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The Real History of the Crusades

Discussion in 'News & Current Events' started by Revmitchell, Feb 6, 2015.

  1. Revmitchell

    Revmitchell Well-Known Member
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    ...Misconceptions about the Crusades are all too common. The Crusades are generally portrayed as a series of holy wars against Islam led by power-mad popes and fought by religious fanatics. They are supposed to have been the epitome of self-righteousness and intolerance, a black stain on the history of the Catholic Church in particular and Western civilization in general. A breed of proto-imperialists, the Crusaders introduced Western aggression to the peaceful Middle East and then deformed the enlightened Muslim culture, leaving it in ruins. For variations on this theme, one need not look far. See, for example, Steven Runciman's famous three-volume epic, History of the Crusades, or the BBC/A&E documentary, The Crusades, hosted by Terry Jones. Both are terrible history yet wonderfully entertaining.

    So what is the truth about the Crusades? Scholars are still working some of that out. But much can already be said with certainty. For starters, the Crusades to the East were in every way defensive wars. They were a direct response to Muslim aggression—an attempt to turn back or defend against Muslim conquests of Christian lands.

    hristians in the eleventh century were not paranoid fanatics. Muslims really were gunning for them. While Muslims can be peaceful, Islam was born in war and grew the same way. From the time of Mohammed, the means of Muslim expansion was always the sword. Muslim thought divides the world into two spheres, the Abode of Islam and the Abode of War. Christianity—and for that matter any other non-Muslim religion—has no abode. Christians and Jews can be tolerated within a Muslim state under Muslim rule. But, in traditional Islam, Christian and Jewish states must be destroyed and their lands conquered. When Mohammed was waging war against Mecca in the seventh century, Christianity was the dominant religion of power and wealth. As the faith of the Roman Empire, it spanned the entire Mediterranean, including the Middle East, where it was born. The Christian world, therefore, was a prime target for the earliest caliphs, and it would remain so for Muslim leaders for the next thousand years.

    With enormous energy, the warriors of Islam struck out against the Christians shortly after Mohammed's death. They were extremely successful. Palestine, Syria, and Egypt—once the most heavily Christian areas in the world—quickly succumbed. By the eighth century, Muslim armies had conquered all of Christian North Africa and Spain. In the eleventh century, the Seljuk Turks conquered Asia Minor (modern Turkey), which had been Christian since the time of St. Paul. The old Roman Empire, known to modern historians as the Byzantine Empire, was reduced to little more than Greece. 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.

    Understand the crusaders
    That is what gave birth to the Crusades. 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. At some point, Christianity as a faith and a culture had to defend itself or be subsumed by Islam. The Crusades were that defense.

    Pope Urban II called upon the knights of Christendom to push back the conquests of Islam at the Council of Clermont in 1095. The response was tremendous. Many thousands of warriors took the vow of the cross and prepared for war. Why did they do it? The answer to that question has been badly misunderstood. In the wake of the Enlightenment, it was usually asserted that Crusaders were merely lacklands and ne'er-do-wells who took advantage of an opportunity to rob and pillage in a faraway land. The Crusaders' expressed sentiments of piety, self-sacrifice, and love for God were obviously not to be taken seriously. They were only a front for darker designs.

    During the past two decades, computer-assisted charter studies have demolished that contrivance. Scholars have discovered that crusading knights were generally wealthy men with plenty of their own land in Europe. Nevertheless, they willingly gave up everything to undertake the holy mission. Crusading was not cheap. Even wealthy lords could easily impoverish themselves and their families by joining a Crusade. They did so not because they expected material wealth (which many of them had already) but because they hoped to store up treasure where rust and moth could not corrupt. They were keenly aware of their sinfulness and eager to undertake the hardships of the Crusade as a penitential act of charity and love. Europe is littered with thousands of medieval charters attesting to these sentiments, charters in which these men still speak to us today if we will listen. Of course, they were not opposed to capturing booty if it could be had. But the truth is that the Crusades were notoriously bad for plunder. A few people got rich, but the vast majority returned with nothing.

    http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct...0.html?share=GcNwk5OSRquYLbiFtvo2wtnds8X66CSE
     
  2. SolaSaint

    SolaSaint Well-Known Member

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    Good post Rev, sorry not to see much of a response in here. I have noticed in my lifetime that it is fashionable to bash the Crusades. I have always wondered why and I think because of the POTUS this week in his address at the Prayer breakfast I now have an answer. If unbelievers can belittle Christianity by distorting the Crusades, then why trust us Christians who claim to have the only Truth. Obama is good at that.
     
  3. Revmitchell

    Revmitchell Well-Known Member
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  4. Jkdbuck76

    Jkdbuck76 Well-Known Member
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    You can't educate Mr Obeyme. He has made up his mind. As such pls do not confuse him with the facts.

    Sent from my KFTT using Tapatalk
     
  5. church mouse guy

    church mouse guy Well-Known Member
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  6. Bro. James

    Bro. James Well-Known Member
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    Some basic facts not yet presented:

    1. The crusades were under the auspices of The Vatican, an apostate religious group which was promulgated in the 4th century by the Roman Emperor, Constantine the Great, himself a lifelong pagan. This religion of the empire has raised havoc with true Christians for 1600 years and still claims control of over a billion souls. Any connection between this group and True Christianity is pure coincidence.

    2. Rome was also responsible for crusades against a group called Albigenses. These were Christians who refused to bow to the authority of Rome. See: History of the Evangelical Churches of the Valleys of Piedmont, by Samuel Morland. Millions were beheaded, burned, hanged, drowned, and disemboweled. Strange: Christians(?) killing Christians.

    3. The current situation is a continuation of the war between God and Satan. Much of mankind has been deceived into following Satan.

    Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

    Bro. James
     
    #6 Bro. James, Feb 7, 2015
    Last edited by a moderator: Feb 7, 2015
  7. church mouse guy

    church mouse guy Well-Known Member
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    No matter the theology of the crusades, they were an attempt to save Christians from Allah. That is what the Democrats ignore.
     
  8. plain_n_simple

    plain_n_simple Active Member

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