The original No Kings movement happened a little over 2,000 years ago when some leaders of a mob shouted to Pontius Pilate, “We Have No King but Caesar!”
Just a few days earlier, a multitude of people had welcomed Jesus as king when he rode into Jerusalem on a donkey colt, not as a conqueror, but as a sacrificial lamb. That day is known as Palm Sunday, the day the multitudes shouted, “Hosanna, Hosanna,” to the Coming King and Savior, as Jesus entered the City of Jerusalem.
And as Jesus approached and saw the city, He wept over it, saying, “If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace. But now they have been hidden from your eyes. For the days shall come upon you when your enemies will throw up a bank before you, and surround you, and hem you in on every side, and will level you to the ground because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.”
Little did anyone know or understand that Jesus didn’t come to Jerusalem to be crowned a king. In fact, the only crown that would be placed upon His head was a crown of thorns.
Subsequently, a few days after Jesus entered the city, the leaders of the mob were shouting for His crucifixion as they also declared, on the day we call Good Friday, “We have no king but Caesar.”
Nonetheless, the King the mob rejected that day was predestined to become the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the Savior of mankind. Easter Sunday is the celebration of God’s triumph over eternal death, wrought by sin, by way of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Sin being both the conscious and unconscious rebellion against the sovereignty of God and the rejection of His offer of reconciliation by way of the atoning the death of Jesus.
America’s Founders Honored Sovereignty of God’s Law
In contrast to today’s No King’s movement, it is obvious that upon our nation’s founding, we had “eyes to see” as our country recognized the day of our visitation. A significant number of statements abound with testimony to that end. That is, those who desired self-governance in America nonetheless acknowledged the sovereignty of God’s law and order.
In George Washington’s Inaugural Address in 1789, Washington reiterated the nation’s debt to the sovereignty of God, declaring that “no people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand, which conducts the affairs of men more than the people of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency.”
Samuel Adams, in his 1776 Oration at the State House, states, “We have this day restored (emphasis added) the Sovereign to Whom alone Men ought to be obedient. He reigns in Heaven, and with a propitious Eye beholds his Subjects assuming that freedom of thought, and dignity of self-direction, which he bestowed on them. From the rising to the setting Sun, may his Kingdom come.”
John Adams wrote, “we have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
If one were to take a close look at the political and social priorities of today’s version of the No King’s movement, it would be hard to ignore the same as nothing less than an obscene admission of our nation’s great spiritual and political declension from the time of our founding.
There Is Only One King
For instance, as reported by MSN, while the movement claims the protests, some of which turned violent, had to do with rejecting “authoritarianism”, protestors in several cities carried flags with red hammer and sickle symbols while chanting “there is only one solution, communist revolution.” It is no surprise, therefore, that both the Communist Party USA and the Democratic Socialists of America sit among the coalition’s official partners. Communists (which is officially a god-less political movement) too, have no king but Ceasar.
Ironic, isn’t it, that when Pontius Pilate asked the mob if they wanted to see Jesus pardoned for the “crime” of declaring Himself the Son of God and the King of the Jews, the mob instead asked that a man named Barrabas be pardoned. Barrabas had committed murder while engaging in an insurrection against Rome.
In conclusion, I have a King, but his name isn’t Donald Trump. What about you?
Happy Easter.
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Great stuff here, Andy. Happy Easter.
Astute Analysis!