Considering the Life and Death of Queen Elizabeth II

Considering the life and death of Queen Elizabeth II. That is a topic we'll discuss today on the Christian Worldview radio program where the mission is to sharpen the biblical worldview of Christians and to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ. I'm David Wheaton, the host. The Christian Worldview is a non-profit, listener-supported radio ministry. We are able to broadcast on the radio station, website, or app on which you are listening today because of the support of listeners just like you.

So thank you. You can connect with us by calling our toll-free number 1-888-646-2233, writing to Box 401, Excelsior, Minnesota, 55331, or visiting theChristianworldview.org. By now you know, as most everyone in the world knows, that Queen Elizabeth II has died at age 96 after reigning over Britain in its Commonwealth of Nations for 70 years. It would be hard to point to any other person's death in Western civilization over the last 100 years that has commanded more worldwide attention than the Queen's death. Ten days of mourning and processions will culminate in her funeral on Monday, September 19th, at Westminster Abbey in London. Paul Twist, a citizen of the United Kingdom who now pastors Bethany Bible Church in Thousand Oaks, California, joins us to discuss the life and death and faith of Queen Elizabeth.

Paul grew up and was educated in England, becoming an officer in the Royal Navy where he served as a nuclear engineer in the submarine service. Before we get to Paul, we're going to hear part two of the interview with Robert Knight, columnist for the Washington Times, as to why President Biden and the left have ratcheted up their blame and vilification toward millions of Americans who voted for Donald Trump, categorizing them as semi-fascist. Let's get to the final segment of the interview with Robert Knight.

I want to play one more compilation of things that President Biden has recently said. It just gives an idea of the rhetoric. And I'm going to follow up with a question. You mentioned this. You already hinted at this at the beginning. He's projecting on the other side what his side is, in fact, doing.

Here's what he had to say. I don't respect these MAGA Republicans. We must be stronger, more determined and more committed to saving America than the MAGA Republicans are destroying America. OK, so this is really unbelievable, calling a very mainstream amount of voters, those who have 70 million people or 75 million people voted for Donald Trump in the last election. And so he's trying to pit here Democrats, independents and mainstream Republicans against 75 million Americans. So the question is, it seems to be very strange to blame everything going wrong in society on people who actually don't have political power right now.

Like you said earlier, the Democrats control the executive branch and the legislative branch of government. And to vilify Americans, and as you intimated as well, exaggerating what happened on January 6th, there was no guns. No one was killed except for one of the protesters. It was a capital breach to the point of a riot.

Things got destroyed. But again, like you said, nothing like what occurred the previous summer. So the question, Robert, is, is he baiting conservatives in this country to react violently to him, just kind of looking, kind of tempting them so he can just crack down and say, see, these people are violent? Or is this some kind of strategy like Nero did when he burned Rome and he needed someone to blame for it, his rebuilding ambition, so he blamed the Christians and then that broke out in some huge persecution? That's a great analogy, David.

And I was thinking along the same lines. I think he's baiting Trump supporters to do something they might later regret. January 6th is not giving the returns they hoped.

Most people tuned out these televised show trials. They're hoping that if they enrage enough people, there'll be another violent incident they can point to and that will allow them to crack down on civil liberties in this country. I think it's that serious. I think that the invasion of President Trump's Mar-a-Lago home was the opening shot in that campaign to taunt Americans into a violent incident.

I think it's that serious. These people will stop at nothing to cling to power. You talk about bitter clingers. It's not the Christians out there who read their Bibles. It's the secular statists who believe that power is an end unto itself and will do anything to keep it. The other thing is that I think they believe that since they control the media by and large, with a few exceptions, such as this radio program and maybe Fox News most of the time and a couple other outlets like Newsmax and One American News and Christian Talk Radio generally, they think they can get away with pulling the wool over America's eyes. But you can't hide inflation of 10% or more. I mean, you go to the grocery store and some items are 30% or more higher.

