We have now entered the Christmas season, a time in which it has become trendy and fashionable among the religious left to say that Jesus was a refugee, and that we need to open our borders in the United States to all Syrian refugees, just as if Jesus was right there among them.
This is an utterly false narrative.
Matthew Soerens of Church Mobilization for World Relief stated, “Jesus himself was a refugee. He fled as a small child to Egypt when there was a tyrannical government threatening his life. So as Christians we don’t really have a choice but to welcome refugees.”
There are multiple problems with this statement, including the fact that Jesus clearly was not a refugee.
8 USC Sec. 1101 (42) defines a refugee as “any person who is outside any country of such person’s nationality … and who is unable or unwilling to return to … that country because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion ….”
The key words in this USC definition are “ … and who is unable or unwilling to return to … that country ….”
Jesus returned to Israel, along with Joseph and Mary, the country of his nationality. He was able and willing to return. Matthew 2:19-23 tells us in specific detail how an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph, and that immediately thereafter Joseph, Mary, and Jesus all returned to Israel, and specifically to the city of Nazareth. Luke 2:39 reiterates this as well.
Jesus was able and willing to return to Israel, the country of his nationality. The Bible tells us this in very clear detail. This means that Jesus did not meet the definition of a refugee. Jesus was not a refugee. Nor was Joseph or Mary. Any statement suggesting otherwise is a false narrative.
Another problem with the statement that Jesus was a refugee, when he clearly was not, is how it further adds that we as Christians really don’t have a choice but to welcome refugees.
Yes, we do have a choice.
The religious left does not understand the biblical differentiation between individual acts of Christian charity and governmental rule. We know that a year ago at least one of the Paris suicide bombers had a Syrian passport on him and had entered Europe, through Greece, in October 2015 as part of a larger group of Syrian refugees. The suicide bomber then moved freely to Paris where he blew up himself and many others. We also know that Syrians have been captured at the U.S.-Mexico border when they tried to enter this country illegally.
We must ask ourselves how many Muslim terrorists will try to enter the U.S. illegally in the coming days, weeks, and months, by hiding among other Syrian refugees, and pleading for a little compassion, before they descend upon American stadiums, restaurants, malls, clubs, and concert halls to stage terrorist attacks on our soil, just as they did in Paris and elsewhere. How many terrorists are out there, hidden among the refugees?
Rep. Brian Babin (R-TX) echoed this sentiment when he observed, “Mary and Jesus didn’t have suicide bomb vests strapped on them, and these folks do. You [saw] it in Technicolor in Paris.”
In Romans 13:4, Paul writes about civil government and states, “For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.”
A God-honoring civil government defends against and punishes evil. A God-honoring civil government protects the life and property of its citizens. A God-honoring civil government bears the sword and executes wrath. Such protection of its citizenry includes the protection of the nation’s borders and the refusal to allow any situation or policy, even one based on a false sense of compassion, which threatens the lives of its citizens.
One of the myriad of lessons learned from recent Islamic terrorist attacks is that compassion kills. European compassion for Syrian refugees led to the slaughter of 129 people a year ago. The U.S. must not make the same deadly mistake.
It’s easy to fall for the emotionally gripping but altogether false narrative that Jesus was a refugee. He clearly was not, and the U.S. government’s legal definition of “refugee” confirms this.
In Matthew 10:16, the very same Jesus, who was not a refugee, tells the 12 apostles, “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.”
Wolves are at our nation’s borders, ready to slaughter the sheep. Thus, during this Christmas season, and as a new Trump presidential administration is about to begin in Washington, it is high time that we as a nation became as wise as serpents when it comes to our life-threatening immigration and refugee policies.
Source: Legal Immigrants For America (golifa.com)
