1 00:00:04,780 --> 00:00:10,160 Greetings. This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church 2 00:00:10,160 --> 00:00:14,720 with a moment of truth, where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and 3 00:00:14,720 --> 00:00:22,679 faith. Today, one of the least told, but most crucial clashes between the Islamic East and 4 00:00:22,679 --> 00:00:29,800 the Christian West, and that is the siege of Malta. Oh boy, I love this story. As we continue 5 00:00:29,800 --> 00:00:37,979 to examine the 1,400-year interaction between the religions of Christianity and Islam and the 6 00:00:37,979 --> 00:00:46,159 respective cultures that they produce, we observe the inexcusable blind spot of the contemporary 7 00:00:46,159 --> 00:00:54,079 Christian West in its dealings with Islam, a blind spot that refuses to examine how our forbearers 8 00:00:54,079 --> 00:00:59,460 dealt successfully in the past with an aggressive Islam that threatened to overwhelm them, 9 00:00:59,460 --> 00:01:07,060 and what that same West did poorly when they failed to resist with the necessary strength and 10 00:01:07,060 --> 00:01:12,920 resources. We have been comparing and contrasting the respective sides, the Christian West and the 11 00:01:12,920 --> 00:01:20,900 Islamic East, under four major headings, and that is religious faith. Religious faith does drive the 12 00:01:20,900 --> 00:01:28,340 engine of heart and mind, and leadership. No society or civilization triumphs without strong leaders, 13 00:01:28,340 --> 00:01:36,840 and military power. Every great civilization is a martial civilization. And culture. Every great 14 00:01:36,840 --> 00:01:42,739 civilization produces and in turn relies upon a productive, flourishing culture. Now, I've devoted 15 00:01:42,739 --> 00:01:51,000 an entire lecture to these four areas, and it'll be available soon on CD. But suffice it to say that 16 00:01:51,000 --> 00:01:56,319 when one or the other of these sides saw an uptick in these areas, it prevailed over the other. 17 00:01:56,319 --> 00:02:05,200 We are being lulled to sleep by our leadership when, instead of speaking in bold and frank language 18 00:02:05,200 --> 00:02:15,479 that we face a clash of civilizations, we coin deceptive euphemisms, that we are in a war on terror. 19 00:02:15,780 --> 00:02:23,080 Oh, terror, let me remind you again, is a cowardly tactic. It's not a deadly worldwide opponent. 20 00:02:23,080 --> 00:02:28,620 No, in World War II, we did not fight a war on blitzkrieg. No, an aggressive, dangerous foe, 21 00:02:28,699 --> 00:02:34,879 the German nation, declared war on us. In World War II, we did not declare a war on kamikaze. 22 00:02:35,460 --> 00:02:42,659 No, we declared war on a treacherous, militant foe, the Empire of Japan. Both blitzkrieg and kamikaze 23 00:02:42,659 --> 00:02:49,919 were tactics employed by our enemies. They were not enemies per se. So, too, terror is only a limited 24 00:02:49,919 --> 00:02:58,680 tactic employed by our enemy, militant Islam. They employ terror because that is all they can do 25 00:02:58,680 --> 00:03:05,000 for now. If Iran is able to perfect nuclear weapons, do you think they will hesitate to use them? 26 00:03:05,240 --> 00:03:13,659 What will we do then when Israel or several American cities lie in smoking radioactive ruin? Will we 27 00:03:13,659 --> 00:03:20,319 declare a war on nuclear annihilation? Well, if we want to know what our enemy would do with all of 28 00:03:20,319 --> 00:03:25,439 the military strength in the world, with unlimited reach with which to bring it to bear upon their 29 00:03:25,439 --> 00:03:31,520 enemies, the Christian West, that's us, we need to look no farther than history to those days when the 30 00:03:31,520 --> 00:03:38,699 Islamic caliphs had all of these things at their disposal. And there's no finer example of all of 31 00:03:38,699 --> 00:03:47,159 these forces in