In the picture to the right, Joy Lutheran Church is proudly flying the American flag along with an earlier and forgotten flag from the Revolutionary War. This is a replica of the “An Appeal to Heaven” Flag. The “Read More” button below will take you on a journey into our early history and how God was present with us as America was born. He was with us then and He is with us today.
In 1775 General Washington commissioned six warships and started a naval presence. These newly commissioned ships needed a flag to fly under and began sailing under the "An Appeal to Heaven” flag which was also known as the “Pinetree Flag” starting in Oct 1775. This was before Betsy Ross’ stars and stripes flag which didn’t arrive on the scene until June 1777. This flag was also seen on floating batteries (in Boston harbor), river banks, in towns, battlefields like Bunker Hill, and even in places of most importance like our nation's capital in Philadelphia.
The phrase “An Appeal to Heaven” comes from the 17th century English philosopher John Locke’s work on the universal law of nature. In 1689-90, he published his Second Treatise of Government which said, “…where the body of the people, or any single man, is deprived of their right, or is under the exercise of a power without right, and have no appeal on earth, then they have a liberty to appeal to heaven, whenever they judge the cause of sufficient moment.” (1) Our Founding Fathers understood that an “Appeal to Heaven” was the last resort for any oppressed people when all other forms of redress of grievances has been exhausted. This principle was also taught by Christ in the Parable of the Persistent Widow found in Luke 18:1-8.
The Pine Tree had its inspiration from two places. First, the Iroquois Indians during a very troubling time in their history, united six of their great tribes together in unity under a great pine tree. This important treaty was symbolized by each of the chiefs burying their weapons under a pine tree from which we get the phrase, “bury the hatchet.” This tree was said to be guarded by a bald eagle at its peak, clutching six arrows, representing the six tribes that were united. Does this sound familiar? The American eagle on our seal has 13 arrows in its clutches representing the 13 colonies. Secondly, the pine tree was a foundational resource in building the necessary infrastructure of our fledgling nation. America’s virgin old growth forests had pine trees of magnificent size. These trees were invaluable in that day, especially for the tall masts on the great sailing ships. In the mid 1700's, the King of England saw this great value and wanted them for his own Royal Navy and would put his mark on these impressive trees as not to be touched. These trees were known as the “King’s Trees”. They had to have a diameter over 24 inches and were marked with a “broad arrow,” the official mark to denote the king’s property, made with three blows of a hatchet. This act infuriated the colonists and served as a symbol of America’s Independence. (1)
How did a nation of “farmers with pitchforks” defeat the greatest military superpower of the day? Our Founding Fathers cite two reasons. First, their cause was righteous. Second, they firmly believed that their appeal to heaven resulted in God moving on behalf of the newly created American nation. Today’s secularist would have us to believe that God does not exist and that He does not intercede in the affairs of men. The testimony of our Founding Fathers disagrees. (2) Feel free to do your own search of our founding fathers (Washington, Franklin, Adams, Madison and Hamilton and others) and you will discover this to be true.
Yahweh, the God of the Bible, was indeed involved in America’s founding and He did so for His purpose.
An old and forgotten flag; forgotten by everyone, it seems, except God. He had evidently kept this banner in hiding for a couple of centuries, waiting in the wings of history until He was ready to reintroduce it.
“Everyone knows how God has saved us, for He has displayed His justice throughout history.” (Psalm 98:2 TPT) (3)
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