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Greetings. This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a moment

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of truth, where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and faith. And today,

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I want to challenge you to think through one of the most misunderstood, distorted times in the

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history of Christianity and Islam. Yes, today, with Islam being more and more in our headlines

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in places like Dearborn, Michigan, or in Twin Cities, Minnesota, or Mayor Mamdani in New York

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City, or our war in Iran, or the turmoil all through the Middle East, we are increasingly finding

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ourselves up against Islam, too. And one of the most misunderstood, distorted times in the history

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of the relationship between Christianity and Islam is the Crusades. Yes, the Crusades,

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are used as a club to beat Western civilization and Christianity over the head, so to speak,

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historically. But is that legitimate? I have a proposition for you. First of all, the Crusades,

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are they a brutal holy war against Islam, or a war of resolve and redemption? Now, we treated of this a

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little bit last week, did we not? As we covered part one. This is part two. Now, part one, of course,

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we gave you the reasons why the Crusades were launched. That is, they were launched as a response

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to prior Muslim aggression, number one. And number two, they were launched because of the persecution

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of Christians in the Holy Lands by Muslims. And thirdly, the Crusades were launched because there

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was a sincere desire to heal the breach between the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox

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Church, okay? Those were the three major reasons. And then we also began to cover some of the myths

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of the Crusades. And I treated of one last week, and that is, there's the myth that the Crusades were

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launched by greedy men who calculated that they could plunder the helpless Muslims for their gold

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and their lands. And we saw that that was indeed a complete myth and misunderstanding. In fact, the

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Crusades were very costly for those in the West. Well, I'd like to continue with a few of the other

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myths that surround the Crusades so we can clear those up. And you, dear Christian, you, dear advocate of

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Western civilization, so that you can no longer be beaten over the head, if you will, with the so-called

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myths and misunderstandings of the Crusades. No. I'd like to bring some clarity, some understanding to

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this. The second myth of the Crusades is that the Christians were far more brutal and bloodthirsty

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than their Muslim counterparts. Oh, that's a complete myth, that Christians were more brutal and

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bloodthirsty than their Muslim counterparts. Au contraire. The caricature here,

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is like that, simplistically portrayed in the movie, Kingdom of Heaven, by Ridley Scott. Yeah,

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you might want to screen that. It is a rollicking good tale, but it's filled with myths. And in the

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movie, Kingdom of Heaven, by Ridley Scott, the Christian Crusaders are the John Wayne baby killers,

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and the Muslims live in a kind of peaceful, hippie-like commune with other Jews and

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Christians preaching tolerance, diversity, and egalitarianism. DEI all the way. Oh, and the Muslim

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Caliph, Saladin, is seen as wise and peaceful, benevolent, while his Christian counterparts are

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foolish, warlock, and belligerent. After seeing the blatant politics of this movie, it could be situated

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in the 21st century Beverly Hills rather than 12th century Palestine. But Ridley Scott's simplistic

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caricature will not pass historical scrutiny. Once again, Dr. Madden, and you can see his review of

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this movie online, who has written a history of the Crusades. Dr. Madden puts it this way, and I quote,

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The real Saladin was, according to his biographer, filled with joy as he watched the decapitation of

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hundreds of Christians in A.D. 1187 when he conquered the city of Jerusalem. Saladin preached

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jihad throughout his reign, making no secret of his desire to capture Jerusalem and massacre its

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Christian inhabitants, unquote. That's the real Saladin. Now, Ridley Scott's movie is a Hollywood film.

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It's a film exercise, if you will, in the historical distortion industry regarding the Crusades. In

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reality, the men who inhabited the Crusades were, as I've quoted before, medieval, not modern people,

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unquote, right? Don't expect them to be a modern man-bunned, pencil-necked, skinny-jeaned soy boys.

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No, they were medieval, not modern men. That medieval world was violent and brutal. Both sides behaved

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in ways they saw as accepted and normal and regulated, too, for that matter. Regulated in terms of surrender

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for a besieged city, there were terms, there were understandings for a besieged city, but which modern

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anti-death penalty, gun control, sensibilities of man-bunned, skinny-neck, pencil-neck, skinny-jean soy boys

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find appalling. Yeah. What I hope that you will see is that there were men of faith and character

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in that day who lived out their Christian faith with integrity and grace. The Crusader did not seek

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to convert the Muslim to Christianity by the sword, as did the Muslim. What the Christian Crusader did

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was establish churches where the gospel was propagated by word and sacrament. Most Crusaders

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would abide by Jesus' words, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the

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Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

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And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age." Unquote. Now, as an example of the overall

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character of the Crusades, let's look briefly at the very first Crusade, perhaps the most successful.

