Jesus is Not Baal

I have often written about the Crusades and their important in saving Christendom and Western Civilization. The Romanticism around the Crusader who embarks on a quest to save the Holy Land, and fight against an age old enemy is the stuff of Camelot. While I cannot dismiss the Crusader movement entirely, had it not been for the bravado of the Knights of Malta, the Catholic Corsairs of Lepanto, and Hapsburgs holy warriors, the West would have fallen under the Crescent. However, it is possible to praise aspects of a movement and point out the flaws of the same movement. This particular post aims to expose the negative theological ideologies and thinking involved in the Crusading Movement.

In order to sufficiently understand how The Crusades came to be, we must understand a man name Abbot Cluny and what became known as Cluniac Reforms. During the Early to High Middle Ages, clergyman like Cluny discovered that the knightly class was in the profession of murder, and thus could not receive ordinary absolution. There was no pennace (sacrifice, self inflicted hardship of repentance) for the warrior who murders and thus a crisis in theology took place. The Knightly class had become increasingly dangerous, marauding, raping, pillaging, and slaughtering at will because there was no feasible moral code to enforce on them. Abbot Cluny devised a code out of pity for the chevaliers, which became known as Chivalry, and it contains verses, "Protect the helpless, honor ladies, and defend the Church." The Code began to spread quickly, and another Cluniac Reformer, this time a Pope, named Gregory VII discovered a proper penance for paladins, holy war. St. Augustine of Hippo borrowing from Cicero had developed the ideology of just war and holy war which stated that a nation could fight a war that is just if it is to protect another nation that is ally from an enemy. Pope Gregory using Augustine's acute explanations began to develop a expedition that could expatiate the sins of knight-errant. Gregory and Cluny never saw the dawn of their masterwork, merely scaffolding of their Sistine Chapel, it was Pope Urban II who would ultimately launch what Gregory had evisaged, The First Crusade.

The First Crusade can be divided into two separate strains: one is a Just War, in which the Emperor of Byzantium, Alexios I Commens called for aid against the Seljurk Turks. Just War according to Augustine interpretation is when a Christian ally is assailed by an enemy and begs for help, the other Christian ally is then obligated to offer aid in combat, troops, and even revenues. The second strain of the Crusade was Holy War, Holy War differs from Just War in that it is ordained by God and called by God through his emissaries, in this case the Vicar of Christ, Pope Urban II. A Holy War is more than merely going to defend an ally, it employs merit that can expatiate the sins of a soldier who fights in the Holy War or what is better known as penitential warfare. This penitential fighting can acquire forgiveness of sins, and even in case of the Plenary Indulgence of Urban II, absolute absolution of all sins; i.e. certainty of salvation. It is this second strain of Holy War that infected the brains of Europeans that went to fight in the First Crusade, here at last was certainty of salvation for a chevalier, a knight (another path at time was to join a monastery or nunnery as Monk or Nun and live a harsh penitential life in a cloister).