play than the siege of Malta. What was the siege of Malta? Well, Malta is the chief of 32 00:03:47,159 --> 00:03:54,360 a series of small islands off the southern tip of Sicily. It is a strategic island in that it sits 33 00:03:54,360 --> 00:04:00,840 in the midst of the Mediterranean Sea, a nexus in the crisscrossing traffic of sea ships, and is supplied 34 00:04:00,840 --> 00:04:07,719 with several of the best harbors nature could provide. It came to be the focus of a truly epic battle, 35 00:04:07,719 --> 00:04:15,539 Malta did, because at the time, it was the last obstacle to the Islamic Ottoman Empire's complete 36 00:04:15,539 --> 00:04:22,579 domination of the Mediterranean Sea, and thus all of Europe. Oh, the Ottoman Empire seemed invincible at 37 00:04:22,579 --> 00:04:30,680 the time, conquering everything in her path. Constantinople, you may remember, fell in A.D. 1453 38 00:04:30,680 --> 00:04:38,720 after numerous tries, and that should teach us, too. Even as the attacks on the Twin Towers should 39 00:04:38,720 --> 00:04:45,040 have, that militant Islam keeps trying until they achieve their objective. It was the Ottomans who 40 00:04:45,040 --> 00:04:52,100 swept into and overran the entire Balkan Peninsula and would continue to the very gates of Vienna, 41 00:04:52,100 --> 00:04:59,680 Austria. Now, the greatest caliph in the entire majestic span of Ottoman history, Suleiman the 42 00:04:59,680 --> 00:05:07,459 Magnificent, reigned as sultan in Istanbul and saw the opportunity to bring all of Europe under his sway 43 00:05:07,459 --> 00:05:15,980 and to be the one who would bring Muhammad's prophecy to fulfillment, that all of the world 44 00:05:15,980 --> 00:05:21,920 would come under the rule of Allah and his religion, Islam. The first minor obstacle that stood in his 45 00:05:21,920 --> 00:05:29,339 way was this pesky island of Malta with its crusader order of the Knights of St. John. The great Suleiman 46 00:05:29,339 --> 00:05:36,160 was not unfamiliar with these vestiges of the crusading orders. Having originally begun as the 47 00:05:36,160 --> 00:05:43,839 Hospitalliers in the era of the Crusades, the Knights of St. John or the Knights of Malta were a mere shade 48 00:05:43,839 --> 00:05:49,959 of their former power and glory. They had served the Crusader states as the protectors of the pilgrims 49 00:05:49,959 --> 00:05:56,920 and the Knights of Hospitality to the traveler and stranger. They provided food and medicine and lodging 50 00:05:56,920 --> 00:06:03,620 for all and alike, demonstrating kindness and Christian love in real practical ways. They were also a 51 00:06:03,620 --> 00:06:09,879 military order in that they bore arms to protect the Christian pilgrim to the Holy Land. Additionally, 52 00:06:09,879 --> 00:06:15,540 they had become adept seamen, raiding the Alam and shipping that traversed the Mediterranean, 53 00:06:15,759 --> 00:06:21,959 costing Suleiman the magnificent small fortunes every time they did so. But the Knights of St. John 54 00:06:21,959 --> 00:06:28,019 would not go away easily. While the order was indeed small, it was nevertheless committed to its 55 00:06:28,019 --> 00:06:36,060 original vision and had the advantage of a tough, determined master of the order, John de Lavalette. 56 00:06:36,060 --> 00:06:40,879 Note this, O Christian. Right out of the gate, the Christian Knights of Malta had the power 57 00:06:40,879 --> 00:06:46,579 of a clear, stated purpose and vision in conjunction with a strong leadership that would 58 00:06:46,579 --> 00:06:52,519 not waver. This would prove invaluable to their success as events bore down upon them. One must ask 59 00:06:52,519 --> 00:06:58,839 himself in America, do we have a clear vision of who we are as Americans, and do we have the strong 60 00:06:58,839 --> 00:07:06,720 leadership to take us to that vision? Now, the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, had