Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor was not born to wear the crown. But the woman who became Queen Elizabeth II marked 70 years on the throne this year, an unprecedented reign that has made her a symbol of stability as the United Kingdom navigated an age of uncertainty.

From her early days as a glamorous young royal in glittering tiaras to her more recent incarnation as the nation’s grandmother, the queen has witnessed the end of the British Empire, the advent of multiculturalism, the rise of international terrorism, and the challenges posed by Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic. In a world of relentless change, she has been a constant—representing the UK’s interests abroad, applauding the nation’s successes and commiserating in its failures, and always remaining above the fray of politics.

As the elder daughter of King George V’s second son, Elizabeth, now 95, was expected to live the life of a minor royal when she was born on April 21, 1926. Dogs and horses, a country house, a suitable match—a comfortable but uneventful life—seemed her future.

But everything changed a decade later when her uncle, King Edward VIII, abdicated so he could marry the American divorcee Wallis Simpson. Elizabeth’s father became King George VI, making the young princess heir apparent.

George VI died in 1952, and Elizabeth began her life as queen. She has reigned ever since, with crown and scepter on big occasions, but more commonly wearing a broad-brimmed hat and carrying a simple handbag.

In the intervening seven decades, the queen has shared confidences with 14 prime ministers and met 13 U.S. presidents.

Britain’s longest-serving monarch, the only sovereign most Britons have ever known, has been a constant presence from the Suez Crisis of 1956, when Egypt’s seizure of the Suez Canal underscored Britain’s declining might, through the labor strife of the 1980s and the 2005 terror attacks in London.

When Prince Philip died during the pandemic, she donned a black face mask and sat alone during his socially distanced funeral, silently demonstrating that the rules applied to everyone—particularly her.

“She’s not beholden to the electorate. She’s not dependent on her latest hit or her latest movie,” said Emily Nash, royal editor of HELLO! magazine. “She’s just there. She does what she does. She carries out her duties without ever complaining or making any personal drama. And people respect her for that.”

Not that there haven’t been controversies.

In the early 1990s, criticism of the monarchy increased amid reports of the queen’s private wealth and concerns about the expense of the monarchy. In 1992, the queen agreed to pay the expenses of most of her family and become the first monarch to pay income taxes since the 1930s.

Tensions flared again in 1997 when the royal family’s silence after the death of Princess Diana, the ex-wife of Prince Charles, fueled the resentment of Diana’s many fans.

Even now, the monarchy is struggling to distance itself from the scandal caused by a sex abuse lawsuit filed against Prince Andrew, the queen’s second son, and the fallout after two of the royal family’s most popular members, Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, ditched their royal duties and departed for California.

But the queen has transcended scandal and remained popular throughout it all, said Kelly Beaver, the CEO of polling firm Ipsos UK, which has tracked her popularity for decades.

“Part of this because she is so synonymous with…the monarchy, which is something the British people are proud of,” Ms. Beaver said.

The queen has helped maintain the popularity of the British crown even well into the crownless 21st century. Yet as she ages, an old rift reopened between people who believe the monarchy is an outdated bastion of inherited privilege and those who see it as a cherished national institution. Some Members of Parliament made calls to “not another 70 years” of a royal sitting on London’s throne. “The prospect of King Charles is not a happy one, and there is a good, democratic alternative to offer,” Graham Smith of the anti-monarchy group Republic said.

The concern has arisen many times before. Despite decades of controversy over whether the British crown should even have a place in today’s world, the persistent fascination over the monarchy continues. The British Empire has long ago faded into history, and the royal family’s political role has been so reduced that it has essentially become symbolic. So why does the British monarchy continue to endure?

The reason lies in the roots of the monarchy itself.

Unbroken Line

For centuries, British kings and queens have played a crucial part in world events. Yet to truly comprehend the incredible legacy of England’s monarchy, one must trace it back to well before Victorian times, even prior to the period of English and Scottish monarchs, who reigned from AD 400 to 1603.

The New York Genealogical and Biographical Society brings a different perspective regarding the fascinating history behind Britain’s royal family, and details the royal lineage, using the Bible to support its findings. In 1921, the organization wrote in its quarterly publication: “…admitting that the covenants of the Old Testament are to be accepted as utterances upon divine authority, we have the covenant as uttered in Genesis [49:10]—‘The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a law giver from between his feet until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.’”

“With this covenant as a basis of argument, supported by the accepted genealogies of the Old Testament, we have it proven that the sceptre did remain in the house of Judah in unbroken line until the reign of Zedekiah.”

The promise of Genesis 49 is often called the scepter promise. It refers to an unbroken royal line that began with King David, who came from Judah.

King Zedekiah’s daughter Tea Tephi was taken to Ireland, where she married Eochaidh, thus continuing the line of King David.

