminine form of the word is used as a technical term for harlot. They were considered a threat to the nation of Israel.

Jesus could have used other terms that refer to the more benign class of immigrants who assimilated into Israel, but he doesn’t. Christ consciously raises the bar and takes our moral obligation to what seems like an extreme. Jesus does this in other places, too. We are taught to love our enemies and to forgive not just once or twice, but 70 times 70. When insulted we are called to turn the other cheek. When imposed upon to walk a mile, we are to willingly walk the second mile. In the same way Jesus calls us to show hospitality to those who seem least deserving.

This act of mercy to the undeserving is a dramatic picture of the gospel. Not one of us is righteous, not even one. None deserve to be let in to God’s Kingdom. We were all spiritual harlots and adulterers who resisted and resented God’s law, yet…. He graciously sends His Spirit and draws us in. The good news is that in Christ, “you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God…” (Ephesians 2:19)

It is a virtuous thing to accommodate strangers. The ethical imperative to be a blessing to strangers is a common theme in the New Testament. “Beloved, you do faithfully whatever you do for the brethren and for strangers” (3 John 5); Do not forget to entertain strangers for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels. (Hebrews 13:2) Christians are to be, “given to hospitality,” literally to love strangers (Romans 12:13).

There is a place for Christians and the church to be merciful to another person regardless of their immigration status, but this is only part of the biblical picture. There are other God- ordained jurisdictions with their own moral obligations, too.

THE FAMILY AND THE STRANGER

There are times of war, famine or plague when immigration for safety and provision for the sake of survival is legitimate. But the normal ethical standard for families is summed up, “But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel. (I Timothy 5:8) This begs the question, “Why all these unaccompanied minors now?” Is there a war, plague or famine? No. Is there political or religious persecution? No. When US politicians recently tried to claim there was a grave emergency the governments from the immigrant’s home countries refuted the lie. (http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/jul/24/presidents-of-honduras-guatemala-blame-us-for-bord/?page=all)

If these immigrant children were orphans that might change the issue (James 1:27), but they’re not. They are predominately teenage boys seeking opportunity. Some of them are gang members and criminals. The US already has plenty of poor people. In 2012 the U.S. Census Bureau said more than 16% of the population lived in poverty, including almost 20% of American children, some 43 million.The US has one of the highest relative poverty rates among wealthy nations. Do we need more poor? Real US unemployment is currently running between 16%-20%, depending on how you calculate it. Do we need more unemployed people or criminal activity?

These children belong at home with their families. These families have no more right to send their minors to our country in violation of our laws than I do to send my children to break into one of Michael Moore’s nine homes.

THE GOVERNMENT AND THE STRANGER

Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.(Romans 13:1)

According to the Bible, God appoints governing authorities. Some open border advocates argue, “God made people – people made borders.” Is that true? No.

In order for a person to have authority there must be a defined area of jurisdiction. No realm means no authority. The existence of civil authority presupposes there are jurisdictions in which their authority is binding. God has ordained and operates in accordance to our geo-political boundaries. “And He (God) has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings…” (Acts 17:26)

Nations are God’s idea. God is the Great Sovereign and He appoints civil magistrates and the boundaries of the nations. The idea of nation is found as far back Genesis 10 and 11. God’s concept of nations extends even to the spiritual realm. Did you know there are unseen, spiritual jurisdictions that correspond to our earthly geo-political ones?

When Daniel was praying and fasting he had a visitation by a heavenly being who said, “Do not fear, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand, and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard; and I have come because of your words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days; and behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left alone there with the kings of Persia.(Daniel 10:12-13)

God creates and works within the categories of nations, even in the unseen realms of spiritual powers and principalities. At the last day Jesus will judge the nations. “And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats.” (Matthew 25:32) God creates people and ordains nations and their authorities.

THE DUTY OF GOVERNMENT AND THE STRANGER

“Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves…for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.” (Romans 13:2-4)

Our elected representatives are responsible to secure our God-given rights and administer equal justice under the laws of nature and nature’s God.For this task God has granted them the power of the sword.We must not conflate our personal moral duty with the state’s obligations.

For example, Jesus tells us to turn the other cheek as individuals when we have been insulted, but does that mean the state must turn the other cheek if we are attacked by another nation? No. When we confuse jurisdictions we end up in the current moral fog. The civil magistrate is to wield the sword of justice on those who do evil, even to the point of having the right to impose death, prison or fines on those who break the law.

No human authority has an absolute right to power.There is a biblical duty to disobey an unlawful law. So the only real question about the border situation is, “Are the immigration laws of the United Stated unlawful laws? The short answer is “no.” They are perfectly in accordance with their duty.

The state has an obligation to promote its own national interest and the general welfare of all the citizens, from whom our government officials derive their just powers. Legal immigration can be a good thing if properly managed. However, the civil magistrates have a duty to know who is coming into their jurisdiction.

Why? Because the primary duty of the civil government is to protect its citizens from external and internal threats, including terror, crime and disease. They have to protect the economic viability of the nation, too.

Look at California alone. The state of California has a poverty rate of 23.5%, the highest of any state in the country. In a state of 38 million people, 4.1 million are illegal aliens – over 10%. The annual cost to the state in education, justice and law enforcement, prisons, medical services, welfare assistance, etc. is $24 billion. Taxes collected from illegal aliens only amount to $3.5 billion. This means a net cost for California of $20.5 billion per year. An average of $5,000 per year, per illegal, in services is being spent by the state at the expense of the average taxpayer. The average California taxpayer pays over $1,200 per year to subsidize people who break the law to enter the country.

Illegal immigration is both threatening our security and bankrupting our nation.

Who would Jesus deport?

Jesus ordained that governments do their job just as much as He ordains that the family and the church do their jobs. The family has its own responsibilities to its own members first. That’s where these children belong. If a US family wants to help an immigrant there is a process to do that lawfully, without the US government using taxpayer money to pay that host family $6,000 a month.

Obviously, if we come upon a person who is naked, hungry and thirsty, we help them even if he is a stranger, but that doesn’t mean we help him burglarize homes. If they’ve broken into our country and violated our immigration laws then we point them to God’s Word and urge them to do what is lawful and submit to the lawful authorities.

If you don’t like our immigration laws you have every right to use the political system to change them. But you can’t say the laws are themselves unjust because they aren’t. In fact the US has relatively liberal immigration laws, especially in contrast to Mexico.

Does Jesus call us to aid and abet those who willfully break just laws? No. We are to “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.(Mark 12:17) Christ is no anarchist; He affirms the proper role of the state. He tells us to render to Caesar what is his. We all owe the civil magistrates obedience to just laws. It’s their God-given duty to uphold our immigration laws and deport those who break them. It is the responsibility of we the people to hold them accountable to do their job.

TAKE ACTION:

Call the White House and urge President Obama to stop the flood of illegal immigration and send the children back to their families. Call (202) 456-1414 or click here to contact him online.