originally granted the 61 00:07:06,720 --> 00:07:14,600 island of Malta as a possession of the Order of St. John in A.D. 1530. The Knights of St. John set about 62 00:07:14,600 --> 00:07:19,540 immediately strengthening and fortifying the harbors and battlements surrounding the cities of 63 00:07:19,540 --> 00:07:25,040 this string of islands surrounding Malta. They heightened and widened the walls surrounding the 64 00:07:25,040 --> 00:07:32,000 city and they dug deep trenches around them. They called in several military engineers to help them 65 00:07:32,000 --> 00:07:37,819 design brand new battlements and fortifications that would prove crucial to withstanding the 66 00:07:37,819 --> 00:07:44,519 assaults and bombardments of the Ottomans. The Knights of St. John were not relying upon assurance of 67 00:07:44,519 --> 00:07:51,540 diversity and tolerance, sweetness and light from the religion of peace. They were preparing 68 00:07:51,540 --> 00:07:59,720 for what they knew would be coming, an all-out assault upon them, with no quarter given. And that assault 69 00:07:59,720 --> 00:08:08,759 finally came in A.D. 1565, when, after years of preparation, Suleiman the Magnificent assembled a flotilla 70 00:08:08,759 --> 00:08:16,300 of nearly 200 ships, boarded the flagship himself, and set sail for Malta. His purpose was twofold, 71 00:08:16,300 --> 00:08:23,579 eliminate these pirate knights from the face of the earth, and execute the strategy that would be 72 00:08:23,579 --> 00:08:28,980 recommended to the Allies centuries later by Winston Churchill in World War II. That is, attack all of 73 00:08:28,980 --> 00:08:36,200 Europe through the soft underbelly of Sicily and Italy. Malta would be a slight speed bump on the 74 00:08:36,200 --> 00:08:44,039 expressway to bringing the civilized world under the sway of the law. Well, Churchill would not find 75 00:08:44,039 --> 00:08:50,100 the crack German units in Italy to be anything of the kind, a soft underbelly, no. And neither would 76 00:08:50,100 --> 00:08:57,919 Suleiman the Magnificent find the Knights of St. John on Malta to be soft, either. When the flotilla 77 00:08:57,919 --> 00:09:04,220 finally arrived, disembarked, and lay siege to its first target, the fortified archipelago island of St. 78 00:09:04,220 --> 00:09:12,899 Elmo, that was lying astride Malta, the sultan had over 30,000 sailors and janissaries, 79 00:09:12,899 --> 00:09:21,700 modern cannon and arms, and sumptuous supplies fit for assault. How many knights and soldiers do you 80 00:09:21,700 --> 00:09:29,399 suppose held Malta? 30,000 maybe? 20,000? 15,000? Oh, no. By the time reinforcements arrived, 81 00:09:29,399 --> 00:09:37,039 and the head of the order, John de Lavalette, tallied their strength. They were comprised of 550 knights 82 00:09:37,039 --> 00:09:45,539 and about 4,000 Maltese men capable of bearing arms. From their fortress walls, the Knights of St. John 83 00:09:45,539 --> 00:09:52,759 watched the ships disgorge their seemingly numberless host upon the shores of the island. With great 84 00:09:52,759 --> 00:10:00,399 pomp and ceremony, Suleiman's general, the highly decorated Pasha Mustafa, who had seen victory from 85 00:10:00,399 --> 00:10:07,940 Syria to Austria while he set up his colorful tents and unfurled his ornate banners in the Mediterranean 86 00:10:07,940 --> 00:10:13,899 sunlight. The sight was so impressive and glittering that it almost blinded the defenders of the city. 87 00:10:13,899 --> 00:10:20,639 But unlike other Christian forces Mustafa had faced in the past, the Knights of St. John were not struck 88 00:10:20,639 --> 00:10:28,740 with fear at the mere sight of military glory. They were a hardened military order, seasoned in fighting 89 00:10:28,740 --> 00:10:36,600 throughout the Holy Land. They knew the Ottoman artillery and leadership and had faced the fearsome 90 00:10:36,600 --> 