The Rainbow Hijack

During COVID many people began drawing rainbows to hang in their windows or put on public surfaces. Even children drew them on footpaths using coloured chalks. Like a rainbow appears as the sun starts to come out again after clouds and rain, it was done as a sign of hope.

It was so delightful to see the rainbow being used in a public way for something other than promoting the LGBTQ+ agenda.

But sadly the trend was short lived and seemed to disappear once the COVID lockdown time had passed.

Yet, it's never a bad time to remind ourselves of the truth about rainbows, as in our communities we still see a lot of 'mis-information' surrounding rainbows. 

One African rainbow belief recently shocked both us and our co-workers. But more on that in a moment. First of all let us remind ourselves of the true majesty and promise of God's rainbow.

The Divine Gift and Promise

God gave the first spectacular rainbow back in Genesis (9:12-17).

How amazing must it have been to be Noah and his family and see the very first one suddenly appear in the sky!

In fact in Scripture it is not called a 'rainbow' but simply God says it is 'My bow in the clouds'. It is God's bow.  The term comes from the idea of the curve of a 'bow' in the context of a hunter's 'bow and arrow'.  This was no bow that man carved and fashioned to hunt or make war with. This was a bow that God made to make a promise with.

It appeared as that 'bow' in the clouds of the sky, as the God-given symbol of God's covenant promise after the world-wide flood - to not ever destroy the world by water again. It is the 'bow' that comes after rain. It is a public display of God's faithfulness and call to not fear every time we see one. When rain comes, instead of terror of another world-wide flood it tells of the triumph of God. It reminds us that He has the last say on sin, it is He who provides full salvation, and He is the source of our peace and object of our faith. It is a sign of His grace - blessing us with His glory when we have done nothing to deserve such a gift. And it is a joyous gift…how many times have you seen people gaze in amazement or exclaim with joy or children happily dance about when they see a rainbow…especially a full one or a double one!

God has not stopped putting His 'bow' in the sky for us. Satan can't stop God doing that. But what Satan can do is try to stop God getting the glory for the rainbow and try to make mankind lose the peace and promise that God meant for it to give. Furthermore Satan will want to steal God's glory for himself. When I pause to think more about this, I realised a repetitive story of deception turning up again and again around the world. It's like Satan's great hijack agenda - wanting to 'steal' (rob) from God the glory due to God. He is out to both stop God getting the glory and to grab the glory (man's praise) for himself.

Modern Western Hijack

The most prominent rainbow hijack in our world today might be how the Western world in recent years has been 'taken over' by a very anti-God agenda. The LGBTQ+ lobby has not only taken over the public image of the rainbow, but has changed it from being known as a 7 colour bow, to a 6 colour bow. From the number in Scripture of God's perfection (as seen in all the '7s' of Revelation), to the number of man and the anti-God agenda (as seen in the Revelation number of the beast being 666).

The meaning of the rainbow, in addition to the LGBTQ+ agenda, has also taken on another false meaning…that of 'diversity' (of course primarily in relation to sex/gender issues). But the diversity meaning has spread further, to anywhere where 'diversity' is desired to be the ideology. 

It is all a terrible attempt to not only distort God's beautiful decoration in the sky, but also to rob God of His glory. Not only this but as one generation promotes such false and blasphemous rainbow meaning, the next generation of children grow up without having God on their mind the moment they see a rainbow…instead they have the glorification of sexual perversion on their minds. Considering the warning of Scripture about how we care for children and are responsible to teach and model truth to them and not put stumbling blocks in their way (Matthew 18:6), this world is signing up for a double condemnation - their own sexual sinful choices and also what they are leading the next generation of children into!

We might be thinking that this is a 'new' kind of take-over and distortion, or only a symptom of the wicked 'Western' decline.

But this has been a long time ongoing agenda of the Evil One: the Father of Lies and the great Deceiver; the one who disguised himself as a snake way back in the Garden of Eden.

This was highlighted again to me recently.

African Hijack

Botswana

A few weeks back, I was flipping through a child's Setswana picture Dictionary on our shelves, and the word alongside the rainbow picture, suddenly 'struck' me - 'motshewabadimo' - except it struck me particularly because it was written as 'motshe wa badimo' which highlighted the 3 separate words. Thus 'badimo' suddenly stood out. You see, 'badimo' is the Setswana word for ancestor spirits/gods, as opposed to Modimo for the one Creator God. 

