Were The Crusaders As Bad As Muslim Savagery?
Question: When I was speaking to a Muslim and debating with him how the Muslims in the past have been brutal savagery, and they were those who killed all others than those Muslims to be mercilessly killed, raped and all their things taken as booty, while Jesus speaks about loving one's neighbor and blessing them that curse them for no other reason except for following Christ and His love for all mankind. Instantly he told me, you people as Christians are no better than what we have been. Then he told that the Crusaders who are christian people did the same to the Muslims in the name of Jesus to us Muslims. Is that right he asked me? What do you think about it?
Answer: Greetings to you in Jesus wonderful name!
First of all I want you to understand that there are two stream in the present time while we are living in this earth. One is a political stream and the other is a religious stream.
All the religions which do have religion as the stream does not necessarily hundred percentage of time act spiritual in nature, to a certain and equal percentage both the streams will mix in various area of the world according to the culture and tradition because no matter what religion it is, all have time, space and matter boundaries that God has put them within (Acts 17:26, 27, 28). In fact all religions of this world were made by Man to fill the God shaped hole within Man which only God could do it as it is kept for Himself to fill it and bring meaning to this temporal human life on earth (Eccl 3:11). To a certain percentage all the religions in the world except Christianity acts purely spiritually.
Even the Jewish religion and Law which God gave to the nation of Israel is also political and spiritual stream. That is why we see an eye for an eye, a life for life justice being given to those who follow it in their lives (Deut 19:21). The true justice of righteousness in the political life stream of any nation is something that should be valued by other nations or else every nation that is marked in safety by God but oppressed by other neighbors who are more powerful than they are, has the right to defend themselves by fighting against their enemies, and the Bible never opposes war when injustice prevails rather than peace in the nations around the world (Gen 9:1-4, 5-6; 10:8-9, 10; Luke 14:31-32; Prov 20:18; Rom 13:1-7; Job 40:15; Deut 20:1-20). In fact God has told the Christians to pray for their political leaders who have been appointed by Him to bring justice to all humans who live in their country (1 Tim 2:1-2). When sin enters any nation and causes devastation to human life and animals and environment, God Himself judges them through other instruments on earth (Prov 14:34; 21:1; Psa 9:8; 98:9; Jer 27:6; Gen 15:16; Lev 18:24-30; Num 35:29-34; Deut 5:9; 8:11, 19-20). There is a time for peace and also a time for war (Eccl 3:8).
If you ask me, how only Christianity can act purely spiritually without a political stream being mixed with it? To find the answer we need to understand who Jesus is and how he has established Christianity as a spiritual force without political stream being mixed in it?
A lot of times when Jesus started doing signs, wonders, miracles and all the good works by the anointing of the Holy Spirit (Acts 10:38), the people whose needs were met by God through Jesus when he was ministering on earth wanted to ask whether He is the king that God promised to Israel as a political solutions against their enemies which was Rome at that time which was ruling over them, and wanted to make Him their king by force, Jesus fled away from these fleshly men (John 6:15). In fact the biggest question for the fleshly minded Jews who did not think according to the will of God was, is Jesus the Messiah King to rule the world from the nation of Israel (Matt 11:3; Luke 7:19; Acts 1:6-7)? God had set a time for everything on earth, so the first coming of Jesus was to set a spiritual Kingdom of theocracy on earth without a drop of political stream of men mixed in it (Matt 16:16; Luke 19:10; Mark 2:17). To fulfill this will of God, God's idea was for Jesus to live without a drop of sin, so that Jesus could represent the fellow humans sinners before Him by becoming a substitute for them, so that He could become a Mediator for them to then establish a worldwide Kingdom on behalf of God (1 Tim 2:5-6; 2 Cor 5:21; Matt 4:17; Luke 17:20-21), so that Satan will be dethroned from his authority that he stole from our forefather Adam, who had lost it due to sin which brought rebellion within him against God, due to obeying Satan (John 14:30; Eph 2:2; 1 John 5:19; Matt 4:10-11; Luke 4:6-7; John 12:31-32, 33; 1 Cor 2:8; Rev 1:18). Christ Jesus after gaining his authority over the whole world, wanted to share it with all the fellow humans who wanted to live and enjoy God in his theocratic kingdom.
