Comparing Charlemagne And King David

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A king must be brave, kind, and willing to defend his people at all costs. Is this how a good king should act, and what about a Christian king like Charlemagne? King David, although a sinner and before the time of Christ, is a perfect king to model how a God-fearing king should act. His actions answer questions like: how should a Christian king act and treat his people? Should a Christian king go to war? And does Charlemagne match the standards of the average Christian king? While these are difficult questions to answer, The answers to many of these questions are found by directly looking at the life and rule of King David. First, how did Charlemagne and King David treat their people? One story stated that when Charlemagne won a battle he took all of the prisoners and resettled them with their wives and children (Christian History Institute). An act like this was a very good example because it shows not only how he treated people below him, but also how he…show more content…
This is indeed a very tough question to answer, but nonetheless it can be answered. The Bible states “there is a time for love and a time for hate, a time for war and a time for peace” (Ecclesiastes 3:8), which supports the idea that good Christian kings may go to war if it is either just or commanded by God, and King Charlemagne is a great candidate for this example because nearly all of the wars he commanded were proportional to the threat, for a justified end, and with the peace of the empire as his goal. However, Charlemagne was a sinner like all other people and this might have caused him to do extremely non christian things like giving his defeated enemies the choice of death or baptism with no in between. This can also be described as forced conversion (history of charlemagne), but like all men he most likely repented of

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