Translations of this item:
The first is the genocide-like conquest of the land of Canaan by the Hebrews (c. 1200 BC). Yahweh told Moses:
But of the cities of these peoples which Yahweh your God gives you as an inheritance, you shall let nothing that breathes remain alive, but you shall utterly destroy them—the Hittite, Amorite, Canaanite, Perizzite, Hivite, and Jebusite—just as Yahweh your God has commanded you, lest they teach you to do according to all their abominations which they have done for their gods, and you sin against Yahweh your God (Deuteronomy 20: 16-18).
So Joshua [Moses’ successor] conquered all the land: the mountain country and the South and the lowland and the wilderness slopes, and all their kings; he left none remaining, but utterly destroyed all that breathed, as Yahweh God of Israel had commanded (Joshua 10:40).
The second example revolves around the Crusader wars waged by European Christians between the 11th-13th centuries. To be sure, the Crusades were a “counter-attack” on Islam—not an unprovoked assault as is often depicted by revisionist history. A united Christendom sought to annex the Holy Land of Jerusalem, which, prior to its conquest by Islam in the 7th century, was an integral part of Christendom for some 400 years.
Nonetheless, these Crusades were violent and bloody and countless atrocities were committed—all in the name of Christianity and under the banner of the cross. Perhaps the most infamous act of villainy perpetrated by these “fighters-for-Christ” is the 1204 sack of Constantinople, wherein Christian slew Christian in a violent bloodbath.
In light of the above—one a prime example of violence from the Bible, the other from Christian history—why should Islam be the one religion always characterized as intrinsically violent, simply because its holy book and its history also contain violence? Why should non-Muslims always point to the Koran and ancient history as evidence of Islam’s violence while never looking to their own scriptures and history?
While such questions are popular, they reveal a great deal of confusion between history and theology, between the temporal actions of men and the immutable words of God. The fundamental error being that Judeo-Christian history—which is violent—is being conflated with Islamic theology—which commandsviolence. Of course all religions have had their fair share of violence and intolerance towards the “other.” Whether this violence is ordained by God or whether warlike man merely wished it thus is the all-important question.
Old Testament violence is an interesting case in point. Yahweh clearly ordered the Hebrews to annihilate the Canaanites and surrounding peoples. Such violence is therefore an expression of God’s will, for good or ill. Regardless, all the historic violence committed by the Hebrews and recorded in the Old Testament is just that—history. It happened; God commanded it. But it revolved around a specific time and place and was directed against a specific people. At no time did such violence go on to become standardized or codified into Jewish law (i.e. the Halakha).
This is where Islamic violence is unique. Though similar to the violence of the Old Testament—commanded by God and manifested in history—certain aspects of Islamic violence have become standardized in Islamic law (i.e. the Sharia) and apply at all times. Thus while the violence found in the Koran is in fact historical, its ultimate significance is theological. Consider the following Koranic verses:
Then, when the sacred months have passed, slay the pagans wherever you find them—take them [captive], besiege them, and prepare for them each ambush. But if they repent and establish worship and pay the poor-due [i.e. submit to Islam], then leave their way free. Lo! Allah is Forgiving, Merciful (9:5).
Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger [i.e. Islamic law], nor acknowledge the religion of Truth [i.e. Islam], from the people of the book [i.e. Jews and Christians], until they pay tribute with willing submission, and feel themselves utterly subdued (9:29).
As with Old Testament verses where Yahweh commanded the Hebrews to attack and slay their neighbors, these Koranic verses also have a historical context. Allah (through Muhammad) first issued these commandments after the Arab tribes had finally unified under the banner of Islam and were preparing to invade their Christian and pagan neighbors. But unlike the bellicose verses and anecdotes of the Old Testament, these so-called “sword-verses” subsequently became fundamental to Islam’s relationship to both the “people of the book” (i.e. Christians and Jews) and the “pagans” (i.e. Hindus, Buddhists, animists, etc).
