The Signs Of Our Times

In this day of religious antagonism between radical Islam and virtually every other religion on the earth it has not been unusual for people with a superficial knowledge of history to point to the crusades as an example of Christian's acting in a similar way as ISIS and other radical Islamic groups.  It is almost like they want to take the edge off the atrocities being committed by Islamic extremists in the name of ALLAH.

However, those who truly know the history of the Crusades know that there are notable differences between the events perpetuated today under the ISIS Islamic banner and the actions of the knights who fought under the sign of the cross.

The first point that is all too often overlooked is that the Crusaders did not set out on a series of campaigns of conquest just for the sake of fighting or getting rich. Many were impoverished by their involvement.  The first and overarching objective of the Crusaders was a defensive one. Simply stated it was to halt the military advances of Islamic radicals who had already wrecked havoc on the most heavily populated Christian regions of the time, namely the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey.  The goal was to defeat the Muslim onslaught to stop the slaughter of Eastern Christians who were dying by the thousands at the hands of radical Islamic forces.  Hence the first objective was to rescue the Christians of the East.

Already today hundreds of Christians have been slaughtered by Islamic radicals as they seek to set up their Islamic Caliph. Just today we learned that several hundred Iraqi Christians had been kidnapped by ISIS and no one seems to know what has happened to them. If past experience is any indicator they are now sleeping with their fathers . . .  i.e., dead. Just Google the word ISIS and click on images . . . . warning be prepared to see pictures of atrocities that would have made Hitler and his henchmen blush.

The crusades were a direct response to Islamic aggression and  in every sense defensive wars. They were  the European Christian's response to the Muslim conquest of Christian lands and the brutal slaughter of  Christians.

It must be noted because it is of paramount importance that the Christians who were engaged in the Crusades were not paranoid and they were not fanatics.  In the 7th century  Christianity was the dominate religion of the Roman Empire and it included the entire Mediterranean  basin including what we know as the Holy Land. The Christian world became because of its wealth the prime target for the earliest caliphs, and it would remain so for Muslim leaders for the next thousand years.

 Unprepared for the ferocious nature of the Muslim advance, country by country Christian nations fell. First Palestine, then Syria followed by Egypt until by the 8th century they were in southern Spain.  Then, under the leadership of Seljuk they over-ran Turkey and the Eastern Roman Empire so that all that was left of the Eastern Orthodox church was Greece.

It was at this point that in desperation, the emperor in Constantinople sent word to the Christians of western Europe asking them to aid their brothers and sisters in the East.  Thus was born the Crusades.

The Crusades were a response of Western Christians to the people of Eastern Christians to "come over and help us."  "They were not the brainchild of an ambitious pope or rapacious knights but a response to more than four centuries of conquests in which Muslims had already captured two-thirds of the old Christian world." (Thomas F. Madden)  

Clearly, when one objectively examines the evidence of the previous 1000 years, Christianity was, at some point, going to have to defend itself as a faith and a culture or be swallowed up by Islam.

So, the first goal of the Crusades was to rescue the Christians of the East from the persecution of the Islamic empire that was spreading at the point of a spear and by the blade of a sword.

Pope Innocent III, wrote, "How does a man love according to divine precept his neighbor as  himself when, knowing that his Christian brothers in faith and in name are held by the perfidious Muslims in strict confinement and weighed down by the yoke of heaviest servitude, he does not devote himself to the task of freeing them? … Is it by chance that you do not know that many thousands of Christians are bound in slavery and imprisoned by the Muslims, tortured with innumerable torments?"  Does this not describe what we are seeing develop once more in the East.

The President can say we are not at war with Islam until the cows come home. But Christians are dying and they are dying at the hands of people who identify themselves as Muslim. In my little world that constitutes the seeds of a holy war. It does no good to deny that the present state of affairs is not the work of radical Muslims.  

These radical Islamist may not represent the millions of Muslims around the world but make no mistake about it, they are Muslims and our battle is with that brand of Islam that cuts off the heads of innocents, persecutes people of the Cross, and generally conduct themselves as international tyrants as wicked as any who have walked upon the face of this planet.  Furthermore, if the rest of the Muslim world does not want to be covered with the blanket of shame that these radicals have wrapped around themselves then they must rise up and strike down the serpent among themselves or we must, like the Crusaders before us do it for them.

