By Christine Darg
Jerusalem Channel
Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. (1 Timothy 2: 1-4)
Many are asking my opinion of King Charles due to the books, videos and articles about his associations with Klaus Schwab and the globalists as well as his woke environmentalism.
The bottom line is that the Word of God has the answer for all of us as we watch the ancient Coronation service: we are to pray for kings, for this is the will of God.
The biblical phrase “God save the king” has a whole new depth of meaning when praying for Charles that truly he will have a saving knowledge of the Lord.
Dating back more than a thousand years, the Coronation ceremony is the most solemn moment in a monarch’s life. And Charles has waited longer than any heir to come to the throne.
Melanie Phillips noted in her column this week, few unfortunately realize that the British monarchy is patterned on Jewish history. Early English kings believed they were descended from King David. They appreciated that Israel’s monarch was not meant to be a tyrant, but rather a leader answerable to God, the one true king over all.
The British coronation rite is modeled on the accession of King Solomon as described in the Book of Kings in the Hebrew Bible. Solomon was escorted to the throne by both religious and military leaders, as will happen to Charles, and Solomon was anointed by Zadok the high priest, represented this weekend by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
The choir in the abbey will sing Handel’s sublime anthem “Zadok the Priest.” And the anointing oil will have been brought especially from the Mount of Olives, where the grandmother of Charles, [Princess Alice, mother of Charles’ father Prince Philip], is buried.
“Jews know better than anyone that what keeps a nation together is continuity—the adherence to principles, traditions and rites that shape a people and are handed down through the generations,” Melanie wrote.
Analysis of the coronation service at Westminster Abbey by Stephen Green of Christian Voice in Britain is available at this link:
The Coronation Oath will remain the same because it is set in statute law.
The most holy part of the service, the anointing of the king to rule under God, remains.
Furthermore, Stephen Green observed,
The king wanted leaders of non-Christian faiths to be involved in the service. That will not happen. People of other faiths will present him with regalia. ‘Faith leaders’ will process in and take their seats. Neither carries the same spiritual significance as participation in the liturgy, in my view. Some may take exception to our Hindu Prime Minister reading the Epistle, but all sorts reading the Bible is allowed under Canon Law.
A departure from 1953, perhaps the only possible nod to the king’s request, is the leaders of two of the UK’s non-Protestant denominations giving prayers of blessing. They will be the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster and the Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Thyateira & Great Britain.
Charles wanted to be ‘defender of faith’. But the Archbishop in his promise of homage will address him firmly as ‘Defender of the Faith’, that title bestowed on King Henry VIII by the pope of his time.
Lastly, the king will declare himself ‘solemnly and sincerely in the presence of God’ … ‘that I am a faithful Protestant, and that I will, according to the true intent of the enactments which secure the Protestant succession to the Throne, uphold and maintain the said enactments to the best of my powers according to law.’
The Coronation Ritual is the most solemn and rare moment of our national life. Pray this United Kingdom will remain a nation under God. May he use the Coronation to bring many to faith in our risen, ascended, glorified Lord Jesus, and to revive us as a Christian nation again.
I wholeheartedly agree Christine! There is everything to pray for. The archbishop has stood for truth, against the human wishes of the monarch to be – not a little thing in itself. The monarch has proclaimed, assented and prayed as he should. Therefore we can ask God to confirm in their hearts what they spoke through their lips. I am encouraged that the Anglican church has kept the outward vestments of biblical faith, for the Holy Spirit to imbue with life!