Is the Rainbow at Odds with the Cross?

The photograph you see above is that of light refracting off of my bedroom dresser mirror and forming a little rainbow on my bed, near my pillow. One evening, around 4 years ago, God sent this encouragement when I needed it. When I saw this miniature rainbow on my bed, I was reminded that God is: a covenant-making and covenant-keeping God; a promise- making and promise-keeping God; a prayer-hearing and prayer-answering God. That was the original intent of the rainbow.

The original context in which the rainbow was set in the clouds, and what it means, runs counter to the thinking of those who celebrate ‘Pride Month.’ By that time in the history of mankind, sin had long since entered the human race through Adam. The effects of sin were so catastrophic that it might have destroyed all of life. But then the rainbow appeared and signaled a new lease of life.

The Bible says in Genesis 6:5-8 “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. The Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.” Then in the midst of this agony that God feels, we read a statement of relief: “But Noah found favor [or grace] in the eyes of the Lord.” 

As a result of the favor Noah had with God, and the grace he had from God, Noah lived righteously in the midst of all the sin that plagued his generation. So godly was Noah, and close in relationship with God, that God decided to tell Noah His plans to destroy all that lived upon the earth, who grieved His heart. In Genesis 6:18 God says to Noah, “But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.” God makes a covenant with Noah.

Over a span of 120 years, Noah builds the ark. He and his family board the ark with their animal friends. The long-prophesied flood finally arrives, and it rains for 40 days and nights with the fountains of the ocean deep also opening up. Everything and everyone outside the ark, dies. The water covers the earth for 150 days after the rains.

When the flood waters dry up and they exit the ark, God says this to Noah in Genesis 9:12-13, “And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all successive generations; I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth.” The rainbow appears, signaling a new lease of life for mankind: that God would never destroy the earth with water again; that He would give the human race a fresh start through Noah and family.  

When America Sneezes . . .

What does the rainbow set in the clouds mean? Of course, today the LGBTQ+ movement has hijacked the symbolism of the rainbow. June is ‘Pride Month’ in the USA and many other parts of the world. In certain parts of the world, the LGBTQ+ movement may have not have garnered as much force and following as in the US, but it is certainly prevalent in Europe and countries in the Eastern hemisphere of the world as well.

Borrowing from Klemens von Metternich, 19th century Chancellor of Austria, who said, “When France sneezes, Europe catches a cold,” in my observation, I have maintained that “When America sneezes, India catches a cold” (for that matter, many other nations do). The pride of the LGBTQ+ movement from America has certainly given “colds” to many other nations (including India) emboldening them to be “prideful.”

The problem with this rainbow version of pride however, though it may sound cliched, is that it gets people fried. After that new lease of life was given by God to humankind through Noah, the Bible records that the human race plunged deep into sin again, and Sodom and Gomorrah, the homosexual pride capital of the earth in that generation, was destroyed not by water, but by fire. Sodom had no ark of protection, no fire-shield.

The Bow and the Cross

Did you know that the same rainbow that signals no more global destruction by water, can also serve as a shield from fire—that is, from the wrath of God? Did you know that the message of the rainbow comports with the message of the cross of Jesus Christ? For both the cross and the rainbow come from the same God. The God who created physical light, and the process by which it refracts to display the rainbow in the sky, is the same God who chose the cross on the earth to be the means by which spiritual light is dispersed and the darkness of sin dispelled.    

The meaning of the rainbow, that is, what it is truly intended to symbolize, is far from what the LQBTQ+ groups want it to symbolize. The word for “bow” in the Hebrew signifies a warrior’s bow. In the days of Noah, God, the warrior, had unleashed His wrath on erring and unrepentant humanity, except Noah and family. Post the global deluge, He hangs up His bow as if to say, “I will not use it anymore.” And never again since then has there been a global flood.

Further notice about the rainbow, that the bow points upward to the heavens. Yes, in terms of physics, the arc of a rainbow that we see in the clouds is merely a part of the whole circle of refracted light. But that’s the point. God allows us to see only the part that points upwards, the part that is aimed at Him, not the part that is aimed below. Imagine that: God, the divine Archer, points the bow of His wrath at Himself, and hides the part pointed at us. And on the cross, all the wrath of God that should be justly aimed at us, was aimed at and directly hit, the Son of God, Jesus Christ—not just so man might have a new lease of life, but so that all who believe in Jesus Christ might have eternal life.

Our True Pride  

The next time the world is destroyed, it will not be with water, but with fire. Only Noah and his family lived through that ancient global flood, protected inside the ark. The rest perished. All who are outside the protective ark of the cross of Christ will perish when the wrath of God is unleashed in the future. Only those who are in Christ will be shielded from the future wrath of God.

Are you in Christ and favored by God to live righteously before Him? If you are outside of Christ, nothing of your own contrivance can protect you from God’s coming judgment and wrath.

The good news is this: every time we see a rainbow, it is to remind us that even in a world of sin which God detests, we can receive God’s favor like Noah. The rainbow therefore, is a symbol of favor and peace to those who choose to live righteously by God’s grace. But the rainbow is only a symbol of favor and peace to those who identify with the cross of Christ and believe in Him, and what He accomplished on the cross to save us.

In other words, to claim the blessings of the bow, one must come to the cross, and cling to the cross. And when one comes to the cross, he or she, whether a homosexual sinner or a heterosexual sinner, can leave their sins behind and rise . . . a fully forgiven and transformed person. When you have experienced this transformation only Christ effects, you will realize that the only true and valid basis for our pride is the cross of Christ, not one’s sexual orientation or deviation. This is what the Apostle Paul meant when he wrote:

“… But may it never be that I would boast,

except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,

through which the world has been crucified to me,

and I to the world.”

—Galatians 6:14

Can you take pride in the cross of Christ, where paradoxically, we are humbled before God?

Thank you for reading this article. Please share it with others, even as we pray for people during this ‘Pride Month,’ to be humbled before God, at the cross of Christ.    

—  © Kenny Damara, 2024