It is not uncommon to find Christians being faulted for the Crusades launched between 1095-1272. Thousands of Muslims and Jews were killed during the period. The worst hit, however, were the Christian themselves. It all started when Pope Urban II urged the kings and leaders of Christian Europe in 1095 to bring back the Holy Land from the Turks. One of the most important rallying point of the Pope's call was to aid the Eastern Christian suffering under the infidels i.e the Muslims. Little did they know that they would end up destroying the Eastern Christians beyond almost possible repair.
As the Crusaders arrived at Jerusalem the Muslims who treated the Christians with suspicion put them out of the city. The Crusaders who could not differentiate between Arab Christians and Arab Muslims ended up slaughtering them. Villagers who were Christians were also killed due to mistaken identity. The Pope also ordered Constantinople, the seat of the Eastern church, to be sacked to pay Crusades debt. This move dealt a crushing blow to the Byzantibe Empire which have been resisting the Turkish sweep into Europe. In all this ultimately it is the Christians weakening the Christians thereby allowing the Muslims to take over.
Isn't there a similar feature between Christian Zionism and Crusades? Proponents of both movements have the intention to be faithful Christians. But the effect of both efforts is similar.There are thousands of Palestinian Christians in Jerusalem. And when Christian Zionists gave unconditional support to the display of Israel's military might upon Palestinians, it leads to the reduction in the number of (Palestinian ) Christians in the land where the church was born. Many Christians believe that when all Jews return to Israel, Jesus will return. Such policy of bringing Jews from elsewhere has negative effect on those Palestinians: Christians and Muslims, because this involves taking land and livelihood from one group to give to the other. Christian Zionism, I believe, is mistaken because land belongs to God, and there is no tribe or tongue that has absolute ownership over land. The earth is the Lord's and everything in it, and we must share and live together. Because of faulty eschatological reading of the Bible many Christians ended up supporting Israel at the expense of the Palestinian, and that is a sad affair. Since the God of the Bible who has revealed himself in the person of Jesus Christ is a God of justice, I cannot support the elevation of Israel to such status that undermines the existence of the Palestinians. With more and more Palestinian Christians being killed with the help of Christians in the West, and more of them migrating each year Christians will very soon extinct from the land from where it all began.
NB: I find the works of Stephen Sizer ( a pastor and a supporter of UCCF) and Chaukat Moucarry ( formerly worked with IFES ) quite helpful.
As the Crusaders arrived at Jerusalem the Muslims who treated the Christians with suspicion put them out of the city. The Crusaders who could not differentiate between Arab Christians and Arab Muslims ended up slaughtering them. Villagers who were Christians were also killed due to mistaken identity. The Pope also ordered Constantinople, the seat of the Eastern church, to be sacked to pay Crusades debt. This move dealt a crushing blow to the Byzantibe Empire which have been resisting the Turkish sweep into Europe. In all this ultimately it is the Christians weakening the Christians thereby allowing the Muslims to take over.
Isn't there a similar feature between Christian Zionism and Crusades? Proponents of both movements have the intention to be faithful Christians. But the effect of both efforts is similar.There are thousands of Palestinian Christians in Jerusalem. And when Christian Zionists gave unconditional support to the display of Israel's military might upon Palestinians, it leads to the reduction in the number of (Palestinian ) Christians in the land where the church was born. Many Christians believe that when all Jews return to Israel, Jesus will return. Such policy of bringing Jews from elsewhere has negative effect on those Palestinians: Christians and Muslims, because this involves taking land and livelihood from one group to give to the other. Christian Zionism, I believe, is mistaken because land belongs to God, and there is no tribe or tongue that has absolute ownership over land. The earth is the Lord's and everything in it, and we must share and live together. Because of faulty eschatological reading of the Bible many Christians ended up supporting Israel at the expense of the Palestinian, and that is a sad affair. Since the God of the Bible who has revealed himself in the person of Jesus Christ is a God of justice, I cannot support the elevation of Israel to such status that undermines the existence of the Palestinians. With more and more Palestinian Christians being killed with the help of Christians in the West, and more of them migrating each year Christians will very soon extinct from the land from where it all began.
NB: I find the works of Stephen Sizer ( a pastor and a supporter of UCCF) and Chaukat Moucarry ( formerly worked with IFES ) quite helpful.
i strongly condemned the Israelis attack on Palestine. The US termed them as the mostly "tolerant" nation, but tolerant with whom, for those soldiers who walk around the streets of palestine wearing " shot 1, kills 2"depecting a pregnant women, or "Its good to use Durex" depecting a women crying over a dead child...
ReplyDeleteI think we need to pray for the Palestinians, and also for the leaders of US and Israel so that there would change in the policy.
ReplyDelete