The crisis of an open southern border with an estimated 6-10 million migrants flooding into the United States illegally over the last three years alone is top of mind to many Americans today. Recent polling has revealed that this issue is of greater concern than inflation as schools, airports, and many other facilities are being taken over to house so many people.
Now, the state of Texas is squaring off against the Biden administration in what may be shaping up to be a constitutional crisis on a scale not seen since the Civil War. Texas has always been willing to defend the southern border against all odds. Remember the Alamo?
While the issue of the southern border is certainly political, ideological, and even legal, it is more fundamentally spiritual. Christians should always remember that we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers and more.
Enter by the Gate
There are several biblical principles at play in the illegal immigration crisis, but chief among them is lawlessness. It has been argued that we live in the last days with maybe a handful of months or years until the tribulation starts. Whether that is true or not remains to be seen, but we know that the Apostle John made it clear that even in his day, the spirit of the Antichrist was already at work.
The spirit of Antichrist encourages lawlessness, and lawlessness is the defining quality of the people who rally around the man of lawlessness in the time of the tribulation.
This brings me to the principle of the gate: why it is morally wrong for people to cross the border illegally, and why President Biden and those who support lawless entry into the United States are also immoral when failing to enforce the laws they are sworn to uphold.
Jesus Himself established the correct and ethical way of entering a sovereign kingdom in John 10:1 when He stated: “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.”
The sheepfold is, of course, the kingdom of God. What is also remarkable is that Jesus also establishes motives for those who enter the kingdom by any other way than the gate when He states in verse 10: “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly.”
The Curse of a Nation When it Turns from God
There is another principle at work in this crisis that many have found to be a mystery, but to the observant bible believing Christian, it is not a mystery at all.
Why are the leaders of so many Western nations, including the United States, ignoring their core duty to secure the borders of their nations and even encouraging such massive migration?
While so many of the policies being put into place are setting the stage for the rise of the Antichrist, there is the principle of people being turned over to bad thinking or a debased mind as found in the curse of Romans 1, and there is the curse of Deuteronomy 28 placed upon nations that once followed the One true God of the Bible but have now turned away from Him.
There is so much there that it can be overwhelming, but we see much of it come to pass right before our eyes. One part of this curse includes the alien.
Looking closely, you will see many of the issues we are just starting to struggle with as a nation. Our resources are being consumed and national identity is fundamentally changing including the false gods we will be worshiping as a nation to drive us toward the religion of the Antichrist (a topic for another day).
We even see a fulfillment of verse 43: “The alien who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall come down lower and lower.” Just look at the priority given to aliens in housing, healthcare, and travel in recent months.
In recent weeks, it was reported that people who entered the country illegally were given priority at airports and even allowed to fly without a photo ID. When was the last time you or I flew without showing a photo ID?
As Christians, we should understand these things correctly. We should never be xenophobic or even anti-immigration, but we should always espouse lawful and orderly immigration.
Unless we recognize the biblical principles driving the problem, we can’t possibly arrive at reasonable solutions that are fair and ethical.
We should also realize that the election of a president or congress will not really correct our course either because our elected leaders in the US come from among us.
Our hope will not be found in Donald Trump or Joe Biden. If we ever believe that we have bigger problems, oh wait.
No, the solution to the southern border and so many other issues is found in the Lord. Our hope, as always, is in Jesus Christ.
