The King Charles III delusion: May God REALLY save the king!
I will cut right to the point. King Charles’ Christmas message was ehm…
I will sidestep all the issues around the political nature of the speech and the appropriateness of that. The aim here is to show how the speech was riddled with fallacious reasoning whenever any reference to the gospels or the Christmas story was made.
To be fair, the man is not a theologian or scholar so we do not expect him to crank out accurate sermon worthy material in a Christmas message (albeit the content of the speech shows the shallowness of his faith, if he holds one at all) but we would expect at the very least that there is something uniquely Christian in a Christmas message. That would not be too much to ask now would it?
The second aim will be to zero in on some of the statements made during this speech that feed into a greater delusion of the king which we will revisit at the end.
The equivocation fallacy is committed when the same word is used in two different senses and the premises of an argument, even if logically valid, relies on what is true of the word in one sense being true in another sense.
This will make a bit more sense when we do a very cursory analysis on one of his statements.
“But, on this Christmas Day, we cannot help but think of those for whom the devastating effects of conflict — in the Middle East, in Central Europe, in Africa and elsewhere — pose a daily threat to so many people’s lives and livelihoods.
We also think of the humanitarian organisations working tirelessly to bring vital relief. After all, the Gospels speak so vividly of conflict and teach the values with which we can overcome it.
The example that Jesus gave us is timeless and universal. It is to enter the world of those who suffer, to make a difference to their lives and so bring hope where there is despair.”
So what has happened here?
The king has referenced conflict in the Middle East, Europe and Africa. What is the nature of these conflicts? Wars and coups. He has also mentioned humanitarian organizations which again confirms he is specifically talking about the armed conflicts going on in those regions and the organizations bringing relief there.
Then comes the bait and switch! The gospels speak vividly of conflict and how we can overcome it. The question is where exactly does it do so? At this time someone might be tempted to bring in verses like where Jesus says love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you but the issue is this is not in reference to armed conflict of the sort in the Middle East, it is talking about conflict in interpersonal relationships! Sure there are a dozen such verses that can be brought up but the issue is the king has claimed the gospels speak vividly of the kind of conflict he has referred to and the fact is it simply does not. Christ tells the Christian how to conduct himself in general and especially in the face of persecution but this does not satisfy the “vivid” conflict allusion the king conjures in his speech.
Again, conflating these notions of armed conflict and interpersonal conflict, the king says Jesus entered the world of those who suffer and made a difference in their lives. How? He said Jesus brought hope where there is despair. How?
Jesus came to save the lost (Matthew 18:11) , to give His life as a ransom for many (Matthew 20:28). Jesus specifically came in to save people by dying for their sins through His death and resurrection. Hear Jesus’ mission in His own words,
“Then He said to them, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.”
(Luke 24:46–47)
However, the king has very masterfully turned Jesus into a humanitarian going into the Middle East and Africa to help people who are suffering. As noble as this is, it is just not what Christmas, Jesus Christ or the gospel is about.
The king continues,
“As the famous Christmas Carol, ‘Once In Royal David’s City’ reminds us, ‘Our Saviour holy’ ‘came down to Earth from Heaven’, lived among ‘the poor and mean and lowly’ and transformed the lives of those he met, through God’s ‘redeeming love’.
“That is the heart of the Nativity Story and we can hear its beat in the belief of all the great faiths in the love and mercy of God in times of joy and of suffering, calling us to bring light where there is darkness.”
The concept of a “saviour” or of God coming to earth from heaven to save anybody as an expression of love and mercy is a uniquely and exclusively Christian concept. A radical one in fact, which is what made it very offensive at its emergence, it is in fact what still makes it offensive to both Judaism and Islam today. There is no heartbeat of this in ANY OTHER FAITH in the world!
Finally, the speech concluded thus,
“Across the Commonwealth, we are held together by a willingness to listen to each other, to learn from one another and to find just how much we have in common. Because, through listening, we learn to respect our differences, to defeat prejudice, and to open up new possibilities.
I felt a deep sense of pride here in the United Kingdom when, in response to anger and lawlessness in several towns this summer, communities came together, not to repeat these behaviours, but to repair. To repair not just buildings, but relationships. And, most importantly, to repair trust; by listening and, through understanding, deciding how to act for the good of all.
Again, listening is a recurrent theme of the Nativity story. Mary, the Mother of Jesus, listened to the Angel who revealed to her a different future full of hope for all people. The message of the Angels to the shepherds — that there should be peace on Earth — in fact echoes through all faiths and philosophies.”
Interestingly, this is somewhat correct, but again let us spot the equivocation fallacy here. King Charles’ point was to extol the virtue of listening to one another. Again, nothing against that, but the king links this to the nativity story.