I mean, people know that. They know that President Trump didn't do this. They know that President Trump had gasoline down at two bucks a gallon and then it went all the way up to five bucks under Joe Biden.

And it's a buck under that now, but it's still way too much and it's fueling inflation. These are all policies under the Biden administration. So they need a scapegoat for how America is declining. And so they've created this class of people who represent a security threat to the United States and falsely accused them of fascism. And to define fascism, it's big government on steroids. It's where the government controls everything. It may not take over companies the way the communists do, but it forces them to do whatever they want. That's been what the Democratic Party has been trying to do for the last several decades is just keep expanding power, keep raising taxes, keep putting small businesses out of business and having more concentration.

If you have everything concentrated in a few hands, it's easier to control things. Decentralization is the key to a free, self-governing republic. And that's what our founders saw.

Thomas Jefferson in particular and the anti-federalists saw the dangers of a centralized state. So when Joe Biden calls the MAGA Republicans the fascists, he's projecting his own wishes for a large, powerful, centralized government on the very people who want to reduce government, reduce taxes, reduce regulations. It's really a one eighty flip. Anybody paying attention knows that this is a colossal lie. They talk about the big lie. Well, this is one of them. Coming into the midterm election here and not too long from now, you see all the yard signs up.

Most of them, I would say probably most, just anecdotally for Democrats. Think about the things you just said about the inflation of the money supply through just printing and spending that's been taking place because of Joe Biden's administration leading to super high prices everywhere now. Open immigration across the border, energy shortages. The governor of California is telling people during the heat wave out there they may have to turn up their air conditioning to 78 degrees or more. They're all for green energy now, but now they're going to be short on energy. Oh, and don't plug in your electric cars overnight. And we're going to force you to have an electric car in what, 10 years from now or whenever it is and now you won't be able to plug it in.

So it's insane. You see these things, the prices of gas, I know it's dropped some, but it was nearly, it was up for five dollars a lot this summer. Just the lie and the harm being done through the lie of the transgender ideology, ruining kids' lives and bodies, the vaccine mandates. We haven't touched on as the out of control crime in this country, in the cities of this country. Our city, Minneapolis has been completely overtaken by violence, murder, carjacking.

Just the incidence of this is way, way up since the death of George Floyd and then the resulting defund the police campaign. So the question, Robert, is are people just totally deceived that they believe Biden and the Democrats that they're doing good for the country and those out of power are actually the ones at fault? Where's the state of the American mind on this that they can't even see that something so obvious? Well, I think the way it breaks down, David, is about 30 or 40 percent of the people in America are well informed and get it and understand who is destroying our country. Another 25 percent are hardcore liberals who believe everything The Washington Post and The New York Times tell them.

And then the people in the middle are pushed back and forth. But the current campaign is to intimidate those people into not joining the conservative segment and throwing off this regime that is doing so much harm to the country. I think that's what the Biden rhetoric is about and invading President Trump's mansion. I mean, what kind of security threat is he going to pose?

He was president of the United States. He had those documents in the White House. He's got them at his home guarded by Secret Service. So the idea that it poses some kind of security threat is absurd. The big threat is to constitutional government, where one party seems intent on criminalizing dissent, criminalizing, even asking any questions. They've got big tech in their pocket and the big media suppressing questions and views that they don't like. And, you know, we thought the great antidote would be alternative media.

And to some extent it is programs like this one. I'll get the truth out. And what we hope is that people hear your show and seek out alternative information and then tell their friends, especially those at church who are kind of going along with what they're told by the mainstream media. I've talked to my neighbors and a couple of them still have Biden stickers on their car.

And I'm thinking, don't you see what he's all about by now? And in the driveway is their Washington Post every morning. They don't get the Washington Times, which gives the alternative viewpoint. They don't get the Wall Street Journal or any other paper. They only get the mainstream media. And the mainstream media are lock, stock and barrel owned by the Democratic Party, which is no longer a liberal party.

It's been hijacked by hard left radicals. These are really are Marxists. They wouldn't say they are. I mean, Bernie Sanders says he's not a socialist.

