Candidate Donald Trump ran for president on a promise to build a big, beautiful wall (a hyuuuuge wall, to be precise) on America’s southern border. This prompted endless criticism from not only his political opponents, but from the Pope and many mainline denominations. The question every American Christian should be asking instead is, “Is it biblical to build a wall on our border with Mexico?”
The American people have been asking Congress for a wall on the southern border for at least 100 years now, since World War I. Illegal aliens from China were crossing the border and Congress formed the US Border Patrol in 1924 over concerns that the illegals were taking jobs meant for Americans. Portions of fencing have sprung up from time to time, but the current sparse system of barriers was not constructed until 1994. There is still no contiguous wall on the southern border, despite a century of the people asking for it.
To insist that walls for the protection of nations and people is unbiblical, as the Pope and others have asserted, is to ignore the whole of Scripture. The Pope stated that we should be building bridges instead of walls, and we should not be meeting evil with evil. The only biblically truthful part of that statement was his inadvertent admission that illegal immigration is evil. The word “bridge” never appears in the Bible, but a term that we do see there frequently is “wall.”
People who claim that it is unjust, unfair, too expensive or otherwise not expedient to build a wall are denying the sanctity of borders. They wish that borders did not exist at all — at least, not for America. The American people could remain a distinct people in a distinct country if we start admitting that borders actually exist.
When the Israelites journeyed out of Egypt, they wanted to pass through the kingdom of Edom. Moses negotiates with king, offering to remain on the highway to pass through the country until they reached and crossed the border on the other side (Num. 20:17). Moses even offered to pay for any water that the Israelites and their cattle might drink while passing through Edom. This is an unimaginable courtesy when compared to the illegal immigrants of our day, who arrive with their hands out, demanding the wealth of Americans to care for them because they had a rough trip across the desert.
The king of Edom refused and raised up his army as a threat to Israelites. Crossing a national border in large numbers without permission is, and always has been, an act of war. The Israelites turned away and did not pass through Edom. To deny the existence of Edom’s border would have been a violation of the biblical concept of private property, embodied in “Thou shall not steal.” Acts 17:26 reminds us that God Himself has set the borders of the nations of the world; we are told that the purpose of the borders is so that people will seek the Lord (verse 27).
The Bible is filled with examples of walls that are presented as a positive symbol of law and order. Our word for “city,” from the Latin cititas means a walled, protected space. The Hebrew qiryah, used to denote the cities in the Bible, has the exact same meaning. The people inside the walls were protected and allowed to prosper in peace. Cities where the walls have been torn down or reduced to rubble were unprotected and the result was chaos, lawlessness and misery. The victims of crime at the hand of illegal immigrants in so-called “sanctuary cities” can attest to this chaos, but still our Congress does not listen.
Nehemiah’s great task in the Bible was to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem. It was the Make Israel Great Again project, to borrow a phrase. Israel could not be restored as a nation without first building a wall to protect its citizens from its eager enemies, which were many. The entire community of the Israelite people was called upon to do its part in rebuilding the wall. They knew that their future peace and prosperity depended on a big, beautiful wall to protect the people within from the barbarians without.
The American people have not been asking for a wall on our southern border for biblical reasons (let’s be honest). But everyone understands the protection that walls afford the people within. From job security for Americans to stemming the flow of illegal drugs and human slaves coming across our southern border, a wall is the first step required if we are to make America great, safe and prosperous again.
~ Christian Patriot Daily
