THE PAGAN ARMY
A major U.S. news item of late has been the ongoing issue of possible citizenship for illegal aliens. For those who do not appreciate use of politically incorrect language, the new preferred term in the media is “undocumented workers.” These people illegally entered the USA in defiance of our laws and are now demanding citizenship and all of its inherent privileges. This involves not only the right to vote, but also to determine our legal religious rights and culture.
Last month, as I was helping our group of church volunteers plant flowers to beautify our worship center, a car pulled into the parking lot. Out stepped a woman who identified herself to us as a new immigrant from Iraq. The driver was a local man and occasional visitor to our church services, who found the woman while out doing some shopping, and decided to bring her to us for help or advice. She indicated that she had no money, no place to stay, and no immediate relatives here. Apparently, she had saved up for a one-way ticket to America!
We stepped inside the chapel to talk. She pointed toward the sidewall of the chapel and told us that we needed to buy her a bed, clothing, and food—and she would take up residence right there in our worship hall!
Our caretaker quickly explained to her that we are not set up to provide housing, nor does church zoning in the city allow for overnight accommodations. “Let us put you in contact with the Detroit Rescue Mission,” he advised.
“No!” she insisted, “Already done that. They offered me a place to stay and other help. But I told them, ‘No!’” “Why did you refuse their assistance?” we asked. “Because Detroit is too dangerous, and I won’t live there,” she replied. This, remember, is a woman who lived in violent war-torn Iraq, but she thinks Detroit is too dangerous a place to live!
The media has trumpeted the fact that Christian leaders and their denominations are among those leading the fight to give citizenship to those who broke our immigration laws, even though a significant number of these immigrants are not Christian. One American Anglo-Israel pastor is also proclaiming that people from throughout the world should be freely allowed to move here—as long as they “claim” to be Christians! The media, both liberal and conservative, seem to be on the bandwagon as well. In fact, the Wall Street Journal has promoted open immigration in a steady stream of editorials, calling this “a $4.6 trillion opportunity.” (6-3-13, A16) By this they mean that millions of illegal aliens who become citizens will pay as much as that into our bankrupt social security system over their lifetimes. The social security system was doomed to failure from the start—do two wrongs make it right?
No one ever seems to consider what God has to say in this matter. Yet Bible teachers recognize that the fall of Babylon in antiquity prefigures the fall of Mystery Babylon and other events at the end of this age. In fact, the language used in Isaiah chapter 13 concerning Babylon’s demise parallels New Testament texts concerning events at Christ’s return (e.g. Isa. 13:6- 13 and Matthew 24, etc.).
In this same chapter of Isaiah, we read, “Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it… And it shall be as the chased roe, and as a sheep that no man taketh up: they shall every man turn to his own people, and flee every one into his own land.” (Isa. 13:9, 14)
Babylon was infamous for the great number of religions and nationalities that inhabited her cities, and this is certainly being paralleled in our Western, formerly Christian nations now under the power and influence of Mystery Babylon in this end of the age. Yet the Lord determined that a separation must (and would) take place according to His prophetic plan. The only question is how bad things must get before we come to our senses.
The immigration issue was actually foreseen in the New Testament in one of Christ’s short, enigmatic parables of the kingdom in Matthew 13:31-32. “Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field: Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.” America, chief among modern nations, has become a magnet and haven for people from all nations.
The Preacher’s Commentary explains that this parable is “an illustration of the kingdom giving protection to many.” There is no question that Western nations have been overly generous in extending a welcoming hand to immigrants of many different races and religions. Unfortunately, this includes far too many who oppose our values.
Am I being overly negative in saying this? You might even think that Christ is indicating that this open immigration is a good thing, and that it is wonderful that all of these many nations and religions have come to lodge in our land. However, the Believer’s Bible Commentary clarifies that this is actually not a good thing at all. They explain, “Then the birds came and roosted in it. The same word for birds is used here as in verse 4; Jesus explained the birds as meaning the evil one (v. 19). The kingdom became a nesting place for Satan and his agents. Today the umbrella of Christendom covers such Christ-denying systems as Unitarianism, Christian Science, Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and the Unification Church (moonies).”
If this Biblical commentary is so very, very worried about Jehovah’s Witnesses, then why are they completely silent concerning the much more immense danger from pagan religions whose adherents oppose all forms of Christian influence and often proclaim jihad, or holy war, against our people? Non-mainstream Christians admittedly have a few doctrinal teachings wrong, yet most do firmly teach salvation through faith in Christ. Mainstream Christians are wearing immense blinders if they think that Christ is saying that our lives are in danger from Jehovah’s Witnesses!
Today our Western lands have become a lodging place for all of the world’s races and religions. As a consequence, our Christian culture and beliefs are under siege from those who come to our shores and take offence at our Biblical Western societal foundations. Even the innocuous phrase, “Merry Christmas,” is being systematically banned in public as offensive, and replaced by the all- inclusive “happy holidays.” Will it become illegal in America to speak the name of Christ and to proselytize the Gospel? Doing so in Muslim, Jewish, and Communist lands today will invite a jail sentence or even death! We ought to think about what we are doing when inviting these same people to come here and bring their religious intolerance to our shores.
During the Spanish Civil War in 1936, the term, “fifth column” was coined for those in a land who, “act traitorously and subversively out of a secret sympathy with an enemy of their country.” A cogent argument can be made that a “fifth column” of people who disdain our Christian religion and constitutional rights are now nesting in our national branches and satanically undermining the foundations of our Western culture. There is a pagan army within the gates! It is time that we recognized the danger and woke up to the peril our liberal national policies are unnecessarily creating.
End