He's just a Democratic socialist. But everything they say and do is designed to get rid of the old America, the old self-governing republic, and replace it with a central state controlled by a few elites at the top with a compliant populace that doesn't question, say, the CDC and its covid lockdowns or vaccine mandates or whatever they want to do to combat climate change. I mean, they use all sorts of ways to intimidate the public. And I think the public's sick and tired of it. I think we're seeing a growing rebellion. But more than that, I think we're seeing revival. And that's the real key to reviving America is a Christian revival. Nothing short of that will save this country. And at some point, I think Joe Biden, the supposedly devout Catholic, will have to answer to God for trying to consolidate power on the backs of unborn babies. He's trying to vilify people for being pro-life. This can't please the one he proclaims to be his lord and savior.

I don't buy that. I think some people are going to be in for a rough time at some point. And I take some comfort in that, that God is just. God sees all this. And God is energizing the people who listen to him. Christians should take comfort in the fact that they have a God who loves them, protects them, and wants them to speak the truth.

Yeah. What you said about the justice, the perfect justice of God is really the greatest hope for the believer because you see how unjust and how corrupt and how wicked this world is. And knowing that God will justly judge everyone someday. And it's all going to come down to what we have done with God's offer to redeem us through sending his son to die for our sins on the cross. We can profess like Joe Biden to be a quote unquote Catholic Christian or a practicing Catholic or whatever he professes to be.

But we see the fruit of his life and his words, and we will let God be the judge. Now, Robert, just one more question for you today. You have a new book out called Crooked, What Really Happened in the 2020 Election and How to Stop the Fraud.

Now, I think there will probably be more time to discuss that than we have today, but I just want to get into it just a bit. You closed your most recent column by saying their worst nightmare, talking about Biden and those who support him, is high information voters, those who are informed, not just getting the news from one source, the left, and also honest elections. Now, we've talked about all these things and the upcoming election and leadership needs to change and all that. But if you don't have free and fair elections, you don't have a constitutional republic. You have political leaders being determined for you.

That's a banana republic, not a constitutional republic. Tell us just briefly about the thesis of your book and what, if anything, is being done to make elections in the future less fraudulent than the last one. Well, you know, Joe Stalin said, it doesn't matter who votes, it only matters who counts the votes. I'm afraid the Democrats have taken that to heart because they've tried to oppose every effort to ensure election integrity, from simple things like voter ID to not mailing to the entire registration list, which haven't been cleaned up for years, to having unmanned drop boxes.

You asked what's being done a lot. Where Republicans control the legislatures and governorships, which is in more than 30 states, they are initiating election reforms to try to keep elections honest. And of course, Joe Biden and his Democrats are saying this is a suppression of the minority vote and lying about it, frankly. Minorities, according to surveys, back voter ID and sensible election integrity safeguards. They don't want unfair elections. In Rhode Island, they passed a voter ID law and it was black legislators who passed it. And when asked why, they said, our people weren't getting out to vote because they thought the whole thing was rigged.

We have to assure them these are honest elections. So when they make it a racial thing, I think they're projecting their own racism on everybody else. And I've seen that among liberals often.

I saw it in the newsroom when I worked at the Los Angeles Times. The ones who were most racist were the most liberal. What people need to know is that they need to get involved this election because they should volunteer as election workers, poll watchers. They should contribute to campaigns.

They should run for office anything they can because this election, and we keep saying this, the most important election of our lifetime, but this one really is, if the Marxist plan to turn us into a one party state succeeds, we're going to lose all our civil liberties. And one way we can prevent that is by throwing the bums out and electing somewhat conservative Congress that will put a stop and launch investigations and that sort of thing. So I watch as the January 6th committee continues its work to vilify President Trump and anybody who was with him that day at the Capitol, even those who attended the rally and didn't go into the Capitol building.

They're trying to say that they're unable to run for office themselves and so forth. It's all about intimidation. This is America. We shouldn't be intimidated. We need to take our country back. We need to pray that the Lord will intervene. And we're supposed to pray for our leaders.

