MORE LDS FLAG(TM) INFORMATION
The Colors of Blue and White symbolize: Faith in Christ (blue);
Repentance of sins (white);
Baptism by immersion (blue);
The Gift of the Holy Ghost (white).
The Colors of Blue and white reminds us of
the promises we made with the Lord at baptism. Blue represents
immersion in water at baptism, and White represents receiving
the gift of the Holy Ghost. As a baptized member of The Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints we: 1. Join the Church of
Jesus Christ, God's kingdom on earth; 2. Take upon us the name
of Chirst; 3. Bear each other's burdens and comfort those in need;
4. Stand as a witness of God at all times and in all things, and
in all places; 5. Agree to serve God and keep his commandments.
WHITE: White represents purity; the Savior's atoning sacrifice;
the Spirit of the Lord; the heavenly Kingdom of God; peace;
the Holy Ghost; and God's pure love for all his children.
BLUE: The color blue represents prayer to God The Eternal Father in the name of Jesus Christ (Col. 3:17 "Do all in the name of...Jesus, giving thanks to God." James 1:6 "Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering."); the Gospel of Christ; God's priesthood authority on earth;
enduring faith; baptism by immersion; the firmament (blue sky)
which reminds us to follow all of God's commandments; the earthly Kingdom of God; and our relationship
with and love for the Lord.
The
Encyclopedia of LDS History by Joseph F. Smith makes note, "On
26 July 1847, just two days after Brigham Young arrived in the
Salt Lake Valley, he and others ascended a dome-shaped hill
north of the present Utah State Capitol building. He had seen
this prominent peak in a vision. As President Young raised a
flag, he also symbolically lifted the "ensign to all nations,"
inviting them to gather to Zion. From Ensign Peak the group
had an excellent panoramic view of the Salt Lake Valley and
surrounding area, the "resting place" God had designated
for his people."
On 26 July 1847 Brigham Young and several others climbed to the
top which he named "Ensign Peak," as he reported the
event in his journal. They used the view from the summit to visually
explore the entire valley.
The significance of the name, according to the pioneers, comes
from the biblical prophecy: "He will lift up an ensign
unto the nations. . . . He lifteth up an ensign on the mountains."
(Isa 5:26; 18:3). The pioneers did not erect the U.S. Flag on
the Peak on 26, July 1847 as widely reported. Most church
authorities point to Heber C. Kimball raising a handkerchief on
a walking stick on their first ascending to the top of Ensign
Peak, but it is clear they intended to raise a banner and did
so on later occasions. Pioneer journals indicate that the LDS Flag's earliest display on Ensign Peak was
during the first official Utah Pioneer Day in July of 1849 and
raised in a celebration on Ensign Peak as their "Standard
of the Nations."
Isa. 2:2 And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the
mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the tops
of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all
nations shall flow unto it.
Why
an LDS Flag(TM)
An LDS Flag is a fulfillment of prophesy. We know for certain
that all of the revelations spoken by the mouths of the ancient
and modern prophets must come to pass. So to “Lift up
an Ensign to the world” both figuratively (the Book of
Mormon and the restored gospel) and literally (an LDS Flag raised
on Ensign Peak) are a fulfillment of Isaiah’s
prophesy. We even sing about this fulfillment in Joel H. Johnson’s
Hymn written in 1853: High on a Mountain Top… “A
banner is unfurled; Ye nations now look up, it waves to all
the world… For God remembers still, His promise made of
old; That He on Zion’s Hill, truth’s standard would
unfold…”
(Seal used by President Brigham Young in Nauvoo with familiar LDS imagary; note the familiar 12 round-stars circling the central image. A Nauvoo Legion Band flag with blue and white stripes and familiar LDS imgagary of one all-seeing eye surrounded by banners.)
From the start of the Mormon settlement in Utah, its citizens
commemorated the raising of an Ensign on the hill Brigham Young
named Ensign Peak. Displaying the kingdom's flag on the sacred
hill for the first July 24th celebration, in 1849, was an important
event. LDS had displayed an LDS flag in several locations that
day as Brigham Young records. "My flag that used
to fly on the Nauvoo temple was hoisted on the east side of
the bowery." Several journals record that on that
day, "During the first Pioneer Day celebration
in 1849, Mormon pioneers also unfurled a special banner on its
summit, which they called 'the Flag of the Kingdom' or the 'Flag
of Deseret."
Where
Is Ensign Peak and why is it called Ensign Peak?
Ensign Peak is the summit of a hill just north of downtown
Salt Lake City; in fact, Salt Lake City was built exactly south
of Ensign Peak. The peak rises 1,080 feet above the valley floor
and stands out as a prominent geological formation evident from
all directions. The summit is rounded, devoid of vegetation, and
capped with a hard conglomerate stone formation. It is part of
the foothills of the Wasatch Range.
WHERE
CAN YOU FIND "ENSIGN" IN THE SCRIPTURES?
Isa.
5: 26 And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from
far, and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth: and, behold,
they shall come with speed swiftly:
Isa. 11: 10 And in that day there shall be a
root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people;
to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious.
Isa. 11: 12 And he shall set up an ensign for
the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather
together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.
Isa. 18: 3 All ye inhabitants of the world,
and dwellers on the earth, see ye, when he lifteth up an ensign
on the mountains; and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye.
