Rev. Daniel Fleischer
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. This pledge dates to 1892. It was first spoken in a school in October of that year. It was officially recognized by the government in 1942. Its original salute was a straight arm thrust mimicked by Adolph Hitler. For obvious reasons, in 1942 President Franklin Roosevelt signed a law that the Pledge “be rendered by standing with the right hand over the heart.” At the request of President Eisenhower, in 1954 congress added “under God.”
Men and women have served in the military to defend the flag, and the principles expressed in the Pledge. Citizens of this country owe those who served, and serve, our highest respect for the service they rendered. We ought to remember with deep appreciation and gratitude. We should not forget those who endured the rigors and dangers of war on land, on the sea, and in the air, countless thousands of whom suffered and still suffer the physical and emotional consequences of war. We honor the countless thousands who gave their life in battle and now lie in military cemeteries in our country and wherever else they lie.
With the passing of time, there is reason to wonder if the ideals of the Pledge of Allegiance which those in the past served to defend and for which they died still resonate in our selfish and divided land. In our deteriorating nation and culture is there still the same respect or “allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands?” Are we still “one nation?” “Under God?” If it ever meant anything, what does “under God” mean today? How in our increasingly physically, morally, politically, divided country, how can the claim be made that we are “indivisible?” A nation that some claim to have been “the best nation on earth,” though by no stretch of the imagination was it ever a perfect nation, is plummeting to moral depths that rivals, if not surpasses, Sodom and Gomorrah which reaped the judgment of the same God under whom we claim to live. The “liberty and justice for all” of the Pledge was and is a well-intended grandiose ideal. When did we achieve it, or when will we attain it in a society where sinful philosophies dominate from the highest seats in government to the streets?
Under the circumstances that prevail in the land, Christians who speak the truth, and witness to their faith are castigated, on one hand, as unpatriotic or, on the other hand, as super patriotic bigots. But that is the manner of the world in which we live–one that speaks of God but does not listen to Him, or heed His call. Wicked King Ahab and his equally wicked wife, Jezebel, blamed Elijah for the troubles in idolatrous Israel, and asked the prophet, “Is that you, O troubler of Israel?” Elijah countered, “I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father’s house have, in that you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and have followed the Baals” (1 King 18:17-18). Fast forward to a.d. 2024.
Christians thank the Lord for living in a country such as ours. We are enthralled at the beauty of the land, the opportunities it affords, the freedom we have experienced and the privileges we have enjoyed heretofore. We pray for it and for its leaders, that they will seek first the will of God through personally living in the Word, and through prayer and supplication, and that they will govern in accord with the constitution and laws of the republic they have sworn to serve to the welfare of those who have elected them.
The people of God, redeemed unto salvation by the blood of the innocent Son of God, and called to faith and sanctification have the holy responsibility to live and witness in word and deed in this world.
“Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation. Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, whether to the king as supreme, or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men–as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God. Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king. Servants, be submissive to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the harsh. For this is commendable, if because of conscience toward God one endures grief, suffering wrongfully. For what credit is it if, when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God. For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: “Who committed no sin, Nor was deceit found in His mouth”; who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously…” (1 Peter 2:11-23).
The Triune God is the God whom Christians confess; they confess the Lord Jesus Christ as true God and Man Who offered up Himself on the cross for the sins of the world. Faith born of the Spirit through the inspired Word make them a special people in God’s sight. (1 Peter 2:9). Christ-believers constitute the Holy Christian Church, the Body of Christ. They believe and respect the Word of God in its entirety as the lamp unto their feet and the light unto their path as they journey through life, (Psalm 119:105), to life in heaven that God has prepared for all who confess their sins and call on the name of the Lord. They sing with anticipation, “I’m but a stranger here, Heaven is my home.” (TLH-660)
Citizens of heaven (Philippians 3:20) sing as citizens of the nation, “God bless our native land, firm may she ever stand through storm and night,” and “For her our prayers shall rise to God above the skies; on Him we wait.” (TLH-677) In that spirit Christians respect the flag and the Pledge as citizens of this country. They recognize also that their Lord, the Ruler of the nations, is worthy of respect above all. For that reason, when conflicts between the state and the will of God occur, believers in Christ say with the disciples “We ought to obey God rather than man” (Acts 5:29). Christians do not expect that the people of the earth who have no respect for God will understand that, much less accept it. While they wait for the eternal country, it grieves and aggravates God’s people to see their temporary country walking the path to destruction.
We cannot equate Judah’s and Jerusalem’s relationship to the true God with the nations of the earth today, including the United States. Nevertheless, a similarity is seen when nations in decline through unbelief and wickedness invite troubles and suffer judgment. In these circumstances, Christ-believers, like the faithful remnant of Judah that was taken to Babylon, should expect to suffer. If there is any silver lining in that scenario, or in suffering for the sake of their faith, it is that the sufferings of the present time do not begin to compare to the glory which the children of God shall know when they are called from this world. In this milieu as they confess their faith, and bear the wrath of a hateful world, they say with the apostle, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18).
The prophet Isaiah prophesied in Judah against Judah and Jerusalem because of their idolatry and for forsaking the will of God. He always added words of comfort for the faithful who continued to put their trust in the Lord. “To unbelievers and ungodly people, he proclaimed God’s punishments in their full severity; but to the ‘remnant,’ the believers, the pious people, he prophesied the redemption which would extend over all the judgments and told them of the coming Messiah and His kingdom and the eternal glory in the world to come” (Introduction to the Old Testament, CPH 1925, [reprint by Immanuel Lutheran Seminary, 1969], p.70 ). He prophesied before the Babylonian captivity. For the comfort of the believers, Isaiah bid them to remember the grace of God to Abraham, saying, “For the Lord will comfort Zion, He will comfort all her waste places…” (Isaiah 51:3). Though they suffered for a time, God in His grace would keep them. The remnant who would not see it for a time and would endure tribulation were told by the Lord, “Listen to Me, you who know righteousness, you people in whose heart is My law: Do not fear the reproach of men, nor be afraid of their insults. For the moth will eat them up like a garment, and the worm will eat them like wool; but My righteousness will be forever, and My salvation from generation to generation…So the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing, with everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness; Sorrow and sighing shall flee away” (7-8,11). Judah found that peace and hope in the promise of the Messiah.
Only the Lord knows what He has in store for an ungodly nation, but we do know that after the sorrow and anguish over whatever it will be for His childrfen, He will deliver His Zion to peace and rest. The redeemed who have died in the faith and who with perfectly united voices raise their thanksgiving to the God of their salvation will remember the past no more for the joy that no one can take away. The joy that is promised upon the Savior’s return shall come to all who have endured this life trusting in Christ. All who died in Christ will join the choir that sings loud hosannas in heaven where “There shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him. They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever… These words are faithful and true” (Revelation 22:3-6).
Eternal life is the Pledge of the Father to all who have endured this life and who died believing and trusting in Him—liberty and justice for all. “Even so, come, Lord Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all” (22:21).
Rev. Daniel Fleischer is a retired pastor, former CLC president, residing in Oakdale, MN.
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