The matter I am referring to is the idea I heard in the last few years that Christians should raise a rainbow flag with the proper Biblical colors as described in the Bible to combat the homosexual flag.
First of all, 99.9 percent of the world does not know the Bible, let alone the colors in the Biblical rainbow. When the world sees a rainbow flag, they are going to assume it is in support of gay rights.
The devil loves this kind of thinking; if he can get Christians to use the "tit for tat" method of fighting, he can deceive a lot of people. He incorporated pieces of the Bible into pagan holidays, creating such strong feelings about the holidays that most Christians today use pagan symbols to represent something about God that He never commanded.
When we deviate from the commands of Christ, thinking we can help God out by adding things to His word, then is when His commands are left in the dust while pagan practices take over.
God commanded us to go into all the world and preach the gospel.
Mark 16:15 "15 And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned."
Romans 10:17
"17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."
God gave us our marching orders and that was to be led by the Holy Spirit as we speak the word of God to others which proclaims the way of salvation, so that people might become born again.
God commanded us to go into the world making disciples, but that seemed like too much work, so the designated pastors, who were paid to do the job by the congregation, were expected to do the evangelism while those in the pews did nothing pertaining to preaching and teaching.
Those in the pews are spectators hanging on the pastor's every word, as they idolize him. They have been trained by the culture that we are to leave witnessing about Christ to "the experts" who were trained in it. They do not believe the Holy Spirit is superior to men. I am not sure what or who they think the Holy Spirit is, since they treat Him as if he were an idea instead of a person.
The attendees were encouraged by the paid pastor to bring unsaved people into the gathering, causing a watered-down and perverted form of the principles of God, and causing the proliferation of apostasy within the churches.
To make things even worse, the pastor and the people in the pews practiced silence when those who were not born again lived out freely without challenge their lifestyle of sin. If an unbeliever can remain in a Christian gathering for many years without being saved, then something is wrong with the leaders and the congregants who are saved. Either the unbeliever will be convicted of sin through the preaching of the Word or they will leave under the weight of the knowledge of their sin.
The congregation of the born-again believers ought to be made up of authentic believers only. Since the gathering is for the purpose of building up the saints it is not for the purpose of evangelism. We are to go into the world for that and if someone becomes born again they will come in as a brother or sister in Christ.
If an unbeliever wanders in we welcome them but hold back nothing to soften the message for the new comer.
We are never commanded to use symbols, artifacts, or rituals to influence others to accept the truth of the Bible. We were commanded to use our voice as led by the Holy Spirit to speak to people about Christ.
When we use human tricks to manipulate the thinking of others, we are moving into the realm of emotionalism, fostering empty and shallow sentimentality rather than speaking plainly through conversation that promotes rational reasoning.
Symbols do create emotionalism rather than rational thinking. They well up within people "feelings that often are not accurate to the message. The artifacts, symbols, and rituals are a distraction to the one hearing.
We build within people a shallow, dead faith when we introduce symbols and rituals to convince people of the truth.
John 20:29
"29 Jesus *said to him, “Because you have seen Me, have you now believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.”
Believing without seeing is a matter of the heart; nothing outside the heart will do concerning faith. No object will bring faith to someone, or that faith will be in the object, not in Christ.
Hebrews 11:1
"Now faith is the assurance of what we hope for and the certainty of what we do not see."
Personally, I have no desire to fight with someone over a flag. I would rather speak the gospel clearly, having a conversation and hearing responses from the hearer, this could bring connection and trust, not in me but in Christ. Fighting over an object just to feel superior is of no value.
So perhaps my challenge would be not to use symbols at all when witnessing Christ. Use Words, listen to the response, and have answers from God's Word when questions arise.
Conversations with depth are what build relationships. Meaningless superficial conversations do not build relationships; they merely bring up feelings from the shallowest part of our being.
Isaiah 1:18 "18“Come now, let us reason together,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are as red as crimson, they will become like wool."
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