© 2019 Don Pinson | [Download]
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Few things have caused as much controversy in American politics as the President’s effort to build a wall along our southwestern border. Some claim the idea is contrary to the message proclaimed by our Statue of Liberty: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” But are they right? How can America be a refuge for the hurting of the world if we do not maintain the liberty which makes this nation their hope? How can we help them if we let in people whose ideas are diametrically opposed to the Biblically-based ideas which made America the freest, most prosperous nation on earth?
Some would say, “Does that mean only Biblically thinking people can come here? How can they ever learn our ideas if they aren’t here, where they can learn them?” We’re not the first generation of Americans to face that issue. In the founding of America it was decided who could be a citizen here and who couldn’t be. The basic concept was: You didn’t have to be a Christian to come here. But what you did have to do was agree to live by our Constitution, which was based on Biblical concepts of nationhood. That meant you had to accept Christian-based civil law as the law you would obey. Among other things that meant you could not have dual citizenship. If you took citizenship here you had to renounce the citizenship of your previous homeland. It was a way of saying, “For the benefits of Christian liberty, I will accept the law based on Christian morals.”
Through the years, as the strength of Biblical principles has been rejected by American academia and media, we’ve become weaker and weaker concerning what it meant to be an American citizen. The lack of Pastors in the American church understanding the foundation of our citizenship has greatly aided this. The Communists and the Jihadists have loved this. They’ve seen a way to weaken the American political defense against them by using Central American countries as a gateway for their ideas. They have strongholds in Venezuela and Nicaragua and have made sizable gains in other countries in that region. Thus, it became easier to infiltrate our southwestern border with those ideas. So, when we finally have a President with the understanding and the guts to stop this infiltration, those left-wing people in our government are screaming, “Unfair!”
So what does the Bible say about citizenship? It’s based on the principle of covenant, which means the “meeting of minds”. Citizens’ minds must meet on the idea of Who God is and what His plan is for man. We must, at the very least, agree to live by Christian-based law. Otherwise there can be no basis for order in a nation, because there can be no enforcing of law; because there’s no agreement on what law is for. The ultimate (and fairly sudden) end of no agreement on the law in a nation is—chaos.
This is why God gives to nations borders. Acts 17:26 speaks of how God establishes nations. It states,
“And [God] hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined…the [boundaries] of their habitation…”
God wants nations to have boundaries!
Citizen, are you willing to live by Christian-based law? Are you willing to teach it to your children? Pastors, are you willing to learn the covenant principles of citizenship—and TEACH IT TO GOD’S PEOPLE!!?
Think about it; because if you don’t, someone else will do your thinking for you—and for your children! And you won’t like what that brings to you. I’m Don Pinson; this has been Think About It.