00:10:43,139 Janissary on numerous occasions. They may have been waning in their power and influence, but they still 91 00:10:43,139 --> 00:10:50,659 retained their substance of toughness and tenacity. Mustafa would have to prove his glory in the crucible of 92 00:10:50,659 --> 00:10:57,820 blood and steel at Malta, making the Ottomans regret that they ever left the cheering, friendly confines of 93 00:10:57,820 --> 00:11:04,460 Istanbul for this tiny, windswept island in the middle of the Mediterranean. General Mustafa lay siege 94 00:11:04,460 --> 00:11:10,279 first to the Fort of St. Elmo, located at the northern tip of Malta. Manned by a hundred knights 95 00:11:10,279 --> 00:11:19,240 and about 500 Maltese soldiers, they faced the full brunt of Ottoman artillery and assault. First, hours of 96 00:11:19,240 --> 00:11:25,299 withering fire would pour into the stone walls and brick city, then a full-scale assault by the Sultan's 97 00:11:25,299 --> 00:11:30,799 Janissaries. The most feared warrior of the Middle Ages would attempt to scale the walls and overwhelm the 98 00:11:30,799 --> 00:11:37,580 defenders. The fort was rubble within a week. Still, the defenders hung on, hunkering down during the 99 00:11:37,580 --> 00:11:45,120 endless bombardments and miraculously repulsing wave after wave of Ottoman Janissaries, obeying the orders 100 00:11:45,120 --> 00:11:52,500 of their master, Jean de Lavalette, to defend the last man. For over two additional weeks, fighting in the 101 00:11:52,500 --> 00:12:00,759 smoking ruins of their fort, the 600 held on. Oh, by the time the Janissaries overran what was left of the 102 00:12:00,759 --> 00:12:07,240 fort, slaying everything that moved, only nine sailors survived from the defenders of Malta. Everyone else 103 00:12:07,240 --> 00:12:14,019 had stood his ground and died in place, but they had exacted a fearful toll on the Alamans. Over 4,000 104 00:12:14,019 --> 00:12:22,519 Ottoman Janissaries and sailors had died, including the admiral of the fleet, Pasha Turgot. Not only had 105 00:12:22,519 --> 00:12:27,919 the 600 knights and Maltese who died there fought as men possessed, but the Knights of St. John had 106 00:12:27,919 --> 00:12:34,360 established three forts at strategic points on the surrounding islands, such that the Ottoman's 107 00:12:34,360 --> 00:12:41,980 admiral found his entire fleet in a murderous crossfire, which is precisely how he died. True, 108 00:12:41,980 --> 00:12:47,659 the Ottomans had gained their objective, the fort at St. Elmo, but a few more victories like this, 109 00:12:47,820 --> 00:12:52,419 Admiral True Goh remarked before his death, and there would be no one to return to Istanbul. 110 00:12:53,539 --> 00:13:00,240 It must be noted at this point, in the very teeth of such valiant resistance, that the Knights had 111 00:13:00,240 --> 00:13:06,460 sent out an all-points bulletin to every king and capital in Europe, begging for assistance and relief. 112 00:13:06,460 --> 00:13:12,620 England and Germany were consumed with internal matters and religious wars. The Spanish king, 113 00:13:12,919 --> 00:13:19,860 Philip II, who was in the best position to help, he just sat back and watched events unfold. Perhaps the 114 00:13:19,860 --> 00:13:25,820 most heinous of all was King Francis I of France, who was actually in alliance with Suleiman the 115 00:13:25,820 --> 00:13:31,779 Magnificent. Oh, are you shocked? France, a nation allied with the enemies of Europe and Christendom. 