And I pray in two ways. I say, Lord, please convert them. Be a source of light in their lives like you've been in mine and my loved ones. And if they reject you, please cripple their ability to cause evil. Let them fall into a pit of their own making. Well, that is an excellent and biblical way to pray that the wicked would come to saving faith.

And if they don't, that they would not prosper. Robert, thank you for coming on The Christian Real View today. As always, all of God's best and grace to you. Thank you, David.

And God bless you for getting the word out. Now, just one more soundbite as a follow up to the conversation with Robert Knight as to why President Biden and the left make these false accusations against those who voted for President Trump that they're semi-fascist and a threat to our very democracy. Stephen Miller was a chief adviser to President Trump. And he makes the point here, which is actually a biblical principle, that those who make false accusation, and it is false accusation, the millions of people who voted for President Trump are not semi-fascist. They're not threats to our very democracy, that those who make false accusation are typically guilty of what they are accusing others of. And that certainly is the case with President Biden.

Here's Stephen Miller. President Biden tonight gave the speech of a dictator in the style of a dictator in the visual of a dictator using the words of a dictator. This was his enemies of the state speech.

And like every other radical Marxist tyrant, he accused his opponents of being fascist while he engages in repressive authoritarian behavior. He's the one who is forcing Americans against their will to take a vaccine. He is the one interfering in the sacred relationship between parent and child to try to force dangerous medicine, puberty blockers, hormones on our little kids. He's the one whose government raided the home of his chief political opponent in a fashion that violates the entire constitutional order because President Trump has the absolute right to decide what is or isn't in the national security interest when he leaves the White House.

All of those things, all of them are the behavior of a tyrant. And this speech, this speech is the moment that Biden crossed the Rubicon. And he ceased to be a man who could even pretend, could even claim that he has the interest of this country at heart. And he is truly and irrevocably now committed to splitting this country in two and beginning an era of division and an era of hatred that will wound our soul if it is not repaired for generations to come. Strong words from Stephen Miller, but I think accurate ones. We'll take a quick break and come back and discuss the life and death of Queen Elizabeth II. You are listening to the Christian worldview radio program.

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Order resources for adults and children and support the ministry. Now to the interview with Pastor Paul Twiss to discuss the life and death of Queen Elizabeth II. Paul, thank you so much for coming back on the Christian worldview radio program. You were on the program earlier this year to talk about how to read and understand the Bible. So I wasn't anticipating we'd ask you back on for the topic today, which is considering the life and death of Queen Elizabeth II, but you have a unique perspective on this because of course you are English.

You're a former officer in the Royal Navy where you served as a nuclear engineer in the submarine service. So I thought you'd be able to give a good perspective as the entire world is focusing on the death of Queen Elizabeth II. I'm just going to read a little background for listeners who haven't been following just to give you an idea of who she is. She was pregnant of 32 sovereign states during her lifetime and 15 at the time of her death. So the Commonwealth has shrunk some. Her reign of 70 years, over 70 years, is the longest of any British monarch and the longest recorded of any female head of state.

This is all just general information from Wikipedia. She was educated privately at home. She had one sister, Margaret, and she began to undertake her public duties during the Second World War. She was married to Philip Mountbatten, a former prince of Greece and Denmark, and their marriage lasted 73 years until his death in April of 2021.

They had four children, Charles, who is now king with Elizabeth's death, and Andrew and Edward, and we'll get into them a little bit today. Princess Elizabeth, as before she became queen, as she was called, went on her first overseas tour in 1947, accompanying her parents through southern Africa. During the tour, in a broadcast of the British Commonwealth on her 21st birthday, here's what she said. I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service and to the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong. But I shall not have strength to carry out this resolution alone unless you join in it with me, as I now invite you to do. I know that your support will be unfailingly given.