The time when all political forces of his contemporary times were afraid of losing their power (Matt 2:16-18; Luke 23:12), Jesus told about the nature of the pure spiritually theocratic kingdom that he had come to establish to Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here.” (John 18:36). In fact, God took the authority Satan had over the kingdoms of the world and gave to Jesus after he rose up from the dead on the third day justifying all those who believe Him, so that now Jesus Christ our Lord can rule righteously over all the people of the earth who willingly subject themselves to God's theocratic Kingdom to rule over their lives (Matt 6:10). Thus I prove that Christianity is a pure spiritual Kingdom without even a drop of political stream mixed in it. Only God has this Kind of power to rule spiritually over the whole wide world which He does through the Man Christ Jesus (1 Tim 2:5), because He does need man and will not rule without man on earth as it is illegal for any spirit to rule the earth directly. This is the reason even Satan and his demons cannot do anything on earth, except through influencing man to dance to his whims and fancies by influencing him to act independently under his evil direction.
So I can safely say that Islam is not a purely 100% spiritual religion, but it is rather a beast of politics that has a nomadic religious overtones to control every aspect of the life of the believer, which actually makes them to become more intolerant and full of hate towards other non-believers. And it leads the Islamic believers even to the extent of deceiving unbelievers to death by 'Taqiyya' which is a specific favorable situation for a Muslim in which he/she is allowed, under Sharia law, to lie in order to maintain unity and growth among Muslims, hence it is propagated by the Sword toward the unbeliever either to accept it or die; has encouraged Slavery, Polygamy and the degradation of Womanhood. Hence it is a tradition of the medieval times which has become a politico-religious doctrine to dominate the world through force, and is not a purely spiritual force like Christianity. Muslim because of hate for generations, always take vengeance and live with that hate to take vengeance down the generations, as they all live in the flesh and die in the flesh. They have a very short fuse and act like donkeys to fight against even their own brothers, so that their hand will be against every man and every man's hand against him, and they will always be wild men in their character (Gen 16:11-12).
Having said the above, still I see the European crusaders not as a pure spiritual force, but rather a political force of their times who were a little better in term of the spirituality because they followed the Biblical principles to build their nations upon it, so that things like Slavery, Polygamy and the degradation of Womanhood were not as exactly similar to Islamist of their times, but were much better with human rights and dignity in their lives because of the spiritual force of the Bible that became their light at least in many of their lives individually.
In giving reasons for our belief in Christianity, we have to differentiate the spirituality of Christianity as purely spiritual and tell them of the political mixture in their Islam which is mixed with the political world and the desire to have dominion over the entire earth through it.
That is why when Jesus said the following, He was setting a new trend in all the world religion until then, and lifted spirituality as high as heaven even to the very height of being like the Father God in Heaven whose children the Christians who follow Jesus have become, "43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? 48 Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect." (Matt 5:43-48).
Clearly the very spiritual message from Jesus allows Christians that no matter who stands against them, God wants them not to resist evil, but rather overcome evil with good to stand fast in faith to let God take the Vengeance that belongs to him (Rom 8:31; 12:19, 21; 1 John 5:4). This above personal message of Jesus to believers should not be applied for nations politically, because they are political stream appointed by God. This is for individuals of purely spiritual stream of Christians to practice their faith and let God do the talking against evil which comes against them personally. Only when a nations head or whoever it is tells us to do something against the Word of God or our conscience, we should stand against giving in to their demand expecting the Lord to rescue us or die for Him as a martyr if God allows us to face it for His Glory (Acts 4:18-19; Dan 3:14-15, 16-18, 19-25, 26-30; 1 John 3:21; 1 Peter 4:14, 16). In other words, Christian do not take vengeance as God will take vengeance on their enemies who come against them.
