The Star Spangled banner

Francis Scott Key, while on board a British naval vessel, watched as the British bombarded Fort McHenry at Baltimore. The bombardment took place on September 13-14, 1814, and lasted twenty-five hours. When the bombardment stopped Francis Scott Key saw that the flag of the American Union still stood over the fort. The British attempt to take the fort had failed. That is when he wrote the poem that would later become the American national anthem.

Most Americans don’t realise that Key wrote more than one verse to the Star Spangled Banner. There are, in fact, four verses. My favourite verse is the fourth verse. Here it is:

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, for our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust.”
And the star-spangled banner forever shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

I am sure the anti-Christian folks would highly object if we sang the last verse of our national anthems at football games.

Key was a lawyer, a poet and a Christian (Episcopalian). Besides writing the Star Spangled Banner, Francis Scott Key also wrote hymns; here is a verse from of one of his hymns.

Lord, with glowing heart I'd praise thee For the bliss thy love be-stows,
For the pard'ning grace that saves me, and the peace that from it flows:
Help, O God, my weak endeavor; This dull soul to rapture raise;
Thou must light the flame, or never can my love be warmed to praise.

Key's view of man was biblical. He knew we all are in need of salvation, and he knew that salvation is only in Christ. The idea that there are many paths to God, and we may each choose our on path, is alien to the Bible. If the idea that there are many roads to God is true than the Bible is a lie and Christianity a false religion.

Christ is the one and ONLY means of salvation, or he is a fake; there is no other option here as well. Jesus Christ and the writers of the Bible declare this to be so. The earliest Christian writers say the same, as do those that came later. Christian's must maintain this position. To deny this is to abandon the historic faith. It’s vital that we love all others enough to tell the truth in love.

Soli Deo Gloria,
Kenith