I decided to talk to our local co-workers about it…and my 'quick' question turned into an intense 3 hour discussion!  

All three guys who are strong Christians had not thought about it before in the form of three words, and so it's actual meaning as a 'bow of the ancestors', suddenly stood out to them too! 

They quickly sent messages to other Christians and pastors they had on their WhatsApp contacts lists, and were astonished when even the Christians said this Setswana word for rainbow. No other words were given. 

What shocked the trainees, is that this word is giving honour and glory (attribution) to the ancestor spirits for what God put in the sky - it is robbing God of His due honour…and even they had been doing that without thinking about what they were doing. The discussion and realisation has ignited a new fire of zeal and courage in them to help others (including Christians) to not be robbers of God's glory!

But what shocked them even more is that the word in Genesis 9 for 'rainbow' in the Setswana Bible is also 'motshewabadimo'! Although I should clarify that. In the original Setswana translation done in 1908 (by Robert Moffat) that Setswana word is not used. But in the newer 1970 revision version, it is.

In the original, when in verse 13 God says about his rainbow in the sky, it simply says 'motshe wa me'. This is meaning 'the bow of me' or 'my bow'. This is similar to my ESV bible that also does not even use the word 'rainbow', but simply "I have set my bow in the cloud…

The guys began to realise that a cultural word that gives false gods the glory for what is God's, has not been challenged even by the Christians, and so much so that it has ended up in their bible, so that their bible tells them that God said: 'I have set my "bow of the ancestor spirits" in the cloud….'

And they realised that as a child grows, even Christian parents are telling their children in Setswana that the beautiful curve of colours in the sky after rain is the 'bow of the ancestor spirits'! 

So, as in the West, the following generation when they see a rainbow does not turn their eyes and hearts to God and give Him glory.

South Africa

Bishop Desmond Tutu first coined the term 'Rainbow nation' in relation to post-apartheid South Africa….picking up on the meaning of 'diversity'. In South Africa it is meant to be in relation to racial diversity of multi-culturalism. But again, we still need to be careful. What is a South African child first associating the concept of a 'rainbow' with….a human generated meaning or God's meaning. While a rainbow is technically the colour spectrum of light - various colours making up light, God has given us a meaning that is meant to be the first and foremost symbolism we attach to it. If there is something that grabs our thoughts towards another meaning more strongly or often than the true meaning …it has usurped God's appointed meaning. It has thus usurped its purpose of giving God glory for His faithful covenantal promise keeping. We need to be careful that 'good' meanings don't overtake, the best and highest and true meaning.

Australian Aboriginal Hijack

Now, as most of those who read this blog know, my country of birth is Australia.

Australia is the land of the Aboriginal people whose religion is referred to as the 'Dreamtime'. In that Dreamtime, there is a belief/legend which forms the foundation of all other beliefs. It is the belief that there was a 'rainbow serpent' who created the world and is still involved in the world, in particular it formed the rivers and streams that provide the earth's water.

Interestingly, the rainbow for the Australian Indigenous Aboriginal culture is not linked to the concept of a 'bow' but of the serpent. I used to wonder why that was. But recently I was re-watching a documentary video called 'Real Roots' by John Mackay of Creation Research. It explains some of the evidence for how all ethnicities in their range of languages and shades of skin colour came from the same first parents. In the video he mentions that the Australian Aboriginals (unlike other people groups around the world) have not traditionally had any 'bow and arrow' technology for hunting. Maybe this is why they attributed the 'rainbow' to the 'curve' of a serpent…and across the passages of time the traditional oral stories told from one generation to the next missed bits of information and had other bits added in to fill the knowledge gaps and it all got a bit mixed up. 

Satan thrives on keeping people ignorant (Hosea 4:6) and separated from what will enable them to flourish and enjoy creation and benefit from it to the full. After all the last thing he wants is them to know the truth about God. His goal is to steal, kill and destroy. 

