"...Depart from me,
ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: ...for...I was a stranger [immigrant],
and ye took me not in: ..." (Matthew 25:41, 43; other warnings of God's judgment for having no mercy for immigrants: De 10:17-19, 27:19, 28:15, 43-44, Jer 7:3-7, 22:3-9, Eze 22:29-31, Zec 7:9-14. 30 verses total.) "...He that hath two coats, let him
impart to him that hath none; and he that hath meat, let him do likewise. " (Luke 3:11; also, showing God commands welfare for immigrants - though private, not government welfare: Le 19:10, 23:22, 25:35, De 10:18, 14:21, 14:29, 16:11, 16:14, 24:19-21, 26:11-13, Job 31:32, Mat 25:35, 38, 43-44. 19 verses total.)
God thought about it, before He told us to share our surplus with those who
have nothing.
(Luke 3:11, Matthew 5:42) Explain how the most generous nation on the face of the Earth today is also the most prosperous? See:
Why is America free and prosperous? Is it our politics? Our religion?
Our natural superior good looks?
Scriptures considered:
Hebrews 4:1-3, 11-12, Numbers 13, 14, Matthew 17:20, Proverbs 24:10-12, Isaiah 63:5, Matthew 25:24-30, Proverbs 29:2 "One law [equal rights] shall be to him that is homeborn, [natural born citizen] and
unto the stranger [immigrant] that sojourneth [Heb. comes to live] among you." (Exodus 12:49; also, showing immigrants have an inalienable right to equal protection of laws: 20:10, 23:12, Lev 16:29, 24:22, 25:6, 25:47, Num 15:16, 29, 35:15, De 1:16, 5:14, 24:17, 27:19, Ps 94:6, Jer 7:6, 22:3, Eze 22:7, 22:29, 47:23, Ob 1:12, Zec 7:10, Mal 3:5. 19 verses total. 7 verses showimmigrants also suffer the same penalties for violating laws: Ex 12:19, Le 24:16, Nu 15:26-30, De 25:5, Eze 14:7.)
This actually says the same thing as our 14th Amendment: “No State
shall ...deny to any person
within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” If Des Moines passed a law saying the
first 500 people who woke up in the morning to go to work can drive on our roads, but the rest have to walk,
would you say the people of Des Moines still have equal protection of our laws?
God is not just "pie in the sky", to tell us that all men are created equal, and that if we
dare draw lines around the rights of others for being black, or Jewish, or non-Jewish, or unborn, or
born on the other side of a line we draw, that we will find the same line drawn around our own rights. See
Model Deportation Brief: (Maybe some brave immigration attorney and
brave client will use the occasion of a routine deportation hearing to challenge the constitutionality of
Immigration Quotas.)
God understands the "rule of law", after all, when He commands our lawmakers to
defend the liberties of
every immigrant among us as faithfully as they defend the rights of natural born citizens - and that whenever
godless lawmakers dare call "illegal" those whom God has declared equal, our duty is to "obey God rather than
man", Acts 5:29. See Rule of Law: "When Border Laws Conflict: how "Rule
of Law" was defined
by America's Founders
." "Woe unto you also, ye lawyers! for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne,
and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers." (Luke 11:46; also Mat 23:2-4, Gal 6:13, 2, Is 10:1-2. Verses showing God's judgment is to do to men the cruelties they have done to others: Rev 18:6-8, Jer 16:18, 17:18, Zec 9:12, Pr 24:12, Mt 16:27, 2Ti 4:14, Isa 40:2, 61:7. 18 verses total.)
“Love ye therefore the stranger [foreigner]: for ye were strangers [foreigners]
in the land of Egypt.” Deuteronomy 10:19
In other words, “Your 4th generation ancestors didn’t face quotas (about half a million from the whole
world are allowed in legally) application fees of thousands of dollars, and forms requiring lawyers to fill out, which the USCIS takes a generation to process. Before 1882 there was not one law against anyone being here. Acts 15:10 “Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of [these immigrants], which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?”