In fact, based on the sword-verses (as well as countless other Koranic verses and oral traditions attributed to Muhammad), Islam’s scholars, sheikhs, muftis, imams, and qadis throughout the ages have all reached the consensus—binding on the entire Muslim community—that Islam is to be at perpetual war with the non-Muslim world, until the former subsumes the latter. (It is widely held that the sword-verses alone have abrogated some 200 of the Koran’s more tolerant verses.) Famous Muslim scholar and “father of modern history” Ibn Khaldun articulates the dichotomy between jihad and defensive warfare thus:
In the Muslim community, the holy war [i.e. jihad] is a religious duty, because of the universalism of the Muslim mission and the obligation to convert everybody to Islam either by persuasion or by force… The other religious groups did not have a universal mission, and the holy war was not a religious duty for them, save only for purposes of defense… They are merely required to establish their religion among their own people. That is why the Israeilites after Moses and Joshua remained unconcerned with royal authority [e.g. a “caliphate”]. Their only concern was to establish their religion [not spread it to the nations]… But Islam is under obligation to gain power over other nations (The Muqudimmah, vol. 1 pg. 473, emphasis added).
Even when juxtaposed to their Old Testament counterparts, the sword-verses are distinctive for using language that transcends time and space, inciting believers to attack and slay non-believers today no less than yesterday. Yahweh commanded the Hebrews to kill Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites—all specific peoples rooted to a specific time and place. At no time did Yahweh give an open-ended command for the Hebrews, and by extension their descendants the Jews, to fight and kill gentiles. On the other hand, though Islam’s original enemies were, like Judaism’s, historical (e.g. Christian Byzantines and pagan Persians), the Koran rarely singles them out by their proper names. Instead, Muslims were (and are) commanded to fight the people of the book—”until they pay tribute with willing submission and feel themselves utterly subdued” (9:29) and to “slay the pagans wherever you find them” (9:5). The two conjunctions “until” and “wherever” demonstrate the perpetual nature of these commandments: there are still “people of the book” who have yet to be “utterly subdued” (especially in the Americas, Europe, and Israel) and “pagans” to be slain “wherever” one looks (especially Asia and sub-Saharan Africa).
Aside from the divine words of the Koran, Muhammad’s pattern of behavior—his “Sunna” or “example”—is an extremely important source of legislation in Islam. Muslims are exhorted to emulate Muhammad in all walks of life: “You have indeed in the Messenger of Allah a beautiful pattern [of conduct]” (33:21). And Muhammad’s pattern of conduct vis-à-vis non-Muslims is quite explicit. Sarcastically arguing against the concept of “moderate” Islam, terrorist Osama bin Laden, who enjoys half the Arab-Islamic world’s support per a recent al-Jazeera poll, portrays the prophet’s Sunna thus:
“Moderation” is demonstrated by our prophet who did not remain more than three months in Medina without raiding or sending a raiding party into the lands of the infidels to beat down their strongholds and seize their possessions, their lives, and their women” (from The Al-Qaeda Reader).
In fact, based on both the Koran and Muhammad’s Sunna, pillaging and plundering infidels, enslaving their children, and placing their women in concubinage is well founded (e.g. 4:24, 4:92, 8:69, 24:33, 33:50, etc.).
While law-centric and legalistic, Judaism has no such equivalent to the Sunna; the words and deeds of the patriarchs, though recorded in the Old Testament, never went on to be part of Jewish law. Neither Abraham’s “white-lies,” nor Jacob’s perfidy, nor Moses’ short-fuse, nor David’s adultery, nor Solomon’s philandering ever went on to instruct Jews or Christians. They were merely understood to be historical actions perpetrated by fallible men who were often punished by God for their less than ideal behavior.
As for Christianity, much of the Old Testament law was abrogated by Jesus. “Eye for an eye” gave way to “turn the other cheek.” Totally loving God and one’s neighbor became supreme law (Matt 22:38-40). Furthermore, Jesus’ “Sunna”—as in “What would Jesus do?”—is characterized by passivity and altruism.
