Recently I had the privilege of reading a book on the subject of Immigrants, Aliens, and the Bible, a subject that I had started to study on my own, but later realized there must be more information available than I was able to glean from my cursory study of the scriptures.

I became interested in the book The Immigration Crisis when I heard a Christian talk show in which the host was interviewing the author Dr. James K Hoffmeier, a professor of Old Testament and Near Eastern archeology at Trinity International University. Because of the current situation regarding illegal immigration in the United States and other western countries I found his discussion intriguing and decided that I must read his book to see if it could help clarify some of my own thinking on the subject.

The Immigration Crisis covers the subject of immigration and immigrants in the Bible from the time of Abraham and the ancient world all the way through the time the Jews were exiled in Babylon and Persia.

One of the most important subjects covered is the Torah God gave to Moses to serve as the law of the Israel nations. God had specific things to say about the treatment of legal resident aliens as well as illegal or undocumented foreigners. Dr. Hoffmeier points out that there are different Hebrew words referring to these two different kinds of “aliens” in the Torah. A resident alien who entered the land legally was to be given certain privileges that a person who was just passing through or who had entered the land improperly was not granted under the law.

Many of the laws of the United States and the United Kingdom are based upon the Torah, so the questions addressed in The Immigration Crisis are pertinent to the situation we have in our countries today. My book Where is the United States in Bible Prophecy? shows that the British and American nations along with the Jewish nation of Israel are the modern inheritors of the promises God made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and of the covenants He made with ancient Israel at Mount Sinai. It is imperative that Americans and Britons understand the Torah in regards to immigration so we as nations can properly deal with the immigration crisis we are facing at this time.

I highly recommend The Immigration Crisis – Immigrants, Aliens, and the Bible by James K. Hoffmeier. It can be purchased from Amazon.com.