Revelation of John and Immigration

Questions for Individual Reflection/Group Discussion: 

In her introduction, Dr. Lin asks us to reflect on how we think about immigration and Biblical interpretation.

• Whose voices and experiences have influenced your thinking about immigration?  

• Who has spoken out about defending the rights of immigrants in a helpful way, and whose voices have troubled you in this discourse? 

  Spend some time in discussion or with your journal bringing forward in your thinking the connection between scripture, ethics, and your views/experiences of immigration. 

Dr. Lin says that rather than focusing on ethics, she will be exploring apocalyptic literature and its language in political rhetoric “… images and verses from Revelation and other apocalyptic biblical texts are appearing in political rhetoric sometimes through imagery, sometimes metaphorically, but oftentimes explicitly and also understood in literal ways.” 

• Have you noticed apocalyptic imagery in political speeches, interviews, and in the media? Spend some time journaling your answer or in discussion, bringing forward in your thinking how and when you encounter this type of rhetoric. 

Questions for Individual Reflection/Group Discussion: 

Christopher Columbus centered Jerusalem and the New Jerusalem in his thinking about his voyages. He understood himself to be participating in bringing about the possibility of immigration to the New Jerusalem, and thus establishing Christianity there. 

• What surprises you about this self-understanding of Christopher Columbus’ work? 
• What evidence do you see of it in the United States today in geography and discourse? 
• In your view, what implications does it continue to hold, if any, for people immigrating to the United States today? 

 Discuss or journal your answer. 

Questions for Individual Reflection/Group Discussion: 

Dr. Lin talks about three areas taken from the Revelation of John which are commonly used to feed political rhetoric about immigration: chosenness, the concept of the damned, and absolutism. Spend some time in discussion or in your journal reflecting first on what you know about these issues within the Bible and then how you understand their interpretation being used for political purposes in our day. 

• What brings you hope, and what causes you concern about the connections between Biblical interpretation and political discourse about immigration framed with these three categories?     

Questions for Individual Reflection/Group Discussion: 

• What stands out to you about Dr. Lin’s description of the walls surrounding the New Jerusalem in the Revelation? 
• How does the Bible encourage us to think imaginatively about the scope and scale of the heavenly city? 
• What opportunities and dangers do you see in incorporating this rhetoric into political rhetoric and policy? 

Discuss or journal your reflections.

Questions for Individual Reflection/Group Discussion: 

“In the American environment of immigration spectacle, people are drawn together as viewers watching… catastrophe unfold. This phenomenon also appears in the New Jerusalem in Revelation, where the narrator sees and describes the suffering of those on earth in highly descriptive speech, where kings and merchants watch from afar the rising from the burning of the whore of Babylon in Revelation 18.” 

• How have you reacted to “the spectacle of immigration” images in the media and/or in your experience? Discuss or journal your answer. 
• What images have stayed with you?

Think about the American “spectacle of immigration” in terms of Jonathan Edwards theological frame from 1739, “every time the saints look upon the damned, it will excite in them a lively and admiring sense of the grace of God.” 

• What are the opportunities and possible problems with this theological framing, used historically and used today? Journal or discuss your answer. 

Questions for Individual Reflection/Group Discussion: 

President Ronald Reagan uses this image in the context of immigration, “for all who have the will and the heart to get there.” The United States is set forward as an apocalyptic place and a Promised Land for immigrants who are worthy of its vision. 

• What political purposes does President Ronald Reagan effect by this intentional use of language from the Book of the Revelation? 
• In your view, how has that continued to affect our discourse about the United States identity? 

Discuss or journal your answer. 

Questions for Individual Reflection/Group Discussion: 

People use the interpretation of Revelation’s prophecies to justify all sorts of extreme action. Dr. Lin says: “When consequences seem dire or violent they can say that it is already predestined. Some Christian believers celebrate the disasters they see because it assures them that the end is nigh. They want the end to arrive.” Dr. Lin affirms that this cycle of self-fulfilling prophecy must end. And so must the equivalence of the United States with God’s chosen city and people.

• How do you think about the theological idea of predestination? 
• How would you confront and counter a Christian who celebrates disasters? 

Journal or discuss your answer. 

Books:

Immigration and Apocalypse: How the Book of Revelation Shaped American Immigration, by Yii-Jan Lin 2024

Cruelty as Citizenship: How Migrant Suffering Sustains White Democracy by Cristina Beltran 2020

Lectures:

American Apocalypse Now with Dr. Yii-Jan Lin

Borders and Walls in the New Jerusalem and American History with Dr. Yii-Jan Lin

Bible Study Series: 

What Do We Do with a Book Like Revelation with Dr Yii-Jan Lin

Documents:

Scripture on Immigration and the Stranger