The Queen has awarded former Prime Minister John Howard the prestigious Order of Merit at a ceremony at Buckingham Palace.

Janette Howard and the couple's youngest son Richard were at the palace to witness the ceremony.

"I am touched by the personal compliment, but I also see it very much as a mark of the Queen's great affection and esteem for Australia," Mr Howard said.

The Order of Merit is limited to just 24 living recipients, including distinguished scientists, writers, musicians and artists.

Prince Philip and Prince Charles, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Sir Richard Attenborough and Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, are among those on the list.

On Sunday, the Howards will board one of the 1,000 boats in the jubilee flotilla, which will sail down the Thames to celebrate the Queen's 60 years on the throne.

The Order of Merit is a dynastic order recognising distinguished service in the armed forces, science, art, literature, or for the promotion of culture.

Established in 1902 by King Edward VII, admission into the order remains the personal gift of its Sovereign, the reigning monarch of the Commonwealth realms, and is limited to 24 living recipients at one time from these countries plus a limited number of honorary members.

We are Living in Truly Amazing Times!

The Order of Merit has the shape of the Iron Cross. The Iron Cross (German: Eisernes Kreuz) being a cross symbol typically in black with a white or silver outline that originated after 1219 when the Christians European knights, artisans, and farmers lived in a totally integrated society, from the native inhabitants, who were thoroughly Arabicized and/or Islamicized and were a constant threat from the European foreign crusaders.

There is a great deal of the German tradition attached to the Iron Cross with the Kingdom of Jerusalem granted the Teutonic Order (a German kingdom)

The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary (a purely religious Catholic order) in Jerusalem the right to combine the Teutonic Black Cross (formed to aid Christians) placed above Silver Cross of Jerusalem (a Holy Roman Empire from Henry IV, the German king).

Headed by the one the word of God calls the Antichrist, with the rise and rise of the Fourth Reich in Germany there is much symbolism attached to the Iron Cross shape of the Order of Merit and the instance of the crown attached to the piece at the top.

It seems to be glaringly obvious that as the shape of the Order of Merit is that of an Iron Cross the crown at the top of the piece represented the Antichrist as being of German origin heading a New World Order.

Accordingly, is this then going to be a symbol that the Antichrist is going to have attached to his personage at all times when he finally takes control of the entire realm that so many like to commonly refer to as being a Revised Roman Empire, and then of course the whole world.

WHY I AM NOT A DISPENSATIONALIST; John Nelson Darby is recognized as the father of dispensationalism later made popular in the United States by Cyrus Scofield's Scofield Reference Bible. Charles Henry Mackintosh, 1820–1896, with his popular style spread Darby's teachings to humbler elements in society and may be regarded as the journalist of the Brethren Movement. CHM popularised Darby more than any other Brethren author. As there was no Christian teaching of a “rapture” before Darby began preaching about it in the 1830s, he is sometimes credited with originating the "secret rapture" theory wherein Christ will suddenly remove His bride, the Church, from this world before the judgments of the tribulation. Dispensationalist beliefs about the fate of the Jews and the re-establishment of the Kingdom of Israel put dispensationalists at the forefront of Christian Zionism, because "God is able to graft them in again," and they believe that in His grace he will do so according to their understanding of Old Testament prophecy. They believe that, while the methodologies of God may change, His purposes to bless Israel will never be forgotten, just as He has shown unmerited favour to the Church, He will do so to a remnant of Israel to fulfill all the promises made to the genetic seed of Abraham. I am not a dispensationalist; it is unbiblical.