Isa. 30: 17 One thousand shall flee at the rebuke
of one; at the rebuke of five shall ye flee: till ye be left as
a beacon upon the top of a mountain, and as an ensign on an hill.
Isa. 31: 9 And he shall pass over to his strong
hold for fear, and his princes shall be afraid of the ensign,
saith the LORD, whose fire is in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem.
Zech. 9: 16 And the LORD their God shall save
them in that day as the flock of his people: for they shall be
as the stones of a crown, lifted up as an ensign upon his land.
2 Ne. 15: 26 And he will lift up an ensign to
the nations from far, and will hiss unto them from the end of
the earth; and behold, they shall come with speed swiftly; none
shall be weary nor stumble among them.
2 NE 21: 10 And in that day there shall be a
root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people;
to it shall the Gentiles seek; and his rest shall be glorious.
2 NE 21: 12 And he shall set up an ensign for
the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather
together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.
D&C 64: 42 And she shall be an ensign unto
the people, and there shall come unto her out of every nation
under heaven.
D&C 105: 39 And lift up an ensign of peace,
and make a proclamation of peace unto the ends of the earth;
D&C 113: 6 Behold, thus saith the Lord,
it is a descendant of Jesse, as well as of Joseph, unto whom rightly
belongs the priesthood, and the keys of the kingdom, for an ensign,
and for the gathering of my people in the last days.
Blue and white used by ancient Israel
There were blue/purple and white colors used by Israel in the
ancient dye tekhelet, mentioned many times in the bible (Numbers
15:37-39). This color was used to dye a thread of the ritual
fringes, or tzitzit that all Jewish males are commanded to wear,
and which are tied to the corners of the ritual garment, the
tallit. This is a specific color, derived from the dye produced
by the snail Murex Trunculus, known in Hebrew as the hilazon.
This is the same dye known historically as Tyrian purple. The
confusion of shades comes from the fact (rediscovered recently)
that when wool dyed with the dye from Murex was exposed to sunlight,
the dye became a bright blue, but when the dyed wool was hidden
from light, the color produced was that of royal purple. This
change is due to the exposure of the compound dibromoindigo
(purple) to ultraviolet light, producing the compound indigo
(blue, chemically identical to the vegetable dye). These two
colors were seen as deriving from the same natural source (the
Hebrew word argaman was used for the purple shade). This color
is of immense symbolic importance in Judaism and was used in
many articles in the Temple in Jerusalem as well, including
the outer robe of the high priest.
"And
the Rabbis said: Why does the Torah enjoin us regarding tekhelet?
Because tekhelet resembles sapphire, and the Tablets were of
sapphire, to tell you that so long as the people of Yisrael
gaze upon this tekhelet they are reminded of that which is inscribed
on the Tablets and they fulfill it, and so it is written, 'And
you shall see it and remember.'" (Mishnat Rabbi Eliezer,
ch. 14).
In ancient times purple and blue dyes derived from snails were
so rare and sought after that they were literally worth their
weight in gold. These precious dyes colored the robes of the
kings and princes of Media, Babylon, Egypt, Greece and Rome.
To wear them was to be identified with royalty.
It
is frequently said that the Israeli flag (Blue and White) is
designed (1948) to resemble a Jewish prayer shawl (tallit).
The fringes, as worn in antiquity (on many garments, not just
prayer shawls — any four-cornered garment must have them,
and garments of that kind [e.g. togas] were more widely worn
back then; now, without such garments, the prayer shawls are
specially made) and again by many today, are both white and
blue, with the white, in some opinions, outnumbering the blue.
It is said that when the source and process of dying was lost
about 1500 years ago, and Jews were left with only white threads
(a practice anticipated and approved of by the Talmud, the corpus
of Jewish law, about three hundred years earlier), they began
to incorporate colored stripes into their garments to commemorate
the lost blue threads (with white still predominating, as it
may have on the threads themselves, leaving colored stripes
on a white garment). The color here was not important, as it
was only custom — there are all-white shawls, white-on-white
stripes, rainbow stripes, and many others. Black came to predominate,
at least in Europe. This may be because black dye was cheapest,
or because of a misreading of Maimonides' law code — he
uses a word which could mean either "dark" or "black"
to describe the original, fringe-dye. He obviously means "dark,"
as in "dark blue," as the fact that it was blue was
well known (see below), and he was limiting it (other opinions
range from reddish or purplish blue all the way to greenish
blue or green). However, some read this as "black"
and dyed their stripes accordingly.
Others,
however, especially in Africa and Asia, had their stripes the
original blue. I have even heard an opinion that this was an
ancient practice, dating to when dyed fringes were worn —
the shawl was dyed to match the threads, white with some blue
(stripes). With the blue fringes lost, some changed the stripes
to black, so it would only be a commemeration. The Rev. Ezra
Stiles of Yale University in the 18th Century reports that Rabbi
Isaac Carigal, an emmissary from Turkey and Israel, wore blue
stripes on his tallit, by the way.
And
why blue? The Talmud explains that it is meant to evoke the
sea, both in color as well as in source (a sea snail). The sea's
color reminds us of the heavens' color (blue), and, of course,
heaven reminds us of God.
Scorce:
On Ancient Israel Blue can be found at the website http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/index.html
