ORIGINAL BLOG POST PUBLISHED IN FINNISH ON MAY 7, 2023

READING TIME: 10 MINUTES

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Saturday 6 May was the historic coronation day when King Charles III of England was officially crowned monarch of the United Kingdom and 14 other Commonwealth countries. Those who have followed my blog and read my books will know that I have predicted that Charles would eventually wear the crown, although I have emphasised that he was the despised crown prince prophesied in Daniel 11, “to whom the majesty of kingship has not been conferred” (in the same verse, this person is said to have eventually ascended to the majesty of kingship, even though his own people did not want to give it to him). Also in Daniel 8, the Antichrist is referred to as the literal king. But yesterday the whole world witnessed a very Christian and solemn ceremony to honour and praise the King of Kings, not Charles, “His servant” (according to the liturgy of the ceremony).

My Facebook friend Jouko Piho commented on the coronation in this way:

It was a great spectacle. There was plenty of spectacle and grandeur. There is probably nowhere else in the world like it. But there was substance too. The coronation in Westminster Abbey Church was also a service of constant worship, with words and songs of reverence for God and much Bible reading, including a fluent reading of the Bible text on the divine power of Jesus by Rishi Sunak, the British Prime Minister of Indian origin and Hindu faith. In addition, an accompanying communion for three priests and a king and queen strongly emphasised the significance of Jesus’ sacrificial death. I said to my wife, “That was a great gospel preaching. I know there are people who think Charles III is the future Antichrist. I disagree. My understanding is that the Antichrist will be a young and very dynamic man who everyone likes, rather than a rather old and gray-haired Charles III, whose popularity is not very high even in Britain.

God save the King!

I haven’t discussed our eschatological differences with Piho before, and I’m not in the habit of arguing about eschatology on social media, so I usually let people comment on what they comment on without getting involved (even if I perhaps should). However, I would hope that Piho – if he happens to read my post – would be more familiar with why I believe Charles is the Antichrist and why there is such a strong biblical basis for this idea that Charles’ grey hair and hunched back is not even a real counter-argument. I just said this to another person on Facebook as well:

I don’t see Charles’ age as a problem at this point in history. Perhaps in 10-20 years it could be called a problem. After all, nowhere in the Bible does it say anything about the age of that person. In fact, Charles is now about the same age as most other world leaders today. Charles is now 74, Biden is 80, Trump is 76, Putin is 70, Xi Jingping is 69, Erdogan is 69, Netanyahu is 73, Pope Francis is 86, etc.

The charisma and dynamism of the Antichrist is also something that is often mentioned in this context, but I have already answered that in my blogs and books. Perhaps I will write something more extensive about it soon, but for now I will not spend my time on that subject. My comments this time will be mainly on that coronation ceremony of Charles. I fully agree with Piho’s comment that it was a very Christian ceremony in which the Gospel text was clearly expressed. Thus, liturgically, it followed pretty much the same content as the coronation of Elizabeth II 70 years earlier in 1953. Indeed, Charles was feared to have watered down the liturgy and even stripped of its Christian origins in his efforts to be ‘the defender of all faiths’ (as he said in a 1994 Jonathan Dimblemby TV documentary).

The king was reported to have clashed with the Church of England on this issue, but changing the centuries-old liturgy and canon law would have been far too large and time-consuming a process for the new king to get his way and he had to settle for this more traditional coronation liturgy. To give the reader a full sense of the Christian essence of that liturgy, I quote the Archbishop of Cantebury’s words to Charles when he presented him with the royal insignia of the crown, the sceptre and the golden globe with the cross.

The Holy Spirit draws us to love in action. This is the promise of Jesus, who set aside all privileges because… God gives everything for us, even his own life. His throne was a cross, his crown was made of thorns, his badge of honor were the wounds that pierced his body. Each of us is called by God to serve. What it looks like in our own lives, each of us can choose God’s way today. We can say to the King of Kings, to God Himself, as to the King here today: “Give me grace, that in your service I may find perfect freedom.” In that prayer is a promise beyond measure, a joy beyond dreams, an enduring hope. Through that prayer, to every king, every ruler, and yes to every person, to all of us, God’s transforming love opens up…

