Wrongly dividing the Word of Truth

From The New York Times:

WASHINGTON, May 7 — A new coalition of more than 100 largely evangelical Christian leaders and organizations asked Congress on Monday to pass bills to strengthen border controls but also give illegal immigrants ways to gain legal residency.

The announcement spotlights evangelical leaders’ increasingly visible efforts to push for what they say is a more humane policy in keeping with biblical injunctions to show compassion for their neighbors, the weak and the alien.

The new group, Christians for Comprehensive Immigration Reform, includes members like the Mennonite Church U.S.A. and the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, which represents Latino evangelicals.

It includes individuals like Dr. Joel C. Hunter, pastor of Northland, a megachurch in Longwood, Fla., and Sammy Mah, president of World Relief, an aid group affiliated with the National Association of Evangelicals.

The concerns of the coalition mirror those of many evangelical leaders who have often staked out conservative positions on other social issues or who have avoided politics entirely.

In late March, Dr. Richard Land, the conservative president of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, stood with Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, in supporting routes to legalization for illegal immigrants.

The Rev. Joel Osteen, whose television ministry reaches millions but who steers clear of politics, has also spoken out for compassionate changes.

Immigration “for us is a religious issue, a biblical issue,” said the Rev. Jim Wallis, president of a liberal evangelical group, Call to Renewal, and a member of the coalition. “We call it welcoming the stranger.”

In 2 Timothy 2:15 The apostle Paul tells Timothy "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." The words translated "rightly dividing" are Greek for "cutting straight". Paul's trade was making tents out of leather. In order for the finished product to fit together properly the cuts had to be straight and according to the overall pattern.

The Bible is the same. Each part must be interpreted correctly and in context in order for the whole to fit together and present a single unified theology. Many people in the Church today fail to rightly divide the word by applying the commandments which God gave to His covenant nation Israel to nations in general and the United States in particular.

The United States is not God's new covenant nation. It may be a "shining city on a hill" metaphorically in that it is a beacon of political freedom, however it is not the New Jerusalem - the Kingdom of God on Earth. The Evangelical leaders know this. Notice that none of them are calling for the US to observe jubilee years or adopt the system of indentured servitude which God established for Israel. I also don't see any of them denouncing the practice of lending at interest which is one of the cornerstones of our prosperity just because Jews were forbidden to practice usury.

The fact is that the Old Testament commandments which God gave to national Israel apply only to national Israel and there are no New Testament instructions to governments. Let me repeat for those from Rio Linda THE NEW TESTAMENT DOES NOT SAY ONE WORD TO GOVERNMENTS IT ONLY SPEAKS TO INDIVIDUALS.

Any attempt to take the Bible's instructions to individual Christians or church congregations to practice charity with their own money and make them apply to national governments, who can only simulate charity by using force to take money from those who earn it and then give it to those who have not earned it, is a perversion of biblical Christianity.

Likewise any attempt to make God's instructions to national Israel on how to deal with "the alien" apply to other nations is a misuse of Scripture. Christians are instructed to be kind to those in need as individuals and as congregations, but we are also instructed, in the thirteenth chapter of Romans, to strictly obey the secular laws. This means that if a Christian runs across an illegal alien who is hungry or thirsty we should give him food and drink and let him enjoy them while we call the authorities to come and pick him up to take him back to Mexico (or wherever he came from).