God help me to make good my vow, and God bless all of you who are willing to share in it. To watch Princess Elizabeth deliver that at age 21 foreshadows the kind of poise she exhibited during her lifetime. Now when her father died, the article goes on, in February of 1952, Elizabeth, then 25 years old, became queen of seven independent Commonwealth countries, including the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Pakistan, and what is known today as Sri Lanka. Just with that as some background, Paul, you grew up in this culture in the UK, living under a monarchy. Now you live in the United States.

You're a pastor of a church in Los Angeles. How is the culture of living under a monarchy in the UK different than living in the United States? The monarchy back home, it's not as if they're running the country on a day-to-day basis making decisions.

That's the prime minister and his cabinet. Nevertheless, they exert an influence by virtue of their presence, their obligations, and responsibilities to the general public. I don't know that you immediately feel the difference if you go to visit the UK. It's a Western country.

It's of late become very secular. But I would say over the long term, the presence of the monarchy is a window into what I think of as a collective memory. Society has an understanding of itself by virtue of where we've come from. The UK has a history and a window into or a connection to that history is the monarchy. It's public life is a constant reminder of where we have come from and who we are in light of that. Even the connection to the Commonwealth there and what was formerly the British Empire, that forms the self-understanding of the people in the UK.

Perhaps that plays itself out with a greater adherence to traditions, certain value system that has been with us for such a long time. Americans have obviously a history and a value system undoubtedly, but the way to get there is somewhat different and perhaps it's not as present or constant a reminder because the monarchy is not part of life in America. So just to follow up to that question, what role does the monarchy play in the rule of the United Kingdom? It's not that the monarchy has zero power or influence over the way in which the country is run. Just by way of example, the queen would meet with the prime minister on a weekly basis right up until her passing and I anticipate that will continue to be an appointment that King Charles holds. He meets on a weekly basis with the prime minister to discuss issues of government and any law that is passed and approved within the House of Commons then has to go to the queen and now the king for their approval and they have the power of veto.

So it's not that there is zero influence, it's just not exercised in a tangible way on a daily basis. Paul twists with us today here on the Christian Rule of View. He is the teaching pastor at Bethany Bible Church out in Thousand Oaks, California.

He's also an associate professor at the Masters Seminary. Since the queen died, the worldwide media has been just focused white hot on this event. Even the flags in America are flying at half-staff. There's a nearly two-week long procession of events leading to her funeral on September 19th. Why do you think, Paul, that her death is considered far more significant than any other well-known person, political or popular culture or otherwise, that at least in my lifetime I've never seen anything like this? When you consider who she was and especially the length of her reign, she really did occupy a unique position in the history of the nation. I don't know that we will see a monarch reigning for as long as she did, and especially during a period within which there was such change. Queen Elizabeth was born in an era that is very, very different from today. She was raised with a value system that is very, very different to the one that society holds to today.

Then she became queen at a very young age. She reigned over the nation with that value system. She very much espoused it.

It was very evident to anyone that observed her. She was living in this way during a time that included essentially a moral revolution. Social commentators talk about the age of the sexual revolution, a moral revolution. There has been a denigration of ethics within Western culture during the period in which she was the queen. There was almost this sharp juxtaposition between the value system and the ethic that the queen espoused and the one that is practiced by society around her. I think people know what is good and right and true inherently, regardless of what policies they say they ascribe to and what their practice portrays.

People know what is good. When they see it, they know what is right, and they saw that in the queen. They saw a value system that is inherently appealing, attractive, and it was so pronounced because of the longevity of her reign. Her passing away, people understand, is significant. It does, in a sense, mark the end of an era. That consistency and the longevity with which she exhibited that ethic of morality is what gave her such influence.

Let me follow up on that. One thing that comes across when you observe the queen is this sense of dignity. That word comes up over and over and over again when people characterize her. She's dutiful. Even that little clip I played when she was 21 years old, she really had a commitment to fulfilling her duties. She embraced who she was, the family she came from, and what her duty was going to be for her whole life. She seemed to be a moral person too. There wasn't any ever scandal that I know of around the queen.

