📖 Biblical Definition
Scripture distinguishes between two categories of non-Israelites. The ger (sojourner) was a resident alien who lived among Israel, submitted to Israel's laws, and often worshiped Israel's God — these were to be loved and protected. "Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt" (Deuteronomy 10:19). The nokri (foreigner) was an outsider with no covenant ties, and different rules applied — they could be charged interest, for example (Deuteronomy 23:20). Both categories existed within a framework of national borders, laws, and covenant identity. The Bible affirms both compassion for the vulnerable outsider and the legitimacy of national distinction.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
A person born in a foreign country, or without the country of which one speaks; one not native in the country or jurisdiction under consideration.
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FOREIGNER, n. A person born in a foreign country, or without the country of which one speaks. In the United States, a person born in any other country is a foreigner. In a more limited sense, a person who is not a citizen or subject of the state in which he resides. Note: Webster understood the foreigner as someone outside one's own national community — a simple and necessary distinction for any functioning society.
📖 Key Scripture
• Deuteronomy 10:18-19 — "He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, giving him food and raiment."
• Leviticus 19:33-34 — "If a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him."
• Ephesians 2:19 — "Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints."
• 1 Peter 2:11 — "I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
The biblical distinction between sojourner and foreigner has been collapsed into a single category to advance open-borders ideology.
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Modern political discourse weaponizes biblical compassion for the sojourner to argue for the elimination of national borders altogether. But this collapses the critical Hebrew distinction between ger and nokri. The sojourner was someone who submitted to Israel's laws and lived within its social covenant; the foreigner retained a separate national identity. God's command to love the sojourner did not eliminate national borders or legal distinctions — it operated within them. The nations themselves were established by God at Babel and affirmed in Acts 17:26. Compassion for immigrants and refugees is genuinely biblical; the abolition of national sovereignty is not. The Bible affirms both kindness to the stranger and the legitimacy of borders, laws, and distinct national identities.
Usage
• "The Bible commands love for the sojourner but never demands the abolition of national borders — God Himself established the boundaries of the nations."
• "Christians are called foreigners and pilgrims in this world — our ultimate citizenship is in heaven, but that does not negate earthly civic responsibility."