The Christian Flag

I have always loved flags. Flags are how humans identify themselves. We claim our land with flags, we use flags to indetify what our identities are, and important to this post, some of us use flags to determine what religion we are. The history of the Christian Flag goes back to 1897, when a Sunday School superintendent named Charles Overton gave an impromptou speech about the ysmbolism of flags. He proposed the idea of a flag for all of Christianity. It wasn't until 10 years later, in 1907, that Mr. Overton desgined it. The white field of the flag represents the purity, innocence, and peace of Jesus. The blue canton represents the water of baptism, as well as the faithfulness of Jesus. The red cross in the canton represents the God's love and the suffering of Jesus, as well as the faith in general. Originally, mostly only used by American protestants, it has since begun to spread across the world. It is intended to be an ecumenical symbol, for all Christians.

My Christian Universalist Flag

My relationship with this flag is complicated. Originally, I loved the idea of a flag representing all Christians! I think it's beautiful that there is a symbol out there to represent the Kingdom of God. But, and this is a very important but, it is a manmade symbol. On January 6th, 2021, far-right rioters stormed the US capitol building in an attempt to overturn a democratic election, interrupting the peaceful tranfer of power for the first time in US history. Some of the rioters were waving Christian flags. These people, who believe in the antichristian idea of "might makes right", use the Christian flag as a manmade idol. They don't worship or follow, Christ. They worship empire, they worship power. They used the Christian flag as an idol of their own twisted, bent, version of Christianity. This soured me on the idea of the Christian flag. But, I have since begun to come around on the idea of it again. Yes, it is a manmade symbol, but that doesn't mean it has to be an idol. I don't worship the Christian flag, and I certainly don't use it to promote antichristian ideas. It represents to me, the communion of saints. Every Christian. It represents our creed and mission to advance the Kingdom of God. But, in the meantime, I designed my own flag to better represent my own Christian beliefs. I do not indetify with any denomination. The closest I would come is identifying as a Christian Universalist (the idea that Christ saves all of creation, not just those who have faith in Him in this life). The central disk in the flag is the symbol of Christian universalism. It represents the universal scope of Christ's salvation. The white rays extending from the disk represent the 9 fruits of the Spirit, the blue field represents the same thing as the original Christian flag (I used the same colors). I do not intend for anyone to take this flag seriously. I designed it to represent my personal beliefs. I have since found that both the original Christian flag, and the Universalist one I created, can both have meaning to me! I hope you can find meaning in them too!!