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Launched in A.D. 1096, it set the pace for centuries of Crusades. While historians acknowledge four

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major Crusades over this period, many other smaller efforts were undertaken during this entire span of

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time as well. The Crusades were not so much separate and distinct wars as much as a continuous effort,

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with decades of relative calm and tranquility punctuated with other decades of crusading fever

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and enthusiasm, like a series of waves, perhaps, crashing on the seashore. Now, the crusading spirit

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never entirely died out, no matter how empty the highways to the Middle East might have appeared.

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The First Crusade was also the most successful, capturing the city of Jerusalem and stalling the

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complete subjection of Asia Minor to the Seljuk Turks, and it did that for several centuries. Now,

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that First Crusade has its heroes and villains, as does every war. Let me highlight one of each to

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illustrate what I mean. First of all, number one, Count Emiko of Leningrad extended the war against the

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infidels to the Jews of Europe, too, unfortunately. One of the saddest chapters in the Crusades was the

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wholesale slaughter of Jews in the Rhineland. The Jews of Europe contributed immensely to the culture

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and economy of the West, and they lived peacefully among us, without aggression and without any attempts

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to impose their religion on the Christians of the West, as Islam did and still attempts to do.

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In fact, when we describe the culture of the West, we still employ the term the Judeo-Christian

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tradition, right? The Judeo-Christian tradition. Christianity grew out of the rich roots of

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Judaism embodied in the Old Testament of the Bible and the Jewish lineage of the Savior. Additionally,

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Gentiles were as much Christ-colors as the Jewish Sanhedrin. After all, Pontius Pilate and the Romans,

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the very definition of Gentile blood, were as much a part of the crucifixion of our Lord as any other.

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So, none of the rationalizations for persecution and slaughter of Jews amounted to anything. And the

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Russian royalty, who marshaled a band of murdering mercenaries to march throughout vast swaths of

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Europe, was nothing more than a small, bigoted butcher. While noble and true crusaders were making

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their way towards Jerusalem and the Middle East, small-minded butchers like Count Amico assaulted five

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major cities of Germany—Speyer, Worms, Manz, Trier, and Cologne. Here, Jewish men, women, and children

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were mercilessly cut down in the streets. Their property was stolen, and homes and synagogues were

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burned. Now, morally, there is no justification for this barbarity, and the Christian West has abundant

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evidence from the Bible to condemn this behavior rather than condone it. The question I have for

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Islam is this. Do you have any corresponding evidence from the Quran to condemn equally heinous

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behavior on the part of Muslims? And I will tell you, no. In fact, the Quran does not have any text

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to condemn equally heinous behavior on the part of Muslims. In fact, the Quran has justification

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for just the opposite. The Quran has justification for the slaughter and plunder of both the Christian

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and the Jew. This is abundantly demonstrated in the conquering of Christian lands in the East,

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whether it be Syria or Palestine or Egypt or North Africa. This does not excuse the wicked act of men

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like Canamico, who used a noble effort to mask an ignoble design. Well, the second myth, or then, of the

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second myth of the, or the second example, a positive example, is Prince Raymond of Toulouse,

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who went on pilgrimage to redeem Jerusalem and vindicate the name of Christ. This, indeed,

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was a positive impulse and a positive example of a crusader who nobly sacrificed much of his estate

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in order to crusade. It was Prince Raymond of Toulouse who went on pilgrimage to redeem Jerusalem

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and vindicate the name of Christ. Raymond of Toulouse was typical of those who embarked upon crusade for

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noble reasons. He embodies the classic picture of the meta-evil man. He was a warrior prince of kingly

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blood. He was also deeply religious. By the time of the Crusades, Raymond was 55 years old, which was

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pretty old for that day. He had spent most of his life fighting for his family name, consolidating the

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claims upon 13 counties of France established by his father and contested by dozens of petty princes.

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He was a faithful and ardent Christian. Raymond was genuinely moved by the appeals of Pope Urban II

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for the necessity of sacrifice by the great men of the day for Christian brothers who were oppressed

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in the lands of the Turk, the Muslim Turk. So, Raymond took seriously Jesus' words,

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If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in

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heaven. And come, follow me. Jesus said that in Matthew 19. Well, Raymond was aware of his privileged

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place as a wealthy prince in a day of poverty. And so, in his waning days, he decided to fulfill his

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role as a noble, a true noble, and behave nobly. He sacrificed all for the Crusades. As Thomas Madden,

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in his Concise History of the Crusades, puts it, I quote,

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Moved by the preaching of the Crusades, Raymond decided to finish his life in the service of God.

