The Fall of the British Royal Family
“Today is traditionally a day of celebration. This year, however, it is difficult to escape a very somber national mood.” These were Queen Elizabeth ii’s words on her official birthday on June 17.
Just three days before, 80 people had died in a fire at a block of public housing flats in West London. Two weeks earlier, London Bridge had been the scene of a terrorist attack that killed 11 and injured 48. That followed a May 22 terrorist attack in Manchester that killed 23 adults and children, and a March 22 attack on Westminster Bridge that killed 5 and injured 50.
This really has been a rough year for the United Kingdom.
Many people in the UK were optimistic about the future last year when voters chose to leave the European Union. But things have gotten very messy. In a snap election in June that was meant to strengthen the ruling party’s position in Brexit negotiations, the Labour Party, led by the radical Marxist Jeremy Corbyn, won an unbelievable 40 percent of the vote and gained an extra 30 parliamentary seats. A week later, the leader of the Liberal Democrats resigned, saying it was impossible to head a political party and remain faithful to his Christian beliefs. That is how hostile Britain and British politics have become to the values they have historically stood for!
It has taken a few generations for the magnificent British Empire to fall from being the greatest empire in history. But 2017 has been unusually bad. Why?
It seems the royal family itself has followed a similar course. In 1952, when Elizabeth took the throne, the British Empire was beginning its descent from world power. She has witnessed it shrink from empire to commonwealth to a less and less relevant second-rate power. Some commentators say this year may mark “the beginning of the end” for the monarchy.
The Queen is 91 years old, and her husband announced in May that he will step down from royal duties this fall. In its June 30 edition, Newsweek published a feature article about Prince Harry, in which he said that when his grandmother dies, nobody wants to assume the throne. “Is there any one of the royal family who wants to be king or queen? I don’t think so, but we will carry out our duties at the right time,” he said.
Canada and Australia both have strong and growing movements to sever themselves from the British crown. Scotland continues to push to leave the UK.
What is wrong with Britain and the royal family? This issue is far more important than people generally realize.
‘Modernizing the Monarchy’
The Newsweek article came after a reporter received liberal access to Prince Harry for most of a year—part of the royal family’s effort to update its public image. The article showed the disturbing direction the monarchy is taking.
“We are involved in modernizing the British monarchy,” Prince Harry said. The royals are breaking with many past traditions. They are championing popular social causes. They are trying to relate to the public by showing that they are “ordinary” people. They are working to boost their popularity by rubbing shoulders with immoral celebrities and other ways that degrade the throne. They are also undermining biblical teachings.
Most people seem to support what they are doing if they pay any attention to it at all. But it is a big mistake! This misguided effort is terrible for the royals and deeply troubling for Britain.
In April, Prince William appeared in a “Heads Together” video with Lady Gaga aimed at normalizing mental health problems like depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts. Prince William sued a French magazine for £1.3 million for publishing pictures of his wife, topless. Her sister, Pippa, recently married the brother of a reality tv star, further blending the royals with show business. Prince Harry looks like he is about to marry an actress as well. The British Spectator called the royals “Britain’s biggest reality tv show.”
Is Lady Gaga the kind of company the royal family of Britain should keep?
On May 12, Prince William was named the “straight ally of the year” at Britain’s lgbt Awards. “It’s so important to be proud of the person you are,” he said in a video accepting the award.
That Newsweek article talked quite a lot about Prince Harry’s efforts to live a “normal” life. “He tells me several times that he aches to be ‘something other than Prince Harry,’” the author wrote. She described various ways that he has essentially tried to escape from being a royal.
“Harry’s determination to be ordinary seems reflected in his love life,” the article says. “His girlfriend, Meghan Markle, might be a well-known actress, but she is also a divorcée, a vocal feminist and American, none of which conforms to the stereotype of a royal consort.”
Do they have any sense of how much damage their actions are causing? Britain has become an immoral cesspool, and the royal family is going right along with it.
“The younger royals are just too interested in the cringe-inducing world of celebrity and in the popularization of their own image,” wrote the Spectator. “We are told that they are reinventing the concept of monarchy for the digital age, and so on. But that doesn’t mean it’s a good idea. … In 30 years’ time, royal historians might look back at the Heads Together campaign, at the eager association with pop stars, and the blooming romance between Prince Harry and Miss Markle, and ask: Was this the moment when it all started to go wrong?” (May 13).
Yes, something has gone very wrong with the royal family.
Britain Has Forgotten God
Last year, the bbc produced a beautiful brochure celebrating Queen Elizabeth’s 90th birthday—“Queen Elizabeth: 90 Glorious Years.” In commenting on the death of King George vi, the bbc editors wrote, “Britain 64 years ago was a country almost unimaginably different in outlook, attitudes, morals and ethos than today, to say nothing of technology. Opinion polls into the early 1960s showed that as many as a third of respondents believed that the Queen had been chosen by God rather than by right of succession from her father.”