Do justice with his sword. Stop the rise of inequality. Protect God’s holy church and all people of good will. Help and defend the widows and orphans. Restore the things that have gone bad. Preserve what has been restored. Punish and renew what is wrong and strengthen what is right. That in doing these things you may be glorified in all virtue, and in so doing serve our Lord Jesus Christ faithfully that you may reign with him forever in the life to come. Amen. Receive the bracelets of sincerity and wisdom, the sign of the Lord’s protection, which embraces you on every side. Receive this robe. May the Lord clothe you with the robe of righteousness and the garment of salvation. Receive all these things under the cross, always remembering that the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdom of our God and of his Christ. Receive this ring, a symbol of royalty and a sign of the covenant sworn this day between God and King, King and people. Take this glove to rule with gentleness and grace, not trusting in your own power, but trusting in God’s grace. Receive the royal scepter, the banner of royal power and justice, and the rod of justice and mercy, the symbol of covenant and peace. May the Spirit of the Lord, who anointed Jesus at his baptism, anoint you also this day, that you may use your power wisely and guide your counsels with grace, that by your service to all your people you may show justice and mercy to the whole earth. May the King of Kings and Lord of Lords bless you, with this crown and with your servant Charles, thus consecrated, on whose head you place this day as a sign of your royal majesty. That he may be crowned with your grace and filled with abundant mercy and all princely virtues through Him who lives and reigns over all things. One God. A world without end.

Amen.THE TRANSCRIPT OF THE LITURGY CAN BE FOUND HERE.

Hallelujah! A magnificently sublime and pious vocabulary, to which Handel’s baroque melodies, soaring in Westminster Abbey, and all the splendour of gold and diamonds, add a special heavenly shining as a temporal foretaste of the coming coronation of the King of Kings. But looking at this solemn and pious coronation vow, I was reminded of a very important thing from more than 40 years ago (althoug not from my own life, as I can only remember my own past back 33 years at most).

Charles was married to Princess Diana in 1981 also under the gaze of the whole world and also in that church ceremony he took the vow before the Almighty, in which the Archbishop of Cantebury emphasised its biblical origin and how the sacrament of marriage is a reminder and reflection of the holy covenant that Christ made with his Church bride, and therefore the marriage vow should never be taken lightly. But as we know well today, Charles broke that sacred vow to God, the Church and his wife and betrayed his wife with Camilla from the beginning of their marriage (as Camilla also did to her own husband).

So why should we expect him to show any more respect for the coronation oath he took yesterday? Why should we expect him to fulfil the role of a justly ruling, God-fearing, humble king if he could not even be faithful to his own wife? Should not Charles’ past be a warning for all, about his unfaithfulness to God’s sacred covenants?

A FB friend of mine just commented to me like this:

Samuel Tuominen, with all kindness. I can promise you with 100% certainty that you will be disappointed [about Charles being the Antichrist]. But everyone chooses their ideas. I’m not going to moralise about Charles and Camilla, because we could really moralise here, because Finns are among the top divorce statistics in the world, so we can’t afford to criticise the British.”

To be honest, I find comments like this really demeaning to my own vocation and life’s work. How often, for example, would I have “moralized” to Charles and Camilla about their adultery? I haven’t even mentioned the whole thing in much other than the context of this article. The person in question is absolutely right that instead of moralising, we should all examine our own inner selves and repent of our own sins before we hold others accountable for theirs.

But behind the scenes of that royal splendour, there are far worse things going on than adultery and I have already provided plenty of evidence of that over the years. But also what people know about things in the public eye carries very great symbolic weight, such as the example of Charles and Camilla’s adultery mentioned above. But the general public only sees the glitz and glamour of the royal facade. They don’t even try to pull back the curtain, lest their fairy castle collapse and the burning ruins reveal the Prince and Princess (and why not the King) to have been nothing more than ugly toads who bewitched the whole world with their magic.

But even today the hope of the nations of the world still shines with the message heard yesterday in Westminster Abbey that the true King wore not a golden crown but a crown of thorns, and His throne of majesty was His bloody cross, which He bore for the sins of each and everyone of us, yours and mine, to redeem our souls from the power of death and the torment of eternal damnation. So put your eternal security and hope in Him now, and do not put your empty hope in the kings of this world.