116 00:13:31,779 --> 00:13:37,679 Oh, France, doing absolutely nothing to stem the threat to Western civilization, even as they do 117 00:13:37,679 --> 00:13:44,139 today. The more things change, the more they stay the same, right? Only Sicily would reluctantly promise 118 00:13:44,139 --> 00:13:49,340 to deliver help to the beleaguered defenders, and then almost too late, the Knights of St. John were 119 00:13:49,340 --> 00:13:55,360 virtually on their own against the best that the Ottoman Empire could throw at them. What the 120 00:13:55,360 --> 00:14:02,419 narcissistic, greedy, nationalistic, and strategically blind Europeans, as one historian calls them, 121 00:14:02,740 --> 00:14:08,720 what they did not realize was that Suleiman and his general, the invincible Mustafa, would sweep 122 00:14:08,720 --> 00:14:14,120 throughout Europe in the wake of their victory at Malta, and no one would be man enough to stop them. 123 00:14:14,259 --> 00:14:20,200 So, what Europe did not realize was that they had men of whom they were not worthy. That is, 124 00:14:20,200 --> 00:14:27,200 the noble Knights of St. John standing in between them and the Ottomans. After taking St. Elmo, 125 00:14:27,720 --> 00:14:33,620 Mustafa turned his guns and janissaries on the other fortresses of Malta. He began to apply the same kind 126 00:14:33,620 --> 00:14:41,799 of tactics to those forts that he did to St. Elmo. It had taken almost one month to reduce St. Elmo, 127 00:14:41,980 --> 00:14:46,860 excuse me. The Ottomans would take another three months to try and capture the rest of Malta. 128 00:14:46,860 --> 00:14:54,279 Oh, day after day, the air resounded with boom, boom of Ottoman cannon, followed predictably by the 129 00:14:54,279 --> 00:15:00,320 hideous cry of the sea of janissary hordes that would threaten to sweep over the wall of fortresses 130 00:15:00,320 --> 00:15:08,360 like Saint-Michel. In fact, on August 20 of 1565, the Turks managed to breach the walls of Saint-Michel with 131 00:15:08,360 --> 00:15:14,000 a series of mines, and thinking that the day was finally theirs, they flooded the breach with 132 00:15:14,000 --> 00:15:20,659 janissaries. However, there was one factor upon which they had not counted, the venerable grandmaster 133 00:15:20,659 --> 00:15:27,500 of the Order of St. John, Jean de Lavalette. When he heard of the breach in the walls, he personally ran 134 00:15:27,500 --> 00:15:33,639 to it, where, as the historian Francisco Balbi puts it, at the threatened post, his presence worked 135 00:15:33,639 --> 00:15:39,799 wonders. Sword in hand, he remained at the most dangerous place until the Turks retired, unquote. 136 00:15:39,799 --> 00:15:45,039 A word must be said about this remarkable man, without whom Malta would certainly have fallen 137 00:15:45,039 --> 00:15:52,799 to the Ottomans. Jean Parisot de Lavalette was a lifelong member of the Order of Hospitalliers, 138 00:15:53,179 --> 00:15:59,059 now the Order of St. John. He had risen to the head of the Order in A.D. 1557, and at the time 139 00:15:59,059 --> 00:16:05,620 of the siege was 70 years old. Think of this, Christian. How many ordinary civilian men are in the prime 140 00:16:05,620 --> 00:16:13,159 of their vigor at age 50 or 60, much less age 70? And yet here was this medieval man, without the 141 00:16:13,159 --> 00:16:20,440 benefits of vitamins or Viagra, who could still wield a sword and command a strict, disciplined 142 00:16:20,440 --> 00:16:26,480 military order. To illustrate with just two poignant examples, there was a moment in the middle of the 143 00:16:26,480 --> 00:16:33,080 siege when Mustafa, weary with his losses, and even his janissaries about to mutiny, when he sent an offer 144 00:16:33,080 --> 00:16:38,279 of terms to Lavalette, the Order of St. John, with all of its arms and possessions, could retire from 145 00:16:38,279 --> 00:16:44,519 the field in ships to a safe harbor in Sicily. All they had to do was relinquish the city to the 146 00:16:44,519 --> 00:16:51,080 inevitable conquerors of it, the emissaries of the religion of peace, Mustafa and his armies of Allah. 