Legal Immigration Only! – Lessons from the Old Testament

 What is God Like? – How Can We Know for Sure? – Part 8

 By Richard Allen – August 11, 2025

One of the great songs from the 1970’s was Paul Simon’s: “Kodachrome.” I’m sure it was meant to be a fun and lighthearted song about a young man who loved his Kodak camera and the wonderful pictures he was able to take with Kodachrome Film. In the chorus, Paul Simon  woefully sings: “Oh Mama Don’t Take, My Kodachrome Away!”  For this Blog, I’d like to change the lyrics to reflect what the Democrat-One-World-Government crowd is actually trying to accomplish with their “mostly peaceful riots” and “Resistance” to ICE raids across the country. ICE is trying to reverse the Democrats’ move to “Replace” indigenous “Christian” Americans by removing Illegal Alien Criminals who broke into the United States. But these Democrats are singing: “Oh Donald Don’t Take, My Voting Block Away!”  So, the next time you hear some Democrat or “paid ICE-Protester” scream at Christians in the middle of Church Worship that they are “not Christians,” or are living their “White Privileged Life” while their poor Latino or Somali brothers and sisters are being rounded up by the ICE-Gestapo and taken to “Concentration Camps,” just know – those are just words for the Media. What they really mean is, PRESIDENT TRUMP, PLEASE DON’T TAKE OUR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT VOTERS AWAY, if you do – the Democrat Party will collapse!

I hope by now, that most thinking Americans would realize that the reason the Democrat Party opposes any “Voter I.D. Check” or “One Day Of Voting,” or for that matter “Deporting Illegal Aliens who unlawfully broke into this country” –  they need every “illegal vote” they can get to win!  Except for a handful of Blue States where a majority of citizens are mentally challenged, or more appropriately – “brain washed,” it’s hard to imagine Democrat candidates winning any election – especially when they are on the 20% side of many “80%-20%” issues.  Their policies are just that unpopular!  And instead of moderating their policies, they have “doubled down” – becoming even more radical than they were just a few years ago. We should be aware that the Democrat Party has lost the “middle-class” vote, so for them, Voting Illegals is their only hope of broad-based electoral success!  It’s easy to understand their motives in resisting any attempt to curb ‘illegal voting anywhere!’  What’s of real interest is the “naivete” of many in the Christian community. They constantly point to passages in the Old Testament that appear to approve unlimited care for foreigners – which to them means: Millions of “Illegal Immigrants” regardless of who, when, where or how they entered America!  Let me freely admit that there are multiple passages in the Old Testament they use to endorse “unfettered immigration,” regardless of the circumstances or context.  Here’s a representative selection of Old Testament passages to consider:

“Treat them as if they were one of your own people. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.” – Leviticus 19:34

“And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt. I am the LORD your God.” – Deuteronomy 10:19

“Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the LORD your God.” – Exodus 22:21

“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you took me in.” – Matthew 25:35

Many think that these verses and others settle the argument.  God loves “Illegal Immigration,” and considers it evil if any country defends its borders, language, religion and culture!  Truthfully, nothing could be further from the intent of any of these passages. While Scripture makes it clear that God calls upon His children – in any age – to show compassion to those who are foreigners sojourning in the land, this doesn’t mean that each country had its own particular way of defending borders, language and culture – including its religion!  Romans 13:1-7 makes it clear that each nation “bears the sword” to defend its laws.  Old Testament Israel should be at the top of this list! In fact, you see many, many more verses in the Old Testament commanding Israel to defend its borders, “not to intermarry” with the Gentiles around them, and above all, “not to adopt the gods or the worship” of the Gentiles around them.  So, what possibly could these verses mean? To understand this, we really need to understand what immigration looked like during Antiquity in general, and under the Old Covenant in particular!  Here is a quote from Justin Taylor (The Gospel Coalition) as he interviewed Dr. James K. Hoffmeier regarding his book: “The Immigration Crisis:”

“What I learned in my study is that there are three relevant terms used in Hebrew (ger, zar, nekhar). Different English translations render the words differently. The TNIV and NLT render them all as “foreigner.” That is misleading and incorrect.  Zar and nekhar indeed refer to foreigners or visitors, people passing through a foreign land.  Ger or the verb gwr, which together occur more than 160 times in the OT, refer to foreign residents who live in another land with the permission of a host. A good example of this is found in Genesis when Joseph asks permission of pharaoh for his family to move to Egypt (Gen. 45:16-18). When they arrived, the brothers asked pharaoh if they could sojourn in the land (Gen. 47:1-4), and Pharaoh allotted them a section of the land of Goshen or Rameses (Gen. 47:5-7). The law is clear that “ger“ was not to be oppressed, but to receive equal justice, and have access to the social support system of ancient Israel. And there was a provision for religious inclusion, but they were also obligated to live in accordance with the laws just like the Israelites.  The Law does not, however, extend to the zar and nekhar such benefits and services. From this I conclude that ger was viewed as a legal alien. The mistake of some well-meaning Christians is to apply the biblical laws for the ger to illegal aliens in America even though they do not fit the biblical legal and social definition.” [ https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justin-taylor/what-does-bible-teach-on-immigration/]

