Research Paper "The Crusades"

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Lionel A. Duncanson Church History Liberty University Professor Rick Research Paper 3 “The Crusades” Week 7 The Crusades were a pivotal point in time in the history of the church as it defined or redefined what it meant to belong to the Christian faith. During the crusades much violence was perpetrated against other groups in the name of God. While there are many who may have thought or think that this was a necessary means to an end, this same attitude is condemned by much of the world today. To elaborate many would consider “Jihad” or fanatical Islam actions towards the western world and non-Muslims to be heinous crimes. The Crusades were just that, however the name of the God in which the aggressors claimed they representatives was not allah but Jehovah. In the scripture the Lord Jesus warns of a day where this would be the motivation of men behind the violence that they would perpetrate. These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble. They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me. But these things I have told you, that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you of them. -John 16:1-4 This aforementioned reference to the words of Christ is what Jesus told His disciples about coming religious persecution. Jesus did not specify that the persecution would come from Jews, or Muslims or “so called” Christians. The Lord warned that “Men would think that they were offering service for God”. The purpose of religious persecution is to force a set of religious beliefs or convictions on the oppressed in the “name of God”. The time of the Crusades is truly a blight on the name of Christianity, not just based on the violence alone but the motivation behind
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