So there has been a man in Western Australia who has endured years of stress and litigation because he was prosecuted for removing some silt and putting in a bit of concrete so he can get his vehicles across a creek when its flowing. Government officials are fearful that the culvert crossing disrupted the Aboriginal 'rainbow serpent' along the waterway. It was reported that: 'traditional custodian Rod Garlett told the trial that changes to the waterway could disturb the Wagyl, also known as the Rainbow Serpent, which could curse his people, leading to sickness and even death,' and the prosecution stated that 'any alteration to the Waugul's home could scare it from the water, causing it to dry up and cause harm to the surrounding environment and people. The man was told that all the benefit to the environment that his improvements had made and the extra wildlife now visiting the extra water features he had created, counted for nothing in relation to his breach of Aboriginal heritage laws. The case it seems is ongoing.

Not only does this mean that these beliefs result in Australian Aboriginal children not hearing that the rainbow comes as a covenant promise from the true God, and instead conflate the Creator God with the serpent who in Scripture is the picture of Satan…but I learnt that now most Australian school children are taught this story as if it's a valid belief (see book here), when not even the Lord's Prayer is said in school anymore in acknowledgement of the true God.

Multi-'New Age'  Hijack

Many years ago I came across a book titled 'The Hidden Dangers of the Rainbow: The new age movement and our coming age of barbarism.'  It was written in 1983. In it the author raised the warning to Christians to not assume that everyone they saw with a rainbow sticker on their car or rainbow on their shirt was having its meaning as the bow that God put in the sky as a covenant promise to never destroy mankind with a worldwide flood every again. She says at the start of her book that "the New Age Movement uses rainbows to signify their building of the Rainbow Bridge (antahkarana) between man and Lucifer who, they say, is the over-soul."

Amongst many other details she shows how the New Age Movement involves everything from Humanism to Religious cults and to Mysticism. To quote from her book (p251) "the claim is then made that the teachings were preserved in the ancient land of Babylon and surrounding Plains of Shinar and from there disseminated throughout the earth, including Taoist doctrines of China, Mayan-Aztec teachings of Mexico and Central/South America; Great Spirit teachings of the American Indians, Hindu/Buddist teachings of Asia etc"

Around the world the true meaning of the rainbow is lost.

Interestingly, despite the distortions, even the Hindu's divide up the rainbow into seven colours (as expressed in their seven Chakras).

Other Hijacks

Apparently in places such as Honduras and Burma, traditionally children are taught that the rainbow is dangerous, demonic and must never be looked at. Parents hide their children from looking at them.

Wikipedia gives a multitude of cultural beliefs around the world about the rainbow, which essentially all (except Christianity and Judaism) have little if any resemblance to the true meaning.

Instead of a display of God's glory and promise, it becomes a means of fear, distortion and destruction.

Whatever way he can, Satan wants to 'steal' anything good from God and turn it into something that is opposed to God. And he certainly is not going to be bothered if humans in their own ideas use it for purposes that are not part of God's design.

God's rainbow is related to His holiness and global judgement of sin thousands of years ago. Satan turns a rainbow into a symbol of sexual immorality and pride which are both sin that God opposes.  

God's rainbow reminds us of his (agape) love and faithfulness. Satan turns it into something linked to fear instead of true holy love. People in Botswana fear their departed ancestors rather than love them. Australian Aboriginals seem to fear upsetting the 'rainbow serpent' more than being happy about the rainbow as a symbol of promise and love.

The LGBTQ+ sector might claim their rainbow is about love, but it is in relation to sexual love not love in general, and distorted immoral sexual love that is often far from any connection to faithfulness.

The rainbow has become something for Satan to try to distort and humans to manipulate for their own purposes, rather than something that stands as a universal display and declaration of God's supreme greatness and power, beauty and glory.

As human beings we are incessant interpreters. We want to understand what we see and experience. No-one teaches us to ask 'why'. We just ask it. Without God's truth about what the rainbow is and symbolises, we will make up meanings or be open to demonically delivered meanings about it (either directly or mediated through those we believe are connected to the spiritual world).

Whether it's the rainbow or anything else for which God should be given the glory, it is a sad and serious matter when He is not given the glory He is due. Not only is it serious on an eternal judgement scale, but it is also sad because it reminds us that mankind is also not enjoying the freedom and joy of living in the glory of truth which sets people free both now and for eternity. 

Let us press on in our desire to bring God's truth for HIs glory and our joy, to our world.

…let us also remember that the rainbow, though it has been distorted in meaning, is ultimately something God created and no matter who or what distorts it, nothing can change the true colour array and meaning except God who created it.