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Few things bring to the surface the biblical illiteracy of Christians today like immigration. It is a priority issue for Americans right now. But because Christians have been inundated with post-war propaganda in seminaries and pulpits, they often find themselves stuck, sensing a deep conflict between what they've been taught regarding "loving your neighbor" and what is politically prudent given our national situation.
The issue of immigration is not confined to America alone. Europe, too, grapples with its own set of challenges in this regard. Indeed, the entire Western world has been swamped with mass immigration. However, there is a glimmer of hope as some European nations have begun to acknowledge the gravity of the situation and take action. American Christians, on the other hand, have been misled by organizations like the Evangelical Immigration Table and regime theologians, distorting the true meaning of 'loving our neighbor.'
It is not a particularly complicated issue. The church holds the keys to the kingdom; they baptize and administer the Lord’s Table. If anyone attempted to jump in the baptismal waters and baptize themselves, we would immediately recognize a problem. If someone who was not a Christian tried to take the Lord’s Supper, we would disciple them on this matter and ensure that proper fencing was practiced. Christian pastors must guard the flock, which means guarding who is a proper candidate for baptism and who takes communion (and when). Churches may vary in their administration of these two ordinances concerning timing, but there is no question that the pastors are responsible for guarding these ordinances.
Similarly, the civil magistrate must guard the nation. This includes having strict boundaries on who can benefit from the blessings of belonging to a nation. A policy of open borders, which the Biden administration practices by default, is a dereliction of duty by the civil magistrate. Just as pastors must mark out the boundaries for admission to the local body of Christ by guarding and defending the keys to the kingdom, the civil magistrate must guard and defend the border, which is the de facto entry point to the civil realm.
This historical approach to church and state is commonly referred to as two kingdoms theology (not to be confused with radical two kingdoms, which often suggests a more radical, almost anabaptist relationship between the church and state). This historic Protestant approach does not blend the church and state but honors them as unqiue entities that uphold justice for their particular purposes and honor God.
Christians are often confused on this matter because they have been taught wrongly about God’s law and the duties of the civil magistrate. While the Old Testament applied to God’s people in a particular time and place in God’s redemptive history, there are principles within the Old Testament that Christians should understand and apply today.
One of the great fallacies of our age in the church is that, because we live in the New Covenant, somehow God’s law no longer applies. This is the heresy of Marcionism, recently re-popularized by Andy Stanley, who suggests that we need to unhitch ourselves from the Old Testament. Instead, Christians can see from the Old Testament the importance of assimilation, boundaries, and maintaining a sense of national unity to thrive under God’s promises. While America is not Israel, nations today do have a duty to honor the Lord Jesus Christ, and Christ taught us that He did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it salvifically.
It is important to remember that it is not inconsistent with New Testament ethics for Christians to love their neighbors by deporting those who would claim to be their neighbors through globalist open borders policies. This reassurance can instill confidence in our beliefs and actions, knowing that our stance is rooted in biblical teachings.