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He divested himself of all his properties, giving them to his son, and with his wife,

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prepared for the departure east. Ah, Raymond of Toulouse. Raymond of Toulouse did not, as some

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historians claim, go out on crusade for greed and gain. Rather, he stood to lose far more than he could

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gain. In fact, he would have stood to gain far more in terms of wealth and lands by staying home and

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growing what he had in France rather than going abroad on crusade. Instead, he divested his interest

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in most of his lands and holdings, and he used the monies to outfit himself and his brave knights.

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Men like Raymond of Toulouse saw the Crusades as an opportunity to give back a portion of what had

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been so abundantly given to them by God in blessing. We moderns sometimes look back upon this

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meta-evil period with wonder, seeing it as very strange. But our historical myopia keeps us from

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seeing that men really did act upon religious principle, and not strictly from greed and

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self-interest. No. In the feudal system, the landed classes of privilege were nobility and were thus

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required to act nobly, even as Raymond of Toulouse did. The oath sworn by Raymond was a solemn covenant

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bond. When he arose from the oath ceremony signed with a red cross as a crucis ignati bestowed upon him

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by the bishop, the crucis ignati, the red cross, he turned to his oldest son and said, and I quote,

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I now embark upon a pilgrimage from which I may never return, and I leave you an earthly kingdom

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that will most certainly perish and resolve into dust. I pray that you and I will find one another again

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as humble servants in the kingdom that will never perish, the kingdom of God, Christ helping us,

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unquote. Now that's noblis. That is nobly. That is a noble person right there. Well, after trials

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and difficulties, Raymond reached Constantinople in 1097. After swearing to return the lands conquered

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by them to Byzantium, they struck out for Jerusalem, the holy city of Jesus. What many people do not

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realize is that the crusaders conquered many cities and lands on their way to Jerusalem that were formerly

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in the hands of the Muslim Turks, who had in turn taken them from Christian Byzantium. And so they did

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with the cities of Nicaea and Edessa, and most notably the city of Paul and Barnabas. And one of the

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first churches of the first churches of the New Testament, that is the city of Antioch. In her glory

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days, Antioch had been one of the great patriarchal seas of the early church, from which many great

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presbyteries issued. Now, with the church suppressed and her churches converted to mosques, she was a

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pitiful shadow of her former days. Raymond hoped to change all of this. The crusaders invested the siege

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of Antioch over the winter of AD 1097 and 1098. At times, it was difficult to tell who was the

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besieger and who the besieged. The Turks, before retreating behind the walls of Antioch, plundered

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the earth and scorched what they did not take. The crusaders starved outside the walls for months,

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eating their horses and desert plants. Worse, the great Egyptian sultan, Kerbogha, was marching from the

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south to help the Turks. Kerbogha. The crusaders would be squeezed between the Egyptians at their

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back and the Turks on their front, save for a miracle. Now, what God did provide was dissension

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within the ranks of the Turks, who found in the religion of peace that the kind of equality promised

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by Muhammad was not always practiced. No. In the eyes of Allah, all Muslims were supposedly equal,

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but some Muslims were more equal than others. And this dissension had been festering for some time

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and finally erupted when one of the captains of the guard agreed to open the gates of the city to the

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crusaders. And so the crusaders were able not only to take the city, but successfully resist the

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counter-siege infested by the Egyptian Kerbogha when he finally arrived. In fact, it was precisely the

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same division and dissension within the ranks of Kerbogha's forces that caused their defeat to the

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crusaders. Strategists in our present struggle with Islam note this valuable lesson. As we see even today,

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Islam is severely prone to division and dissension. And the wise leader in the West will use this

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weakness to his advantage. Well, in the final battle for Antioch, there was a crescendo of panic,

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as Madden puts it, a crescendo of panic in the Egyptian forces as they melted away in fear

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into the hills. The night before, a meteor had crashed at Kerbogha's camp, nearly killing him

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and his officers. A pious chronicler of the siege noted with some exaggeration and sanctified

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imagination, he said, and I quote, not since the days of the kings of Israel had these lands seen

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the armies of heaven, led by the dread archangel Michael and his sword, accompanied by the souls

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of those who recently fallen out upon the field of battle. But in these days, verily, many have

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reported seeing these wondrous things with their own eyes from the walls of the city, unquote.

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Oh, this same crusading spirit accompanied the Crucis Ignati in their march to Jerusalem.

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This was the prize after which they had prayed and fasted and sacrificed. As it lay upon the horizon

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to their eyes, Ramon fell to his knees in prayer and sang a hymn of praise to God. If this ragtag band

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of a mere 300 knights and 2,000 foot soldiers had the audacity to besiege one of the great cities of the

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East, they would need God's help. Well, the first crusade we're chronicling here. Oh, yes. And after a

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number of unsuccessful attempts, the crusaders finally constructed some proper siege engines.

