The Maccabee - How the Union Jack got its Christian Stripes

‘Is not my word like fire,” declares the LORD, ‘and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?’

- Jeremiah 23:29

The Legend of St. Jack, Patron Saint of the United Kingdom (UK)

Long before the United Kingdom ever came into being, the Christian Church had certain age-old traditions about different sorts of Christian crosses. The Cross of St. George was a simple square cross with one horizontal line intersecting a vertical line. The Cross of St. Andrew was traditionally seen as two diagonal lines intersecting each other. Likewise, the Cross of St. Patrick was also drawn using two diagonal lines.

Not surprisingly, the official flag of England featured the Cross of St. George, who was also their beloved Patron Saint. Similarly, Scotland's flag used the Cross of their own long-standing Patron Saint, St. Andrew. Meanwhile, the diagonal Cross of St. Patrick is prominently displayed on the flag of Ireland and, as everyone already knows, St. Patrick has been the Patron Saint of all Ireland for more than 1,000 years.

What most people don't know about is that the literal combination of these three flags (England, Scotland, and Ireland) ends up looking exactly like the flag of Great Britain, the United Kingdom, which is commonly referred to as the Union Jack. The exact relationship between these three Nations, Flags, Crosses and Patron Saints can be seen as follows:

ENGLAND: National Flag has a vertical Red Cross on a pure White Background. Patron Saint is St. George

SCOTLAND: National Flag has a diagonal White Cross on a pure Blue Background. Patron Saint is St. Andrew

IRELAND: National Flag has a diagonal Red Cross on a pure White Background. Patron Saint is St. Patrick.

UNITED KINGDOM: Imperial Flag has four White/Red-Colored Lines (one horizontal, one vertical, two diagonal) which are perfectly crossing one another on a pure Blue background, commonly known as the Union Jack.

As can be seen, quite literally, and as history itself has shown, the successful attempt at uniting three Saints. three nations, and three flags has not been easy to say the least. Two major forces have been at work which can be summarized as follows:

1) National Symbolism: Flags of ENGLAND + SCOTLAND + IRELAND = Flag of UNITED KINGDOM (U.K.)

2) Christian Symbolism: St. George of ENGLAND's Cross + St. Andrew of SCOTLAND's Cross + St. Patrick of IRELAND's Cross = The Union Jack Flag of the British Empire

As the pictures of the four different flags included here and shown below clearly illustrate, the Union Jack of Great Britain is an exact representation of the symbolic union between 3 Nations, 3 Patron Saints, and 3 Flags. Here are the specific equations.

St. George's Cross + St. Andrew's Cross + St. Patrick's Cross = England's Flag + Scotland's Flag + Ireland's Flag = The Union Jack Flag of the United Kingdom (U.K.)

This iconographic understanding of Nations, Flags, Saints, and Crosses, uniting into a single entity is no mere coincidence. Instead, it is a blatantly obvious example of the underlying power of the Judeo-Christian tradition still hard at work in building, protecting, and creating the Earthly Kingdom of God, whose rightful heir is His only Son, Rabbi Joshua ben Joseph (Jesus Christ).

He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and His Kingdom will have no end...

- The Nicene Creed, 325 A.D.

Put bluntly, there are many good reasons why the Sun never sets on the British Empire, the English-speaking Christian Kingdom of God. The Union Jack is just one of them.

May the LORD God bless you in the name of St. Judas Maccabaeus