It hasn't been the case with her children, but at least with her, she was married for 73 years. She seemed like a very reasonable person. You talked about this juxtaposition of the way the direction society has gone and the way the queen remained above it all and had this very dignified, dutiful life. I was listening to an interview on television from her former secretary. He must have said about three or four times in the interview that she provided this peacefulness in a troubled world, this model of peace and stillness in a troubled world.

He kept on repeating that over and over again. The UK, along with America, has become a very undignified place, a very not dutiful but self-centered place, immoral and irrational, not reasonable. Why do you think that society, in the UK at least, did not follow the queen's example better?

That's a good question. I think the level of influence that any leader is able to have, in part, boils down to the proximity between them and those that are under them. The fact is the queen is not in the daily rhythms of the UK. As we've said just a few minutes ago, the prime minister is making the decisions as to how the countries run on a monthly basis. The queen did exhibit this dignity and this self-restraint that is so commendable and so attractive and appealing, but she is, in her respect, a distant figure.

It perhaps is just a question of proximity. The influence is inherently limited because of her kind of figurehead status. The UK is just a very secular place. It's hard once you've started to move down that path of secularism, which is so divorcing the public value system from anything which might be considered vaguely biblical. It's so separating of those two ideas. Once you've started moving down a secular road, it's very hard to pull back that momentum and stem the tide of that. You're right.

It's a sad trajectory that we've witnessed over the last few decades. Paul Twist is with us today here on the Christian Worldview radio program. He is the teaching director of the Christian Worldview radio program, and he's going to be talking about the Christian Worldview radio program.

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Paul, the queen professed to be a Christian. I'd like to play just a short compilation of some of the things that she would often say. She gave a Christmas message to the Commonwealth, and I just have about a little more than a minute.

It has some music under it. I found it online, but just some clips of the kinds of things she would say about Christmas and about her faith, and I'm going to follow up with a question to you about her faith. Here's the queen. I hope that like me, you will be comforted by the example of Jesus of Nazareth, who often in circumstances of great adversity managed to live an outgoing, unselfish, and sacrificial life. Jesus Christ lived obscurely for most of his life and never traveled far. He was maligned and rejected by many, though he had done no wrong. In his early 30s, he was arrested, tortured, and crucified as two criminals. His death might have been the end of the story, but then came the resurrection, and with it the foundation of the Christian faith.

Although we are capable of great acts of kindness, history teaches us that we sometimes need saving from ourselves, from our recklessness or our greed. God sent into the world a unique person, neither a philosopher nor a general, important there they are, but a savior with the power to forgive. With that, we had more leaders today speaking about Jesus Christ in that way. She professed to be a Christian. Paul, are there indications that she was actually born again, though? Like Jesus said, you must be born again to Nicodemus in John 3. Was there an actual regeneration – I know you probably don't know her heart – but talk about what you know about her belief system and what is the difference? This is more of a theological question now because lots of people profess to be a Christian, but the Bible says there are only a few.

It's a narrow road of those who are genuinely saved. It's interesting to think about the Queen's faith. One thing I'll say, her mother, the Queen Mother, was unashamedly, and I would say undoubtedly, a born-again Christian. She passed some years ago now.

In her passing, people began to ask a little bit more closely, where does the Queen stand on these issues? What's interesting is if you listen to the Queen's speech, the Christmas Day speech that she would give every year, through the years, she became more overt about her love for Christ and her faith in Him. I do believe and am confident that she was a genuine Christian. Now to the theological question, what does that mean? Certainly, there are lots today that would claim to be Christians, claim to have faith in Christ, but really show no fruit of that faith. The Bible consistently shows us that genuine faith in Christ will lead to fruit in keeping with repentance and fruit of the Spirit and so on. A turning from sin and a casting of oneself upon Christ as the only possible means by which we can be made right with God is what constitutes saving faith. For anyone that has done that, accepted that they cannot present themselves before God and be accepted before Him apart from the saving life, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, anyone who has genuinely done that will start to show fruit in their life over time by the work that God is doing through them with the Holy Spirit. Thanks for that explanation, Paul, of what genuine saving faith is.

