Thursday
Feb122015
Dr. Godfrey on the Crusades
Thursday, February 12, 2015 at 05:15PM A great lecture on an important topic. Thanks to Ligonier Ministries for making this available!
Thursday, February 12, 2015 at 05:15PM 
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Thursday, February 12, 2015 at 05:15PM
Reader Comments (1)
I just watched the video and here is my take on a couple of things that were said:
Mr. Godfrey says that Christians first became interested in pilgrimages in about 1095. Actually European Christians started doing pilgrimages since the early 300's to visit holy sites of our Lord. The lands were Christian not Muslim.
Mr. Godfrey states that the Muslims were not as violent as those Christians. Not quite. In about AD 612, the Arabian Muhammad, son of Abdallah mounted a military campaign and conquered Jewish and Christian tribes. Muhammad's successors - the Caliphs, took control of Syria, Palestine and North Africa in less than 100 years. In fact, they wiped out half of the Christians. Even Europe was threatened. They took control of Southern Spain, then they invaded France and threatened Rome, before they were defeated by Charles Poitiers in 732.
Within 200 years, the Muslims conquered Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and parts of India. They also conquered the Byzantine empire in 1453. The Crusades took place in the middle of those struggles.
Mr. Godfrey mentions Constantinople. The Pope (Innocent III), during the 4th Crusade expressed regret about the misfire sack of Constantinople. In fact, Pope John Paul returned to Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople the bones of St John Chrysostom relics seized during the sack of 1204.
Christians in the Middle Ages all thought that the Crusades were an act of the highest good.
We should condemn the evil acts committed during the Crusades by sinners the same way that we would condemn the evil act by Calvin for burning Michael Servetus the Spanish physician at the stake.
A few questions are in order: Would Muslims sit by quietly if Christians sought control of the Kaaba in Mecca and the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque? Or would Muslims retaliate and defend their Holy sites?
The goals of defending Christian civilizations (Muslims are cutting the heads off of innocent Catholics in the Middle East as I am typing this and running them from their homelands when the Christians were there some 600 years before the Muslim religion was started) and securing access to our Holy sites that commemorate events in Christian world history are worthy goals worth fighting for.
The Muslims can't help but view the Crusades as nothing more than a defense of medieval attacks by them.