Wednesday, May 11, 2022

LOVE PROGRESSIVE CHRISTIAN STYLE

 


 

Christians are required to love all. However, “Progressive Christians” are now charging that Evangelicals are not loving as Jesus had required. This charge is often illustrated by our differing views regarding the treatment of illegal aliens.
 
Approximately three years ago, over 500 progressive Christian leaders signed a letter addressed to President Trump expressing concern about his policies to limit the refugees:
 
·       As Christian pastors and leaders, we are deeply concerned by the recently announced moratorium on refugee resettlement. Our care for the oppressed and suffering is rooted in the call of Jesus to “love our neighbor as we love ourselves.” In the story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37), Jesus makes it clear that our “neighbor” includes the stranger and anyone fleeing persecution and violence, regardless of their faith or country.
 
Of course, most of us want immigration reform in a way that will align with the Bible’s teachings. Truly, there are numerous admonitions to love the alien, stranger, or foreigner:
 
·       “When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God. (Leviticus 19:33-34; Deuteronomy 1:16-17; 10:18-19)
 
·       If a stranger shall sojourn with you and would keep the Passover to the LORD, let all his males be circumcised. Then he may come near and keep it; he shall be as a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person shall eat of it. There shall be one law for the native and for the stranger who sojourns among you.” (Exodus 12:48-49; Numbers 9:14)
 
What did it mean that “There shall be one law?” It didn’t simply mean that the sojourner would enjoy the same protections under the law. There was also the requirement that the sojourner would behave like the Israelite:
 
·       “If there is found among you, within any of your towns that the LORD your God is giving you, a man or woman who does what is evil in the sight of the LORD your God, in transgressing his covenant, and has gone and served other gods and worshiped them, or the sun or the moon or any of the host of heaven, which I have forbidden… then you shall bring out to your gates that man or woman who has done this evil thing, and you shall stone that man or woman to death with stones. (Deuteronomy 17:2-5)
 
Clearly, the Christian cannot appeal to the Mosaic Law to make a case for Islamic immigration. This law did not allow for the practice of a non-Israelite religion in Israel. If a case is to be made, it must be made from the NT. Romans 12 is therefore invoked:
 
·       Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight.  Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:14-21)
 
This requires me to love the Muslim even if I know that he might have ISIS sympathies. I therefore applaud churches that are reaching out to Muslims with Christian love and the Gospel. However, Romans 12 only pertains to individuals and our personal lives. We do not seek revenge, because God has entrusted vengeance to His ordained systems of justice. The government will exercise the “wrath of God,” (Romans 13:1-5) not us. They were instituted to protect the innocent so that we can live lives of love. They are to protect us against murderers, rapists, and those who want to dominate us through the imposition of sharia law – the very thing that Islam requires. The judge and the policeman are not to “turn the other cheek” and to forgive. They are not to empty the prisons of dangerous people. This is not their calling. Their calling is to protect and ensure the provision of justice. To do this, they must keep out of the country those who want to kill and rape. To not protect is to violate their calling – a calling we must uphold.
 
Instead, the Christian is to play the “Good Samaritan.” However, this isn’t the role of the government. Besides, the Good Samaritan didn’t attempt to unleash upon his neighbors people who wanted to kill them.
 
Ibn Khaldun, a 15th century Tunisian historian, has spoken for most of the Islamic world by writing:
 
·       “In the Muslim community, the holy war is a religious duty, because of the universalism of the Muslim mission and the obligation to convert everybody to Islam either by persuasion or by force... The other religious groups did not have a universal mission, and the holy war was not a religious duty for them, save only for purposes of defense... Islam is under obligation to gain power over other nations.”
 
This teaching is derived straight from the Holy Koran:
 
·       “Make war on them until idolatry is no more and Allah’s religion (Islam) reigns supreme, (Quran Surah 8:37)
 
·       “When the Sacred Months are over, kill those who ascribe partners [like Jesus] to God wheresoever ye find them; seize them, encompass them, and ambush them; then if they repent and observe prayer and pay the alms, let them go their way’.” (Quran 4:5)
 
·       “…kill the disbelievers wherever we find them” (Koran 2:191) and “murder them and treat them harshly” (Quran 9:123), and “Strike off the heads of the disbelievers” (Quran 8:12, cp. 8:60).
 
Do most Muslims believe this way? If they believe that the Quran comes from Allah, they must. “Allah is our objective; the Prophet is our leader; the Quran is our law; Jihad is our way; dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope." So goes the motto of the worldwide Muslim Brotherhood. https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704132204576136590964621006
 
In view of the threat of Islam, diseases carried by those who enter illegally, drug dealers, and sex traffickers, are Christians mandated to be concerned? God is concerned. He cares deeply about justice and the protection of the innocent, so much so that He instituted a criminal justice system in the hearts of humanity:
 
·       Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. (Romans 13:1-5)
 
What does it mean for us to “be in subjection?” For one thing, we must uphold justice and the protection of the innocent. For this reason, we do not empty the prisons because people argue that “God is love.” This would not be an act of love towards the innocent, but an act of hatred.
 
Because we “love our neighbor as ourself,” we are required to seek their protection and welfare. We, therefore, do not want to see released criminals hunting them down or turning them into sex-slaves. This would not serve their welfare.
 
A Christian must be concerned about all those in need, but there are ways to fulfill this concern without unleashing horrors upon non-Muslims. Even now, Jews in mass are fleeing Western Europe from Islamic violence. Can we remain unconcerned about them?

What does it mean to love our enemies? It means to love them where it is possible:
 
·       If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. (Romans 12:18)
 
Sometimes, it is not possible. If loving the illegal alien conflicts with loving our innocent neighbors, we ae forced to make a choice. If the alien is planning to harm the innocent, the Christian must intervene, if only to call the police. When we refuse to do so, we are guilty:

·       Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter. If you say, “Behold, we did not know this,” does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it, and will he not repay man according to his work? (Proverbs 24:11–12)
 
Love requires wisdom, a multifaceted Biblical wisdom, not a one-sided progressive “wisdom!”
 

 

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