June is “Pride Month.” But isn’t pride the opposite of humility?
We are to fly the rainbow “Pride Flag” or “Pride Banner.” But what does it mean? What is its history?
Vexillology (a strange-sounding word) is the study of flags and their meaning and symbolism of color and design. Stephen Black, the Executive Director of First Stone Ministries, studies vexillology. He is aware that the Bible speaks of flags and banners. For example, “There is a victory banner over sin and death for those who love God.” There are “banners in Scripture of love” and “of salvation.” Banners, says Stephen Black, “represent something significant.”
It is for this reason that Stephen Black writes, “I have been cringing for years at the sight of any pride banner and at what some naively call a ‘rainbow banner.’ Ever since knowing Christ and leaving homosexual sin, I’ve had disdain when I see pride flags flying. It is a recoiling idea to me that this pride banner supposedly communicates ideas of diversity, love, and God’s rainbow. This so-called ‘Rainbow Flag’ or ‘Rainbow Banner’ or ‘Pride Flag’ is the symbol of the sin of pride.”
The “Pride Banner,” explains Black, is said to have been created by Gilbert Baker, “a known drag queen and flamboyant homosexual from Chanute, Kansas. Gilbert Baker was inspired by the known pedophile, Harvey Milk. Milk encouraged Baker in 1978 to create the flag for a symbol of ‘gay rights’ and as a prideful display of homosexuality for the San Francisco ‘Gay Freedom Day Parade.’ Both Harvey Milk and Gilbert Baker are known in the gay community for their outrageous promiscuity and for their prideful display of their homosexual activity.”
All of this takes on special meaning to Stephen Black who, in 1983, left homosexuality “and the chaos that surrounds it.” He says he has never seen “a more decadent display of pride, perversion, pedophilia, transgenderism, sadomasochism and now, even the pride of bestiality” in the U.S.
The “Pride Flag” is not God’s rainbow. Its six veins of color, says Stephen Black, “represent the number of man . . . man doing his own will when left to himself, and not the will of God. . . . This flag of pride is the symbol of revelry and self-indulgence. It has nothing to do with God.” Instead, it is man doing “what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25).
There are “so-called ‘gay Christian’ advocates,” says Stephen Black, “who desire to add another colored stripe to make it a seven-color flag.” Seven is often biblically understood to signify God’s completion or perfection. Six falls short of seven. Do these “gay Christian” advocates believe that God will bless or approve a “Pride Flag” with seven colors?
The Christian needs to remember God’s bow in the sky and what it signified. The world had been so corrupted by revelry and self-indulgence that God could no longer bless it. The pride and arrogance of man was followed by destruction. (Proverbs 18:12) Eight humbled people were saved by faith. And when they saw God’s rainbow of infinite colors in the sky, they knew it did not represent pride, but promise. “I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant . . . “(Genesis 9:13-15).
June is “Pride Month.” We are told to celebrate LGBTQ+ Pride and fly the Pride Flag. But pride is the opposite of humility. Puffed up and prideful conceit—in homosexuality or heterosexuality or sensuality or selfish desires—separates us from God.
BUT! There is a different banner… a banner of promise and hope. The Lord Jesus is our banner. He is our “robe of righteousness” (Isaiah 61:10). Therefore, may all of us—yes, all of us—humble ourselves “under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time He may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:6-7).
Linda Bartlett (6-22-21)
It’s Us!
Posted in Citizenship, Commentaries of others, Culture Shifts, Faith & Practice, tagged cheap grace, Chuck Colson, holy, hope, humility, idols, sin, the church, the world, wicked on November 20, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Each Wednesday, Colson features a “Two Minute Warning.” This past week, he noted how many times Christians quote 2 Chronicles 7:14 which reads:
To whom is God speaking? He is speaking not to our country, the United States, but to the church… to God’s people, those called by His name. It’s us — members of God’s family, the church — who are being called to “turn from their wicked ways.” When we dumb down Christ, offer “cheap grace,” cling to parts of God’s Word but not all, practice silence for the sake of being “tolerant,” and adapt worldly ways we are failing to be “salt and light.”
Colson is right. We can’t blame the “liberals,” homosexual activists, or evolutionists for changing America. They’re saying and doing what we would expect them to. It’s us — the Christians — who need to make a u-turn and go back to God. If the church would repent of her ways and act more like Jesus calls the church to act, then we, too, would affect the culture.
Colson directs us to God’s Word to His people, the house of Israel, in Ezekiel 36:22-32. The people had “profaned” His holy name among the nations. They were unclean and fallen to idols. “Be ashamed and confounded for your ways, O house of Israel.” As you read, you will discover that God’s call to repentance comes with promise and blessings.
We don’t change the world. The world is the world. But, whenever God’s Word in its truth and purity is spoken and acted upon by God’s people, society is transformed. It’s been done in the past. It can be done in the present.
Colson provides many practical and faithful-to-Scripture resources for Christians in a challenging world. I recommend you check them out by visiting Breakpoint.
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