Recently a friend asked for my opinion on current events. It turns out that my answers serve as a follow up on my last post from this past fall (sorry, by the way for neglecting this blog so long…) on Civil Government (see this post to review).
My friend wrote:
“Curious about your thoughts on the whole illegal immigration and ICE aggressively returning criminal illegals to their home countries.”
The Augsburg Confession’s article XVI, on “Civil Government”, says:
Our churches teach that lawful civil regulations are good works of God. 2 They teach that it is right for Christians to hold political office, to serve as judges, to judge matters by imperial laws and other existing laws, to impose just punishments, to engage in just wars, to serve as soldiers, to make legal contracts, to hold property, to take oaths when required by the magistrates, for a man to marry a wife, or a woman to be given in marriage [Romans 13; 1 Corinthians 7:2].
As the editors of the edition of the Book of Concord which I quote from [Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions. 2005 (P. T. McCain, Ed., CPH)] put in the brackets there at the end of the paragraph, we should state that article XVI does not proffer a merely human opinion, but that this is what the Bible teaches. [1 Cor. 7.2 says that marriage is God’s preventative cure for sexual immorality.]
So to tackle the question from the Bible’s point of view on the government’s role in dealing with illegal immigrants, let’s delve first into Romans 13:
13 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. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3 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, 4 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. 5 Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. 6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. 7 Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Romans 13:1–7.
“For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.” That authority was designed from before the foundation of the world by God and imprinted into the creation. God created Adam first, than the woman, then gave them to each other in marriage. The man was to be God’s representative to his wife, and his wife was to submit to him as if submitting to God Himself. That order was called into question by the serpent at the fall into sin, and that order is all too often disordered by sinful humans in this fallen world, but that order still holds as God’s immutable Law, and is the iconic image of the reality of Christ and His bride, the Church. (Ephesians 5) Notice the order of creation expressed in the last line of the quotation from the Augsburg Confession: “…it is right for Christians… for a man to marry a wife, or a woman to be given in marriage.”
That order of family, from God, to husband, to wife, to children, means that the husband or head of the family is to act as God’s instrument to defend and protect the family. One man protects his one wife and children given - the family. A group of families living in near proximity - a community - is to be protected and defended by all the husbands/fathers acting together. Many communities come together for the common defense in larger and larger groupings of less and less proximity - counties, states, provinces, nations. In an ideal world free from the consequences of sin, all fathers and husbands who are able would join together for the common defense of family, community, nation.
The point is that the authority and power of the government of any nation to protect its citizens from evil, and to extol the good, and to do good for its citizens, derives from the authority God gives parents. All government is in loci parentis, in the place or stead of the parents, and in particular the father of the household as God-given head of the family.
“Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.” You rebel against your parents, you are rebelling against God. You are breaking not just the fourth commandment to honor father and mother, you break the first commandment by placing yourself out of order as if you know better then and have authority over God Himself. Which if one remains unrepentant of such sin, incurs judgment. And such sin will lead to temporal consequences - anywhere from hurt feelings which must be mended, to a broken and irreparable family relationship.
Now Paul assumes honor and respect for parents as a given. The apostle in Romans 13 is talking about honoring and respecting those in temporal authority who stand in place of parents, those who God gives “to judge matters by imperial laws and other existing laws, to impose just punishments, to engage in just wars.” They do not bear the sword in vain. They are God’s agent to mete out temporal justice. Remember that all laws a government makes and enforces must necessarily be aligned with natural law and will be legitimate in God’s eyes if they are whole cloth with and grow out of the holy Ten Commandments.
Now let’s touch upon a related passage, the Apostle Peter writes at 1 Peter 2.13-17:
13 Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, 14 or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. 15 For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. 16 Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. 17 Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), 1 Pe 2:13–17.
The apostle teaches that for the Lord’s sake, all of us should submit to the governing authorities. The government is to be obeyed as if one is obeying one’s own parents. God is acting behind the emperor - governor - magistrate - police officer - your own father or mother. We can only disobey them if they clearly ask us to do something which goes clearly against a clear Word of God in Holy Scriptures. We must obey God rather than man, said Peter to the High Priest when he tried to get the apostles to stop preaching the Gospel of Jesus, Acts 5.29.
So to get back to the original question about a person illegally entering the United States… to break the lawfully enacted laws of the United States (as extensions of the second table of the Ten Commandments that they are or ought to be), whether entering the US illegally without permission, or failing to pay one’s taxes, or murdering, stealing, etc., is to rebel against that lawfully ordered government which God has given. And so it is an act of rebellion against God Himself. It is to be repented of. And as Peter points out, emperors and governors and presidents and law enforcement are sent by God “to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good.” Fear God. Honor the emperor. Thus said Peter, who would be wrongfully executed for preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ by the same emperor he honored.
And yes, as part of punishing those who do evil - and protecting its own citizens as per its God-given duty and authority, the government is perfectly within its bounds to arrest and deport those who break our immigration laws.
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