Walls

We enter into the Christian life by virtue of our acceptance of Christ as Savior, and we flourish in that life as we walk faithfully before our God.  If we want to experience God's best for us, we have to humble ourselves before Him.  Jeremiah 7 told the people that there were prerequisites to coming into the Lord's house:
5 For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor,
6 if you do not oppress the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, or walk after other gods to your hurt,
7 then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.

When we approach the issues of life, we have to do that with our hearts right before God.  We allow the Scriptures to guide our paths and determine our views.  There are prerequisites we must meet before coming into the Kingdom - all are not admitted; those are not based on our good works or how much we think we deserve to enter in.  No, we enter in based on our confession of the Lordship of Christ and belief that He is the risen Lord.  Our God is a God of abundance, not of limitations, but we must make sure that our hearts are right toward Him; if so, it will determine how we treat others.

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The book of Nehemiah has much to teach us: about following God's call on our lives, about persevering in the face of opposition, and the book contains references to a wall around Jerusalem.
We read in the 2nd chapter:
17 Then I said to them, "You see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lies waste, and its gates are burned with fire. Come and let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer be a reproach."
18 And I told them of the hand of my God which had been good upon me, and also of the king's words that he had spoken to me. So they said, "Let us rise up and build." Then they set their hands to this good work.

The effects of the government shutdown have been felt throughout out land, and it is time for lawmakers to come to the table and hammer out a solution.  The sticking point, of course, is over $5 billion for border security, including construction of a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico.  It was a centerpiece of President Trump's campaign, and has been supported by lawmakers of both parties throughout the years - until now.  Unfortunately, because it's Trump - and you can say that about so many areas these days, it seems - the opposite party does not want to concede.  We need to pray that something can occur to break the logjam.

According to a poll from PRRI, "58 percent oppose building a wall between the U.S. and Mexico, compared to 41 percent who favor the policy."  And, there is a partisan split:

Eight in ten (80 percent) Republicans favor building a wall along the border, including nearly half (45 percent) who strongly favor such a policy. By contrast, eight in ten (80 percent) Democrats oppose building a wall along the border, including more than six in ten (61 percent) who are strongly opposed.

For Christians, the issue of border security is certainly an important one.  And, according to the survey:

Two-thirds (67 percent) of white evangelical Protestants favor building the wall, up from 58 percent in 2016. A majority of white mainline Protestants (52 percent) also favor building the wall. Catholics are strongly divided by race and ethnicity, with 56 percent of white Catholics in favor of building the wall, while nearly three-quarters (73 percent) of Hispanic Catholics oppose it.

The survey indicates that 7-in-10 black Protestants and two-thirds of Hispanic Protestants oppose a border wall.

It's an issue where there is disagreement in the body of Christ; but it doesn't give Christians a license to denigrate one another.  For instance, after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called building a wall "immoral," a well-known evangelical pastor responded.  Newsweek reported on Pastor Robert Jeffress' response on Fox and Friends.

Jeffress said that according to the Bible, God instructed the Jewish leader Nehemiah to build a wall around Jerusalem to keep people safe.

“It’s absolutely absurd...the Bible teaches that the primary responsibility to government is to maintain order and keep its citizens safe," he said.

In an apparent reference to the Book of Revelation, he said: “The Bible says even Heaven itself is going to have a wall around it. Not everybody is going to be allowed in."

“So if walls are immoral, then God is immoral,” he concluded.

This caused an absolute eruption on social media.  There were comments about walls and gates, with some responders saying that heaven's gates are open - that is true, but not everyone is admitted.  Some of the comments bordered (no pun intended) on universalism.  And, to read some comments, you would think that the approved, Christian position is that everyone who wants to come into our country should be allowed to do so.

Jeffress may or may not have been going so far as to make a Biblical case for a border wall; I certainly you can't say "thus saith the Lord: build this border wall." And, I certainly don't think you can necessarily use the gates of Heaven as justification for a border wall; there is no comparison or parallel. He was merely restating the concept of walls as repeated throughout the Bible.  I think that the Bible teaches the concept of borders and it certainly gives examples of keeping countries safe.  But, for people to rail against a man of God in the way that it was done was unsettling. For instance, one pastor, who has been allowed to speak at evangelical meetings and criticize the Church for being tied to white supremacy believed that Jeffress is an example of why the Church did not oppose slavery as fervently as it should have - give me a break!   But, the same old battle lines were drawn, and disagreement became a wedge.  Another accused his fellow pastor of an "invalid" use of the Bible, "absolutizing a debatable human argument," saying his fellow pastor, "pressures other believers to agree."  Actually, Jeffress expressed an opinion, this pastor "absolutized" by saying that he was wrong - no pressure from Jeffress, he just answered a question!

We can disagree, but the debate has become so vociferous that to some, if a person expresses an opinion related to the chosen view of immigration, that person is automatically vilified.  Some believers speak out against illegal immigration and are instantly criticized - so does that mean the critics are OK with people breaking the law to get into America?   Christians who were suspicious of the migrant caravan that supposedly organically rose up from Central America were accused of buying into a culture of fear and called, "unchristian" by one writer.

There is no doubt a move, that I have documented before, to inject an "open borders" philosophy into the Church.  And, we have to recognize that a Biblical worldview perspective balances the concept of walls, or borders, with welcome.

Jeffress signed on to an open letter to the President and Vice-President, released by the American Pastors Network and submitted by Faith Leaders for America in 2017, in which it attempted to present a Scriptural view of the issue of immigration.  The letter was signed by Jim Garlow, James Dobson, Harry Jackson, Jerry Boykin of Family Research Council, Jerry Johnson of National Religious Broadcasters, and Sam Rohrer, who leads the Network.

The letter read, in part:

In particular, as faith leaders, we want to thank you for: following a discerning and Biblical approach to the “wise welcome” of foreigners, including refugees; your commitment to border security; and your determination to end the magnet for illegal immigration represented by so-called “sanctuary” cities. All of these initiatives have firm foundations in Biblical instruction.

Unfortunately, there are some who cite the Bible selectively to suggest that such policies are contrary to America’s faith traditions. (Among those, it must be noted, are groups that receive very sizeable federal funding to relocate refugees into this country.) We believe that a more accurate understanding requires the “whole counsel of Scripture” approach.

The letter went on to say: "That approach reveals a divine call not to open borders, but to the sensible differentiation between strangers who seek to assimilate – that is, who want to adopt the faith and values of the land to which they are coming – and those who come to do harm and subvert."

The Bible underscores the concept of walls generally; specifically, this border wall and whether it should be concrete, steel, or electronic is an discretionary element, but the concept is consistent with Scripture.  But, it also talks about welcoming the stranger.  Those who are in our midst who have different backgrounds than we are to be treated with compassion.  But, there is not a Biblical prohibition on limitations on who can be admitted to a country; and there is a challenge to identifying and excluding those who would do harm.

It is an issue that is simultaneously simple and complex: we can see that a balance of the rule of law and common-sense admission to the U.S. is an answer; how that is done will require wisdom and consideration - pray for leaders to put politics aside and work to fix a system that most agree is broken.