 This action is not done out of hatred for the enemy but love for the brothers.  John Riley-Smith is correct when he says that crusading was considered an act of love.  Crusaders, from the wealthiest noblemen to the humblest peasant saw his involvement in the Crusades as an act of love for his Christian brothers and an obligation of mercy under the Lordship of Christ to correct a horrible wrong being perpetuated on God's people.   As Pope Innocent III wrote to the Knights Templar, "You carry out in deeds the words of the Gospel, 'Greater love than this hath no man, that he lay down his life for his friends."

I began by saying there was two overarching goals that drove the Crusaders and the population of Europe to support them with their treasure. The first, was to deliver the Eastern Christians from the heavy hand of the radical Islamist. The second, no less  noble, was to deliver the Holy Land, the birthplace of Christianity; the place where Jesus walked and taught and died for our sin from the hand of the infidel.

The Crusaders , unlike the Muslim, was not interested in forcing the Muslim to become Christians.  In addition to freeing their eastern brethren the Crusader wanted to free the Holy Land as well.  They wanted to see Jerusalem back under Christian control and the other sites considered holy by Christians of the time.

The historical fact was that Muslims who lived in Crusader-won territories were generally allowed to retain their property, their livelihood and their religion. Indeed, throughout the history of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, Muslim inhabitants far outnumbered the Christians.

So, while the Crusaders could be ruthless to their enemies in battle. Their noble purposes and honorable goals shaped the way they treated those who they conquered.  When the battles were over they set out to create a sense of normalcy for everyone in the areas they liberated. Whereas under the same circumstances the Muslim victors demand Christians be come Muslims or be put to death.  Many were put to death whether they recanted their faith or not.

It would be nice if Christian and Muslim would join forces against the aberration of the Muslim religion called ISIS but the chances of that happening are slim to none and I seriously doubt it is going to happen.

Crusaders were also preservers of our mutual history. Instead of destroying ancient sites they sought to protect them. ISIS on the other hand is bent on destroying even the history from which thier own culture sprung.

I must concure with my friend who said of this destruction of the evidence of our antiquity, "Who is responsible for this brutality? Who is responsible for this barbarism? Who supported financialy these people? Who gave them weapons? Who gave them power? And who stands and watches the spectacle?? This makes me sick !!!" All who performed the deed; all who supplied the funding; and who delivered the weapons; and all who stood by and watched but said or did nothing are guilty of crimes not only against humanity but against humanity's God. It makes me sick as well!

My friend continued, "You're not worth the civilization we gave you !!!! If Alexander the Great was alive he would have banished you out of the face of the earth you monsters!!!! Go and tear up Aristotle's and Plato's books, you beasts, that made you humans!!!! You disgrace ...of humanity. You disgrace even of your own faith!!! Even if your prophet Mohamed was alive he would also vanish you from the face of the earth!!!!!! You don't deserve anything, not even the caves!!!!!!! You don't speak about Iscander any more you filth!!!! You disgrace the name!!!!! 100 Alexandria city's only Alexander built and brought you civilization!!! And more than 100 Seleukos!!!! You degenerated species of the human race" Again I can but only agree.

I am not a prophet nor am I the son of a prophet but I can read the signs of our times and sooner than later we will once again be called, as General Eisenhower said before the invasion of Fortress Europe on June 6, 1944, upon to "embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hope and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you. In company with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on other Fronts, you will bring about the destruction . . . the elimination of . . . tyranny over the oppressed peoples . . . and security for ourselves in a free world.

The time for political correctness is over. The time for praying for our enemies is not over but the time of reasoning may well be over. There is only so much reasoning you can do with a rabid dog before you put it down.  For the sake of humanity and the love of God it is time to put the dog down. Our fathers put down the rabid dogs of their day and we may well have to do so in our own time.

If people want to continue to follow Islam it is none of our business but when their religion begins to empower them to take the lives of those who just wish to live and raise their families, it becomes the business of Christians everywhere.  Jesus said, “But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one.”