The Crusaders were convinced their expedition could save their souls via their swords. This in addition to the loot and land that less pious Crucinatia (crusaders) would seize was the driving force for these Milites Christi (Soldiers of Christ). But what are the theological implications? Does the Bible affirm bannerets marching into the fog of war for their faith and achieving salvation by force of arms? The answer is an unequivocal no. The Apostles teach that salvation is earned only through Christ's sacrifice (Romans 8:2, Romans 5:9-10) and believing in Him, "You must confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord (Jehovah, God of Israel, and believe God raised Him from the dead. It is through confessing and believing in your heart that you are saved." (Romans 10:9-10). The Roman Catholic concepts of meriting salvio (salvation) through acts of remission (pennace) is a pagan practice, not a Christian one. The Apostles make clear that salvation is not a process of earning but of recieving, "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast," (Ephesians 2:8-9), "For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit," (1 Peter 3:18), "so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him," (Hebrews 9:28), "When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God," (Romans 6:10 NLT), "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God," (2 Corinthians 5:21), "Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault," (Colossians 1:22), "For God wanted them to know that the riches and glory of Christ are for you Gentiles, too. And this is the secret: Christ lives in you. This gives you assurance of sharing his glory," (Colossians 1:27), and "Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?" (1 Corinthians 3:16). The Crusaders (and all Medieval People) believed Christ was distant, and emplored the courtiers (go between) in the Cult of Saints (Roman and Greek gods made into Catholic saints, St. George is Mars, the Madonna is Ashtoreth "Queen of Heaven," also known as Venus, Ishtar, and Isis); these couturiers were to go before God and intercede on their behalf, when in contrast Scripture says, "For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people. This has now been witnessed to at the proper time." (1 Timothy 2:5-6). The Knights of Christ were convinced their penance would open the pearly gates of heaven, but in truth it gave Christ the same reputation as Allah and Baal, even Thor and other gods of war. In fact, this probably was resurgent paganism, for the Crusaders were comprised of many Franks and Normans who were Norsemen who once believed in Odin and Thor as their gods of war, and believed they could fight their way into Valhalla (paradise). In fact, in Middle Ages, until about the 12th Century, Christ was seen as War Lord on His throne, something the Roman Catholic Church had done to make Him more acceptable and appealing to Saxons, Angles, and Normans who knew only gods of war, but just as Constantine the Great had fused Sol Invictus and the Son of God (Jesus) into one to appease his predominately pagan people, this corrupting of Christ would have a devastating effect on the souls of Christians.

The Roman Church had effectively turned the Messiah into Mars, their former god of war (The Roman Empire served Mars before it fell and became Christian). Even the Jew in their time had made Yahweh into a war god, and tired of this misrepresentation The Lord God said to His people, "And in that day, declares the LORD, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal." (Hosea 2:16). The God of Israel and Gentile Christians never wanted to be known as a god of war, but as Bridegroom (John 3:28-30, Luke 5:34-35, Mark 2:19, Matthew 25:1-11). He is a loving God, "But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love." (1 John 4:8). Jesus Christ demonstrates the love of the God of Israel by dying for us on the cross, "but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us," (Romans 5:8). This contrasts immensely with the gods of war like Mars, Baal, and Allah who require the deaths of people to merit salvation, when Jesus instead faced death to end death's power (Romans 6:8-10), take the keys from death (Revelation 1:17), purchase us eternal life (and resurrection life), and to in the End of Days cast death into hell (Revelation 20:14). The Crusades warped Christ's appearance to the Muslims and all bystanders, suddenly the loving Savior who died for all warriors was made into a war god who the Crucinata included in their battlecry, "Deus Vult! God Wills It!" Ironic, since Muslims chant a battle cry to their war god, "Allahu Akbar!" While the Crusaders certainly halted the Muslim Advance from 1095-1291 A.D. and in 1325-1540 A.D.,  the tainted view that the Crusades placed on Christ as a war god is a great hinderance; it has misrepresented the Messianic Savior and given Him a false identity.

