The news of today brings word that American politicians are using dangerous language, similar to the rhetoric used by Hitler and others. There are many excellent reasons to oppose illegal immigration, but “poisoning the blood of the country” is not one of them. This is inflammatory, ethnic language that will only obscure the real issues in the minds of many. From a biblical standpoint, it raises the question about how and why nations exist in the first place. When the apostle Paul addressed this, he also gave us the right viewpoint on the races, the ethnic varieties of humanity.
“Why do nations exist? Why did God bring them into existence? The apostle Paul answered this question when he addressed the philosophers at Athens. Speaking of ‘God, who made the world and everything in it,” who ‘gives to all life, breath, and all things,’[i] the apostle said,
‘He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, 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.’[ii]
In a few words, the apostle set aside racism (because all men are of one blood), and he explained why nations exist. With all their ethnic varieties, the nations were predetermined by God, along with their geographical boundaries.”
From 12 Ways You Can Make a Difference in This Crazy, Mixed-up World
There are good reasons to oppose illegal immigration. Our country needs to process immigrants in a law-abiding manner to insure that our guests will abide by the laws that constitute our constitutional republic. We need to pray that our authorities function in such a way that “we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.”[iii] But some idealistic pursuit of racial or national purity is misguided and dangerous.
© Gordon A. Dickson
Author of “12 Ways You Can Make a Difference in This Crazy, Mixed-up World”
[i] Acts 17:24–25.
[ii] Acts 17:26–27.
[iii] 1 Timothy 2:1-2.