Print 
PDF
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whom Time Magazine chose as their 2015 "Person of the Year" because she opened German borders to mass Syrian Muslim refugee migration, now says she is having second thoughts.
She said Sunday, "Multiculturalism is a grand delusion." With up to 1,000,000 Syrian refugees already in the country, Germany is experiencing chaos---culturally and politically---some fear the culture may collapse.
America is now facing the same narrative---Is it "Christian" to open our borders to masses of un-vetted Muslim refugees? Is it "un-Christian" to not do so?
Is there biblical teaching on the matter?
Merkel has discovered what every other country has found---Muslim refugees or immigrants do not generally assimilate into the culture. In fact they tend to create a parallel culture within the culture of the host country.
Merkel said Sunday, "Those who seek refuge with us also have to respect our laws and traditions, and learn to speak German."
She added, "Multiculturalism leads to parallel societies, and therefore multiculturalism remains a grand delusion."
Merkel was praised around the world when she announced her decision in September to basically open the German borders to Muslim refugees.
Time Magazine declared her their 2015 "Person of the Year."
Now, as many as 1 million, mostly Muslim refugees, have flooded the country and are refusing to assimilate. They are in fact demanding Sharia law be enacted to replace German law. They are exhausting the government's charity resources.
Merkel has changed her tone, telling her own political party, "We will live up to our humanitarian responsibility. The refugee crises is a historic test for Europe, which I'm convinced it will pass."
The "test" is based on some social measurement other than biblical teaching, although it is most often defined as "biblical."
She is also, for the first time, talking about limiting the flow of refugees.
Chancellor Merkel's father was a pastor. There is no question in my mind that she was trying to do the right thing, but sometimes the "right thing" is different than public opinion. And often times the biblical "right thing" is very different than public opinion.
She was likely also swept along with the clarion call of the European elite---the progressives, who generally do not accept the value of nationhood--- borders, culture and language---because they seek a global culture and a one world system---therefore any harm done to a nation is inconsequential in their minds.
This, however may conform to the world's notion of political correctness, but it does not conform to God's model for nations.
Paul warned the early Christians in Rome, and would warn us now..."Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind."
Are Open Borders God's Will?
The narrative of our day is one that equates Christian compassion and Christian charity to multiculturalism.
And diversity.
Achieving "diversity" in America has become synonymous with godliness. It isn't, except in the mind of the secular progressive globalist, and the religious Left.
Systematic biblical teaching on the matter of nations reveals a very different model.
A very brief review:
The Bible Teaches Respect For National Borders.
In Deuteronomy 32:8, Moses writes that God ordained independent existence of nations. "When the most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel."
God "set the bounds" legitimizing nationhood and national borders.
In Numbers 20 and 21, God further affirmed His approval of nationhood instructing His people to seek permission to cross the territory belonging to the Edomites and the Amorites in their journey to the Promised Land.
Moses even offered to pay for the water they would use and the food their animals would eat while in the host country. He also promised to recognize their culture and not "turn to the right nor to the left" while in transit.
Moses also used the term " your country" in Numbers as he assured the King of Edom good behavior until such time that God's people had "crossed his borders."
What About Immigration and Asylum Seeking?
Controlling a nation's borders and respecting the borders of other nations is consistent with biblical teaching.
Secular progressive political correctness has overwhelmed this Truth, and conformed the thinking of well meaning people---particularly Americans and Europeans in recent decades.
Illegal entry into a country is not found in biblical teaching. In fact, we are taught to adhere to the laws of countries in which we are guests or even strangers.
More on "strangers" in a moment.
Biblically, each country must decide how it will accept immigrants and refugees, how many and under what criteria.
Nations, Nationhood and Evangelization.
Christians are told to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every person. I often hear the religious Left use this "Great Commission" to legitimize open borders, explaining that God will bring the world to America so we need not go to their country to share the gospel.
Certainly we must share the gospel with all ethnic groups and immigrants in America. However, Jesus did not intend His Commission to be used to deconstruct a nation. His intention was clearly to share the gospel with the nations of the world.
In Isaiah chapters 13 through 23, there are prophetic announcements concerning 10 different nations: Babylon, Palestina, Moab, Syria, Ethiopia, Egypt, Edom, Arabia, Judah and Tyre. God judges nations as nations.
Therefore it is not sinful or "un-Christian" for those living in a certain nation to have a distinctly national distinctive.
A nation ceases to be a nation if its borders are not controlled.
Paul, preaching in Athens, confirmed this biblical model. He said (Acts 17: 26), "And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on the face of the earth, and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings. (27) "So that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us."
From one blood, God has ordained many nations. Nationhood and seeking God is linked in Paul's teaching.
Nationhood actually facilitates evangelism, yet some churches tend to teach that nationhood is a barrier to world evangelism and the advancement of God's Kingdom. This causes well meaning Christians to sometimes feel little to no responsibility here on earth.
Nationhood From The Beginning.
The divine institution of nationhood is first found in Genesis chapter 10. Those nations did not immediately come into existence as God had instructed, because in Genesis 11 we read that people were not living in distinct groups---or nation communities. It was in this setting that we find an organized rebellion against what God had declared.
Most Christians know the story of the Tower of Babel very well. Nimrod led the rebellion suggesting that the Tower would facilitate the people in becoming more authoritative than God Himself and enable them to build a one world society---one incidentally, without the burden of God.
God's solution to man's wayward behavior was nations, language and borders.
The "Stranger" Jesus Spoke Of.
There are a number of references in Scripture relating to Israel and "strangers." In all references it is taught that they must be treated well. The point is that strangers are seen to be vulnerable, often listed along with orphans and widows. Any nation in any age will always find a number of "strangers" in their country. These should be treated fairly and given equal treatment under the laws.
However, these mentions of "strangers" were never intended to be charters for mass immigration or mass uncontrolled migration of refugees.
It is not biblically correct to use the verse from Galatians 3:28 to justify the obliteration of national identity, which is what Jim Wallis, Tony Campollo, Al Sharpton and other leaders of the religious Left do in supporting "Sanctuary Cities," open borders, illegal immigration and now mass un-vetted Muslim migration, some of whom want to kill us and destroy this nation.
When Paul writes, "In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek," he is stating that men of every nation may be partakers of the covenant of grace, not that nationhood should be destroyed.
Paul writing in Romans refers to the fact that even after his conversion to Christ, he never lost his sense of identity with his own people.
Even a cursory look at what the Bible says about nationhood and clearly defined boundaries makes it abundantly clear that God authored nationhood, including language and borders for His special purposes.
To reject this divine model is to not only stand with the secular progressive ideology, but to give credence to the anti-God Tower of Babel movement and the current New Age world order of the "enlightened" progressive Left.
Today's New Age movement advocates a different kind of Tower, but the intent is the same.
John Wesley once wrote, "We feel in ourselves a strong...kind of natural affection for our country, which we apprehend Christianity was never designed either to root out or to impair."
Christianity was never designed to destroy national identity.
Patriotism toward our country and total commitment to the Kingdom of God is not mutually exclusive.
God intends we do both.
Be Informed. Be Vigilant. Be Discerning. Be Prayerful. Be Blessed.