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In July of 1099, the Muslim citizens of Jerusalem awoke to a strange and awesome sight. Below the walls of

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Jerusalem marched a barefoot, ash-laden, humble band of knights who had left their arms in camp as they

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had marched. A ghostly silence fell upon the whole city as the knights marched around the city, praying

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silently, vulnerable to the Muslim soldiers if they had chosen to attack. But they did not. They were

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struck with fear and wonder. Never had the proud, fierce, contemptuous Muslim soldiers seen humility

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and vulnerability like this. The knights were declaring their entire reliance upon God for victory,

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imitating the Israelites who had marched around the walls of Jericho millennia before. In the ensuing

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attack, the crusaders managed to overtop the walls and open the city gates to Jerusalem. And the small

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band of fierce knights quickly overran the city and put many of the residents to the sword. In fact,

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historians through the subsequent centuries have labeled the crusaders taking of Jerusalem as a

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testimony to bloodlust and a wholesale slaughter. But with the addition of new research and several new

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books published within the last few decades, we now know better, dear listener. Contemporary reports of

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blood rising to the horse's bridles, for instance, had been recognized as biblical language from John's

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apocalypse. In an exaggeration for dramatic effect, the actual situation was far different,

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though certainly still bloody. Once again, Mr. Madden, Dr. Madden puts it this way, and I quote,

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by the standards of the time adhered to by both Christians and Muslims, the crusaders would have

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been justified in putting the entire population of Jerusalem to the sword. Despite later highly

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exaggerated reports, however, that is not what happened, unquote. Although the troops who resisted were

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certainly slain, many of the citizens were spared and allowed to purchase their freedom. Noble

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Raymond of Toulouse protected the sultan and his family as he had promised, though other knights

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wickedly went back on their promises once the city was theirs. Oh, unfortunately. As at Antioch,

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the sultan of Egypt sent a force to take back Jerusalem. Having learned in the past that surprise was

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their best weapon, the crusaders did not wait for the Egyptians to surround Jerusalem.

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Once more, Western strategists take note. Don't wait to be attacked before responding, but be proactive.

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Well, outnumbered four to one, the crusaders intercepted the Muslims at Ascalon, beating them

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decisively. So, with Jerusalem and its environs now safely within crusader hands, the west established a

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government to rule and administer what was virtually a new kingdom. And one of the crusading princes,

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Baldwin of Odessa, famous, he was anointed protector of Jerusalem and became a virtual king of the city.

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Now, one of the myths of the crusades is that the west built colonies in the east to plunder wealth

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and lands from the poor, unsuspecting Muslims. Not so. What the armies and energies for the crusades first

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came to Europe, once established, the new territories quickly became independent, self-sustaining entities,

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states. A colony is a land ruled by a far-off power, where the wealth and resources are sent back to the

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governing nation. But this was not Jerusalem. Baldwin of Odessa and his heirs governed themselves,

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defended themselves, cultivated a way of life that became distinct, neither European nor Middle Eastern,

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but a synthesis of cultures. And the chronicler, excuse me, Fouché of Chartres, puts it this way,

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and I quote Fouché of Chartres. He says, I consider, I pray, and reflect how in our time God has

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transferred the west into the east. For we who were occidentals now have been made orientals. He who was a

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Roman or a Frank is now a Galilean or an inhabitant of Palestine. We have already forgotten the place of our

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birth. Some of us have even taken wives, not merely of their own people, but Syrians, Armenians, or even

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Saracens, who have received the grace of baptism. Unquote. The culture of the crusader grew and became

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distinctive over the centuries, including the food, clothing, music, art, and architecture of the land.

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They were beholden to no one but themselves, being neither strictly European nor strictly Middle Eastern.

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They saw themselves as the guardians and protectors of the holy sites of Christianity, no more to be

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oppressed by the Muslim infidel. Many visitors to the Middle East today are surprised to round the bend

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of a winding road in Palestine and see a majestic, formidable castle come into view, right? A structure

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they would expect to see in ancient Europe, but not in Israel or Syria. No, the crusader castles

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remain a testimony to the Christian power and influences of the crusades, especially the first

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crusade. Wow. Dear listener, what we have learned, there are four factors that determine who will prevail

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in the struggle between the Christian West and the Islamic East. And I want to cover these with you in future

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broadcasts. Four factors that absolutely determine who will prevail in the struggle between the Christian

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West and the Islamic East. And we'll cover those then in broadcast number three. But for now, indeed,

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this has been Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with, indeed, our series

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on the crusades. Are the crusades a war, a brutal holy war against Islam, or were the crusades a war of

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resolve and redemption? And I hope you're having a sense for which of the two it is in reality, dear

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listener. New Geneva meets for holy worship on Sunday at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and

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Boulevard. And you can call us for more information or feedback by calling error code 208-523-0196.

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208-523-0196.