The coronation ceremony for Queen Elizabeth ii in 1953 was saturated with biblical references and spiritual significance. A choir performed Handel’s choral anthem “Zadok the Priest,” with text from 1 Kings 1:38-40, about Solomon being anointed king. A documentary on the coronation said this about Elizabeth being anointed with oil: “It’s a ceremony so old, history can scarcely go back enough to contain it.”
The priests presented the new queen with a Bible, which they called “the most valuable gift this world affords,” and read Deuteronomy 17:18-19. “These are the lively oracles of God,” the archbishop said.
In the coronation oath, the archbishop asked Elizabeth, “Will you, to the utmost of your power, maintain the laws of God and the true profession of the gospel? Will you, to the utmost of your power, maintain in the United Kingdom the Protestant Reformed religion established by law? Will you 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 will you 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?” And she answered, “All this I promise to do.”
Britain no longer has such respect for the Bible, or for God! There is an indisputable connection between Britain losing its belief in God and His connection to the monarchy—and the massive changes for the worse in Britain’s “outlook, attitudes, morals and ethos.” Britain has lost its faith in God and king, and lost its moral moorings at the same time!
Queen Elizabeth swore to maintain Britain’s religion. This she has not done. That’s not to say that the Protestant Reformed religion is the one true religion. But to the extent that it followed the Bible, Britain was blessed for maintaining it. Today, however, Britain is a morass of secularism, dangerous multicultural religious confusion, and submission to the religion of Europe that it once strongly opposed. The Queen has made unprecedented moves to reconcile with the Vatican: visiting Pope John Paul ii in Rome; hosting his visit to Britain in 1982—the first pope to do so since the Reformation; allowing him to hold joint services with the archbishop of Canterbury; and appointing a Roman Catholic as her chaplain.
Prince Charles is even more committed to foreign religions than his mother. In 1999, he stated that if he were to succeed to the throne, he would want to assume the official title not as “Defender of the Faith” as generations of monarchs did before him, but “Defender of Faith”—protecting all faiths in Britain.
This sounds righteous to a lot of people today. Modern society has virtually swallowed whole the lie that “diversity is our strength.” But just look at the disastrous results of such thinking. It has left Britain faithless, materialistic, divided and vulnerable to foreign extremists. The Church of England has lost its moral authority, loosening its standards on all the hot-button issues of the day—women in the clergy, premarital sex, homosexuality. The monarchy, rather than working to prevent the moral slide and uphold godly standards, has just watched it happen and even gone along with it. British society has suffered immeasurably as a result.
The Importance of Family
When William and Harry’s mother, Lady Diana, married Prince Charles in 1981, the world was mesmerized. That wedding was the most-watched television event in history up to that point. More than 750 million people watched the lavish event on tv sets across the globe. It was a spectacular modern-day fairy tale.
Yet, in the Plain Truth magazine, Herbert W. Armstrong called the wedding “Britain’s Last Gasp of Joy and Splendor.”
Mr. Armstrong noted that Britain was a kingdom in decline. He was in Britain at the time, and he privately noted that in the wedding ceremony, references to the wife obeying her husband—based on scriptures like Ephesians 5:22-24, Colossians 3:18 and Titus 2:5—had been removed. He commented, “Well, let’s watch and see whether it lasts or not.”
It did not last! Both Charles and Diana ended up having adulterous affairs. The two separated in 1992. They officially divorced in 1996. The whole world had focused on that “fairy tale” romance and marriage. And what they got was a clear example of infidelity, immorality and treachery!
Can we really pretend that that didn’t have an effect on British society?
Family is the most important relationship that exists! If you study it in the Bible, you see that it is a God-plane relationship—it teaches us spiritual truths about God Himself. Ephesians 5, for example, shows that marriage is a type of the relationship between Jesus Christ and the Church. God created marriage to teach us that. It is why marriage exists.
How precious is a strong family, producing godly children! Anyone can look at that and recognize what a marvelous and beautiful thing it is. There is nothing else like it! (If you want to learn more about this truth, request a free copy of Mr. Armstrong’s booklet Why Marriage—Soon Obsolete?)
That is why it is so tragic when we trash what God created. Just look at what happened with the very first marriage—Adam and Eve—when they rejected God’s instructions. They ended up having one of their sons murder the other! Surely that should have woken them up to what a mistake they had made! But sadly, it did not. People too rarely look at the real fruits of their decisions.
Today the Prince of Wales is married to the woman he left his wife for. Did they have a God-plane relationship? The whole public knows it was in the lowest part of the gutter!