We're considering the life and death of Queen Elizabeth II today. Our guest is Pastor Paul Twist. He's from the UK. He's an associate professor now at the Masters Seminary. He's also the teaching pastor at Bethany Bible Church in Thousand Oaks, California. In watching some of the coverage of the Queen's death, and again, this is a multi-day, I think it's a 12-day procession to her funeral, the events going on and so forth, there'll be events in churches in the Church of England. There'll be scripture readings.

It's incredible to hear God's word read on CNN across the world, the hymns being sung, the Christian messages you're hearing. The Queen was not only the head of state, but she was also, I believe, the head of the Church of England. What is that church like now, Paul? What do you think of the arrangement of having an official state church? First of all, it's not a wise path for a church to anchor itself to something that is not Christian. The Church of England has been tied to, connected to the state for many, many years. You've seen the outworking of that by virtue of its theological demise, if we can say it like that. Broad brushstrokes, the Church of England is not healthy. I remember, I think it was J.C. Ryle said the Church of England prepares a man for this life, but not for the next.

To a large degree, that comes about through its relationship with a non-Christian organization, the state, the government. Now, with that being said, I want to add the Church of England is a very, very large organization within which there are many, many churches across the theological spectrum. I've been in very, very healthy, conservative churches that are part of the Church of England.

I don't want to throw out the baby with the bathwater. There are many churches in the UK that belong to, come under the banner of the Church of England and are healthy and are biblical and are doing a great job for the cause of Christ. I wouldn't say they're the majority, and there are many other churches in the Church of England that sadly are not healthy.

Again, I think in large degree, it's because of that connection to the state. Let's get into her family. You talked about her mother being a born-again Christian. Queen Elizabeth II had four children, Charles, who's now king, and Princess Royal, or Anne, and then Andrew, and then Edward. There's been a lot of controversy around three of the four, I guess you could say, with Charles married to Princess Diana, the divorce, the death of Diana, being in a relationship with Camilla Parker-Boldas, and then Prince Anne was divorced as well. Now she's remarried. Prince Andrew, of course, divorced from Sarah Ferguson.

It goes beyond that, linked with Jeffrey Epstein and the whole sex trafficking ring and so forth, which has been denied by the royal family and so forth, but there's lots of pictures and evidence to the contrary. The youngest child, Prince Edward, is the only one that stayed married. We don't know much about him, but the queen had this really long marriage and, again, looked like a dignified, very stable marriage. What do you think went wrong with the stability that she and her husband modeled, and then it came down to a new generation now, the second generation.

What went wrong there? I mean, I don't want to comment on family dynamics or what was going on internally within the family. I don't know, but I do think what we can point to is the fact that her children were growing up in a different era to the one in which she grew up, one in which the sanctity of marriage was not as celebrated.

It's interesting. Think about the fact that the very reason the queen came to the throne in the first place was because her uncle abdicated, so her father's brother wanted to marry the twice-divorced American lady, and it was not acceptable at that time, so he abdicated, which meant the throne went to her father, which then meant she was now in line to become the queen, and she did. In God's providence, that's why she ended up being the monarch.

It was over an issue of divorce. In her reign, she denied her sister the ability to marry a divorcee. One of the most notable decisions that she made as it relates to family dynamics, her sister wanted to marry someone who'd been divorced, and that had to go through the queen.

She had to grant permission for it, and she said no. She espoused and celebrated and championed the sanctity of marriage, and then she had four children, like you said, three of whom have had a divorce, and I simply think that's indicative of the fact that they are coming out of an age that has moved on in its view of marriage, one, an age that doesn't esteem it or celebrate its exclusivity and its permanence, and the divorces that we've seen within the royal family are just merely a representation of that. Pastor Paul twists with us today on the Christian Royal View radio program in watching the pageantry and the procession after the queen's death.

I mean, this isn't just have a funeral, let's move on at all. This is almost two weeks long, as I mentioned, and the UK is known for having elaborate traditions. Does that benefit a society, or is the pageantry overdone?

