The Alternative Coronation
1 Kings 1:38-39, 1 Kings 11:1-13.
A King has been crowned, King Charles III. The King, in a nominally Protestant ceremony, took the coronation oath, “I will to the utmost of my power maintain the Laws of God and the true profession of the Gospel. I will to the utmost of my power maintain in the United Kingdom the Protestant Reformed Religion established by law. And I will maintain and preserve inviolably the settlement of the Church of England, and the doctrine, worship, discipline, and government thereof, as by law established in England. And I will preserve unto the Bishops and Clergy of England, and to the Churches there committed to their charge, all such rights and privileges as by law do or shall appertain to them or any of them. The things which I have here before promised, I will perform and keep. So help me God.” So, let’s look at two moments in history, one 965 years before the birth of Jesus, and one just now!
1 The Ruler.
Solomon was anointed king while David was still alive, albeit on his death-bed, a pre-emptory act, to prevent a prevent a coup d’eta by another of the princes, Adonijah the son of Haggith, David’s fourth son. The anointing was done by three men, Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, (a representative of the King’s Army, specifically the divisions known as Cherethites and Pelethites).
They went down from Jerusalem to where Solomon was staying, and placed him on the King’s Personal animal, – a mule – something similar in significance to the placing of Charles in the state coach for the journey to the Abbey, and they brought him to Gihon, a spring of water just outside the city walls of Jerusalem. At Gihon the procession stopped, to allow the priest of Israel, Zadok, to go into the city, to the Tabernacle of David, and to obtain some of the oil from the tabernacle and to return to Gihon, to anoint the Prince with the oil. When the anointing was done, trumpets were sounded. Presumably the events had caused a stir for quite a crowd must have gathered, for we are told that when the trumpets played, all the people began to shout, “God save the King or Long live King Solomon.”
The coronation of Charles III and his second wife, Camilla, as king and queen of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms took place on Saturday, 6 May 2023, at Westminster Abbey and during the coronation ceremony the anointing with oil was ceremonially repeated by the Archbishop of Canterbury, using oil from Jerusalem, and as tradition dictates, the moment of anointing was not directly shown on television.
2 The Reign.
When you think of Solomon, you immediately think of his great wisdom. But politically, Solomon was a disaster. He made some interesting alliances and expanded international trade with highly lucrative and successful commercial pacts. Yet, his internal policies were a disaster. Let’s see some of the really stupid decisions he made during his reign:
- He wasted the people’s money on vanity projects.
- He established a system of forced labour. 1 Kings 9:15
- He gave away parts of the nation to a foreign power. 1 Kings 9:10-14.
- He raised taxes. Solomon imposed a punishment budget. To facilitate the collection of taxes, he divided the kingdom up into twelve administrative regions, each region was responsible for supplying the kings budgetary requirements for one month every year. But the admin districts were marked out geographically, not by population, so some of the less densely populated regions struggled to pay the taxes. It was a disaster.
Now, on top of all of that was his biggest mistake of all. It was to show favouritism to Judah, his own tribe. In a land where tribal tensions and divisions were already bubbling away under the surface, the resentment against the king and his people had reached boiling point, with the poorer northern tribes ready to declare independence.
Now, what about Charles? Judging by his close affiliation with shady globalist groups like the World Economic Forum, his meddling in politics will continue. He, along with Klaus Schwab launched the ‘Great Reset in 2020.What is the ‘Great Reset?’ – It’s an initiative of the WEF, which will leave you poorer, colder and with less freedom. Life after the Great Reset, for our children and grandchildren, will be hell on earth, and it’s not that far off – and it’s not a conspiracy theory – you can go onto the WEF website and read all about it for yourself.
Solomon’s reign left the people divided, poorer, hungry, businesses and farms destroyed, the nation reduced in size, a simmering resentment that morphed into pure hatred of the king and his successors. I wonder what the reign of Charles III will bring, and I can’t help thinking it may be every bit as bad as the reign of Solomon.
3. The Ruin.
Let’s go back to Solomon and ask why his reign was such a disaster. What happened to his legendary wisdom? There are two main reasons. Sexual lust and false religion. 1 Kings 11:1-3 I believe that Charles struggles in the areas of morality and religion. His well publicised adultery with Camilla while he was married to Diana, his long friendship with people like Jimmy Savile raise legitimate concerns. In his coronation oath, Charles will have promised to “maintain the Laws of God and the true profession of the Gospel.” He promises, “to the utmost of my power maintain in the United Kingdom the Protestant Reformed Religion.” Yet he wants to be, not the Defender of the Faith, but the defender of faith… As for defending the Protestant Reformed Faith, – apparently he received a gift from the Vatican – Pope Francis, another WEF puppet, sent him a ‘piece of the cross of Christ.’ The coronation procession procession lead by a popish superstition. Those are the very same two sinful issues that marred King Solomon’s reign, and made a mockery of his wisdom and eventually led to the breakup of his once-united kingdom.
What are we to do? We began by acknowledging that we should, and must ‘honour the king.’ That’s a Biblical principal, 1 Peter 2:17 I suggest that the proper way to show honour and respect for any of our neighbours, is not by overlooking their sins and their glaringly obvious faults, but by directly and lovingly confronting them with truth, so that they may have the opportunity to repent of their sin and turn from it. 2 Samuel 11:7 And as Christians we are to pray for the king. 1 Timothy 2:1-2. May I make another suggestion, – that we pray for Charles to be saved. By God’s grace. Let’s pray that God’s Holy Spirit might awaken Charles to his need of the Saviour, that he would turn from his wicked ways, as we all must, and place his trust in Christ alone. When Christians say “God save the king” we really should be meaning that God will rescue the king from his sin and bring him to a genuine saving knowledge of Christ.
So we will honour Charles, and pray for Charles, and all the while remember that God is in control of our history, that Charles will one day answer to God for the works that he has done in this life. Romans 13:1
© Bob McEvoy
The Salty Scrivener 