Of all the religious system of the world, the Law of Moses and the prophets were the perfect righteousness, and external morality man could achieve even in this modern times as the Bible of the Old Testament has been the basis for good governing of many nations for centuries and centuries even until today and even for the Millennium rule of Jesus Christ on earth (Psa 19:7; John 1:17; Isa 60:3; 62:2; Zech 8:23; Heb 8:13).
In the Battle of Tours, France (A.D. 732), one of the decisive battles of the world, in it Charles Martel defeated the Moslem army, and saved Europe from Mohammedanism which was at that time sweeping the world like a tidal wave. But for that victory Christianity may have been completely submerged.
The Crusades is the effort of Christendom to regain the Holy Land from the Mohammedans. There were seven:
FIRST (1095-1099); Captured Jerusalem.
SECOND (1147-1149); postponed the fall of Jerusalem.
THIRD (1189-1191); army failed to reach Jerusalem.
FOURTH (1201-1204); captured and plundered Constantinople.
FIFTH (1228-1229); took Jerusalem, but soon lost it.
SIXTH (1248-1254); a failure.
SEVENTH (1270-1272); came to naught.
The Crusades were of influence in saving Europe from the Turks, and in opening up intercourse between Europe and the East, paving the way for the Revival of Learning.
Arabians dominated the Mohammedan world (622-1058). The capital was moved to Damascus (662); to Baghdad in 750, where it remained till 1258.
Fall of Constantinople (1453), to the Turks, brought to an end the Eastern Roman Empire, and jarred Europe with a second threat of Mohammedan control, which, later was stopped by John Sobieski in the battle of Vienna (1683).
Turks have ruled the Mohammedan world from 1058 to modern times. They were far more intolerant and cruel than the Arabians. Their barbarous treatment of Christians in Palestine led to the Crusades.
According to me the Crusaders were a political reaction to the invasion of their own territory from the prying eyes and cruel torture to death by sword that awaited them from the Muslim invaders. They in fact fought to deny their own demise from the hands of their enemies who wanted to kill them. So we cannot compare the Crusaders with the savagery of the Muslim invasions of the past.
Much Blessings....
Answer: Greetings to you in Jesus wonderful name!
First of all I want you to understand that there are two stream in the present time while we are living in this earth. One is a political stream and the other is a religious stream.
All the religions which do have religion as the stream does not necessarily hundred percentage of time act spiritual in nature, to a certain and equal percentage both the streams will mix in various area of the world according to the culture and tradition because no matter what religion it is, all have time, space and matter boundaries that God has put them within (Acts 17:26, 27, 28). In fact all religions of this world were made by Man to fill the God shaped hole within Man which only God could do it as it is kept for Himself to fill it and bring meaning to this temporal human life on earth (Eccl 3:11). To a certain percentage all the religions in the world except Christianity acts purely spiritually.
Even the Jewish religion and Law which God gave to the nation of Israel is also political and spiritual stream. That is why we see an eye for an eye, a life for life justice being given to those who follow it in their lives (Deut 19:21). The true justice of righteousness in the political life stream of any nation is something that should be valued by other nations or else every nation that is marked in safety by God but oppressed by other neighbors who are more powerful than they are, has the right to defend themselves by fighting against their enemies, and the Bible never opposes war when injustice prevails rather than peace in the nations around the world (Gen 9:1-4, 5-6; 10:8-9, 10; Luke 14:31-32; Prov 20:18; Rom 13:1-7; Job 40:15; Deut 20:1-20). In fact God has told the Christians to pray for their political leaders who have been appointed by Him to bring justice to all humans who live in their country (1 Tim 2:1-2). When sin enters any nation and causes devastation to human life and animals and environment, God Himself judges them through other instruments on earth (Prov 14:34; 21:1; Psa 9:8; 98:9; Jer 27:6; Gen 15:16; Lev 18:24-30; Num 35:29-34; Deut 5:9; 8:11, 19-20). There is a time for peace and also a time for war (Eccl 3:8).