147 00:16:51,620 --> 00:16:56,620 Well, the messenger bearing these terms was blindfolded and ushered into the presence of John 148 00:16:56,620 --> 00:17:02,059 the Lavalette. When the terms had been outlined, Lavalette ordered the messenger to be hung. 149 00:17:02,620 --> 00:17:07,779 The poor emissary begged for his life, and so Lavalette took him outside to the walls of the city, 150 00:17:08,180 --> 00:17:15,039 and around these thick high walls, the knights had dug an encompassing ditch deep and very wide. 151 00:17:15,039 --> 00:17:21,220 The emissary remarked in awe, Mustafa will never take this city. Well, the Lavalette told him, 152 00:17:21,220 --> 00:17:26,400 tell your master that this is the only territory that I will give him, that is this deep ditch. 153 00:17:26,980 --> 00:17:31,279 There lies the land which he may have for his own provider, only that he fills it with the bodies 154 00:17:31,279 --> 00:17:37,579 of his janissaries. And as one contemporary historian observed, and I quote, at this, the poor messenger 155 00:17:37,579 --> 00:17:46,960 of the general dirtied his pants. Now, furious with rage, General Mustafa redoubled his efforts at 156 00:17:46,960 --> 00:17:53,299 taking the city when his humiliated messenger returned. He took four captive knights, cut off 157 00:17:53,299 --> 00:17:58,180 their heads, nailed the bodies to crosses, and sent the macabre spectacle across the channel to the 158 00:17:58,180 --> 00:18:03,759 shore defended by the knights. Instead of quaking in fear, Lavalette marched out his Ottoman prisoners, 159 00:18:04,099 --> 00:18:10,119 cut off their heads, and fired them from his cannons into the camp of Mustafa. And by this act, 160 00:18:10,240 --> 00:18:15,319 he did two things. He demonstrated his own resolve to the Ottomans, who had done this very thing 161 00:18:15,319 --> 00:18:20,039 throughout their history. Lavalette was only reminding them of their own barbarity by doing 162 00:18:20,039 --> 00:18:24,920 it. And then secondly, he sent a message to his own men. There would be no terms. There would be no 163 00:18:24,920 --> 00:18:32,720 surrender. Not now. As I pointed out to you before in this study, it must be remembered that men like 164 00:18:32,720 --> 00:18:40,619 Grandmaster Jean de Lavalette were medieval men, born and raised in a medieval culture. And here we sit, 165 00:18:40,619 --> 00:18:47,740 and we judge so pompously from an admittedly weak and effeminate 21st century postmodern culture. 166 00:18:48,380 --> 00:18:54,119 So, before you judge and condemn a man like de Lavalette, at least spend some time understanding 167 00:18:54,119 --> 00:19:02,500 his time and place, keeping in mind that he was also a deeply religious man. Yes, a deeply religious 168 00:19:02,500 --> 00:19:08,079 man. I dare say more deeply religious than most of the shallow hypocrites out there today who condemn him. 169 00:19:08,079 --> 00:19:13,059 He understood and practiced his Christian faith as a military religious order and understood and 170 00:19:13,059 --> 00:19:20,140 practiced it more faithfully than most happy, clappy Christians in contemporary worship churches today. 171 00:19:20,700 --> 00:19:25,859 As the historian Ben House puts it, and I quote, he had endured and survived the siege of Rhodes, 172 00:19:26,319 --> 00:19:33,400 naval battles with the Turks, the miseries of being a slave in a Turkish galley ship, and physical wounds 173 00:19:33,400 --> 00:19:39,299 from his battle. His rhetoric in wartime was like that of Churchill, his religious zeal like that of 174 00:19:39,299 --> 00:19:46,119 Cromwell, his strategic and tactical gifts like that of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, his personal 175 00:19:46,119 --> 00:19:55,019 bravery and example to the men like that of George Washington, unquote. The Lavalette also understood 176 00:19:55,019 --> 00:20:01,180 the nature of the threat that faced him and the entire West, for that matter, as very few contemporary 177 00:20:01,180 --> 00:20:06,380 Americans do today. He had been fighting it all of his life, realizing that