Immigration, Babel, and the End of History
by Gabriela Phillips
As immigration laws and practices are changing daily, I have been pondering how to interpret these changes within our Adventist eschatology? What is the role of the church? And mine? How can we move from slogans of “love the stranger,” with very little definition, to “a society with law and order that protects its own” and maintain that we are a responsible society? What if recovering our Adventist eschatology can help guide our thinking to create a path between extremes toward Kingdom-oriented focus?
Only 20 percent of evangelicals in the US claim that their views on immigration are shaped by the Bible. Yet, it is God’s word that remains when every other goalpost is moving. The Bible is the only sacred scripture written by people in migration. Yahweh is the only God who is not attached to a land but to a people. He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob/Israel; not a provincial/regional god with jurisdiction over one country.
Our God is a nomad. His temple journeyed with his people, and so did his presence. As the people moved, so did the mission of God spread. Not so in Babylon. What was the sin of the people of Babel? Pause for a second, read this twice: Genesis 11: 4 “the people decide to build a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, aiming to make a name for themselves and prevent being scattered, fearing God's command to "fill the earth.’” What do you see? I see:
“We will make our name great.”
“We will build a tower,” when God had told them to build a family of nations (Adam and Noah were both sent to start a new humanity of fruitful and multiplying people on the move).
Bab-el is not a godless place, rather is meant to be a Bab (gate) to El (God).
Babel was humanity's attempt at uniformity and self-glory. God scattered them to diversify them; not to celebrate diversity (as if diversity is an end in itself). It was not for competition, but to become an interlinked mosaic that could better reflect the image of God. The linguistic and cultural diversity which was to emerge from this dispersion was God’s original design all along. From the one, many, to (ultimately) become one again (of unity).
How is God going to solve the crisis created by the people of Babel? He spread them and gave them languages. And God called forth a people for his mission and said, "Lech Lecha" (לֶךְ-לְךָ)… go forth from your land and your people… and I WILL MAKE YOUR NAME GREAT (Gen 12:1-3), and I will bless you, and I will curse you…and I…and in you all the families (people groups) will be blessed. So Abraham migrates to make God’s name great, and God builds in terms of Abraham’s name as he goes from place to place. Can you see the great reversal? Blessings and curses were God’s responsibilities. Abraham’s was to pursue the greatness of the name of Yahweh—who was always committed to blessing all families/clans/ethnos.
What does this have to do with immigration? Allow me to move from the beginning all the way to the end…the end of history. Once you see the two ends, the present will make more sense.
Revelation 7:9 - “After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.”
God has succeeded. This is what making his name great looks like—worship, migration, and witness is part of it. They were scattered after Babel into all nations. They came out of Babylon (see Revelation 18:4), and now are united, yet diverse.
Jesus, in describing the signs of the end, made it clear that it was the mission of God, and not the evils of this world that would be final.
“And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed in all the world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come." (Mathew 24:14)
This is the consummation of the project that God launched through Abraham, that through his Seed (Christ), all nations would be blessed. So that when Jesus finished his mission on earth, he would say, Mathew 28:19 go to all nations (pantha ta ethne) and make disciples. Nations here ought not to be understood as countries but people groups, ethnic-linguistic groups, of which 7,000 are still unreached (see Joshua Project).
If Satan understood that indeed the final move of God is among the nations, are you surprised that he is using immigration and brutal wars to create the greatest divide between people? Could it be that failing to understand the mission of God as our lens for interpreting current events, we may end up in the left or right ditch? Is it possible to reform immigration in a way that does not dehumanize the “other” and pursues justice at the same time? Kingdom values are not the pursuit of national greatness, but rather a journey that will deliver order, peace, and advance the mission of God.
Prayerfully ponder over these inspired words before you post today on your social media, Ellen White (Evangelism https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/30.3164#3174) wrote,
As I have testified for years, if we were quick in discerning the opening providences of God, we should be able to see in the multiplying opportunities to reach many foreigners in America a divinely appointed means of rapidly extending the third angel's message into all the nations of earth. God in His providence has brought men to our very doors and thrust them, as it were, into our arms, that they might learn the truth, and be qualified to do a work we could not do in getting the light before men of other tongues.
Pastors, equip your churches to be centers of blessings for immigrants. And for those facing deportation, remind them that God is sending them as missionaries back to their own people; not in shame, but with a mission for these last days.
Gabriella Phillips serves as Director of Adventist-Muslim Relations for the North American Division of SDA.
