Before I begin this article, let me first be as transparent as possible and say that although everything I will be teaching in this article is true and accurate to the best of my knowledge and abilities, I will be using a little extra-Biblical tradition. This, I believe, is justified, and I will explain why as the article goes on. However, I firmly agree with the logic of Jerome, "that which hath not authority from Scripture, we may as easily despise as approve". Therefore, while I always advise discernment even when I do directly cite Scripture, I advise extra caution with regard to the tradition I will be describing.
That tradition pertains to the deeper meaning of the rainbow. Biblically speaking, the rainbow does have a lot of meaning. Here's what God has to say about it: "...This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud; and I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth. (...) This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth." (Genesis 9:12-17).
Based on God's word, we see that the rainbow is therefore closely associated not only with the first global judgment, but also with the promise that it shall never happen again. At least, not that way. But as we are told later in Scripture, the world is not protected from a second global judgment. The most prominent example is found in Peter's second epistle, where he says "For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men." (2 Peter 3:5-7).
Thus far, as indeed my goal is with this entire ministry, I have been nothing but Biblical. The world was destroyed by water, as the Scriptures say. God set the rainbow as the sign of His covenant with all flesh, as the Scriptures say. God will one day judge the world by fire, as the Scriptures say. This is where I deviate (yet only slightly) from the Scriptures, drawing on a tradition about the particular details of the rainbow.
To begin with, it is noteworthy that the visible rainbow has 7 colors: Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. Let's get a little sciencey for a moment. How do we see color? Well, light is both a particle and a wave, and much like any other wave, it travels at varying frequencies. Violet, being the end of the visible spectrum, moves very fast, whereas red, at the other end, moves a lot slower.
When the sun gives its light, all colors are actually present, and combined, producing "white" light. When it hits an object, much of that light is absorbed, but some of it is also reflected. If all the light is absorbed, you will see black, and if all the light is reflected, you see white. With an orange, all the light is absorbed, but the orange light is reflected, and so oranges appear orange to us. With a lemon, all but the yellow light is absorbed, and so we see lemons as yellow.
With rainbows, the concept is similar. The white light travels from the sun as usual, but what happens instead of it reflecting off an object is it enters water droplets floating in the air (which is why it happens after rain), and bends, before getting reflected in separate wavelengths.
What sometimes follows from all of this is that maybe, all the colors of the rainbow represent specific periods in history. Violet represents creation, the short time in which God created the heavens, the Earth, and all that are in them, in 6 days, and rested on the 7th (Genesis 1; Exodus 20:11). On the other end of the visible spectrum, red represents the final judgement by fire.
This theory is somewhat bolstered by the fact that violet is the shortest wavelength, and red is the longest. Creation, of course, was a very short affair. God worked very quickly, and when you consider just how vast the heavens are, that is a very very fast time (though of course, being God, it would have been just as easy for Him to do it in an instant). By contrast, the final judgment is slow, so slow that some even mistake God's patience for slackness. It's been 2,000 years since He raised Jesus from the dead. For 2,000 years, we have been told to watch, for He is coming like a thief in the night. Yet so far, this watching has been unfruitful. And of course, not knowing the time, we cannot be sure even we will live to see that day. If the Lord wills, another 6,000 years may pass before He rolls up the heavens like a scroll, and melts them in the fervent heat.
Regardless of how true this theory of the rainbow is, there is another being who uses the rainbow as a symbol. The devil, being a fearsome predator with no love for human beings, nor desire to glorify God, hijacks the rainbow for his own selfish ends. But what's noteworthy about his rainbow is that he always removes one color from it. Whereas God's rainbow prominently displays 7 colors, Satan's only sports 6 (unless you count the recent Trans Triangle addition).
Satan's tactics never change, mainly because they never need to. Each generation of human are sons of Adam, and daughters of Eve, and so the same traps that worked on them work just as well on us. He twists the word of God, causes us to question it, waves our desires before our eyes, and tells us we shall be like God. It is of note that Satan himself has this desire: "“How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’" (Isaiah 14:12-14).
Satan does not want to be greater than God, because there literally is no greater than God. You can look up, down, left, or right, you will never find anything greater than God. There is only God. Thus, Satan can only ever want to be like the Most High. And this desire, he shares with us. He tells us "you shall be like God", and guides us in the path to seeking it. Seeking it, but of course never finding it, for God will share His glory with no man (Isaiah 42:8; 48:11), and as no god was formed before Him, so also will there be none after Him (Isaiah 43:10). Amen.
