Our School Crest: The Sword & Anchor
It is common in the classical tradition for the great houses and feudal Lords of Medieval Western Europe to be identified by a Coat of Arms, which is a visual depiction of a house’s virtues and achievements in service to their king. This practice of declaring allegiance to a house, tribe, or king by placing identifying marks upon a shield dates back to the times of the ancient Greeks and Romans who were known to paint crosses or Legion units upon their shields.
At First Baptist Classical Academy, we desire to step into this classical tradition and declare our allegiance to the Kingdom of God and our faith in the one true King, Jesus Christ, through our school crest which is embroidered onto our school uniform.
As a result, we have carefully chosen certain symbols and images in order to remind us of who we are in Christ and what Christ has called us to be. Our Crest consists of five items that are very significant to us: The Cross, the Sword, the Anchor, the Olive Branches, and our Motto.
The Cross: Our crest is marked by a shield at the center with a white cross upon a blue field. The cross is white, which is the color for purity. The field of blue stands for courage and nobility. These virtues come to us only through faith in Christ. The cross upon the blue field demonstrates clearly that our only hope, our only protection, our only salvation from sin can be found in the cross of Jesus Christ. It is only through the Gospel that we are set free to be the people that God has called us to be.
The cross upon the blue field carries with it a double meaning. It is also the emblem of First Baptist Church. Faith in Christ always unites the follower of Christ into membership within a church, for it is through the church that Christ continues to carry forth His mission in this world to declare the good news of salvation (Ephesians 3:10).
The Sword: The Shield is braced upon the right shoulder by a sword. Within the Scriptures, the Sword is a symbol of God’s revealed truth. The Word of God is symbolically described as the sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6:17), coming with power and authority from Jesus Christ (Revelation 1:6), and piercing to the deepest parts of the human soul and heart (Hebrews 4:12). Christians need the protection of God’s Word as they walk in an unsteady and uncertain world, and it is only by the Word of God that the Christian is able to confront the deception and darkness of evil.
The Anchor: The Shield is braced upon the left shoulder by an anchor. Within the Scriptures, the Anchor is a symbol of Christ’s immovable and eternally faithful presence in the court of God to care for His people and to intercede on their behalf with God in heaven (Hebrews 6:19). In a world of shifting tastes and uncertain trends, where man is a study of endless self-contradictions and fickle convictions, there is strong reason to doubt our standing before God. If we know ourselves truly, we know how unstable we are. What guarantee could we have of any enduring standing before God in heaven? From the Word of God we know that Christ is our anchor that holds us in the presence of the Holy One of Israel, and as we cling to Him, our Anchor, we are not blown about by every wind and wave of shifting doctrine (Ephesians 4:13).
The Olive Branches: The sheild is supported on both sides and encircled by olive branches. Olive branches are symbols of peace. The olive tree is the most abundant tree in Israel, and the olive was used in Biblical times for feasting as well as for anointing oil. The green olive is a symbol of strength, health, and life, but it has always been understood to be a token of peace. The mission and purpose of First Baptist Classical Academy is to raise up a generation of scholars and disciples who will proclaim the Gospel of Peace to a world that is at war with each other and estranged from God.
Our Motto: In Latin, our motto is “Soli Deo Gloria, Semper Fidelis ut Alii Vivere Possent,” which, when translated into English, means, “Glory to God alone, always faithful that others may live.” Our desire is to instill in our students an enduring, absolute confidence in God as the One who is always faithful and brings salvation. His faithfulness in saving His people redounds to His own glory. We choose this as our motto because we desire our students to walk with God in faithfulness, themselves, in order that their lives may be given away for the cause of the Gospel, that others may inherit salvation through their faithfulness to Christ.