On January 30, the Church remembers Charles I, King of England, who was executed in 1649 after a long and bitter civil war. In the calendar of saints, he is remembered not as a flawless ruler, but as a Christian king who suffered death rather than surrender what he believed to be sacred trusts: the crown under God, the Church’s order, and the sanctity of conscience.

Much of today’s debate about Christian nationalism assumes that democracy is the final moral order — that freedom and the vote are sacred. But the Bible tells a different story. God has never ruled by consensus. From the beginning, He has ruled by command. Before presidents or parliaments, there were kings — and before there were kings, there was God, the eternal Monarch of heaven and earth. Scripture, history, and reason all affirm that kingship is not man’s invention but G