This explanation fits the whole tenor of Old Testament Scripture. Israel was to remain separate in its devotion to Jehovah God, and “Not to go after the gods of the Canaanites around them!”  If these illegal aliens were to pass through Israel, then kindness was to be expected. This was not true when a whole army of foreigners invaded. Just like today, each country had a right – even nations who worship other gods – to defend their borders and territory. There were multiple instances where the Ger, that is, those foreign residents who were living with permission within Israel’s borders. They were expected to adopt the laws and faith of the resident country in which they lived. Just stop and think of the character and behavior of the 50 Million Illegal Immigrants, who have poured into our land since the 1965 Immigration Act! They did “not receive permission,” neither have they adopted our laws, customs or language because: They Don’t Want To!

I know that this issue gets more confusing as we look at the New Testament, where the People of God are no longer a “sovereign nation” with defined borders, language, religion and culture.  The Church is a people “taken out from among the Gentiles as a people for His own name” (Acts 15:14). This is really the crux of the problem. Those Liberal leading denominations – who have bought into the: “We are a nation of immigrants mantra,” from the Progressive-Democrats – do not require Legal or Illegal Immigrants to “ask to enter or be required to adopt our laws, language and customs.” They just want to import these Illegal Invaders so they can “Change our borders, language, religion and culture to something other than our “Constitutional Republic!” For any Christians who are naive enough to think that these Millions of Illegal Immigrants we’ve watched pour over our borders during the past 30+ years – is organic, they are completely deceived. We already allow 2 Million Legal Immigrants into the United States each year. But allowing another 10 – 20 Million who have been coached to say “that they are fleeing oppression or persecution,” that is not the intent of the law. As I have mentioned before, there is a vast network of NGO’s (Non-Government Organizations), like Lutheran Social Services or Catholic Charities – who are receiving Millions of Taxpayer Dollars to “recruit, coach and transport” these Illegals into our country. No surprise, 75%-85% of them go immediately on Welfare, and immediately register to vote Democrat!

For my Liberal Christian friends, my first example is a fictitious Old Testament-style story. Just suppose there was a very bad King in the Northern Kingdom of Israel, who was fearful that because his citizens hated him, they were ready to depose him. Not wanting to leave the throne – or see his son prevented from reigning after him, he starts sending ambassadors to several neighboring countries. Using gold and silver, he asks foreign kings to empty their prisons and workhouses of the lowest people in that country, promising them that “they can come to Israel and live for free – without working – as long as they support him as their king.” Imagine too, that he does this active recruiting over a period of 20 years, providing these Illegal Immigrants transportation, food and lodging.  He continues this “open borders” policy, pointing to the passages above from Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy.  After 20 years, he was so successful that he had drastically changed the character and makeup of the population of Israel – so as a nation, there were very few who still worshiped Jehovah God or obeyed Levitical Law. And when the native population complains, he calls them all “racists,” telling them they are not real Jews, and the Jehovah God is ashamed at their hatred toward these “undocumented foreigners!” This is exactly what has happened here in the United States of America.

My second example is what actually did happen. When the Assyrians captured the Northern Kingdom, they brought in foreigners from all their Gentile lands and settled them in the land of Samaria. At one point, Samaria had a rival temple and a completely different religion than Judaism. This was the way the Assyrians prevented the Jews in the Northern Kingdom from rebelling against their Assyrian captors.  I hope all of us get the point.  We’re not talking about a few foreigners passing through the United States – neither are we talking about bringing in Ger (Legal Immigrants) who got in line and asked permission to enter lawfully, wanting to share in the American dream and obey our laws. Let me close by appealing to my sentimental brethren who long to show kindness and mercy.  Those are wonderful Christian virtues, but America is “Not” the New Israel, nor are we a Christian nation. We are a secular nation with borders, our own language and an American culture of Freedom.  Without those things, we are not a nation at all.

Since most believers are well aware of future prophecies that talk of a “One-World-Government,” be aware that the whole purpose in “cross-breeding” the American populace with anti-American criminals from Third World lands, is to “change the laws and customs” – especially our Constitution with its guarantees of Freedom. The vast majority of our Illegal Immigrants come from nations where they “know their place” as serfs and peons. And they will vote for “handouts” from the Democrat Welfare State – right up to the point where our economy collapses from debt. Then, “in order to save us from starvation,” they’ll impose their “One-World-Government” on us all.  My prayer is that we’ll all value our Freedom – especially our Religious Freedom – and allow Trump to bring back a sane immigration policy. The only ones who will be hurt are the Democrat Elites. It will be good to hear them cry: “Oh Donald You Took My Voting Block Away!”

Soli Deo Gloria