Flags, Covenant Signs, and the Public War over Moral Allegiance
Unmasking the Flag That Preaches a Rival Gospel
Scripture teaches that symbols communicate allegiance, identity, and covenant loyalty. They declare who rules and what moral order governs a people.
“We will sing for joy over your salvation, and in the name of our God we will set up our banners.” - Psalm 20:5
Israel marched under banners that identified each tribe and proclaimed their unity under the Lord. Their flags were public theology. Their symbols were sermons.
“He has brought me to his house of banqueting, and his banner over me is love.” – Song of Solomon 2:4
A banner declares the authority one lives under. It tells the world which kingdom shapes one’s life. There is no neutrality in symbolic speech. Every flag preaches.
God’s Covenant Sign of the Rainbow
Genesis 9 gives the original meaning of the rainbow. It is a divine sign, a covenant seal, and an oath God swore to creation.
“I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth.” - Genesis 9:13
The bow belongs to God. It reveals His mercy after judgment. It testifies that He, not man, rules history and restrains wrath according to His covenant promises. The rainbow therefore carries theological weight that no culture has the right to redefine.
To take a sign God created and assign it a new meaning is covenant theft. The rainbow is a sign of divine sovereignty, judgment, mercy, and promise.
The Reformers on Sexual Sin and Public Morality
The Reformers taught sexual rebellion is a disordering of creation that harms households and destabilizes nations. Calvin, Luther, the Magisterial Reformers, and the Reformed confessions treated sodomy and related sins as grave violations of God’s created order and dangerous to the health of the commonwealth.
“For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil.” Romans 13:3
The Reformers held that civil rulers are ministers of God who maintain justice by restraining public wickedness. Sexual sin that attacks the created order was treated as a threat to families, inheritance, community stability, and the covenantal structure that God established at creation.
Their approach was driven by a serious view of God’s law and a sober understanding of human society. They believed what Scripture teaches. When a people celebrate what God condemns, they unravel the very foundations that hold a nation together.
The Rainbow Flag as Rival Catechesis
The modern rainbow flag is claimed to be a gesture of tolerance. But it is actually a rival catechism. It preaches a moral order that denies the authority of God and replaces His covenant sign with a new meaning.
The flag claims to define identity apart from creation. It asserts authority over anthropology. It demands affirmation from the public square. It presents a worldview in which desire is sovereign and God is irrelevant.
This is why the symbolism is so powerful and so contested. The rainbow flag does the work that idols did in the ancient world. It claims loyalty. It declares a new vision of humanity. It reinterprets creation. It preaches autonomy as salvation.
Symbols are sermons, and nations are discipled through banners.
How the Modern Church Became Numb to Symbolic War
Many Christians no longer recognize what is happening. Modern evangelicalism taught believers to retreat from cultural life. Secularism convinced them that symbols are neutral. Theological drift produced churches that coddled confusion rather than confront it.
When the church forgets that public morality shapes households and nations, rival moral orders move in. When Christians treat worship as private and faith as internal, the enemy seizes every visible space.
The result is numbness. Christians see the rainbow flag everywhere and assume it is harmless. They fail to grasp that it is a competing claim of sovereignty. It redefines what God defined. It proclaims a kingdom built on self rule rather than the rule of Christ.
A Call to Recover Christian Discernment and Allegiance
Christian parents must teach their children what the rainbow truly means in Scripture. Christian churches must refuse to affirm any symbol that contradicts the law of God. Christian households must see that this struggle is not a dispute over colors or design. It is a matter of allegiance, an open declaration of which authority governs the world and shapes the future.
The flag one raises teaches the world who one serves.
Christians must raise the standard of Christ. They must confess that the covenant signs belong to God alone. They must proclaim that identity is not self constructed but God given. They must step into the public square without apology, knowing that Christ reigns over every nation.
The battle is not ultimately about flags. It is about sovereignty, truth, and allegiance. God will not share His glory with rival kingdoms.
The Call Before Us
The rainbow belongs to the Lord. The covenant belongs to the Lord. Creation belongs to the Lord. The public square belongs to the Lord. Christians must recover courage, clarity, and joy as they bear witness to the kingdom of Christ in a culture that preaches a rival gospel through its symbols.
Raise the banner of Christ. Teach your children the meaning of God’s signs. Refuse the liturgies of rebellion. Stand upright in the kingdom that cannot be shaken.
Christ is King.