God pronounces judgment on our hypocrisy: Luke 11:46 “...Woe unto you also, ye lawyers! for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers.”
Former Minnesota Congressman Mark Kennedy’s website said it this way: “...They are not fearsome aliens, just the latest iteration [repetition] in an ongoing immigration drama in which, not too long ago, our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents were the protagonists.”
I am descended from Richard Warren, who, 10 generations before me, came over on the first Mayflower in 1620. That means no participant in this debate has an ancestry in this land much farther back than that, except for Native Americans who, I expect, will be the last to affirm our government’s moral right to impose “numerical limitations” on new immigrants! Does a 10th generation immigrant have greater moral right to be here than a first or second generation immigrant?
There was hardly an immigrant among our ancestors who was not an “illegal alien”, in the opinion of Native Americans! Many “moral conservatives” share my view that God was with us, in many cases, when we came. In light of these verses, we should consider whether God may be also with our immigrating neighbors to the South.
God is the god of immigrants. Joseph sold into Egypt, Israel invading Canaan, David possessing Jerusalem - these are stories of immigrants who were not welcome by men but were upheld by God. Amos 9:7 "Are ye not as children of the Ethiopians unto me, O children of Israel? saith the LORD. Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt? and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir? " “And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.” Luke 6:31 (Known as the “Golden Rule”, popularly translated as “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” James 2:9 "But if ye have respect to persons, [if you treat one group of people by different rules than another], ye commit sin, and are convinced of [convicted by] the law as transgressors [lawbreakers].
" Mark 12:29 "And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: 30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. 31 And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. " Like
the slave-owning churchgoer of yestercentury who never noticed the inconsistency
between his life and his Bible, today's “Moral Conservatives”
do not notice that both the Constitution, and the Bible
upon which the Constitution was founded, prohibit denying others
liberty which we take for granted for ourselves. There
is simply no way to “fix” this "problem", short of actually
obeying the Constitution. We cannot take its protection from others,
without losing its protection for ourselves. God
has so ordained. God has ordained that if we do not forgive, we will
not be forgiven. (Matthew 7, 18.) If we enslave others, others will
enslave us.
...all
they that take the sword shall perish with the sword. Matthew 26:52 Luke
6:38 Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed
down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your
bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be
measured to you again.
God
has given us this land. Has He given it only to us? Has He exempted
us from: Luke
3:11 ...He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none;
and he that hath meat, let him do likewise.
Not! Israel's neighbors
then were as ruthless, violent, irrational, unreasonable, and bloody as Israel's neighbors today!
Mexicans, by contrast, have not only never been accused of being terrorists, but have a crime rate,
while here "illegally", that is about the same as that of citizens - except for the "crime" of violating
our unconstitutional laws against their right to liberty, which are crimes all right, but they are OUR
crimes - against God. Most of our immigrants
look like angels of mercy laden with blessings from God, compared with the immigrants into Israel for whose rights God's heart cries! Isa 56:3 Neither let the son of the stranger, that hath joined himself to the LORD, speak,
saying, The LORD hath utterly separated me from his people: .... 6 Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves
to the LORD, to serve him, and to love the name of the LORD, to be his servants, every one that keepeth the sabbath
from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant; 7 Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful
in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; for
MINE HOUSE SHALL BE CALLED AN HOUSE OF PRAYER FOR ALL PEOPLE. 8 The Lord GOD which
gathereth the outcasts of Israel saith, Yet will I gather others to him, beside those that are gathered
unto him. Isaiah is pretty clear that God does NOT exclude
immigrants from fellowship - from the very fullest rights of citizenship - IN ANY
WAY! (So long as they meet the same criteria citizens meet.) Does anyone think God
discriminated in the least against foreigners? Such an impression could come from three sources:
(1) In Jesus' time the Temple had an "outer court for the Gentiles". But that was the Temple built
by Herod, a Gentile. There was no such court for the two previous temples or the tabernacle.
