Is the Duke of Edinburgh God’s Chosen One?
There are people on the island of Tanna in the South Pacific Ocean who worship the Duke of Edinburgh as a god.
The islanders used to be committed cannibals and they ate the first two missionaries who came to Tanna.
More missionaries arrived, told them about Jesus and many of the locals became Christians.
They stopped eating each other and began to eat Jesus instead (John 6:54).
In the 1960s many of the islanders noticed Prince Philip in his wonderful, shiny, white uniform.
This truly amazed them.
Now they have exchanged the Prince of Peace for Prince Philip (Romans 1:25).
My atheist friend Frank tells me that both faith in Jesus and faith in Prince Philip is superstitious nonsense because only physical things exist.
Frank is a materialist believer.
My cousin, Sally, informs me that there are no right or wrong answers. Just go with whatever works for you.
Sally is a postmodernist believer.
Prince Philip worshippers would proclaim – ‘Worship the Duke of Edinburgh. He answers our prayers and when he returns to Tanna, the fish in the sea will dance with joy.”
But consider this very carefully:
Prince Philip did not create the world (John 1:3).
Prince Philip did not perform an incredible range of miracles (John 20:30).
Prince Philip did not die upon a cross in order to rescue humans from suffering and death (Romans 3:25).
Prince Philip did not rise from the dead (Mark 16:6).
Prince Philip is not sitting at the right hand of God the Father (Ephesians 1:20).
Prince Philip will not come again to judge the living and the dead (Acts 17:30).
Prince Philip is not the Lord of heaven and earth who will one day completely restore and heal this broken world (Rev 21:1-4).
You could pray to the Duke of Edinburgh and ask him to forgive all your sins.
This would be very foolish.
Don’t just believe in Jesus Christ.
Trust Him with every fibre of your being and you will live forever (John 6:40).
Mark is a lively storyteller and the author of four books, including The Spy, the Rat and the Bed of Nails: Creative Ways of Talking about Christian Faith. His work is focused on storytelling and how this can help us to communicate the Christian faith. He has written many articles for the Baptist Times, RE Today, Youthscape, Direction magazine and the Christian Teachers Journal.
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