In the nativity story, there is indeed a theme of listening but listening to who? Even according to the speech, the nativity story protagonists listened to the message from GOD! and what was the message? The message was about Jesus Christ and salvation through Him. The message that should be gleaned from this is that the UK needs to listen more, not to each other but to the gospel of Christ! And to that I say a big amen! The UK needs the gospel like crazy!
The second issue with this statement is that the message of the angels was not that there should be peace on earth. It was that God coming to dwell among men in the person of Christ was a show of goodwill and an offer of peace from GOD TO MEN. In summary, the angels said “Peace TOWARDS men” not “Peace AMONG men”. Jesus Himself said,
“Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’
(Matthew 10:34–36)
So world peace was not the agenda for Jesus’ first coming, that was not the point. In fact Jesus guaranteed expressly that we would have tribulation in this life,
“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
(John 16:33)
The peace Jesus offers is peace between God and men who accept the gospel. Hence Paul writes,
“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”
(Romans 5:1)
Third point, the bringing about of world peace is not a thing in all world faiths and philosophies. This brings us to the delusion of the king.
You see king Charles who historically is the “defender of the faith” because he is supposed to be the head of the Church of England has been wanting to be “the defender of the faiths” and this, I believe, is at the heart of a lot of the nonsense he said in his speech.
So the king wants to be a defender of all faiths, including Islam, a faith which in an ideal world will want his head on a platter. For more details and references, kindly refer to my other articles, “Why Sharia councils in Britain should be unacceptable” and “Islam vs British values”. The problem is that the king is assessing every other “great faith and philosophy” with the rose tinted glasses of Christianity. He does not appreciate that not every faith shares Christian values or theology. Let us now very quickly and summarily* re-assess his speech based on Islamic theology.
First, far from the king’s claim that the quest for peace “beats faintly” in every world faith, Islam is directly responsible for the conflicts the king referenced. HAMAS in Gaza and HTS in Syria are Islamic terror organisations proscribed by the UK. In Europe, Islamic migration is at the heart of a lot of the chaos -think Israelis being hunted down and beaten in Amsterdam for example and the non-stop Jihad in Germany. So much for that faint heartbeat hey? The heartbeat is so faint, it is almost like it is non-existent, because it is non-existent!
Secondly, the idea of God becoming a man and dwelling among men is heresy in Islam, literally an unforgivable sin. According to Surah 4:116 and 4:48, associating a partner with Allah is the one sin He cannot forgive. In fact Islam commands it followers to fight, subjugate and humiliate Christians specifically because of their belief that Jesus is the son of God,
“Fight against such of those who have been given the Scripture as believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, and forbid not that which Allah hath forbidden by His messenger, and follow not the Religion of Truth, until they pay the tribute readily, being brought low.
And the Jews say: Ezra is the son of Allah, and the Christians say: The Messiah is the son of Allah. That is their saying with their mouths. They imitate the saying of those who disbelieved of old. Allah (Himself) fighteth against them. How perverse are they!”
(Surah 9:29–30)
Third, Islam does not foster listening to, tolerating or accommodating other faiths, it is a religion that is supposed to be dominant over other religions not to co-exist or learn from them,
“He it is Who sent His Messenger with guidance and the religion of truth, that He might cause it to prevail over all religions, though the polytheists may be averse.”
(Surah 9:33)
Fourth, Islam is a religion of warfare, the Quran says,
“Warfare is ordained for you, though it is hateful unto you; but it may happen that ye hate a thing which is good for you, and it may happen that ye love a thing which is bad for you. Allah knoweth, ye know not.”
(Surah 2:216)
In fact, Islam is specifically against peace when its adherents have the upper hand,
“And be not slack so as to cry for peace and you have the upper hand, and Allah is with you, and He will not bring your deeds to naught.”
(Surah 47:35)
So much for peace and love and tranquillity and defending all the faiths. Again, this does not work for reasons already explored in another article, “Why you cannot respect all religions and why Christians must not do so” so have a look at it if you want to explore this further.
The king’s defender of the faith idea is ludicrous and delusional. There is a faith that wants his head (Dilly Hussain of 5 Pillars UK has very casually discussed this idea in one of his podcasts so there are really Muslims in the UK who would ideally follow what the Quran says) and anyone with a quarter of a brain should understand that this faith should be condemned and stood against, not defended!
In conclusion, the king knows nothing about Christianity or religion in general which might make him eligible to be pope actually. The pope is another nutjob who sings the same tune of “Inter-faith Kumbaya” which is absolute nonsense and only works in people’s heads, particularly those who have been so inundated by Christianity that they think everybody just must share their painfully obvious values…but I digress
The king needs Jesus. The king needs salvation, so when the good citizens of the UK sing their national anthem, “God save the king”, they really should mean it in more senses than one.
*Summarily because I have countless other articles with the requisite references making the points about to be made below. Have a scan of my other articles if you want to dig deeper into these points.
