FLAGS IN THE BIBLE Ancient Israel had banners or flags as shown in the scriptures.  Speaking of them, Psalm 20:5 says "We will cry out joyfully because of your salvation, and in the name of our God we shall lift our banners." Canticles (Song of Solomon) 2:4 says "He brought me into the house of wine, and his banner over me was love." Canticles (Song of Solomon) 6:4 says "You are beautiful , O girl companion of mine, like Pleasant City, comely like Jerusalem, awesome as companies gathered around banners." And Canticles 6:10 which states "Who is this woman who is looking down like the dawn, beautiful like the full moon, pure like the glowing sun, awesome as companies gathered around banners?" As said, it's a fact that the ten tribes and nation of Israel used banners or flags because God had told them to do so.  How so?  For example pagan nations often carried into battle small idols on elevated poles representative of the gods they worshipped.  God had told the Israelites they must not use idols (Exodus 20:4), so to represent themselves and God they instead used banners or flags. So now you know the rest of the story about what the Bible itself says of flags. Obviously any fanatical, unquestioning and blind allegiance to any human group as with the ultra-nationalism of the Nazis is wrong, but again the Bible itself speaks of flags, ensigns or banners in no negative way but in positive contexts of joy and love.  Most people use or salute them to show "respect," not to worship them, any national  or governmental system.  For more free Bible tracts, leaflets etc see christianwitnesses.com, a name easy to remember

FLAGS OR BANNERS OF THE 12 TRIBES OF ISRAEL Numbers 2 records “1 The LORD said to Moses and Aaron: 2 “The Israelites are to camp around the tent of meeting some distance from it, each of them under their standard and holding the banners of their family.”  The question is what was on the banners? According to rabbinical tradition Judah’s banner had a lion, Reuben’s had a man’s head, Ephraim’s had an ox, and Dan’s had an eagle.  What was on the banners or flags of the other tribes is speculation but determined on the basis of scriptures that describe the tribes.  The vision at Ezekiel 1:10 also described cherubs with the faces of four living creatures.  Jewish traditions as seen in rabbinical tradition and from Jewish writers holds that the banners contained the symbols of the four living creatures of Ezekial 1:10 which says “Their faces looked like this: Each of the four had the face of a human being, and on the right side each had the face of a lion, and on the left the face of an ox; each also had the face of an eagle.” Revelation 4:6 onward speaks of four living creatures before God’s throne: “In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back. 7 The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle.” Some have claimed that the law at Exodus 20:4 against images banned any images on the banners.  However God told the Israelites to decorate His tabernacle and temple with images for example of lions, oxen and cherubim: Ex 26:1; 36:8, 35; 1Ki 6:32; 1Ki 7:29; 2Ki 16:17; 2Chr 4:3-4, 15.  The historian Josephus says Jews opposed images on the army standards of Roman soldiers but the opposition was likely because of the particular images in their ensigns, not to all images. For more free Bible tracts, leaflets etc see christianwitnesses.com, a name easy to remember

HOW FLAG DAYS ARE VIEWED IN THE UNITED STATES AND OTHER NATIONS Many nations have what are called Flag Days.  In some lands people get paid vacations while not having to work, there are parades, etc.  In other lands the days pass largely unnoticed as is the case in the United States.   In some lands the days may also commemorate annual remembrances such as when a nation became independent from some other mother nation or occupying power.   In others they may simply exist as a statement that on a certain day the flag became the national emblem. Viewed throughout the centuries and from land to land, how flags are looked at has varied greatly.  They have been seen as emblems of an ultra-nationalistic attitude in many ways worshipped as with the swastika flag of the Nazis under Hitler, but for the most part they have been and are seen as emblems that merit respect but not actual worship like an idol.  In the Bible the twelve tribes of Israel each used distinctive banners or flags, and scriptures always speak well of them.  Numbers 2:1, 2; Psalm 20:5, Canticles also called Song of Solomon 2:4, 6:4, 10. Concerning Flag Day in the United States, Charles Dudley Warner wrote an article in Hartford, Connecticut on June 14, 1861 two months after Civil War hostilities had begun between the Confederacy and the United States. It led to a U.S. Flag Day which has been celebrated on June 14 each year in commemoration of the flag having been adopted as a result of a resolution of the Second Continental Congress in 1777.  In 1916 during World War I, then U.S. President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation establishing the June 14 date, but it was not until August 1949 when an Act of Congress formally established Flag Day.  However it is still not an official federal holiday, and only on June 14, 1937 did Pennsylvania become the lone U.S. state to celebrate it. Kansas: a Cyclopedia of State History (1912) credits George Morris of Hartford, Connecticut, as first suggesting the establishing of a U.S. Flag Day.  However, Bernard J. Cigrand is most often called the Father of Flag Day.  He led an observation of it while a grade school teacher at Stony Hill School in Waubeka, Wisconsin, in 1885.  He continued to write about it and noted that he had given 2,188 speeches about it.  In times of war many people see national flags as rallying emblems.  Since Romans 13:1 says “authorities that exist have been established by God,” the view of most in genuinely pro-freedom democracies is that they are also honoring both their nations and God by showing respect for the flag.  Each Christian knows how national flags are viewed in his or her own particular time and place.  The apostle Paul noted that Christians have freedom of conscience and are not to be judged about the observing of days. (Romans 14:1-22, Colossians 2:16) For more free Bible tracts, leaflets etc see christianwitnesses.com, a name easy to remember