Is it externalistic? Talk about what it's like to be a citizen of the United Kingdom and the traditions and pageantry that are employed there. Yeah, I think traditions, really in any society, are something that we should treat with great care and you do away with them at your peril, really, because traditions, however they're being exercised, are a reminder of where you have come from as a people, as I've already kind of alluded to today. There's such a window into the past, and they're practiced for a reason. We may not always understand why things are done the way they are, but there's a reason why this has become a tradition, and it provides that window into the past, and it is normally tied, again, to some kind of system which, for the history of Western thought, has been deemed appropriate or commendable. I think today, especially with the decline of ethics and even the notion that we're not bound by our history, traditions become all the more important, and certainly, right now, is a period in the life of the UK where we're seeing all of these traditions re-emerge and being practiced afresh as we mourn the passing of one monarch and we install the next monarch, and it's a renewed sense. There's a renewed sense of who we are as a nation and why certain things are important to us. I'm of the mind that it's a good thing, that it does not need to be diminished or done away with, not least because of how it impresses upon us that we have a debt. We come from a heritage. We didn't emerge out of nothing, and that heritage imposes upon us certain responsibilities and expectations which are good for us. They're good to be reminded of these things.

Paul twists with us today here on the Christian Real View, the teaching pastor at Bethany Bible Church. One thing that's been very apparent in the death of the queen, that there's a genuine lament taking place in the British Commonwealth, in England, and the UK. There's a genuine grief going on. There's a somber mood.

People are trying to process the gravity of this, something that's been a constant in their life. How is this lament and grief that is so atypical today? People die and we have to have a, quote-unquote, celebration of life, or there's really an unwillingness to grieve. How has God designed us to grieve and that he has good purposes for us in grief?

That's a good question. I think as we grieve, we are processing those emotions and we're dealing with what is a significant change, in this case with the passing of a monarch. And certainly the scriptures tell us it's not wrong to grieve.

It's very much part and parcel of what it means to be a human. When you grieve the passing of someone that knew the Lord Jesus, it's a grief for their passing, certainly for the loss that we feel, but it's not a grief that is without hope. And for everyone who has that hope in Christ, our grieving is of a different nature, a different essence to those that grieve without any substance of faith in the Lord Jesus.

Yeah, well said. Paul, thank you so much for coming on the Christian worldview today. To do an interview that's a bit outside what you normally do, but thank you for bringing a Christian worldview to this topic regarding the life and the death of Queen Elizabeth. All of God's best and grace to you in Bethany Bible Church. Thank you, David.

It's my pleasure to spend time and chat with you today. Just one concluding thought today, Hebrews 9 says, it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment. So Christ also having been offered once to bear the sins of many will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin to those who eagerly await Him. Death is no respecter of persons.

Kings and queens die and so will you and I die as well. Thus, the most important thing is to repent of your sin and place your trust in the person and work of Christ for your salvation so that you will eagerly await His return in your eternal home in heaven. Thank you for joining us today on the Christian worldview radio program. In just a moment, there'll be all kinds of information on this listener supported radio ministry.

Be encouraged. We live in a challenging world. Death is inevitable, but Jesus Christ and His word give us hope.

They are the same yesterday and today and forever. So until next time, think biblically, live accordingly and stand firm. The mission of the Christian worldview is to sharpen the biblical worldview of Christians and to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ. We hope today's broadcast encouraged you toward that end. To hear a replay of today's program, order a transcript or find out what must I do to be saved, go to thechristianworldview.org or call toll free 1-888-646-2233. The Christian worldview is a listener supported nonprofit radio ministry furnished by the Overcomer Foundation. To make a donation, become a Christian worldview partner, order resources, subscribe to our free newsletter or contact us, visit thechristianworldview.org, call 1-888-646-2233 or write to Box 401 Excelsior, Minnesota 55331. That's Box 401 Excelsior, Minnesota 55331. Thanks for listening to the Christian worldview.