Another Royal Wedding

Dear Brethren,

This week's Countdown to the Return of Jesus Christ is by John Jewell.  It seems amazing to me that at the point of beginning this letter, it is only just over a week, in fact 10 days, since the wedding of the decade took place in London.  And if you don’t know which wedding I’m referring then I shall have to ask you which planet you are on!  Because it was virtually impossible, almost anywhere, to escape the fact that Prince William, second in the line of succession to the British throne, was marrying Kate Middleton and that this was happening in Westminster Abbey watched and witnessed through the power of television in nation after nation around the world.  It is sometimes forgotten that the monarch of the United Kingdom is also the Head of the Commonwealth of Nations comprising some 32 nations of which she is Queen of 16 of them including Canada, Australia and New Zealand and Head of a number of small territories which thereby have the United Kingdom protecting them.  These include the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands.  She is also the Duke of Normandy and the Great Chief of Fiji!  She became Queen on the death of her father, King George VI in 1952 and is Queen or Head of State for roughly 128 million people.

Last year, in July 2010 she addressed, for the second time, the United Nations organization in New York.  Like many millions of people my wife and I witnessed with fascination the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton through the BBC’s television transmission, which was brilliantly engineered as is to be expected of the BBC on such occasions.  Looking at the scenes of the enormous crowds lining the streets of London and filling the vast space in front of Buckingham Palace took me back to the time I was part of a similar throng.  This was for the wedding of the then Princess Elizabeth to Prince Philip in 1947.  World War II had only been concluded two years and clothing was still rationed in Britain.  This included Princess Elizabeth and everyone else of the Royal Family so it wasn’t quite the lavish event as the one which recently took place.

Watching the television footage brought out so clearly how important to the world the British throne and monarchy is.  It does, whatever you may otherwise feel, hold a significant position in and for the world at large that no other political position in the world today can equal, a position that surprisingly perhaps is generally recognized.  When we understand the history of the throne and position of King David of Israel and what the Bible says about it, things become a little clearer.  In the first book of Kings, chapter 8 and verse 25 we read that there would always be someone occupying the throne of King David of Israel.  In the next chapter, chapter 9 and verse 5 God promises that there would always be someone occupying that throne.

In Isaiah chapter 9 and in verses 6 and 7 it refers to a child to be born who would sit upon the throne of his father David.  The context of this passage shows that this is Jesus Christ who is to return as made clear in the gospel of Luke, chapter 1, verses 32 and 33 which says that God will give him the throne of his father David.  This is to happen on Christ’s return to this planet.  He returns to a throne and position which is still in existence and today is in London.  Recorded history reveals an amazing account of how that position was moved from Israel to Ireland and thence to London.  In Genesis, the first book of the Bible, chapter 49, verse 10 says that “The sceptre, [the symbol of authority], shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between His feet until Shiloh come;”  A British monarch at a coronation will have an orb in one hand and a sceptre in the other. It is generally accepted that the word Shiloh indicates Jesus Christ.  He will replace the descendants of Judah upon the throne of David.  The facts are all documented and are published.

Prince William’s father is Prince Charles who is now 62; it is possible that upon the death of the Queen, whenever that is, that the succession might well pass to Prince William, who is now 28.  Prince Charles, however, is the next in line to succeed to the throne.  Bearing all these things in mind it was also very interesting to read the full text of the proceedings of Prince William’s and Kate Middleton’s marriage.  We are not sure if the Bishop of London who gave the sermon which formed part of the marriage ceremony, actually realized what he was saying.  As we were following the ceremony it was truly amazing to hear his words.  He was basically talking to the bride and groom, but by extension to everyone who heard him.  He said “Be who God meant you to be…” and continued “Marriage is intended to be a way in which man and woman help each other to become what God meant each one to be, …”  He went on “… In a sense every wedding is a royal wedding with the bride and groom as king and queen of creation, making a new life together so that life can flow through them into the future.”  Then, specifically addressing the bride and groom he said “… William and Catherine, you have chosen to be married in the sight of a generous God who so loved the world that he gave himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ.  And in the Spirit of this generous God, husband and wife are to give themselves to each other.