Another factor in what drove both Crusader zeal and the theology behind Crusading was Apocalypse. Many of the clergy and laity of the 11th Century felt that Christ's Return was imminent, and so the Crusades for many took an apocalyptic dimension. The Knights of Christ saw their impending conquest of Jerusalem in fulfilling the prophecies of the Book of Revelation. Many of the Soldiers of Christ believed they were on an apocalyptic mission, that upon arriving at Jerusalem, Christ would descend and the Day of Great Judgment would take place. Some experts may even cite The Book of Revelation, the last book of the Holy Bible as incitement for The First Crusade, but that only stands if one misinterprets it. For the Revelation clearly states, "Look, he is coming with the clouds," and "every eye will see him, even those who pierced him"; and all peoples on earth "will mourn because of him." So shall it be! Amen." (Revelation 1:7), and "Then I saw heaven opened, and a white horse was standing there. Its rider was named Faithful and True, for he judges fairly and wages a righteous war. His eyes were like flames of fire, and on his head were many crowns. A name was written on him that no one understood except himself. He wore a robe dipped in blood, and his title was the Word of God. The armies of heaven, dressed in the finest of pure white linen, followed him on white horses. From his mouth came a sharp sword to strike down the nations. He will rule them with an iron rod. He will release the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty, like juice flowing from a winepress. On his robe at his thigh was written this title: King of all kings and Lord of all lords." (Revelation 19:11-16). Why would Jesus need crusaders when He has an army of heaven? Besides the Apostle Paul would condemn the crusaders on these grounds, "Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God/So don't make judgments about anyone ahead of time--before the Lord returns. For he will bring our darkest secrets to light and will reveal our private motives. Then God will give to each one whatever praise is due." (1 Corinthians 4:5 NIV and NLT). It is clear according to the Apostles that only Jesus Christ can righteously judge because He is God (Colossians 2:9, John 1:1-15), and that only He alone can wage a just and holy war against sinners when He returns, because He knows the motives of people's hearts and has given them every opportunity to repent and turn to Him for salvation (1 Timothy 2:4, and 2 Peter 3:1-12). The Crusaders made a grave mistake, they could not instigate Immanuel to wage war against infidels, only Christ who is Righteous Judge can decide when He will come and judge the wicked. The Apocalyptic Crusaders believed they could not only instigate the Return of Christ but that they knew hour of Christ's Return, but it is written, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away. But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father," (Mark 13:31-32), "For you know quite well that the day of the Lord's return will come unexpectedly, like a thief in the night," (2 Thessalonians 5:2), and "Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is he who stays awake and who keeps his clothes [that is, stays spiritually ready for the Lord’s return], so that he will not be naked—spiritually unprepared—and men will not see his shame." (Revelation 16:15 AMP). It is the height of hubris (pride) that anyone could believe they would compel Christ to come on the clouds over a Crusading expedition! The delusional state of mind during Siege of Jerusalem (1099 A.D.) comes from the Crusaders' wanting their adventure to be blessed, to be honored, and supernatural. One eyewitness, a knight believed he was seeing Revelation being fulfilled, "the blood was up to bridle of our horses," making an obvious connection to when Christ comes, "They were trampled in the winepress outside the city, and blood flowed out of the press, rising as high as the horses' bridles for a distance of 1,600 stadia (180 Miles)," (Revelation 14:20), but it is revealed that only Jesus and angel does this, "And from His mouth proceeds a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and He will rule them with an iron scepter. He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God, the Almighty."  (Revelation 19:15), and "The angel swung his sickle on the earth, gathered its grapes and threw them into the great winepress of God's wrath." (Revelation 14:19).  It is obvious that the angel gathers those for winpress and Christ Himself presses them.


The success of First Crusade was attributed to God's Favor, that the enterprise was believed to be in tune with Emmanuel's desires. Then came The Second Crusade, a disaster of colossal proportions, the marginal success and failure of the Third Crusade lead by King Richard The Lionheart, then the disaster of Fourth Crusade which became a Crusade against Christians and the Crusaders conquering Constantinople the capital of Byzantine Eastern Christian Empire (1204 A.D.), The massacre of Crusaders in The Fifrth Crusade, and the failures of St. Louis IX's two Crusades were compiled with all other failures to cause disillusionment in Europe toward crusading and for them to question if it was really God's will (hence why Deus Vult! God Wills it! shifted to Deo Volente! God Be Willing or If God Be Willing!). Aside from the Spanish Crusade known as The Reconquista (1095-1492 A.D) and The Baltic Crusades by Teutonic Knights, the only success was The First Crusade, making only three out of Ten Crusades a success. It seems after Fifth Crusade, Europeans began to question if Emmanuel approved of this sanctioned violence in His name. After all, the enemy, the Muslims had won most of the skirmishes and battles, how could God favor the infidel? Perhaps because Christ isn't a war god?! Often the God of Israel would send the Assyrians, Babylonians, and in the Crusader era Ayyubids, Almorhads, and Turks to judge God's people for their idolatry. As the Israelites had turned to other gods, and were deported to Babylon and Assyria, so the Crusaders were deported literally at the ports of Tyre, Sidon, and Acre by the descendants of the Babylonians (Iranians, Baghdad is Babylon), and other Saracens because the Crusaders had been deceived by believing a Roman Catholic lie that had them worshipping Mars and calling Him the Messiah Jesu, and so Jesus not wanting to be mocked and misrepresented gave the Crucinatia into hands of Mujahideen so they would no longer believe Jesus was some war god.