(2) The New Testament reacted strongly to the petty and profuse discrimination against
Gentiles by the Pharisees, and Romans 2, 3, and 14 make clear that God is so out of step with that
kind of discrimination that "God is no respecter of persons" even when it comes to comparing
Christians with those who have never heard the Gospel. But this is no new, different God. This
is not what makes the "New Testament" new. The discrimination of the Pharisees found no foundation in Moses' law.
(3) There are 11 verses in Moses' law describing what only priests may do. Some of the verses
specify not just priests in general, but certain famlies of priests. Terrible penalties are given
for the "stranger" that does them. The first thing to notice is that immigrants are not barred
from these activities any more than most citizens, not to mention most Israelite Priests and Israelite Kings! - even if "stranger" means "immigrants" in these
verses. But the second thing to notice is that the context uses the word "stranger" to mean not just an
immigrant, but anyone not in the designated family.
The Online Bible note on “strangers” shares this understanding of the word in this context, giving Numbers 3:10
as an example where the word has to mean “one who is not of the family of Aaron”.
For analysis of these and other verses about "strangers" see "Immigrant"
("Stranger") in the Bible. If you do not read that study, you may
miss God's eloquent passion for His beloved immigrant children.
Without reading enough of God's pleas for your mercy to impress you, your heart is in danger of remaining hard
towards immigrants, which
Jesus warns may cost you Eternal Life.
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LAW AND CRITERIA. You have already read that immigrants are held to the same
laws as citizens. Violating laws incurs criminal penalties.
There are also CRITERIA which citizens naturally meet, which immigrants must meet in order to qualify for the full rights of citizenship. God wanted full liberty for all immigrants who obeyed laws, but God offered special opportunities in addition, for those who met the criteria naturally met by citizens. For example, Ezekiel
says Temple admittance rests not on citizenship but on circumcision, both physically and of the heart. In fact, it defines a citizen who is "uncircumcised in heart" as a "stranger" to God. Eze 44:9 Thus saith the Lord GOD; No stranger, uncircumcised in heart, nor uncircumcised
in flesh, shall enter into my sanctuary, of any stranger that is among the children of Israel.
Exodus 12:43-49, below, applies the same "circumcision" criteria to participation of immigrants
side by side with Jews in Jewry’s most sacred worship, the Passover Meal. God emphatically said that as long as
foreigners meet the same criteria that citizens meet (circumcision), they should enjoy the same privileges (“one
law”) that citizens do. In fact, notice God says in verse 43 “there shall no stranger eat thereof”, and again in
verse 45 “A foreigner...shall not eat thereof”. Normally we would take these as unqualified statements. But God
says in verse 48 that if a “stranger” is circumcised he may partake! This implies that God means other passages
restricting foreigners from religious activities to be also qualified by “unless, of course, they are circumcised”.
Exodus 12:43 And the LORD said unto Moses and Aaron,
This is the ordinance of the passover: There shall no stranger eat thereof: 44 But every man's servant
that is bought for money, when thou hast circumcised him, then shall he eat thereof. 45 A foreigner and an
hired servant shall not eat thereof. 46 In one house shall it be eaten; thou shalt not carry forth ought
of the flesh abroad out of the house; neither shall ye break a bone thereof. 47 All the congregation of Israel
shall keep it. 48 And when a stranger shall sojourn with thee, and will keep the passover to the LORD, let all
his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it; and he shall be as one that is born in the land:
for no uncircumcised person shall eat thereof. 49 One law shall be to him that is homeborn, and unto the stranger
that sojourneth among you. Why was circumcision so important to God? God does not say, that I know of. Like
His immigration policy, He just says "do it". However, for the curious, God does provide common sense.
. 12 verses describe God's people as foreigners.
8 verses say immigrants must have the same spiritual access as citizens, when they meet God's reasonable,
attainable criteria: circumcision.
OK, I admit there is ONE exception to God's absolute equality of opportunity for citizens and immigrants: they can't be
king, De 17:15. Herod was an immigrant king, and we know how that turned out.
