British monarchy
Reflections on the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee
Having had some time to reflect on the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations it is worth discussing what are the implications of her long reign for the nation from a spiritual perspective and what the future holds for this nation and the church.
It's true to say that a person’s attitude toward the Lord is what qualifies them for public leadership and is what will ultimately determine the success or failure of their time in office. When the prophet Samuel was sent to anoint one of the sons of Jesse to replace Saul as king of Israel God said to him:
Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart (1 Samuel 16:7).
Simply put, David was chosen to be king of Israel because of the condition of his heart. The Lord had already identified him as a ‘man after his own heart.’ (1 Samuel 13:14)
There were certainly many things that from a human perspective would have qualified David to be a good king of Israel. He was a great military leader – he killed Goliath and won numerous battles as leader of the army of Israel. However, there were also many things that would have disqualified him from being a good king. He was an adulterer and a murderer. He killed a man who was fighting in his army and for his kingdom in order to have his wife. Yet David was described as a man after God’s own heart and God chose him to be the forefather of his own son and Saviour of the world, Jesus Christ.
What has the Queen shown us of her attitude toward the Lord during her 60 years of public leadership? Only God truly knows the heart of any individual but we can begin to identify what core values shape the Queen from what she has said in public.
In her Coronation Oath in 1953 she promised to ‘maintain the laws of God and the true profession of the gospel’ and she did so by placing her right hand on the Bible. She, therefore, began her time as Queen by at the very least publically endorsing the truth of the word of God and the gospel. She was of course obliged to do so because of the requirements of the Coronation service. So what has she said more recently to express her own personal views and opinions? In her Christmas speech last year she said that:
God sent into the world a unique person – neither a philosopher nor a general, important though they are, but a Saviour with the power to forgive.
She said also that ‘Forgiveness lies at the heart of the Christian faith’ and that ‘It is in forgiveness that we feel the power of God’s love.’
These comments are significant because the Christmas address is written by the Queen herself and is one of the rare occasions where she does not turn to the government for advice. Recently in the Times newspaper it said about the National Service of Thanksgiving at St Paul’s that:
One thing should be remembered above all; that, for the Queen, this was the most important moment of the jubilee celebrations.
In 1953, 2011 and 2012 the Queen has given us every reason to believe that she has a heart open to the Lord and is firmly committed to the truth of the word of God and to the Word of God himself.
Why are these values, held in the heart of an individual, significant for the nation? It is because the Bible teaches that leaders, particularly national leaders, are responsible for setting the tone of a nation and for creating a spiritual, moral and ethical climate. In Psalm 125:3 it says:
The sceptre of the wicked will not remain over the land allotted to the righteous, for then the righteous might use their hands to do evil.
The implication here is that wicked leaders promote and encourage evil behaviour. In 1 Timothy 2:1-2 Paul encourages us to pray for:
. . . kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.
If a good king means a good life then by implication a bad king means a bad life. In the Old Testament we read about Manasseh who became king of Judah at 12. In 2 Kings 21:6 it says that:
He did much evil in the eyes of the Lord, provoking him to anger.
In verse 9 it says about the people of Israel that:
Manasseh led them astray, so that they did more evil than the nations the Lord had destroyed before the Israelites.
So often we read that the nation will go the way of its leaders. We should, therefore, thank the Lord for the Queen’s witness and her 60 years of leadership and continue to pray that the Lord blesses her. We should also, however, pray for the next king that his heart would be won by the Lord in the same way his mother’s was.
Part of the Queen’s official title is ‘Defender of the faith’, specifically the Christian faith. Prince Charles has floated the idea of changing that title when he becomes king to ‘Defender of the faiths’ or ‘Defender of faith’ so as to be more representative of multicultural Britain. If that were to happen it would, we believe, be another step in the direction of a situation for the church that would be similar to what the early church faced 2000 years ago.
A look back into history will illuminate the consequences of a great mixture and unity of religions. The Roman Empire in the first century was characterised by great wealth and peace and because of this the people accepted a dictator. This dictator – the Emperor – promised to maintain this situation only at the expense of freedom of conscience.
The Empire maintained this peace because it assimilated all the gods of the empire into the Roman pantheon. Each god was given a little bit of space. All the religions were mixed together and all the religions were united. No one religion was said to be greater than another and each religion and god was said to represent something of the divine truth.
Faithful Christians, however, could not tolerate this. They refused to bow to down and say ‘Caesar is Lord’ nor could they put Jesus alongside the other gods of the pantheon, even though they were offered a place. Because of this the Christian community was harassed, persecuted and slandered.
It is very possible that as we move into a more cosmopolitan era where the expectation is that we accept and even promote other gods and religions that we, as the Christian community, begin to experience something similar to the early church. We should pray, therefore, that the Lord would strengthen us to remain faithful.
Christianity is not suited to sitting alongside a host of other religions and beliefs as one amongst many because our claims are universal and exclusive. We believe that there is only one Lord over all creation – Jesus Christ – and that he is the only true Saviour of the world.
This article was originally posted on the front page in June 2012.
In her Coronation Oath in 1953 she promised to ‘maintain the laws of God and the true profession of the gospel’ and she did so by placing her right hand on the Bible