The crux of the problem in crusader theology is that they believed unknowingly another gospel (2 Corinthians 11:4). The Roman Catholic Church had drilled into their disciples that they must merit salvation through good deeds (pennaces) and preform sacraments, when the Apostles affirm that "It is by grace you are saved," (Ephensians) and "God so loved the world He gave his only begotten son, whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16). Jesus said, "I am the only way to the Father," (John 14:6), which means no priest or pantheon of saints can help someone reach the Heavenly Father nor Heaven; only Jesus. Thus the Crusaders were fighting and dying in their version of Jihad Akbar believing that death in a holy war merits salvation, which is a Muslim belief (see Suras). While I am greatful the Crusaders kept the Cresent from taking the world, what they believed disturbs me and I pity their illiteracy and inability to read the Scriptures to discover salvation was simple: "If you confess that Jesus is Lord (God) and believe in your heart God raised Him the dead you shall be saved, for it is by confessing with your mouth and believing in your heart that you are saved," (Romans 10:9-10).

The major theological error of the Crusading movement was maligning Christ's character, turning Him into a Baal (war god) when Jesus is not a war god! Jesus says, "You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. ⁴⁶ If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect," (Matthew 5:43-48), and "And suddenly, one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword, struck the servant of the high priest, and cut off his ear. But Jesus said to him, “Put your sword in its place, for all who take up the sword will perish by the sword. Or do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels?" (Matthew 26:51-53). Christ Jesus is not a war god, but Ishe our Husband (Revelation 19:7-9). He will come back to judge, but that is the Last Judgement, not a perpetual holy war like Jihad Akbar or campaigns like The Crusades. The second major theological error as I have explained is that Crusader believed they could merit salvation with a sword, when it was purchased on a cross (). While certainly many post-Reformation may not be effected by the heresy of the Knights of the Crusading Era, there example to the unbelievers in the East during the Crusades has given the Gospel a bad reputation. The Legacy of the Crusaders is one that is a blight on the Church not because of the actual battles against Mujahadieen, but rather the misrepresentation of  Jesus the Messiah as Baal god like Allah, when He is a God of Love (1 John 4:8). Baals like Mars, Ares, Oiden, and Allah want their adherants to wage war for salvation and to please them, while Jesus Christ offers salvation freely, "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast," (Ephesians 2:8-9), "For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit," (1 Peter 3:18), "so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him," (Hebrews 9:28), "When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God," (Romans 6:10 NLT), "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God," (2 Corinthians 5:21), "Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault," (Colossians 1:22), "For God wanted them to know that the riches and glory of Christ are for you Gentiles, too. And this is the secret: Christ lives in you. This gives you assurance of sharing his glory," (Colossians 1:27), and "Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?" (1 Corinthians 3:16). While the Lord Jesus is a Warrior (Ezekiel 15:3) but not a God of War. The issue is that Immaneul is not singular characteristic or type, He is Merciful and Judges, He is Love and Truth (1 John 4:8 and John 14:6), He is gentle and yet strong, and so forth. Baals only want bloodshed, while the blood Jesus shall shed (Revelation 19:3-25) is judgement, for He said, "Those who do not believe are already judged." (John 3;18). Allah and Ares want the bodies of Adam's sons, but The Alpha and Omega desires, "that none should perish, this is why he delays," () and "Christ gives people every opportunity." (). While Allah and Ares relish the slaughter of mankind (because they are Satan or one of his lieutenants), the Alpha and Omega will slaughter the wicked on the Last Day because He gave them every opportunity to repent and be saved, but they instead did thus, "They tried to hide themselves from wratho f the Lamb." () and, "they did not love the Truth." (2 Thessalonians 2). The Lord Jesus will judge with an army (Revelation), but it is at the end of days, not everyday as Allah demands of his adherants or those possessed by Thor who wage war in Europe and the East. Christ's desire is to save souls by them believing in Him (Romans 10:9-10) while the Baals want to dash souls to pieces in death blows. Jesus is Life (John 14:6) and the Baals only want death.