The New York Genealogical and Biographical Society continued: “By this union of two strains of the blood of Judah in the marriage of Tea Tephi and Eochaidh, the covenant that the sceptre should not depart from the house of Judah was perpetuated; and by the evidence of the Annals of the Irish Kings and those of the Kings of Scotland we are furnished a substantial argument…that the sceptre continued in the house of Judah by the way of the Irish Kings and thence by intermarriage, by way of the Scottish Kings, and again by direct descent, by the way of the English Kings, to the present representative of British Sovereignty, King George V of England, in whose person is perpetuated the covenant to the house of Judah.”

The link between the British monarchy and Davidic line does not end there. At each coronation of a British monarch, the Stone of Destiny, a rectangular sandstone block reported to have traveled from Israel, was present.

Encyclopaedia Britannica states: “According to one Celtic legend the stone was once the pillow upon which the patriarch Jacob [a direct ancestor of David] rested at Bethel when he beheld the visions of angels. From the Holy Land it purportedly traveled to Egypt, Sicily, and Spain and reached Ireland about 700 BC to be set upon the hills of Tara, where the ancient kings of Ireland were crowned.”

The stone was then moved to Scotland, where it was used in the coronation of Scottish kings. Since 1307, the stone has been used at the crowning of British monarchs.

Unbroken Promise

During King David’s reign over ancient Israel, God expanded the scepter promise: “And when your [David’s] days be fulfilled, and you shall sleep with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you…and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever…And your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you: your throne shall be established forever” (II Sam. 7:12-13, 16).

God promised that He would never allow the Davidic line to end. And God never breaks His word. He declares: “I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it” (Isa. 46:11). When God says a throne will be established forever, He means it!

Therefore, David’s throne must exist somewhere on Earth today. And it must be a long-held line. What other unbroken monarchy has historical ties to ancient Israel? What other lineage of kings and queens are coronated on Jacob’s pillow stone?

After David died, his son Solomon reigned in his place: “Then Solomon sat on the throne of the Lord as king instead of David his father, and prospered” (I Chron. 29:23).

Notice that it is “the throne of the Lord”—not of David!

In the New Testament, the same promise is confirmed. In Luke 1, an angel told the mother of Jesus, “…you shall conceive in your womb, and bring forth a son, and shall call His name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David: and He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of His kingdom there shall be no end” (vs. 31-33).

While men and women—now in the form of the British monarchy—have been occupying David’s throne for thousands of years, it is ultimately Christ’s throne—which He will claim.

Some use this to promote the racist idea of “British Israelism,” which equates the nation’s former empire with God’s Kingdom. However, Christ’s reign on the throne now held by England’s monarchy does not make Britons superior.

Identifying Britain in Prophecy

Keeping a monarch on the throne is not the only thing God promised regarding Britain. He also foretold a blessing that the descendants of Jacob would receive. He stated, “be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of you” (Gen. 35:11).

David C. Pack’s book America and Britain in Prophecy describes how God has delivered what He promised here.

“This is translated by Ferrar Fenton as ‘A Nation and an Assembly of Nations.’ Moffatt’s translation states, ‘a nation, [and] a group of nations.’ Thus, the earlier reference to ‘many nations’ is now revealed to mean, when put with Genesis 27:28-29, one powerful, wealthy nation—and another wealthy group, assembly or company of nations—or commonwealth of nations.”

Genesis 35:18-20 shows this promise would go to two of Jacob’s grandsons—Ephraim and Manasseh. The latter was told he would become “a great people,” but the first was foretold to be “greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations.”

Also, Deuteronomy 33:13-17 further reveals the identity of the recipients of these blessings: “Blessed of the Lord be [Ephraim and Manasseh’s] land, for the precious things of heaven, for the dew, and for the deep that couches beneath, and for the precious fruits brought forth by the sun, and for the precious things put forth by the moon, and for the chief things of the ancient mountains, and for the precious things of the lasting hills, and for the precious things of the earth and fullness thereof…let the blessing come upon the head of Joseph [Ephraim—Britain; Manasseh—America]…His glory is like the firstling [the birthright holder] of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns [the national seal of Britain]: with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth: and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh.”

Further in his book, Mr. Pack described how Britain began to receive this promise. “In the second half of the nineteenth century, the rapid advancement of technology and economics, beginning in Britain, changed the lives of most of the population. Technical achievements, such as the invention of the steamboat, assured Great Britain total and complete authority over the sea. It allowed them to colonize new lands, to the point that the ‘sun never set’ on her holdings.

“America has a greater concentration of natural resources than any other geographic location. Utilization of new, rich resources kept raw material costs down and allowed for unprecedented growth.

“From 1800 to 1950, both nations came to control nearly every important resource on the planet!”

(Continue reading America and Britain in Prophecy to see the full picture of how all of God’s Word was fulfilled in these nations.)

Though the British Empire has since splintered into the Commonwealth it is today, God has kept His Word in maintaining King David’s line and throne in London.

Just as surely as God fulfilled this promise, He will perform another promise in His Word in the near future—the establishment of His Kingdom on Earth.

The Kingdom of God will grow into a global supergoverment that will bring peace and prosperity to all nations: “And there was given [to Christ] dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve Him: His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed” (Dan. 7:14).

To learn more, read How God’s Kingdom Will Come – The Untold Story!