Flags

Two weeks ago, while at Toronto's Union Station, I picked up a marvellous book, titled The World Encyclopedia of Flags, by Alfred Znamierowski. It's one of the best treatments of its kind, covering, not only the current flags of the world's nation states, but obsolete flags, the flags of states, provinces, Länder and cantons, international organizations, and even religions, ethnic groups and ideological movements. Sections are devoted to "families" of flags, i.e., those flags possessing a common heraldic ancestor. Few people are likely aware, for example, that the blue, white and red tricolours of a number of Slavic countries count the old Dutch flag of the United Provinces as their common forebear. This is because Peter the Great patterned his Russian flag, once again in use in the post-Soviet era, after the flag in use at that time in the Netherlands, which he visited during his tour of western Europe at the end of the 17th century.



Reading this book inspired me to try my hand at creating a flag representing the neo-Calvinist movement begun by Abraham Kuyper in the Netherlands in the late 19th century and now spread around the world. Here is what I've come up with thus far:


© David T. Koyzis

The green and blue colours represent the totality of creation, marred by the fall into sin, signified by the dark line running diagonally. The white shield at the centre represents redemption in Jesus Christ. The Greek letters X and P are the first two letters for Christ (XPICTOC). The cross, of course, represents the shed blood of Christ effecting the redemption of creation. The intertwined rings at the bottom of the shield represent the various spheres of human activity all of which stand under the judgement and redemption of Christ. The gold border around the shield represents at once the costly character of Christ's sacrifice and the fulness of the kingdom of God.

Will it fly? Perhaps. Perhaps not.