What is quite disturbing is that the Crucinata, the Crusaders, became identical to their enemy the Mujahedeen, Islamic holy warriors. The Roman Church had turned Jesus into a war god, in fact during the interim period of The Second and Third Crusades, Christians and Muslims became close to one another because their ideologies about god being a war lord were similar, and so Pope Urban II, and subsequent popes like Innocent III had made Jesus and Allah one and the same! It becomes obvious then why with exception of the First Crusade, all subsequent Crusades were either nominally successful or colossal disasters like The Fourth and Fifth Crusades. Jesus Christ seeing His image maligned, mutated, and changed into likeness of Baal, did not favor The Crusader States and so let them fall to the Mamelukes in 1191-95 A.D. What sets the Hasburg Wars, The Battle of Lepanto, The Battle of Malta apart from the Crusades is subtle difference in both theology and ideology. During the 16th Century, the Crusading zeal and ideology was shipwrecked, people no longer believed in cause because of its infectiveness, and the losses both material and the losses in lives. Much like how dissolution met Americans over the War in Iraq and cause of planting Democracy, the Late Medieval people saw Crusading less and less as spiritual benefit to penitents, and more of novelty and exciting adventure for the rich, hence why in Baltic States of the Teutonic Knights (crusaders) had mini-crusades for knights and warriors who wanted a little taste of adventure and crusading against Prussians and other pagans all the way until Napoleon Bonaparte conquered the Teutonic States. The mindset during the Hasburg Wars against the Ottoman Turks and the European zeal to route the Muslims during Battles of Lepanto and Malta was not resurgent crusaderism (crusader ideology), but rather the ideology was "save Christendom" was to save the Church of Christ from the Crescent Moon's Conquest. The miracles that happened during these battles, where roughly 2,500 knights and soldiers held Malta against a force of 50,000 Ottoman Turks who had ships and cannons, is testament to Christ, He favored them because the ideology wasn't Baal and Crusading indulgence, but save Christians from being slaughtered and Christianity from being suppressed. The ideology had changed from crusade to save your soul to fight to save the Christian faith from eclipse of Islam, and so Immanuel stepped in. They weren't asking Jesus to be Baal anymore, they were asking him to be Jehovah Sabaoth, the Lord of hosts to come down and rescue His children, all Christians from the threat of the Crescent.

The Crusades have become a major stumbling block. People point to them to condemn the Church, and say we aren't different than other religions who slaughter, like Muslims and even Hindus. This has been a problem in the Church, we are meant to be different. While all other gods and religions have temples, our God makes us the Temple (John 17:21-23, 1 Corinthians 3:16, Colossians 1:27, 1 Corinthians 6:19, Ephesians 2:19-22, 1 Peter 2:5, ), when in Old Testament times all gods had temples, God said He didn't want a temple (2 Samuel 4:11-43) but instead had Tabernacle or Tent that could go anywhere with His people. The Lord has always wanted to show He is different from the fallen angels posing as gods, but sadly the Jews mimicked the pagans and built the temple that God did not want, and Christian rebuilt the temple via Constantine and made the Church which had met in homes, communities, and evangelized on the streets and country sides, look like all other religions that have an ornate building with gold and pews or seats. The devil has tried to malign the Lord's nature, by making Him appear to man just like other gods, He did this with holy war (crusades), with temple building, and more. We are suppose to follow the eyewitness accounts in the New Testament, the words of Jesus Christ and his Apostles, but man keeps following the ideas of devil in pagan people or partial pagan Christians like the Popes and Roman Church. As Jesus said to Pharisees, so I would think He would have said to Pope Urban II and others, "You teach man made traditions as if they come from God," (Mark 7:7). The Crusades theologically have damaged relations with the East. Thankfully the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the True Gospel according to the Holy Bible is spreading amongst the descendants of the Mujahedeen. As St. Francis of Assisi so astutely observed, why would we wage war against Muslims, why not share the Gospel with them and seek to make our enemy our friend in Christ? St. Francis did this, even preaching to the Sultan during a Crusade, and for the rest of his life he preached the Gospel to the Muslims until his death. Rather than be inspired by images of knights in red crosses, let us take St. Francis' example and go, "make disciples of all nations and baptize them in name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit." (Matthew 28:19).

