Leaving Egypt Ministries, Obadiah D. Morris

There is more to be said about the nature of things like “national anthems” than will be covered here. 

Such things as state flags, pledges of allegiance, and national anthems are all, however, highly representative of the sinful, statist society that we live under. They are displays of the evils, idolatries, lusts for murder, and support for plunder, that are within men’s hearts and minds.

It is no surprise that a Babylonian society like ours comes with these things, that they are as pervasive and popular as they are, and that the false idols and false gods of the scripture are still with us today. 

“National anthems” are thus no insignificant example of sin and evil in our world and the schemes of men to get others to worship their gods. It cannot be ignored. Singing praises unto the State is one of the great, if seemingly benign, manifestations of sin in our society. And it is one of the main ways men (if unwittingly) worship this false god. 

History of the “national anthem“

One problem though is that men have been trained to believe otherwise by Pharaoh’s propagandists, which is where these statist efforts came from. They were explicit attempts to indoctrinate men, prey upon and exploit their sinful tendencies, and get them to turn their worship toward the Salvation State.

These propaganda campaigns helped men to believe that “freedom” comes from Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen, and that all praise is due to the “almighty” Egypt. They see no issue because they have been taught from day-one to sing Pharaoh a tune as an effort to rally the needed idolatrous support behind the false god system.

As one libertarian writer explains, 

“During the early twentieth and late nineteenth centuries, Americans adopted a variety of new pro-government rituals designed to inculcate an ideological preference for political unity, uniformity, and obeisance to the regime. Most notable among these was the introduction of the ‘Pledge of Allegiance,’ written by a socialist and designed to inculcate into Americans the idea that the United States was forever ‘indivisible.’ (It was also part of a business scheme to sell American flags)…By the 1920s, the national anthem was growing in popularity as well.”

Such things as “national anthems” are not proof of the “great nation” we have, but evidence of just how many men have lost touch with God and built up Egypt as their false god.  

As he went on, 

“Thanks to the Civil War and the First World War, local cultural autonomy gave way to new cultural expectations that Americans stand around pledging allegiance to the state and singing secular hymns extolling the wonders of ‘the land of the free.’ Any dissent from these ‘traditions’ was to be condemned as acts of ‘hating America.'”

Secular hymns!

And if you don’t sing them you’re the one who hates “freedom!”

This is how deep in Egypt we are, people: Millions of people (especially American conservatives) think that not worshiping the false god State—the very subject of sin and idolatry in the scriptures—is what makes one a heathen communist! “We weren’t socialists back in my day…we proudly said the pledge.”

Our people don’t even see the Egyptian society that they have heaped words and songs of praise upon, much less that Pharaoh robs them to fund the idolatries that work to sucker them into supporting his Egyptian society — that they pay for their own foolishness and slavery. 

As the prophet Jeremiah laments, “My people have been lost sheep. Their shepherds have led them astray, turning them away on the mountains. From mountain to hill they have gone. They have forgotten their fold” (Jeremiah 50:6). 

This is too radical for most people…especially if you’re one of the guilty “red-faced patriots” who just recently sang the anthem with your hat in one hand and heart in the other and are beginning to realize that you’re the Caesar-worshiping socialist.  

May we sing and heap praise on anyone?

So there’s an even more basic argument against “national anthems” and “pledges of allegiance” that we can make besides pointing out the idolatrous nature surrounding them. (And something basic is needed given that the sin and idolatry surrounding it hasn’t been obvious to men, most of whom take no issue standing up to salute Caesar at the ball game while still thinking of themselves as Christians). 

The spiritual development that a Christian undergoes causes him to realize that we must decide in everything we do if we are serving God or false gods. Such a rule soon causes us to question everything we’ve been taught and shown by “the world” that we are to be avoiding.

Listening to secular music quickly becomes one of those problems for a man who the spirit of God is moving through. 

Likewise, as the psalmists show, what we sing and the words that come out of our mouths are just as important in the question of who it is that we serve and worship. And as for them, “I will sing to the LORD, for He has been good to me” (Psalm 13:6). The songs we sing should even be unto the Lord. 

And this alone is enough reason to not sing one for Pharaoh, too (and not only because he is not God, but because he is positively the enemy of God). 

Watch what you say

We could have just rested our argument on the first commandment: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3). But apparently this wasn’t enough so far to stop Christians from getting other gods and signing songs to Pharaoh.

So this is just an attempt to make another, maybe even more basic, argument for why any Christian should find “national anthems” to be troublingly in conflict with their faith. (Though such a commandment against false gods being the first one should have been good enough).  

Besides the manifest sin in such things as “national anthems,” which is overt worship of the false god State, there are other basic reasons why the mindful Christian should never be caught participating in such things. We are told, as we have argued with relevance to singing, to “put away deception from your mouth, keep your lips from perverse speech” (Proverbs 4:24). 

We are to be just as careful about what our lips speak as anything else. This was no insignificant part of the problem in the corrupt society as witnessed by one prophet. “Your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness” (Isaiah 59:3). 

The same is true when men sing “national anthems” and pretend that their Egyptian societies are “the land of the free” and “the home of the brave.” This isn’t the truth, and it isn’t the word of God.

Singing a “new song“

We should allow ourselves to be changed by God, such that we are not singing our “old songs,” e.g., “national anthems.” As one psalmist joyfully says, “He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD” (Psalm 40:3). 

A hymn of praise to Caesar, a false lord, is irreconcilable with God. It substitutes Caesar as “lord” and “savior” for Christ the Lord. And how much more true is this when there is passion, emotion, melody, and focus behind such words?

The godly man says something else: ” I will make a song to the Lord; I will make melody to the Lord” (Judges 5:3). He doesn’t believe that Pharaoh brings us the “land of the free,” or that the “red glare” of his rockets is necessary to his freedom. He believes that God is his salvation.

But we ought to be careful about everything we say as Christians, and this alone is a good enough reason to exclude “national anthems” from our lives and lips.

Perhaps those who are still singing such evil songs—as well as all of us that we may do the work of the Lord—might want to pray, “O Lord, open my lips, That my mouth may declare Your praise” (Psalm 51:15). 

Conclusion

Anyone filled with the spirit should begin to see the contradiction between serving the Lord and singing songs to Pharaoh. Such a thing is no light affair. To sing a “national anthem” for the Egyptian society we live in is to disregard the Lord as God and misdirect praise and worship from God to the false god State and trust in its power to deliver. But as the psalmist said, “The LORD is my strength and my song, and He has become my salvation” (Psalm 119:14).

For the very basic reason then that we are to sing our songs unto the Lord and that the words that come from our mouths are to be acceptable in His sight, we see that we can’t also sing songs of praise to Egypt. “Patriotic songs” and “national anthems” are thus out of the question when it comes to the Christian man’s use of his words and song. He is to praise God, not Caesar.

This argument doesn’t require anyone to delve far into political theology to see the problem, or to admit to the idolatries of it all. It simply says that if we are to sing our song to the Lord, then we can’t sing one to Pharaoh, too. 

Now, I’m not sure that telling some blind anthem-singer that we should only sing songs for the Lord would go over so well. But maybe such a basic point as this—that our Song be reserved for the Lord—can serve to enlighten someone as to the problems of singing songs to States. 

The rest of the evils can be seen later.