Many of the differences we see today between the radical Progressive-left mentality and the Christian conservative mentality come down to common (maybe we should call it rare) sense born of irrational vs rational thought.
The immigration debate is one such instance.
Every democrat/progressive I attempt to have a conversation with regarding this issue seems to be getting their talking points directly from MSM (aka as the Democratic propaganda networks)
“ger” vs “nokiry”
An immigrant in the Bible is a person who moves to another country with the intent of living there indefinitely.
Most Bible translations do not use the word “immigrant” but typically use “stranger”, “foreigner”, “alien”, or “sojourner”.
The Bible was originally written using 11,280 Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek words, but the typical English translations use only about 6,000 words. Obviously, nuances and shades of meaning can be missed. That is why it is important to not only read different translations & interpretations but also go back to the original language.
There were two different Hebrew words used for immigrant. “Ger” was used in Leviticus 24:22 (NIV) for ”alien” while “nokiry” is used in Deuteronomy 15:3 for “foreigner”.
When you read all the Biblical passages you will see that the “ger” was held to different standards than the “nokiry”. It appears very apparent that God’s laws did not mandate a “citizen-of-the-world” philosophy that treated citizens (legal) and non-citizens (illegal) with equal status.
“Ger” is like an invited guest; like someone who comes to contribute.
Analogy: A stranger comes knocking on my door asking for help so I invite him into my home.
VS
I come home and find my front door kicked in and a stranger (“nokiry”) standing in my kitchen demanding my help.
“ger” contributes, asks humbly and is thankful.
“nokiry” takes and is demanding and ungrateful.
Humanity is seen by three different worldviews:
- Some see man as inherently good and any problems are simply caused by lack of man-made solutions – Lack of money or lack of education. This is the doctrine of liberalism and the Democratic Party. “The modern liberal believes man is born morally good and only turns evil because of their environment and/or circumstances.”
- Some see man as inherently evil and of little intrinsic value, thus they need to be controlled by any means possible. Need to be controlled by dictators or tyrants. [ironically, the controllers are equally evil]. This is the doctrine of countries like China, Russia, N Korea, Venezuela – communist, socialist, marxist countries.
- Then there is the Christian [Biblical] Conservative worldview; man was originally created good, in the image of God, but then sin infected the human race. Thus humans have great capability for evil, but Jesus entered the world to take sin upon himself for His chosen ones; those who repent and the Holy Spirit empowers to live in righteousness. In other words, man is born morally corrupt and only by seeking God can we have any hope of achieving moral goodness.
“No issue has a greater influence on determining your social or political views than whether you view human nature as basically good or not. If you believe people are born good, you will attribute evil to forces outside the individual.” – Dennis Prager
This is why liberal politicians and their adherents believe in gun control, welfare, free housing and that Islamists destroy themselves and others because of external issues such as poverty or more ludicrously, lack of kindness shown them.
This is why having a Biblical Worldview is so critical.
If you do not recognize evil, judge it or confront it, you will be incapable of fighting it.
