On Friday, December 1, 2017, Rev. Ryan Eller, Executive Director of Define America, appeared on the Tucker Carlson cable news program. Like so many other misguided religious Liberals, Mr. Eller made every effort to defend the indefensible, and that is the establishment of Sanctuary Cities to protect illegal aliens. It did not matter to him that Kate Steinle had been killed by an illegal alien, Garcia Zarate. It did not matter to him that there was a miscarriage of justice when the jury acquitted her murderer of every serious charge to the point he will soon walk the streets a freed man, unless the Department of Justice takes measures to arrest him on other crimes he has committed. All that mattered to Rev. Eller was that illegal aliens remain a protected group.
As a Conservative Christian, I find his position appalling, especially when Rev. Eller alludes to the Bible to justify the unthinkable, which is to treat illegal aliens as a honorable and special group of people even when so many within that group rape, rob, assault, and murder those into whose country they have invaded. It is outrageous. Neither the Book of Leviticus, to which Rev. Eller alluded, or any other book of the Bible protects anti-nominalism.
When the full counsel of God is appealed to, several facts emerge concerning strangers in the land and how they are to be treated.
Along with the Levite, the fatherless, and the widow, the stranger in the land was to be loved. Resources were to be shared on the basis of grace and mercy. “And the Levite, (because he hath no part nor inheritance with thee,) and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, which are within thy gates, shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied; that the LORD thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hand which thou doest.” (Deut. 14:29)
While the stranger was to be loved, the basis of that love was to be reciprocal. The stranger had to embrace the God of Israel and obey His Law. There was only one Law for Israel, and for the stranger. “One law shall be to him that is home-born, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among you.” (Exodus 12:49) There was no special provision made for the stranger, and another for the naturalized citizens of Israel.
The Law was equally applied to all. And the stranger in the land was subject to the Laws of Israel. For example, the stranger did not get to keep their own unique identity. Rather they were to be assimilated into the Hebrew culture. For example, the stranger was to keep the Sabbath. “But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:” (Ex. 20:10)
It is irresponsible for political pundits, and Liberal theologians, to allude to a Biblical passage without taking into consideration all of the Scriptural teaching on an issue. To protect illegal aliens without cause is immoral, and Biblically wrong, especially when those individuals do not honor the Lord, nor embrace the values and culture they are coming to.
The stranger in the land was not to commit any abomination, or suffer the penalty of the Law. “Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations; neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourneth among you.” (Lev. 18:2) The penalty a stranger was to suffer for violating the Law of God was death. “For whosoever shall commit any of these abominations, even the souls that commit them shall be cut off from among their people. 30 Therefore shall ye keep mine ordinance, that ye commit not any one of these abominable customs, which were committed before you, and that ye defile not yourselves therein: I am the LORD your God.” (Lev. 18:29-30)
As a stranger in the land who committed murder, which is an abomination in any civilized society, Garcia Zarate’s actions merit a severe penalty, not exoneration by a misguided jury bent on being political correct. And the Rev. Ryan Eller deserves sanction from the Church for twisting the Scriptures to suit his political agenda.
