Our Footsteps: I Pledge Allegiance to What?

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

I Pledge Allegiance to What?

Am I the only one that thinks that the Pledge to the Christian flag is odd? There are a couple versions of this pledge, one of which goes like this:

"I pledge allegiance to the Christian Flag, and to the Savior, for whose kingdom it stands. One Savior, crucified, risen and coming again, with life and liberty for all who believe."

It seems iconish or Catholic-esque to me. If we take the 'flag' part out of that paragraph then I could live with it because the rest of the words are mostly biblical (I would change the last phrase to say 'all who repent and believe'). I pledge my allegiance to the Savior alone, not to the recently man-made symbol of him. I read some things on the internet on how this flag came into being and its uses and such... I understand the symbolism that is meant here, but do we really need a 'Christian Flag', to divert our attention? Don't we already have the beauty of Christ to capture our gaze? Don't we already have the cross? Don't we already have biblical symbols that remind us of or point us to the Savior, like the ordinances of Communion and Baptism? Do we find any such pledge in the Bible?

I'm just asking...

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I Believe...

1). I believe that there is one God. I believe God consists of three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
2). I believe that God is holy, righteous, loving, and just.
3). I believe that mankind is separated from God by sin; that sin entered the world through Adam and death through sin.
4). I believe that, because of sin, man is condemned. Because of God’s utter hatred for sin, there is an eternal conscious punishment in hell for all those who do not come to God on His terms, dealing with their sin.
5). I believe that confessing our sins and confessing Jesus Christ as Lord is the only way to properly deal with the sin that has infected everyone. Jesus Christ paid our sin debt on the cross; reconciliation by substitution. There is nothing we can do to add to the finished work of Christ.
6). I believe in the security of the believer, that once he is truly born-again, there is nothing that would cause him to lose his salvation.
7). I believe that upon the death of a true believer in Christ, that he is ushered immediately into the presence of the Lord, where he will live in everlasting joy in Heaven, experiencing eternal fellowship with God.
8). I believe in believer’s baptism by immersion. I don’t believe baptism is necessary for salvation, but it is a beautiful outward profession of an inward possession.
9). I believe in a literal 6-day creation where God created the heavens and the earth and then rested on the seventh day.
10). I believe that the words written in the Bible are truth. I believe that the Bible is inerrant in its parts and in its whole. I believe that the 66 books that make up the canon of scripture make the Bible complete and that God inspired the words written therein. The things that were written down in the Bible are sufficient for every need we have. Not only is God’s Word sufficient, but it is far superior to any other method of handling the problems that man faces, since He has given us all things pertaining to life and godliness.