Jesus Christ, at his return to this world, is to enter into a particular relationship with the Church of God. The Church becomes the bride of Christ and at His return he enters into a marriage relationship with the Church.  The bishop was saying, which he might not have realized, that marriage is to represent the future union between Christ and the Church of God.

The bishop continued: “Marriage should transform, as husband and wife make one another their work of art.  It is possible to transform as long as we do not harbor ambitions to reform our partner.  There must be no coercion if the Spirit is to flow; each must give the other space and freedom.... As the reality of God has faded from so many lives in the West, there has been a corresponding inflation of expectations that personal relations alone will supply meaning and happiness in life.  This is to load our partner with too great a burden.  We are all incomplete: we all need the love which is secure, rather than oppressive, we need mutual forgiveness, to thrive.  As we move towards our partner in love, following the example of Jesus Christ,” (as he moves towards the Church His bride, whom He will marry on His return) “the Holy Spirit …. can increasingly fill our lives with light.”

“This leads to a family life which offers the best conditions in which the next generation can practice and exchange those gifts which can overcome fear and division and incubate the coming world of the Spirit, whose fruits are love and joy and peace.”  The bishop then prayed that those millions watching the ceremony would support and uphold William and Kate – he continued to pray for God’s blessing upon them and then said this: “God our Father, we thank you for our families; for the love that we share and for the joy of our marriage …. strengthened by our union help us to serve and comfort those who suffer. We ask this in the Spirit of Jesus Christ.”

The bishop didn’t need to say that it is only by marriage, the union of one man with one woman before God, that there CAN be a legitimate next generation!  And a subsequent wonderful future for mankind beyond the physical and beyond the grave.  This sermon by the bishop actually came after the marriage vows and prayers.  The vows if made in every marriage between a man and a woman and if seriously kept would transform society.  And transform it for the better.  To link it with the return of Jesus Christ and His subsequent marriage to His bride, the Church, could bring a new and better dimension to the life of the British nation and maybe the rest of the world.  What were the words of the vows?  You probably know them already, but here they are as heard by the multiple millions of people around the world:  To the man: “…will you have this woman to your wedded wife, to live together according to God’s law in the holy estate of matrimony?  Will you love her, comfort her, honor and keep her, in sickness and in health?  And, forsaking all other, keep you only to her, so long as you both shall live?”  To this he responded “I will.”

Then to the woman: “ … will you have this man to your wedded husband, to live together according to God’s law in the holy estate of matrimony? Will you love him, comfort him, honor and keep him, in sickness and in health?  And, forsaking all other, keep you only to him, so long as you both shall live?”  She responded in the same manner with “I will.”

They then had to make the solemn promises, repeating the words as the Archbishop said them to “…live together according to God’s law… “ and to love, comfort, honor and keep each other in sickness and in health” and forsake all others, keeping to each other as long as they both shall live.”

The same words or similar, are repeated throughout the professing Christian world so why do we have so many marriage problems and why so many human relationships which fly in the face of what we witnessed barely two weeks ago!  The answer, as always, is in the Bible.  In the second epistle to the Corinthians, chapter 4 and verse 4, the apostle Paul says that “the god of this world, (that is Satan who is also a very real being) has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe in God, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine to them.”  “Isaiah chapter 8, verse 20 “ If they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.”  But many think they know best however, as it says in Proverbs 14:12  “There is a way which seems right to a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”

No wonder this nation is in a catastrophic state.  No wonder that we have a crisis of education so that our young people are not growing up, not being brought up, to be responsible young adults who can themselves have successful, happy marriages with happy, balanced young of their  own.  All looking forward to the soon-coming return of Jesus Christ and to the clear law of God being applied throughout the world.  A world which, finally with the right government, will be at peace, productive, happy and conscious of there really being a wonderful future.

John Jewell

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Sermon:    "Follow Me"      


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