It was certainly right of Martin Luther to condemn the spirit of the Crusades because of its antichrist spirit (antichrist literally means to replace Christ, so anyone or anything like Crusading indulgence that promises to saves over Jesus saving you, is antichrist, for Christ alone is way of salvation john 14:6). In fact, one can add the Crusader christ as a false Christ and the Pope as false prophet according to Christ's own words, "There will be false christs and false prophets who will do signs and wonders to deceive if possible the Elect." (Matthew 24:24), and "For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray." (Matthew 24:5). Indeed, the Crusades let many people astray. While their intentions may have been godly, those who "took the cross" and fought in the holy wars from 1095 to 1191 A.D. were following a false Christ and distortion of Jesus made to be Baal, and they were believing a false gospel that taught them they had to fight and die in crusade to merit salvation, "I am afraid, however, that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may be led astray from your simple and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and proclaims a Jesus other than the One we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit than the One you received, or a different gospel than the one you accepted, you put up with it way too easily." (2 Corinthians 11:3-4) and the Popes and clergy such as Bernard of Clairvaux are guilty of preaching another gospel, "Let God's curse fall on anyone, including us or even an angel from heaven, who preaches a different kind of Good News than the one we preached to you. As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God's curse!" (Galatians 1:8-9). I believe the Crusaders who gave up their inheritance, lands, and lives in cause of Crusade will suffer less judgement than those who taught them they had crusade to save their souls, "Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly." (James 3:1). We must understand the motive of the hearts of these Crusaders was based on bad information, they were illiterate and had no access to the Holy Bible, and even if they did, it was in Latin which few priests or clergy could read! So make no mistake, the Crusaders unlike the Reformers, did not have the blessing of Scripture in their language so they could counter the salacious, antichrist, and distorted ideas coming out of Rome and from their spiritual leaders. I believe Jesus Christ is aware of this and He alone knows how he will judge insecure souls who fought in holy wars believing it was the truth because their clergy said it was so.


I want to say that I think the Crusader, the Knight wearing a red cross emblazoned on their tunic and fighting is romantic (epic) and I do appreciate much of artwork, and imagery of Knights of Christ. The Templars in particular I think were more noble because they simply acted as Defenders and protectors of pilgrims, rather than signing up for crusades. As I said at beginning, you can affirm some things in a movement and condemn others, just as we might enjoy one thing in movie and detest another. My goal was to expose the theological errors of the Crusades, not wither the wars themselves were effective in a defense against invading Islamists. It is evident that since Muslims had conquered most of the East and swaths of Europe in 600 t0 700 A.D., the Crusaders were quite late in responding in 1095 A.D. Thus the Crusaders were not the aggressors, but defenders. It is tragic that the Crusades couldn't have just been just wars, to defend Christendom as the later Hasburg and Maltese Wars against the Ottoman Turks became; then the theological issues could have be left out and they would have simply been loving Christian neighbors, "The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these," (Mark 12:31) and "My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends." (John 15:12-13). The Crusades could have been remembered as the greatest example of Christian love for their neighbors in history, but instead they became an object of idolatry, distorted who Jesus really is, and served the antichrist's purposes (theologically).