The refugee crisis of faith

What would we do if hundreds of thousands of people from an alien land were streaming across our borders seeking asylum from the ravages of war and merciless oppression? This is what Europe is facing from Syria, Afghanistan, and Eritrea. Germany expects 800,000 asylum-seekers this year alone, a fourfold increase over last year.

And you can’t blame them for trying. The Apostle Paul told Timothy to pray for rulers so that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and dignity. But most of Syria is a choice between the tyrant Bashar al-Assad, who gases his own people, and the ISIS monsters. So it’s no surprise that so many are braving every peril of the unknown to reach stable, prosperous Europe. They love their children and their lives.

But many fear that Islam is accomplishing demographically what it failed for a thousand years to do militarily: Conquer Christian Europe or, one might say, a now largely secular Europe of empty churches and pagan laws. In Western Europe, the Muslim population is highest in France at 7.5 percent, but these populations are concentrated in cities where they have greater social visibility and disproportionate political influence. In addition, their birthrates are dramatically higher. This fear expresses itself partly by support for right-wing, reactionary political parties like the National Front in France.

But Christians do not fear. Though events may surprise us, the Lord views them with calm because He sovereignly oversees them. It was He who turned the armies of the Turks back from the gates of 17th century Vienna but gave Constantinople, now Istanbul, into their hands. God who tells the waves of the sea, “Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed,” also directs the movements of peoples and the affections of their hearts.

I was surprised last week (to my shame) to read about remarkable conversions to Christ among the Muslim Syrian refugees in Germany. The Lord who brought the Ethiopian eunuch to Philip in the desert can bring Middle Eastern Muslims to Himself in spiritually blighted Europe. Is there mercy yet for the rebellious continent of Christendom’s glory? It would be just like the God of hopeless cases to turn the wayward descendants of the Reformation back to Himself through a deluge of Muslims who had been scourged by pious allies of the Islamic Republic of Iran and mauled by the Quranic purists of the Islamic State.

European Union President and former Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said last week,“Referring to Christianity in a public debate on migration must mean in the first place the readiness to show solidarity and sacrifice. For a Christian it shouldn’t matter what race, religion and nationality the person in need represents.” That is to say, Christians are confident by faith that if we seek first the Kingdom of God in love, God will faithfully provide for us (Matthew 6:33).

If all you have is a culture, then large numbers of people from another culture endanger what you are. But if what you have is Christ, then if you welcome the refugee in faith, in obedience to God’s law of love, a Christian people can be confident that God will honor that service and bless them in surprising ways.