Where relevant, ethical, and moral principles in biblical law and the application of it by Israel’s prophets can serve as a standard by which to evaluate present-day laws, and where the Law is silent, one can employ theological principles in the Bible to shape new laws in a way that would, in the words of the preamble to the American Constitution, “establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty.” This is the contribution that the system promoted by Kaiser can make. What do we do, then, if the Bible is silent on an issue? For example, the Bible does not mention abortion at all as it was not an issue to ancient Israel. One can indeed make a very strong case against taking life in the womb, but this requires an all-embracing biblical and theological argument.¹⁰

Wright’s model allows one to look for ethical principles in the Bible. However, it is done in a more comprehensive manner by examining the entire canon of Scripture through the lens of the major biblical themes of creation, fall, redemption, and new creation.11 In the following chapters we shall attempt to use this comprehensive approach especially as it relates to the alien in ancient Israel and then see how it might be relevant to the present dilemma facing people who care about national laws and biblical justice too.

The Immigration Crisis: Immigrants, Aliens, and the Bible
Copyright 2009 by James K. Hoffmeier
Published by Crossway Books, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers
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Footnotes:

1. As reported in the International Herald Tribune, June 2, 2006, 3.

2. As reported on Fox News, December 12, 2007.

3. See http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2006/aprilweb-only/115-44.0.html.

4. See the Sojourner’s website where this verse is quoted on a press release dated 12/17/2007: www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=action.display&item=CCIR_main.

5. Gerhard von Rad, Old Testament Theology, II (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1962), 129.

6. For a copy of this speech, see http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm.

7. Walter Kaiser Jr., Toward Old Testament Ethics (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1983).

8. Christopher Wright, Walking in the Ways of the Lord: The Ethical Authority of the Old Testament (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1995).

9. Ibid., 114–116.

10. For an example see the author’s essay “Abortion and the Old Testament Law,” in Abortion: A Christian Understanding and Response, ed. James K. Hoffmeier (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1987), 49–63.

11. Wright, Walking in the Ways of the Lord, 14–21.