And it is from here that one can best appreciate the Crusades. However one interprets these wars—as offensive or defensive, just or unjust—it is plainly evident that they were not based on the teachings of the New Testament or the example of Jesus who exhorted his followers to “love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you” (Matt 5:44). The Crusaders—not the jihadists—are the ones who have contradicted their religion.
In fact, far from suggesting anything intrinsic to Christianity, the Crusades ironically help better explain Islam. For what the Crusades demonstrated once and for all is that irrespective of religious teachings—indeed, in the case of these so-called “Christian” Crusades, despite them—man is truly predisposed to violence and intolerance. But this begs the question: If this is how Christians behaved—who are commanded to love, bless, and do good to their enemies who hate, curse, and persecute them—how much more can be expected of Muslims who, while sharing the same violent tendencies, are further commanded by the Deity to attack, kill, and plunder non-believers
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You’re completely wrong about the huge majority of Crusaders. There is no greater act of love than to travel to a distant land to protect your brothers and sisters from barbaric murderers who have invaded their lands.
The eternal destiny of Muslim souls, or anyone’s soul–is with God–not man. Men do not save souls–only God does.
That’s true: the Crusades were a reaction to Islamic conquest.
Besides that, we gave up the Crusades about 800 years ago. Islam still conquers by the sword.
seriously where ? in your west countries , daily dozens are converting and not a single proof of converting by them sword ? stop hating us
How about those in the Middle East who want to convert to Christianity? Or are already Christian? Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Iran, …
Now, about those beheadings…….
Not a well written article–such an article should have been written by someone who properly understands the subject matter. The crusaders were Roman Catholics–not genuine Biblical Christians. Roman Catholicism is a works based religion–whereas genuine Biblical Christianity is salvation based upon faith in Gods written word and his grace alone–no works. What the Hebrews did under the direction of God–was not genocide–these were righteous acts directed by a righteous God. The world was much better off without the wicked people who were killed. It should also be noted that God has always given a people many opportunities to repent. As for Godless Satanic Islam–it is a sociopathic religion of hatred, kidnap, mass enslavement, mass rape, mass murder, pedophilia, et al.–no good has ever come from Islam.
You’re full of Protestant bigotry and myths. The (Catholic) Church put together the bible. Protestant heretics would have no bible if not for the One True Church.
All Protestant sects began with false prophets. The Church began with Christ. Christ is very clear that he is giving authority to St. Peter (the keys to the kingdom are a symbol of authority in the Old Testament). The Church that St. Peter founded with the help of the other apostles and disciples is the one that has its headquarters in Rome where St. Peter was martyred.
Jesus is the head of the Biblically Christian church–not Peter–Jesus never made him the head of the church. It was God himself {Jesus} who gave man the Bible–not mammon. Man’s small part in the Bible–was made possible by the inspiration and enablement of the Holy Spirit. Roman Catholic teaching states that salvation comes through
their church as they merit saving grace through the sacraments and
perform religious rituals and good works to be justified and
re-justified. Catholic salvation
is based on Jesus plus Mary, faith plus works, grace plus merit,
Scripture plus tradition and the blood of Jesus plus purgatory.
Catholics do not know that any addition to the Gospel is a denial of the
sufficiency of Christ (Heb. 7:25). Any addition to the Gospel also nullifies the saving grace of God, which is the only means by which God saves sinners (Romans 11:6). Roman
Catholics also worship dead people, bow down to statues and the Eucharist as it were the
literal body of Jesus–this is in violation of the these commandments Exodus 20:2-4 {KJV} Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God…, When Catholics bow down to the Eucharist–they are bowing down to and worshiping Satan. 1 Corinthians 10:20 {KJV} But I [say], that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they
sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have
fellowship with devils. And Galatians 1:9 {KJV} As we said before, so say I now
again, If any [man] preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have
received, let him be accursed. Roman Catholicism teaches a false gospel;
none of what Roman Catholicism teaches is Biblical Christianity. The
only way to Biblical salvation is thus: Romans 10:9-10 {KJV} That if
thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in
thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth
confession is made unto salvation. And nothing else!