If you ask me, how only Christianity can act purely spiritually without a political stream being mixed with it? To find the answer we need to understand who Jesus is and how he has established Christianity as a spiritual force without political stream being mixed in it?
A lot of times when Jesus started doing signs, wonders, miracles and all the good works by the anointing of the Holy Spirit (Acts 10:38), the people whose needs were met by God through Jesus when he was ministering on earth wanted to ask whether He is the king that God promised to Israel as a political solutions against their enemies which was Rome at that time which was ruling over them, and wanted to make Him their king by force, Jesus fled away from these fleshly men (John 6:15). In fact the biggest question for the fleshly minded Jews who did not think according to the will of God was, is Jesus the Messiah King to rule the world from the nation of Israel (Matt 11:3; Luke 7:19; Acts 1:6-7)? God had set a time for everything on earth, so the first coming of Jesus was to set a spiritual Kingdom of theocracy on earth without a drop of political stream of men mixed in it (Matt 16:16; Luke 19:10; Mark 2:17). To fulfill this will of God, God's idea was for Jesus to live without a drop of sin, so that Jesus could represent the fellow humans sinners before Him by becoming a substitute for them, so that He could become a Mediator for them to then establish a worldwide Kingdom on behalf of God (1 Tim 2:5-6; 2 Cor 5:21; Matt 4:17; Luke 17:20-21), so that Satan will be dethroned from his authority that he stole from our forefather Adam, who had lost it due to sin which brought rebellion within him against God, due to obeying Satan (John 14:30; Eph 2:2; 1 John 5:19; Matt 4:10-11; Luke 4:6-7; John 12:31-32, 33; 1 Cor 2:8; Rev 1:18). Christ Jesus after gaining his authority over the whole world, wanted to share it with all the fellow humans who wanted to live and enjoy God in his theocratic kingdom.
The time when all political forces of his contemporary times were afraid of losing their power (Matt 2:16-18; Luke 23:12), Jesus told about the nature of the pure spiritually theocratic kingdom that he had come to establish to Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here.” (John 18:36). In fact, God took the authority Satan had over the kingdoms of the world and gave to Jesus after he rose up from the dead on the third day justifying all those who believe Him, so that now Jesus Christ our Lord can rule righteously over all the people of the earth who willingly subject themselves to God's theocratic Kingdom to rule over their lives (Matt 6:10). Thus I prove that Christianity is a pure spiritual Kingdom without even a drop of political stream mixed in it. Only God has this Kind of power to rule spiritually over the whole wide world which He does through the Man Christ Jesus (1 Tim 2:5), because He does need man and will not rule without man on earth as it is illegal for any spirit to rule the earth directly. This is the reason even Satan and his demons cannot do anything on earth, except through influencing man to dance to his whims and fancies by influencing him to act independently under his evil direction.
So I can safely say that Islam is not a purely 100% spiritual religion, but it is rather a beast of politics that has a nomadic religious overtones to control every aspect of the life of the believer, which actually makes them to become more intolerant and full of hate towards other non-believers. And it leads the Islamic believers even to the extent of deceiving unbelievers to death by 'Taqiyya' which is a specific favorable situation for a Muslim in which he/she is allowed, under Sharia law, to lie in order to maintain unity and growth among Muslims, hence it is propagated by the Sword toward the unbeliever either to accept it or die; has encouraged Slavery, Polygamy and the degradation of Womanhood. Hence it is a tradition of the medieval times which has become a politico-religious doctrine to dominate the world through force, and is not a purely spiritual force like Christianity. Muslim because of hate for generations, always take vengeance and live with that hate to take vengeance down the generations, as they all live in the flesh and die in the flesh. They have a very short fuse and act like donkeys to fight against even their own brothers, so that their hand will be against every man and every man's hand against him, and they will always be wild men in their character (Gen 16:11-12).