But Satan imitates God in many ways, hence why he steals his symbols. Yet he corrupts them also. Now, why exactly would Satan be motivated to remove violet from God's rainbow? Well, coincidentally, he also launches an absurd number of attacks on the earliest chapters of Genesis. Unbelievers, of course, attack Genesis very aggressively. They are even willing to pretend they are descendants of screaming apes just to avoid our link with the first Adam. Worryingly, even many Christians shake hands with this ancient serpent (Revelation 12:9; 20:2) on this one issue, classing Genesis 1-11 as mere poetry, seemingly without reason. And indeed, without reason! On what grounds? Science? Certainly not. Origins isn't even a scientific issue, it's a historical one. And the Bible makes the history of our origins quite clear, right from the mouth of the Creator Himself.
But God gives us quite a stern warning about the dangers of compromising His word. "You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you." (Deuteronomy 4:2). Adding to God's word is dangerous, it leads to disobedience, and disobedience leads to death. Removing from God's word is dangerous, it leads to disobedience, and disobedience leads to death.
And blimey do we see this now!
Of course, no country has a fully Christian foundation. But suffice to say, there was a time in many Western nations when Christianity was quite prominent, and commitment to God's word was strong. The results speak for themselves. We invented the university, we laid the foundation for the scientific revolution, we hamstrung the global slave trade, we propped up hospitals around the world. These are just a few of our achievements. This, of course, ignoring the fact we are unique in preaching that human rights are absolute and inalienable, leading to one of the greatest legal documents the world has ever seen: The U.S. Constitution.
But it all went downhill from there, didn't it? Antitheists like Charles Darwin and Lyell began spreading their lies, leading to an entire century of bloodshed. And not all of it subtle. A world at war, dictators viewing the lives of their people as collateral damage - if not a full blown solution to their nations' problems, sick minded monsters promoting eugenics, a major boost in racism, there is no end to the horrors that Evolution caused just by existing in the minds of the atheists. But when Evolution slunk in the back door of the Church, it really caused havoc. No longer did the Church go out into the world and bring light wherever we went. Instead, the world came into the Church, snuffing out every flame it could find.
The word tells us clearly, "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God." (1 Corinthians 6:9-10). So much truth, grounded in just 11 chapters. Really, just the first 3. In these 3 chapters, we see the origins of all things, when God "...saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good...." (Genesis 1:31). The 6th day, bright and glorious, when our Lord looked over His finished work (His perfect work, as we find in Deuteronomy 32:4), when there was no sin.
With no sin, there was no death. No flaws at all. There was just one man, and his one wife, and they were one flesh. And they were unashamed, even being fully naked! But then who should show up but this spindly little reptile, his heart full of pride, his eyes full of fury, and his lips poised to lie. "Did God really say..."
Twisting and questioning God's word worked. This evil menace plunged the world into a darkness from which it will never recover. But if you don't believe that, why would you believe anything grounded on that? If you believe death is just the natural order of things, why would you consider it the last enemy to be defeated (1 Corinthians 15:26)? If you don't believe God designed marriage in the beginning, using Adam and Eve as the archetype, why would you bother sticking to His plan for human sexuality? Why not be polyamorous? Why not fornicate? Why not be gay? Animals do it!
And this is why we see so much sin in the Church. Of course, we would see sin anyway. The Fall still happened, we're all descended from Adam, and the Bible tells us if we say we have no sin, we are self deceived, and the truth is not in us (1 John 1:8-10). But when I say we see sin in the Church, I mean in the pulpit. We see Satan standing there just as proudly as he sat under that tree, 6,000 years ago, teaching the exact same message as the day he first taught us to rebel against our Creator.
All of this could be avoided if we would just say no. No, you do not get to tear out the first 11 chapters of Scripture. No, you do not get to arbitrarily decide anyone prior to Abraham is just an allegorical figure with no concrete existence. No, you do not get to decide God's word is so wide open to interpretation as to allow the atheistic creation myths on par with, and especially not greater than, the interpretation that Genesis means what it says. If we would only stand on God's word from the very first verse, we would not see nearly as many Christians rejecting His word elsewhere. If we, as members of a congregation, would shun false preachers, there would be no more profit in false preaching. If we, as preachers, would keep the truth in our mouths, there would be no more tares in the pews seeking someone to tickle their ears.
We do not need any more of this "did God really say?" What we need is "it is written", and "have you not read?" Did God really say "For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day"? Exodus 20:11, yes He did! It is written, "So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them." (Genesis 1:27), and have you not read "Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh" (Genesis 2:24)? Do you see how easy this is? Compromise requires a seared conscience. Sincere exegesis doesn't cause so much as a sun tan.
So let the devil throw his paddies. Let him wave his counterfeit rainbow. But he must not be allowed to step one toe through our church doors. When we enter the room, he steps out. When he questions God's word, our answer better not be "you have a point", it better be to point him right to the gates of Hell, where he will be sent. But not us. Our God crossed over from Heaven to Earth, entered our world through a virgin womb, lived a life of poverty, and spilled His Holy blood on the ground just to purchase our life from the grave we dug for ourselves. May the Word who was with God in the beginning be heeded until the end, in Jesus' Holy name! Amen!