OK, one more, except I don't know whether to call it a protection denied immigrants which citizens enjoy, or a
special right given immigrants which citizens were denied. Today, lenders charge interest equally to everybody. But
Deuteronomy 23:20 doesn't permit interest charges to citizens. The economic equivalent today would be high interest
pawn shops. If our laws prohibited citizens from pawning possessions at those places, but only immigrants could go there,
should we call that denyint protection to immigrants, or denying rights to citizens?
See
"Immigrant" ("Stranger") in the Bible.
God is OK with defending borders against armed invading
armies coming for the purpose of violating every criminal law possible, so it is OK to have a fence
and border guards to keep out terrorists, drug runners, and criminals by citizen standards. But immigration quotas that deport peaceful laborers
just for trying to work - a restriction of liberty which no citizen would tolerate - is absolutely dangerous
to our Constitution and to our souls.
It may seem ironic to you that letting nonviolent immigrants come freely would
solve every border security problem almost instantly, and for far less money than we spend now. But Christians should not be
surprised by this irony. God is like that. To receive, we must give; to find ourselves, we must lose ourselves; to
be forgiven, we must forgive; to have friends, you must show yourself friendly; "unto you that hear shall more be given". God runs everything like that. Christians
live by such principles, and know they work. We should not raise our eyebrows at the news that the
way to solve our border security mess is to let every nonviolent worker come. Actually it is obvious if you think about it; but if you can use help visualizing how it will work, check out Border Security. All any Christian should require
is to be shown what God says to do, before he is ready to do it.
News flash: as it turns out, God is not stupid, after all, when He tells us to
be fruitful and multiply.
What is stupid is for people to express horror at what God calls a
blessing, while at the same time continually leaving rural areas for population centers as if no one actually
believes there is the slightest disadvantage to population density! It makes sense for murderers of
babies to say population growth is a great harm.
It makes sense that hearts cold enough to murder babies would hang under brains dense enough to resist all
evidence.
It makes no sense for
Christians to say it despite their own Scripture in which they profess to believe, and despite all evidence. See:
"Population: Why God is not Stupid when He offers populations the blessing of multiplying".
Scriptures considered: Psalm 127:4-5, 113:7-8, Proverbs 17:6,
Genesis 1:28, 8:17, 9:1, 9:7, 30:1, Deuteronomy 7:13-14, 28:4, 23:1
~~~ S1348, the Comprehensive Immigration bill, reminds me of the year I was reading every bill in the Iowa
legislature, and there was one that added “milk boxes” to
the list of containers that could not legally be stolen! I’m
not making it up! God said, simply, “thou shalt not steal”.
We fill a whole building with our laws, and change them every year.
We enact a comprehensive “Immigration Compromise” bill
that takes up 300 pages. God says, simply, and with a tear in His eye
for the squabbling between His precious children,
“De 10:19 Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of
Egypt.”
(also Exodus 12:49, Lev 24:22, Num 15:16, 29)
Other Fantastic Articles, Books, Movies, Music:
Will America fall apart if we obey God's Immigration Policy? Exactly what does God demand we do?
Just let everybody come without restraint? Without conditions?
As it turns out,
the world won't fall apart if we actually dare obey God. Quite the contrary. God's plan is a Simple,
$-Saving, Fast, Positive,
Surprising, Solid, Sweeping, Consummate Solution for every real problem, and almost every perceived
problem. See
Border Security. God's conditions are that everyone who comes must still
obey the laws that citizens obey. Although quotas are unbiblical (as well as unconstitutional),
criteria are both Biblical and Constitutional.
But what about out-of-control population growth? Do we have room for the whole world?
If I answer "Actually, yes" will you think I am stupid? If I then quote God saying the same thing, will
you call God stupid? As Ann Coulter summarized God's population growth agenda, it is for us to be fruitful and multiply and fill the
Earth, and then go populate Mars.
God's Comprehensive Immigration Reform Works!
