Empire Baptist Temple

Baptists Bearing the Protestant Flag

Martin Lamb

As far back as I can remember, one of the usual things I saw in the meeting places of Baptist churches was the Christian Flag. I remember saying the pledge to the Christian Flag during Bible schools. Somewhere in my past I came to assume the Christian Flag was basically a Baptist flag. One day after I was married, I simply looked up "Christian Flag" in the encyclopedias which my wife and I inherited (there is no article for the Christian Flag in our 1994 editions of the World Book). What I found was very revealing. "The Christian Flag has been the emblem of Protestant churches since 1897" (The World Book Encyclopedia, Vol.3, 1967, p. 405).

The Description of the Christian Flag -- To clarify that the Christian Flag about which the article was written is the same one we call the Christian Flag, a further quote from that article is given: "Its upper inside corner is blue, with a red Christian cross. The rest of the flag is white." On the same page is the picture of the Christian Flag. Brethren, this is the same Christian Flag which we know as the Christian Flag and which is typically displayed in the auditoriums of the meeting places of Baptist churches.

The Emblem of the Christian Flag -- This article clearly says that what has come to be known as the Christian Flag "has been the emblem of Protestant churches since 1897." This flag is an emblem, if not the emblem, of Protestantism. This flag is not a Baptist flag but a Protestant flag! It is an emblem of Protestant churches not Baptist churches. In our time of living, there is that apostate movement of Baptists to consider themselves Protestants (Roman Catholic Reformers), which movement old landmark Baptists abhor. Yet, somewhere in the twentieth century, we came to accept the emblem of Protestant churches as fitting us. By publicly displaying the emblem, we are thereby saying what we do not believe: that we are Protestants.

The Pledge to the Christian Flag -- The article goes on to say, "There are several versions of the pledge to the Christian Flag." The one published in the article is not the same as that which is published in the VBS literature published by the Baptist Sunday School Committee; it has, however, strong similarities ("I pledge allegiance to the Christian flag and to the Saviour for whose Kingdom it stands", World Book). In reality, we could just as well say, "I pledge allegiance to the Protestant Flag." Furthermore, we might as well pledge our allegiance to the Protestant view of the Kingdom of God by saying, "I pledge allegiance to the Protestant flag and to the universal, invisible church for which it stands." Keep in mind that Protestants generally are not willing to distinguish between the kingdom of Christ and what they call the universal, invisible church.

The Origin of the Christian Flag -- From where did this flag come? It is "the emblem of Protestant churches." I honestly do not know the origin of this flag. I do know, however, that this is the accepted emblem of the Kingdom of God by Protestants. But who authorized this emblem? A kingdom is a government with a sovereign king over it. The kingdom of God has a King, Jesus Christ; He is the only One Who could have authorized the emblem of His kingdom. I am not so naive as to think that the Lord authorized this emblem 1800 years after the New Testament and the whole Bible had been completed. I can only assume that the Protestants borrowed the idea of the Christian flag from their own heritage, Roman Catholicism. The origin of the Christian flag did not come from the King, the Christ, the Lord. In origin it is not truly Christian but probably Catholic (the very thought of displaying an ancestral flag similar to that borne by Roman Catholics as they pursued, tortured, and murdered our ancestors in the faith is shameful and nauseating). Landmark Baptists would do correctly by putting away from themselves "the emblem of Protestant churches" as well as any pledge to the same. Instead the Christian emblems which we ought to display are an unpretentious faithfulness to the Word of God and love toward one another with a self-sacrificing but not truth-compromising love.

BAPTIST HISTORY VERIFIED BY PROTESTANTS

Baptists are not Protestants and never have been. Even the Protestants admit to our existence. Listen to what they said:

Alexander Campbell [Church of Christ] in the Campbell-McCalla Debate - "The church at Jerusalem was a Baptist church, and the church at Samaria was a Baptist church."

Mosheim, Lutheran Historian - "The first century was a history of the Baptists."

John Ridpath, Methodist Historian - "I should not readily admit that there was a Baptist church as far back as 100A.D., though without doubt there were Baptists then, as all Christians were then Baptists."