the religion of peace 178 00:20:06,380 --> 00:20:12,299 divided the world into two camps, the Dar al-Islam, that is the House of Islam, composed of all true 179 00:20:12,299 --> 00:20:19,740 Muslims, and the Dar al-Harb, the House of War, that is everyone else, including you and me. When will our 180 00:20:19,740 --> 00:20:28,319 presidential candidates understand factors like this? Oh, therefore, it was to be no canon to the head of the 181 00:20:28,319 --> 00:20:35,099 West. There must be heads of the Muslims of the East shot from cannons to lay out in plain language the resolve 182 00:20:35,099 --> 00:20:41,480 and determination of the Knights of St. John. And this is precisely the signal that Mustafa and his men 183 00:20:41,480 --> 00:20:50,619 received. With renewed martial fury, they swarmed at the walls of Malta, but the momentum had shifted. Each and every 184 00:20:50,619 --> 00:20:58,240 assault was repulsed. One devastating defense will serve to illustrate. For example, the Knights had constructed 185 00:20:58,240 --> 00:21:06,819 a sea-level artillery battle of battery, excuse me, of five cannons along the strategic Sangleya Peninsula, 186 00:21:07,200 --> 00:21:12,740 hidden from the view of passing ships. When Mustafa ordered an all-out assault on this peninsula, 187 00:21:13,160 --> 00:21:18,900 his ships approached their landing, loaded with janissaries and their siege equipment. A contemporary 188 00:21:18,900 --> 00:21:25,579 account relates that to the utter horror of Mustafa. When the concealed cannons were finally uncovered 189 00:21:25,579 --> 00:21:35,299 and the fuses lit, it only took two salvos to sink all but one of the ships, drowning over 800 soldiers 190 00:21:35,299 --> 00:21:43,000 in just minutes. The colorful, intimidating ships, festooned with banners, jammed with Islamic death for 191 00:21:43,000 --> 00:21:49,900 the infidels, was now a bay full of flotsam and jetsam. The proud boasting, the terrifying cries of 192 00:21:49,900 --> 00:21:55,500 Allah Akbar. Where were they now? The sea was silent and would no more give up her dead until the day of 193 00:21:55,500 --> 00:22:02,500 judgment. The unstoppable Ottoman military machine was being fed into a Christian woodchipper, and even 194 00:22:02,500 --> 00:22:10,700 the fearsome janissaries seemed to know it. Two other elements finally broke the elements down. Two other 195 00:22:10,700 --> 00:22:17,660 elements. Disease and relief from Sicily. It is said that disease and infection have killed more soldiers in the 196 00:22:17,660 --> 00:22:23,259 history of warfare than blade or bullet. This would prove true of the Ottomans who invested the siege 197 00:22:23,259 --> 00:22:30,180 of Malta. Historians estimate that the combined Ottoman dead in a range from a high of 48,000 198 00:22:30,180 --> 00:22:38,559 to a low of 25,000, right? Additionally, at just the time when Mustafa was loading his cannon ready to 199 00:22:38,559 --> 00:22:46,539 lift the siege, Don Garcia of Sicily landed a small relief force at St. Paul's Bay, which quickly lifted 200 00:22:46,539 --> 00:22:52,480 the spirits of the defenders. The Ottomans turned tail and sailed back for Istanbul, never more to turn 201 00:22:52,480 --> 00:23:00,539 the Mediterranean Sea into a Turkish lake. The southern tide of Islam had crested here on this tiny, now 202 00:23:00,539 --> 00:23:08,279 bloody, rocky crag of Malta. The effect of the news in the capitals of Europe was electric. Finally, the 203 00:23:08,279 --> 00:23:14,059 Ottoman military machine had proved that it was not invincible. The victory at Malta would serve as a 204 00:23:14,059 --> 00:23:21,759 model for the later defense of Vienna and the naval battle at Lepanto. Everywhere, in pub, and church, and 205 00:23:21,759 --> 00:23:28,059 pew, at the dinner table, or on mother's knee. The story of the siege of Malta was told in all of its 206 00:23:28,059 --> 00:23:34,619 glorious detail. Even the godless philosopher Voltaire noted, nothing is better known than the siege of Malta, 207 00:23:34,740 --> 00:23:42,059 unquote. Where is that knowledge today? Who can repeat it to succeeding generations as a model vignette of both a 208 00:23:42,059 --> 00:23:48,500 daunting determination of our militant Islamic foe when given access to the weapons and needs to wage all 209 00:23:48,500 --> 00:23:55,420 out war, but also of the resources, both material and spiritual, that it will take to match, defeat, and 210 00:23:55,420 --> 00:24:03,559 prevail over that foe? Those resources were there aplenty on both sides during those four months in 1565 on the 211 00:24:03,559 --> 00:24:10,140 island of Malta. And it was only because a sovereign god saw fit to supply the knights of Malta with a faith 212 00:24:10,140 --> 00:24:16,460 in him. The military genius and the intestinal fortitude or guts to prevail in the face of 213 00:24:16,460 --> 00:24:22,920 overwhelming odds. Militant Islam does not yet have the full command of modern means in proportion to 214 00:24:22,920 --> 00:24:28,519 Suleiman the Magnificent. Not yet, at least, but they may have, or soon may have, access to weapons of 215 00:24:28,519 --> 00:24:35,900 mass destruction, and they do at least aspire to former glory like that of the Ottoman Empire. Just read 216 00:24:35,900 --> 00:24:42,220 their stuff, Christian. I trust that God is even now raising up men like John de Lavalette and the 217 00:24:42,220 --> 00:24:48,920 Knights of Malta, a few who will lead the many. The Christian historian and philosopher R.J. Rushtuni 218 00:24:48,920 --> 00:24:54,599 has observed, and I quote, history has never been dominated by majorities, but only by dedicated 219 00:24:54,599 --> 00:25:02,400 minorities who stand unconditionally on their faith. Of which party are you, O Christian? Unconditional 220 00:25:02,400 --> 00:25:09,000 Christianity has always been in the minority, but it has always led when it stands unconditionally. 221 00:25:09,740 --> 00:25:15,799 The Apostle Paul understood this when he exhorted the Corinthian Christians. In 1 Corinthians 16, 222 00:25:16,000 --> 00:25:22,720 he says, be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong, let all that you do be done in 223 00:25:22,720 --> 00:25:28,839 love. Here is a sermon I don't have time to preach, but understand, O Christian man, it's to you I now speak, 224 00:25:28,839 --> 00:25:35,559 Christian man. There is no contradiction between Christian love and a manly faith. The contemporary 225 00:25:35,559 --> 00:25:41,539 church is a feminized church with a feminine notion of love, while we stand in need for the immediate 226 00:25:41,539 --> 00:25:48,660 future for a godly, manly faith that's not afraid to fashion a whip to drive out infidels as Jesus did, 227 00:25:48,660 --> 00:25:55,619 or on the other hand, to gently heal a leper or restore a fallen woman to her integrity. May the 228 00:25:55,619 --> 00:26:02,759 sovereign Lord of the Bible raise you and your boys raise you up as strong men like the Knights of 229 00:26:02,759 --> 00:26:10,660 Malta and their Grandmaster, John Parasol de Lavalette. This has been Pastor David Bass at New 230 00:26:10,660 --> 00:26:17,339 Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a moment of truth. Now, we meet for holy worship at 10 a.m. on 231 00:26:17,339 --> 00:26:23,619 Sunday morning at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. And we are a church that is 232 00:26:23,619 --> 00:26:32,759 stocked well with manly Christian men. And I invite you to join us on Sunday morning for holy worship at 233 00:26:32,759 --> 00:26:39,519 10 a.m. on Sunday morning at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. And you can call us for 234 00:26:39,519 --> 00:26:49,859 more information or comment at area code 208-523-0196. 208-523-0196.