The flag was probably first used in Persia (Iran) as a means of rallying people to a cause. Theodore Herzl, the father of Zionism in modern-day Israel “attached great importance to the need for a flag. ‘It is with a flag that people are led whithersoever one desires, even to the Promised Land. For a flag men live and die’.”
With all due respect to Betsy Ross, may we suggest that Captain Moroni produced the first American flag. Both flags represent freedom and peace for all. While Moroni’s flag was in memory of the Nephite religion (v. 12), at the time the stars and stripes were adopted the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ had not yet happened. However, old glory does stand for freedom of religion and will fly into the millennium.
Some have questioned Moroni’s use of the word “Christians,” citing the New Testament: “And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch” (Acts 11:26). The law of Moses had been altered by the time of Christ’s ministry, and had lost the symbolism of the law being a type and shadow of Christ (see John 5:39; 2 Nephi 25:25; Mosiah 13:27–32; 3 Nephi 15:4–5). Therefore, the use of the word “Christians” in Antioch was probably the first time it was used in the Meridian of Time. Certainly Christ was known in all dispensations, which fact will be firmly established when the truth is known. Adam knew of Christ (see Moses 6:57) and was taught by the Lord himself that “all things have their likeness, and all things are created and made to bear record of me, both things which are temporal, and things which are spiritual” (Moses 6:63). The Apostle Paul taught that God “preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all the nations be blessed” (Galatians 3:8). The covenant made to Abraham, to which Paul refers, was made by Jehovah (see Abraham 2:8–11), who is one of the Old Testament names of Christ (see JST, Exodus 6:2–4). Christ was known to the Nephites in Old Testament times (see 1 Nephi 19:10; 2 Nephi 10:7) and to the Jaredites (Ether 3:14). What Mormon says about the believers being called Christians and gladly taking his name (Alma 46:14–15) is true of all dispensations of truth.
Captain Moroni’s meaning of “all the land, both on the north and on the south—a chosen, a nd a land of liberty” (v. 17) reminds us of the Prophet Joseph’s definition of Zion.
You know there has been great discussions in relation to Zion—where it is, and where the gathering of the dispensation is, and which I am now going to tell you. The prophets have spoken and written upon it; but I will make a proclamation that will cover a broader ground. The whole of America is Zion itself from north to south, and is described by the Prophets, who declare that it is the Zion where the mountain of the Lord should be, and that it should be the center of the land. When Elders shall take up and examine the old prophecies in the Bible, they will see it. [TPJS, 362]
The Americas were the “choice above all other lands” occupied by the Jaredites (Ether 2:10–12), and the Nephites (see 2 Nephi 1:5). America is Zion, and the land of the New Jerusalem to be built there by the remnant of Joseph in the latter days (see Ether 13:6–8). God will not suffer (allow) the righteous on the land to be trodden down and destroyed (see Alma 26:18).