You’ve heard it. “Jesus was an immigrant.” And then a rant would ensue that discussed Jesus’s parents taking Him to Egypt for His safety. And there are probably a dozen other ways that I have seen this phrased.
Have you ever heard something so stupid that you just can’t figure out how to respond to it?
Well, this is one of those things. And there’s a simple reason for it. It’s just completely wrong. There is no part of it that is true.
This has been an issue due to politics. And some have attempted to give a Christian reason why it is wrong. The reason for this is that many people in America applaud the removal of illegal immigrants from the United States. I have, in fact, stated repeatedly stated that the American government should create and enforce immigration laws. One of those posts can be found here.
I asked Chat GPT to make a map for me that I could use here. It is a map of the Roman Empire in Jesus’s Day.
What I want you to notice is that Egypt is part of the Roman Empire as well. A client state was under the rule of Rome, but had some independence. Sometimes they are described as a semi-independent state. But it was under the rule of Rome. It was part of the Roman Empire, as the map so clearly indicates. And, as you probably learned in school, the Roman Empire encouraged travel throughout the empire during the Pax Romana by the building of roads and other measures. Travel from Bethlehem to Egypt was now easier, safer, and more encouraged than it had ever been.
In other words, though Jesus moved from one location to another and did not leave the rule of Rome. Again, He did not move outside of the Roman Empire. He moved from a client state of the Roman Empire next door to another location in the Roman Empire.
Or, another way of putting it is this. Jesus was not an immigrant.
Liberals…Am I Right?
This is yet another example in a long list of abuses of Scripture by liberal theologians. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard a liberal say, “Jesus would be accepting.” when talking about homosexuality or dressing half naked to read storybooks to kids.
The problem is that the rainbow clad female preacher that baptizes dogs and trees doesn’t have any real respect for the Scriptures nor God. They are so pompous as to think that God is just like them or care for what they care for.
And here comes the immigrant issue. One issue among many in a long list of supposed abuses that liberals what to accuse our current president of committing. But the best they could come up with is that Jesus’s family fled from one part of the Roman Empire to another.
😂
It is funny. But I bet that I read about Jesus being an immigrant 20 more times before New Years.
Refugees, Immigrants, and Scripture
This means that Jesus’s family fleeing to Egypt doesn’t inform our understanding of immigrants and refugees. Other passages of Scripture do, but Matthew 2 does not. Passages about the refugee should be thought through and applied.
But you can’t take Matthew 2 and best people over the head with it. For it doesn’t mean what you think it means.
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