Robert Jeffress, the senior pastor of First Baptist Dallas, shared that although his church welcomes all visitors, Christians must also obey the law.
“At First Baptist Church in Dallas, we do not check for green cards — that’s government’s responsibility,“ the Rev. Robert Jeffress said in an email to the Associated Press. “The Bible teaches that God created the institution of government to protect its citizens. …Christians have a duty to obey the laws government establishes which would include immigration laws.“
Jeffress, who served as an evangelical advisor to Trump in his first term, previously stressed that God is “not an open orders guy“ after the president rescinded the DACA immigration program in 2017.
“While Christian compassion is one consideration, it’s not the only consideration in the immigration problem,” he said. “I mean, the Bible also says that God is the one who established nations and its borders. God is not necessarily an open-borders guy, as a lot of people would think that he is.
“And thirdly, the Bible says God has ordained the government to protect its citizens. So when you are talking about a biblical solution to immigration, yes, we need to talk about compassion, but we need to balance that with the government’s real responsibility to protect its citizens.”
During a 2015 “Fox and Friends Weekend“ interview, Jeffress argued that liberal churches harboring illegal immigrants are not following the example of Jesus but rather an imagined version of the Savior.
“The only problem is they are following the Jesus of their imagination rather than the Jesus of the Bible,“ Jeffress said.
Photo Credit: ©First Baptist Dallas