Now, look at the fruits of that relationship. Watch the headlines. Look at what is happening to that family. Is it any wonder we are seeing such major problems?
The royal couple that many people are so enamored with today, William and Kate, lived together for quite a while before they married. And now he is championing transgender rights. They are supposed to be an example to their people!
The Newsweek article said: “When asked about his family, Harry talks readily about the Queen … and his late mother …. He says less about William and Kate, and almost nothing about his father or his stepmother. The world now knows how unhappy that relationship made his mother, and her sons.”
What kind of family is he going to have?
Newsweek says Prince Harry is trying to carry on his mother’s legacy. “Twenty years ago, when irrational fear of being infected with hiv/aids was at its height, Diana was photographed touching an hiv-positive man, and that one gesture altered public attitudes. (‘I’d like to be a queen of people’s hearts,’ Diana once told a tv interviewer; the moniker stuck, especially after her death.) Last December, Harry had an hiv test in Barbados before a bevy of photographers.”
What are they trying to accomplish by associating with these kinds of causes? Society is embracing terrible family-destroying perversions like gender-fluidity, same-sex “marriage” and transgenderism. The royal family is throwing its support behind this movement. Even Diana, a generation ago, was promoting this cause. Is that a legacy you want to sustain? The royal family isn’t promoting God-plane marriage. At the same time, it is supporting what God and His Bible label an abominable, Sodom-plane relationship!
Sodom and Gomorrah
“And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly” (2 Peter 2:6). According to Strong’s Concordance, the word ensample means “an exhibit for imitation or warning.”
God inspired Peter with this end-time message in order to impress on our minds that this sick, Sodom-and-Gomorrah world is about to perish in fire—nuclear fire!
God gives us a specific New Testament example through Peter of what happens if a city or nation is polluted with homosexuality. It is going to be destroyed the same way that depraved Sodom and Gomorrah were—huge cities are to be left in ashes!
Homosexual “marriage” is the antithesis of true hope! Homosexuality is the epitome of a hopeless lifestyle! (Request our free booklet The Epistles of Peter: A Living Hope.)
Family is the most sacred of all institutions. Strong families are the backbone of a nation. When families fall apart, nations fall.
In Jude 7, this incredible sweep of history continues: “Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.”
Even Jude’s mention of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah “going after strange flesh” is prophecy for today. Homosexuality and lesbianism have become chic today in the nations of Israel. What does God think of that?
Before the plague of homosexuality, there is the spirit of fornication, which tears marriages and families apart! Many don’t even learn the concept of marriage and family.
We would not have the homosexual problem if we were building God-plane families. Upside-down families are the primary cause of homosexuality.
God’s plan is to expand His own Family through human families. Great nations can only be built through great families. Family is at the core of all that is essential in this life.
Homosexuals and lesbians are evidence of the total breakdown of families within our society, and are a sign that such nations are cursed by God and about ready to be destroyed!
Jude 7 is the strongest warning in the Bible against the nations given over to Sodomy! Sodom and Gomorrah suffered fire from heaven and were reduced to ashes by God. If we live like Sodom, we are going to die like Sodom!
The major prophets discuss the great cities of America and Britain becoming “without inhabitant.” That means nuclear fire is going to reduce our major cities to ashes!
Remember, Jude 7 gives us an “example,” or warning—of people “suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.” Now is the time to heed this warning!
There is no warning stronger than this in the entire Bible!
Marriage and family are God-plane relationships that prepare us to enter our marriage with Jesus Christ, and our place in the Family of God. It is man’s only hope.
You cannot understand the magnitude of this sin unless you understand God’s master plan for family!
We must comprehend what we are dealing with. We are witnessing the twisting and destroying of the gospel of God!
The gospel is the good news of the coming Family of God. Satan is trying to blot out any hope of understanding the Family gospel. He has sold people on the idea that they can twist and distort family any way they please and it won’t matter.
That is not what our Creator says! He turned Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes—as an example for us—to warn us of how He would punish for this sin!
Is there a greater physical warning in the Bible than this?
God is already changing the way He deals with the royal family, which explains why 2017 has been so tragic so far.
We have prepared a special report explaining the change that has occurred this year. We are printing it in the July-August edition of our bimonthly Christian-living magazine, Royal Vision; we will send you a free copy upon request. This change is a signal of terrible things to come upon Britain in particular—as well as America and the Jewish nation. It explains the rapid decline we are witnessing in Britain’s royal family. It also explains how God is keeping His promise to preserve David’s throne even amid the time of great tribulation just ahead.
On top of that, this special magazine edition shows just how short time is before Jesus Christ returns to take His place as King of kings and Lord of lords, personally sitting on the throne of David and ruling over the Earth!