Treatment of Aliens

                 A couple of weeks ago I did a post on illegal immigration. One reader asked me this:

“I've read about Christians who will help illegal immigrants because they believe they are

helping the disenfranchised. That doesn't seem right to me but how could I turn someone down

who needs food or shelter? What do you think”

                To answer this question, I have turned to the Bible. The Old Testament is often called the Book of Laws and the New Testament is referred to as the New Covenant. This has caused many people to abolish the laws of the Old Testament and only read the New Testament. However, the Old Testament is full of the testimonies of lives of godly people and laws that should still apply to our lives today because God is unchanging and unmoving. You may wonder why I am saying all of this. It’s because the books of Exodus and Deuteronomy have verses that refer to the treatment of aliens. I am not talking about extraterrestrials-those don’t exist. What I am talking about are residents born in or belonging to another country who have not acquired citizenship by naturalization.

“Do not oppress an alien; you yourselves know how it feels

to be aliens, being you were aliens in Egypt.”

-Exodus 23:9

“He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves

the alien, giving him food and clothing. And you are to

love those who are aliens, for you yourselves were aliens in Egypt.”

-Deuteronomy 10:18-19

                We all have ancestors, or even parents and grandparents, who came to America from another country. They were all immigrants at some point. Illegal immigrants are hurting our economy and breaking God’s law as well as our country’s law by residing here without documentation. However, we are not to degrade them or keep them from having food and a safe place to stay. I’ll admit, at one point I did feel that we should not even do that for these people because they are here illegally. I still do not support their way of living in America illegally but after reading the verses I am sharing with you, my mindset changed. They helped me realized that the aliens still share the same God as us and God wants us to help everyone as He does. America is God’s land! If we show them compassion then we are showing God’s grace. This does not mean to allow them to stay here illegally, but rather encourage them to go through the naturalization process as our families did. 

Illegal Immigration 

Understanding the Book of Revelation: The Son of Man

“Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it 

and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.”

-Revelation 1:3

                Many Christians have never read the book of Revelation or they’ve read it and don’t understand what it means.But we need to heed the warnings in Revelation. For the next week I will be breaking Revelation down into sections, explaining what is being told. Each day I will be doing multiple posts, each of just one or two chapters, so that you won't get overwhelmed by the amount of text in one post. Today, I’m going to start with the first 3 chapters: The Son of Man and Epistles to the 7 churches. I encourage you to open your bible to Revelation as you read this so you can read along and understand what I am talking about.

                I’ll be starting with Revelation 1:11. The seven churches that are mentioned are the local churches in the Province of Asia, which used to be under the control of Asia. They represent four different churches. Ephesus, Smyrna, and Pergamum, and Thyatira all represent the Roman Catholic Church. Now, let’s look at 1:12-16. These verses describe Jesus. First we see that seven golden lampstands are mentioned (v. 12). Gold represents divine nature and seven is God’s number of completion. Lampstands always relate to God’s building. The first time lampstands were mentioned was Exodus 25:31-40 when the tabernacle was built. Here it shows that the seven churches are constituted with divine power.

                In verse 13 is where the description of Christ starts. Saying someone “like a son of man” was amongst the lampstands lets us know that today Christ is in the midst of our churches as the High Priest to intercede and to care for them. The robe reaching down to his feet represents His status as High Priest. Priests in the Old Testament were girded at the loins with gold for work and ministry. In Daniel 10:5 Christ was also girded at the loins to show that He had to complete His ministry amongst men but now He’s completed His work so He’s girded at the chest, representing love and divine strength. His hair was white like wool and as white as snow. White hair represents His ancientness, as described in Daniel. Saying it’s white as snow means His divine nature is heavenly. In 2 Samuel however, his hair was black which represented his unending love. His eyes are like fire so he may search, observe, and judge by enlightening. We know this because fire is for divine judgment (1 Corinthians 3:13, Hebrews 6:8, Hebrews 12:29). Feet glowing like bronze in a furnace signify his walk is perfect and bright, allowing Him to judge (Exodus 27:1-6 shows bronze represents divine judgment). His feet will be pillars of fire, also for judgment. John 3:17 says, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” However, now we can see that his purpose has changed and he now helps judge the world. Also, to be fired in a furnace is to be tried. Christ was tried by suffering. His voice is described as being like the sound of rushing waters to signify the seriousness and solemnness of His speaking. The seven stars in his right hand represent the angels (messengers) of the churches and the double-edges sword is his words for judging. His shining face is for judgment. In Matthew 16:28-17:2 his face also shone when he entered the kingdom.