Having said the above, still I see the European crusaders not as a pure spiritual force, but rather a political force of their times who were a little better in term of the spirituality because they followed the Biblical principles to build their nations upon it, so that things like Slavery, Polygamy and the degradation of Womanhood were not as exactly similar to Islamist of their times, but were much better with human rights and dignity in their lives because of the spiritual force of the Bible that became their light at least in many of their lives individually.
In giving reasons for our belief in Christianity, we have to differentiate the spirituality of Christianity as purely spiritual and tell them of the political mixture in their Islam which is mixed with the political world and the desire to have dominion over the entire earth through it.
That is why when Jesus said the following, He was setting a new trend in all the world religion until then, and lifted spirituality as high as heaven even to the very height of being like the Father God in Heaven whose children the Christians who follow Jesus have become, "43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? 48 Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect." (Matt 5:43-48).
Clearly the very spiritual message from Jesus allows Christians that no matter who stands against them, God wants them not to resist evil, but rather overcome evil with good to stand fast in faith to let God take the Vengeance that belongs to him (Rom 8:31; 12:19, 21; 1 John 5:4). This above personal message of Jesus to believers should not be applied for nations politically, because they are political stream appointed by God. This is for individuals of purely spiritual stream of Christians to practice their faith and let God do the talking against evil which comes against them personally. Only when a nations head or whoever it is tells us to do something against the Word of God or our conscience, we should stand against giving in to their demand expecting the Lord to rescue us or die for Him as a martyr if God allows us to face it for His Glory (Acts 4:18-19; Dan 3:14-15, 16-18, 19-25, 26-30; 1 John 3:21; 1 Peter 4:14, 16). In other words, Christian do not take vengeance as God will take vengeance on their enemies who come against them.
Of all the religious system of the world, the Law of Moses and the prophets were the perfect righteousness, and external morality man could achieve even in this modern times as the Bible of the Old Testament has been the basis for good governing of many nations for centuries and centuries even until today and even for the Millennium rule of Jesus Christ on earth (Psa 19:7; John 1:17; Isa 60:3; 62:2; Zech 8:23; Heb 8:13).
In the Battle of Tours, France (A.D. 732), one of the decisive battles of the world, in it Charles Martel defeated the Moslem army, and saved Europe from Mohammedanism which was at that time sweeping the world like a tidal wave. But for that victory Christianity may have been completely submerged.
The Crusades is the effort of Christendom to regain the Holy Land from the Mohammedans. There were seven:
FIRST (1095-1099); Captured Jerusalem.
SECOND (1147-1149); postponed the fall of Jerusalem.
THIRD (1189-1191); army failed to reach Jerusalem.
FOURTH (1201-1204); captured and plundered Constantinople.
FIFTH (1228-1229); took Jerusalem, but soon lost it.
SIXTH (1248-1254); a failure.
SEVENTH (1270-1272); came to naught.
The Crusades were of influence in saving Europe from the Turks, and in opening up intercourse between Europe and the East, paving the way for the Revival of Learning.
Arabians dominated the Mohammedan world (622-1058). The capital was moved to Damascus (662); to Baghdad in 750, where it remained till 1258.
Fall of Constantinople (1453), to the Turks, brought to an end the Eastern Roman Empire, and jarred Europe with a second threat of Mohammedan control, which, later was stopped by John Sobieski in the battle of Vienna (1683).
Turks have ruled the Mohammedan world from 1058 to modern times. They were far more intolerant and cruel than the Arabians. Their barbarous treatment of Christians in Palestine led to the Crusades.
According to me the Crusaders were a political reaction to the invasion of their own territory from the prying eyes and cruel torture to death by sword that awaited them from the Muslim invaders. They in fact fought to deny their own demise from the hands of their enemies who wanted to kill them. So we cannot compare the Crusaders with the savagery of the Muslim invasions of the past.
Much Blessings....
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