Who owns the rainbow?
The warfare is ended
Several generations after Adam and before Abraham, given the reality of sin working out in human nature, men and women were growing in evil, corruption, idolatry, sexual immorality, and all kinds of blasphemy (Genesis 6:1-5). God saw the wickedness of creatures that were made to bear His image, and for this reason He decided to wipe all humans from the face of the earth, except for one man and his family (Genesis 6:6-8).
God chose to show mercy to Noah and his family, commanding him to build a boat to survive the coming destruction, bringing with him two of every animal to repopulate the earth (Genesis 6:11-22). God then brought a worldwide flood, killing man and beast – every creature that breathes on the land, cleansing the world of sinfulness (Genesis 7:1-24). The flood eventually subsided, and Noah, his family, and the animals stepped onto dry land, ready to multiply and fill the earth once again (Genesis 8:1-19), as commanded by God.
God promises to never flood the earth again, and then gives Noah a sign of His promise – the rainbow – and instead of this multi-coloured war bow being bent toward the earth (as it was when God rained down judgement upon the earth like arrows), it would be bent upward, as if hung up in the sky never to be used again (Genesis 9:12-17).
With this promise from God, the warfare between man and God ceased and the flood of God’s judgment was over, and now God’s grace and mercy would fall from heaven like showers of rain from the clouds.
A celebration of sin
In 1978, San Francisco City Supervisor Harvey Milk encouraged Gilbert Baker, an artist, to design the first rainbow flag. Both Milk and Baker were sodomites, and Baker was also an activist and a drag queen. Baker assigned a meaning to each of the colors: hot pink for sex, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, turquoise for magic, blue for harmony, and violet for spirit. The flag first flew in San Francisco’s United Nations Plaza for Gay Pride Day, on June 25, 1978.
According to the Washington Post, “Baker says he saw a flag as a more powerful symbol than a seal or a sign, since it is flown to represent a nation, people, or country. ‘We are a people, a tribe if you will. And flags are about proclaiming power, so it’s very appropriate,’ he said.
‘We needed something beautiful, something from us. The rainbow is so perfect because it really fits our diversity in terms of race, gender, ages, all of those things,’ said Baker. ‘Plus, it’s a natural flag—it’s from the sky! And even though the rainbow has been used in other ways, this use has now far eclipsed any other use that it had’" (emphasis mine).
The purpose of co-opting the rainbow, as I have already explained, was to celebrate all vile manner of wickedness, the kinds of things the Lord calls “abomination” (Leviticus 18), “against nature” (Romans 1), and “eternally damning” (1 Corinthians 6). Exchanging the glory of God’s good and gracious design for marriage and sexuality, the founding fathers of the Rainbow Mafia chose to glorify sodomy, which has further led to the glorification of polygamy, genital mutilation, chemical castration, and paedophilia.
Take the power back
Gilbert Baker was acutely aware that flags represented not only power in general, but power exercised by one nation over another nation. Flags epitomize conquest and domination. Flags are planted by the victors as a declaration that the land is now under their rule, and the defeated people must bow to the new king (or in this case, queen), otherwise they are to be executed or exiled.
The rainbow flag was created to seize power, first and foremost, from God Himself. Those who prefer darkness rather than light despise both the Lord and His Kingdom rule over the whole earth. They reject His Kingship and wish to be ruled by their own sexual desires and deviancies. As Doug Wilson is fond of saying, those who reject God and His reign are ultimately looking to take His job.
Rainbow pirates
Copyright infringement, also known as piracy, is defined as, “the unauthorized use of another's production, invention, or conception.” God produced the rainbow. God invented the rainbow. God conceived of the rainbow. Gilbert Baker did not consult the Almighty when he stole the Lord’s rainbow and used it to celebrate sodomy. Subsequent scores of sexual deviants have not asked the Lord for permission to use His rainbow to glorify sexual sins. Most ironic in all of this is that the very same multi-coloured war bow hung in the sky by Yahweh as a sign of His mercy toward sinners has been taken out of its place and used to normalize the exact kinds of sins that brought God’s wrath upon the earth in the first place.
Christians must declare that we will not be silent while LGBTQ pirates attempt to hijack God’s symbol in the sky. Raindrops reflect and refract light to create the multi-coloured arc we see after a storm. Christians must say that Jesus, the Light of the world – the one whose death is the supreme display of God’s mercy – is the One to which the rainbow points. He owns it. It belongs to Him alone. The alphabet mob can’t have it.