Evangelical megachurch pastor Robert Jeffress, an unflinching supporter of President Donald Trump, defended the Republican leader’s border security plan by declaring even Heaven “is gonna have a wall.”
Jeffress, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, made the comments during an appearance Sunday on “Fox and Friends.” He pushed back on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) claim that a border wall is “immoral.”
“The Bible says even Heaven itself is gonna have a wall around it,” the pastor said. “Not everybody is going to be allowed in. So if walls are immoral, then God is immoral.”
Jeffress went on to argue it is, however, “immoral” for Democratic lawmakers to “block this president from fulfilling his God-given responsibility to keep our country safe.” He also questioned the morality of liberals supporting so-called “sanctuary cities,” which give safe haven to those living in the U.S. illegally.
“We outta thank God every day we have a president like Donald Trump who takes his oath of office seriously and is willing to do whatever it takes to keep this country safe,” Jeffress added.
What was Jeffress’ biblical argument?
In making his case for Trump, the Baptist minister referenced the Old Testament book of Nehemiah. According to the Scriptures, God instructed the Jewish leader to build a wall around Jerusalem to keep its citizens safe.
And his reference to “a wall” in heaven is likely from the New Testament book of Revelation. In the book’s 21st chapter, John described heaven, writing, “It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates.”
But Christians in America seem rather divided over the border wall issue.
According to new data from the Public Religion Research Institute, 67 percent of white evangelical Protestants favor building a border wall. A slight majority of mainline Protestants — 52 percent — also back the plan. Catholics are a little more diverse, with 56 percent of white believers supporting a southern border wall and 73 percent of Hispanic believers opposing the idea.
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As for Trump, it appears he plans to keep the government shut down until he receives funding for his long-promised border wall along the U.S.-Mexico perimeter.
The president walked out of a meeting Wednesday with Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), calling the unproductive sit-down “a total waste of time.”
Just left a meeting with Chuck and Nancy, a total waste of time. I asked what is going to happen in 30 days if I quickly open things up, are you going to approve Border Security which includes a Wall or Steel Barrier? Nancy said, NO. I said bye-bye, nothing else works!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 9, 2019
The meeting came one day after Trump addressed the nation from the Oval Office, where he demanded Congress fund his border wall request. Democrats, though, are so far uninterested in compromising on the issue.