When you travel to Jerusalem, it is the custom of a pilgrim to by a Jerusalem Cross as souvenir. Its suppose to represent Jerusalem, and Christianity there. Even Protestant brothers and sisters have adopted the Jerusalem Cross symbol as a missionary symbol, the four extra crosses being to four corners of the world, “And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” (Matthew 24:31). The problem is that the Jerusalem Cross has a very dark history spiritually. Yes it was used like French Cross as a counter to Nazi swastika during the 1940’s which is ironic since one variant of Cross Potent which is in the Jerusalem Cross was a swastika called the grammadion which was a talisman for luck and good fortune:
My greater concern is the crusader theology tied to the Jerusalem Cross. The Jerusalem Cross as we know it was created when the Kingdom of Jerusalem was formed during The First Crusade in 1099 A.D. The Four crosses on the Jerusalem Cross probably really mean the four crusader estates and kingdoms of Edessa, Antioch, Tripoli, and Jerusalem rather than the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The middle larger cross is the Cross Potent which is a very ancient pre-Christian symbol in Europe and China and means Shaman or Witch (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross_potent). The Cross Potent which is middle cross of the Jerusalem Cross is essentially is four Tau crosses (T) intersecting; The Tau cross has connections to the god Tammuz. What you need to understand is Medieval Catholics had no qualms with mixing witchcraft, luck, and Christian beliefs; Sir Gawain for instance in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight book has a Pentangle Star on his red shield, which is a symbol of white witchcraft. Medieval people were mostly illiterate and they did not have access to the Scriptures that prove the Lord God forbids witchcraft, sorcery, and etc:
“Do not turn to mediums or necromancers; do not seek them out, and so make yourselves unclean by them: I am the Lord your God,” (Leviticus 19:31), “When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you,” (Deuteronomy 18:9-12), “Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God,” (Galatians 5:19-21), “And he burned his sons as an offering in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, and used fortune-telling and omens and sorcery, and dealt with mediums and with necromancers. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger,” (2 Chronicles 33:6), “Outside [The New Heaven, New Earth, and New Jerusalem where Jesus is] are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood,” (Revelation 22:15), “And I will cut off sorceries from your hand, and you shall have no more tellers of fortunes;” (Micah 5:12), “Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against your magic bands with which you hunt the souls like birds, and I will tear them from your arms, and I will let the souls whom you hunt go free, the souls like birds,” (Ezekiel 13:20), “But there was a man named Simon, who had previously practiced magic in the city and amazed the people of Samaria, saying that he himself was somebody great. They all paid attention to him, from the least to the greatest, saying, “This man is the power of God that is called Great.” And they paid attention to him because for a long time he had amazed them with his magic. But when they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. Even Simon himself believed, and after being baptized he continued with Philip. And seeing signs and great miracles performed, he was amazed,” (Acts 8:9-13), “Nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts,” (Revelation 9:21), “And all for the countless whorings of the prostitute, graceful and of deadly charms, who betrays nations with her whorings, and peoples with her charms,” (Nahum 3:4), “The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders,” (2 Thessalonians 2:9), “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them,” (Ephesians 5:11), and “And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver (millions USD).” (Acts 19:19). Thus many people in the Middle Ages kept magick and witchcraft talismans, for instance the Celtic knots on the Celtic Cross are a form of witchcraft; the Catholic Church did not purge magic and forbidden crafts, long as people tithed and served the church with alms and arms there was little burnings at the stake save for threats to the corrupt Catholic leadership, The French Joan of Arc for instance was a threat to English Bishops who tried her more from political, monetary, and power reasons; she had made huge gains of taking back French territories and while they burned her over her theology, that was just their way to kill her, like the Pharisees killing Jesus.
The Jerusalem Cross represent a faith not based in Scripture but a penitential warfare salvation akin to Islamic Holy War (Jihad Akbar). It is false gospel of kill for God and die on crusade and you shall receive salvation and remission of sins as a soldier (Abbot Cluny and Pope Gregory majorly evolved this erroneous theology and doxology). When the truth is belief / faith in Jesus saves, “you confess* with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved.” (Romans 10:9-10), “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.m,” (John 3:16-18), “All who declare that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God,” (1 John 4:15), “And be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith,” (Philippians 3:9), “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast,” (Ephesians 2:8-9), “Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified,” (Galatians 2:16), “For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law,” (Romans 3:28), “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,” (Romans 5:1), “I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose,” (Galatians 2:21), “But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace,” (Romans 11:6), “So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith,” (Galatians 3:24), “That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all,” (Romans 4:16), “The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction,” (Romans 3:22), “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him,” (John 3:36), “And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household,” (Acts 16:31), “Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God,” (Romans 5:9), “He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,” (Titus 3:5), “Since God is one—who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith,” (Romans 3:30), “In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Jesus (Him), were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,” (Ephesians 1:13), “For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day,” (John 6:40), “Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of fait,” (Romans 3:27), “And by Jesus everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses,” (Acts 13:39), “Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him (Jesus) whom he has sent.” (John 6:28-29), and “To open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in Me (Jesus).” Acts 26:18. Sadly Medieval people dod not know these verses, that it is faith, trust in Jesus and His all sufficient salvic work on the cross that saves, not crusades.
For this reason the Jerusalem Cross had a taint of crusader ignorance and heresy, that they believed a different gospel that cursed them, “ But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! 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), by extension their cross is cursed because it represents not the Kingdom of God, but the Catholic kingdom of Jerusalem that had a false gospel. Why as Christians would we wear a cross that is accursed because of false gospel crusaders believed?
The next issue is the Jerusalem Cross is still used as symbol of the Catholic Church, even on the seals of popes. I have laid out in detail how Catholics are not Christians in other posts, and what we believe as Biblical Protestants differs vastly from Rome. I ask why would you wear a Jerusalem Cross that is used by Catholic papacy, fraternities, organizations, and etc? It is like wearing a crucifix, people will assume you are a Roman Catholic which causes confusion and, “For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.” (1 Corinthians 14:33).
Finally, I find is disturbing that Chinese Neolithic symbol of Shaman and Witch is part of the Jerusalem Cross and Cross Potent. In this age of occult resurgence, I think it is unwise to have any symbol that has connections to witchcraft even if that was long ago. Many operatives in the dark arts are using symbols like Star of David/ Star of Solomon, the Trinity Triangle (The Triforce in The Legend of Zelda), certain crosses, and etc. We need to be discernful and not let doors into our lives. Now you may say, “the Cross Potent or Jerusalem Cross doesn’t mean that anymore! Its just a symbol for pilgrims to Jerusalem and Jerusalem Churches & Christianity.” Symbols can change, that is true, the swatzika was originally a symbol of the sun god and used by Buddhists and Hindus till Nazis adopted it and have made it a symbol of fascism, antisemitism, and hate. So I get the case that The Cross Potent and Jerusalem Cross doesn’t mean what it did, but for myself if a symbol has heavy ties to witchcraft and bad theology, I choose and recommend its removal. I have wrestled like Jacob over the Jerusalem Cross for a decade after reading over seven volumes (including Christopher Tyerman 900+ pages tome God’s War) on the crusaders & crusades to study their bad theology and beliefs, and studying the origins of this cross and its dark past has led me to remove all Jerusalem crosses from my life.
I pray in this time of Lent rather than fasting good things like food, “They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth.” (1 Timothy 4:3-5), we instead remove idols, talismans, doors to the devil, and demonic influences that have snuck into our lives unawares. Amen.
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