Monday, July 07, 2008

A Mild Rant Against Flags in Church

I must be a very bad church member.

I mean all I do is walk around quietly harboring my doubts and dissatisfactions, occasionally bursting forth with a rant now and then.

This weekend the worship lyrics up on the Powerpoint screen were shown against a backdrop of the American flag. Cuz it's the 6th of July, of course, you dodo!

But I'm thinking, what in the world has the flag got to do with anything we're doing in here? Oh, yeah, yeah, I'm grateful to live in a free country and all that. Spare me, please. I mean, at least the usual backdrops of mountain grandeur or ocean vistas do depict things that will still be around in "the great day," but I really don't think there will be nations then, or borders, or flags. All of it gone.

In my opinion, nations are (at best) mankind's attempt to deal with the problems created by his own sinfulness. At worst, well, it's a well-known story. And, yes, even the evilest of nations are sometimes used by God to bring about His own good and just will. He can do that, because He's, you know, over all!

In the end, though, when everything that can be shaken is shaken ("in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain," Heb. 12:27b), every flag will be, well, dust and ashes.

Anyway, that's what I think.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

i can see your point.

how about denomi-nations?

i got this info from
http://www.religioustolerance.org/christ7.htm

According to David Barrett et al, editors of the "World Christian Encyclopedia: A comparative survey of churches and religions - AD 30 to 2200," there are 34,000 separate Christian groups in the world...

Bob Spencer said...

That's an amazing number! Yup, denominations will all be history, so I think. Now we see in part, and understand in part . . . thus, denominational differences . . . but someday we will see whole . . . the big picture! Loyalty to anything above Christ, or before Christ, or instead of Christ, or in addition to Christ, whether nations or denominations, is idol worship (and that ain't good!).

Anonymous said...

My last church sang patriotic songs 'around' the 4th. No time for worship, its the 4th. It absolutely drove me mad!