Guest Editorial

Migrants and migration have impacted the cause of God from the early millennia of human history. Early biblical history records the separation of the human race through language and ultimately through distance and the evolution of culture. Genesis chapter eleven records the words of God during the building of the Tower of Babel, who said, “Let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” From this point people began to separate. However, it is the coming together again that too often causes friction, tension, and misunderstanding. Even though biblical records clearly show that an act of God caused the separation of peoples, it also clearly shows that an act of God also causes the unification of peoples. When God called Abram he told him to leave his country, his people, and his father’s household and go to a land that was foreign to him (Gen 12:1). God further extended his cause by causing Abraham’s grandson, Jacob and his family to leave their new-found home and settle in the land of Egypt for 430 years where they found temporary acceptance with food and accommodation provided for them. Their eventual return to Canaan was a migration phenomenon that astounded the world and has shaped the course of history. This newly formed nation occupied a land that was foreign to them; the Israelites lived among people that were different from them, and they practiced a religion that was antagonistic to the existing culture. But God still intended for them to become a blessing to all nations around them. The phenomenal impact of immigration is also demonstrated in the New Testament in the spreading of the gospel to the then known world. After the stoning of Stephen, Acts chapter seven records that a great persecution broke out against the Christian believers in Jerusalem and, as a result, they were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria (Acts 8:1). Some “travelled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, telling the message only to Jews” (Acts 11:19). As one looks at Christian history one will notice the trends and the impact that immigration has had on the spread of the gospel. From the persecution of the Waldensians and the Huguenots in France to the flight of the Pilgrim Fathers on the Mayflower to the east coast of North America, it is demonstrated that people have travelled and have brought their culture and religion with them.