President Donald Trump claimed a victory today in the ongoing goal of a border wall to protect America’s security, tweeting that “Our country must have border security!” and “45-year low on illegal border crossings this year. ICE and Border Patrol Agents are doing a great job for our country.”
On Tuesday, a judge whom Trump had previously accused of bias ruled against an environmental challenge to the president’s central campaign promise, Fox News reported.
As the ongoing debate about immigration and border security continues, the American Pastors Network has addressed these topics from a biblical perspective through its daily, live radio ministry “Stand in the Gap Today.”
In a segment titled, “Immigration Revisited: What Does the Bible Say?” APN President Sam Rohrer, co-hosts and guests discussed topics such as “America the Melting Pot,” DACA and the response of church leaders, the increase of Christian refugees coming to America and the opportunity to reach souls from around the world in Christians’ own backyard.
“It’s no secret that President Trump feels strongly about putting America first and protecting her borders,” Rohrer said. “Many have reacted to that policy, including Christians who have criticized the president and claimed that his view is unloving or ungodly. But when we look at the Bible and at biblical history, it is absolutely acceptable to favor and support one’s own country. If we understand God’s view—a biblical worldview—we understand that God forms nations. The book of Acts talks about God laying out the nations with their geographical borders, from before time, so God established countries because He works through them. That’s also why He instituted civil government, which is explored in Romans 13.
“Nations have personalities,” Rohrer says. “Consider Israel, a very distinctive nation. God picked Israel and said, ‘I’m going to make of you, Abraham, a great nation and I am going to bless the nations of the world,’ so God clearly favors nations. With that comes the ability and the right to support nations and to pray for them. When we pray for those in authority, we don’t necessarily pray for everyone in positions of authority everywhere in the world. The idea is that we pray for those in authority over us and in our nation.”
The idea of “our nation first” is indeed biblical, Rohrer added. This concept fits the biblical precedent and the model of what God established with Israel.
“Our president is on solid ground when he says we should favor, protect and support our nation because this is where we are citizens,” Rohrer added. “We’re hopefully citizens of the kingdom of heaven first, but we are citizens of the United States; and therefore, we have a loyalty to this nation. Our country was founded on Christian principles, and despite the fact that those principles seem to be eroding, one of the things that makes our nation great is that we are founded upon freedom. The average Muslim-majority country is nowhere near as accepting of foreigners and those from other religions as we are in America. And even with the refugee crisis, we will not see Muslim countries stepping up to do more for Muslim refugees—and certainly not more than America and European countries are already doing.”
Rohrer also added that former President Barack Obama had some of the same ideas as President Trump when it comes to immigration. In fact, the “Stand in the Gap Today” hosts shared a clip of then-Sen. Obama promising comprehensive immigration reform and border security as a top priority in his first year as president. Listen to the program here.
“Barack Obama and Donald Trump both recognized a problem that faces all Americans,” Rohrer says, “and all citizens know it. But the goal was different. Obama’s goal was to fundamentally change America. He wanted to change the mix and the culture of America through immigration. But Obama’s idea of immigration reform was clearly something different from Donald Trump’s. One diminishes the role of America and our culture as we have known it, and the other controls immigration so that we don’t fundamentally forever change the culture of America so that it’s no longer what it used to be.” {eoa}
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