Your failure to be informed on these issues dose not make me wrong.
So you’re asserting that Christ somehow made a mistake by using a very clear symbol of the giving of authority from the Old Testament? The keys to the kingdom are a direct symbol of the king giving authority over the kingdom to a trusted adviser while the king is away from the kingdom.
Christ is very clear that the Holy Spirit will protect the Church he is establishing by giving the keys to St. Peter. He never speaks of some secret society of Protestants who can’t even agree with each other about his teachings. He constantly speaks of his ONE True Church and maintaining unity within it.
The Church decided the canon before any Protestants existed. How can you speak of the Church nullifying the Gospel that THE CHURCH PUT TOGETHER?! You guys live in a self-righteous, egotistical fantasy where you’re somehow fixing the One True Church that Christ established with your own personal fantasies.
Your Protestant myths are pathetic and you’ve obviously had them instilled in you by other bigots without even learning what the Church actually teaches.
The bible gives plenty of support for asking those who have passed on to pray for us. No prayers to God are a bad thing. It’s just as admissible to ask someone who has died to pray for you as it is to ask someone still living to pray for you.
It is Protestants who are acting like Judas and those who abandoned Christ because they did not like his teaching of the Eucharist. Christ clearly states to us that we must truly eat of his Body and truly drink of his Blood. He never says anything about the Protestant practice of having juice and crackers in his memory.
You’re not truly believing in Christ. Your believing in a fake Christ you’ve created in your mind to satisfy your ego. To truly believe in Christ you must follow his teachings, like his command to take Holy Communion and maintain unity in his One True Church.
NOWHERE does Christ command us to establish 40,000 self-contradictory, warring Protestant sects that make nonbelievers say “how can I believe Christianity when so many Christians [i.e. Protestants and unorthodox Catholic Christians] bicker with each other about what Christianity actually is?”
You guys are making yourselves stumbling blocks to nonbelievers by favoring your egotistical fantasies over what Christ actually taught.
The scriptures clearly show that Jesus Christ is the head of the church–this was never given to Peter or to any other man. Protestants are not a secret society. At one time they had to be secretive–because the Church of Rome was persecuting and mass murdering them during the inquisition; the inquisition which was used to mass murder over sixty million who would not submit to the pope, who would not bow down to the abominable Eucharist. The scriptures clearly show the church of Rome to be anti-Christ, Revelation 17.
You’re a simple-minded bigot. This is the danger of Protestantism, it leads the simple minded to hate God’s Church.
In the Old Testament, when the king gave the keys to his trusted adviser, he was not giving up his kingship, he was giving authority over the kingdom, which still belonged to the king. When the king returned, he took direct control again. This is offering perfect symbolism using the Old Testament, as Christ does with all of his wisdom.
Christ is going back to Heaven with God the Father. He’s obviously not here giving direct orders, so he gives HIS authority to St. Peter and those who occupy the office of St. Peter authority until he returns in glory.
This is why Christ says: “Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Christ gives the orders and the order he is giving is that St. Peter will have authority over the Church because he knows that otherwise, we would have the exact situation we have with Protestants: 40,000 warring churches that contradict each other and the One True Church and preserve many heretical Christians in error and scandalize and jeopardize countless other souls who can’t bring themselves to follow a religion they see as bickering because so many Protestants teach false doctrines. This is not limited to Protestants, many self-professed Catholics are possessed of the same spirit of disobedience and division, when Christ clearly taught obedience to and unity within his One True Church.
By the way, you should know that, despite certain bad Catholics, the Church was responding to heretics who murdered Catholics and that Protestants murdered far more Catholics than vice versa. Furthermore, the Protestant Heresy spawned the Secularist Apostasy which has led to the murder of too many innocent Christians, Catholics (i.e. orthodox Christians), Orthodox and Protestants, to count.
Lastly, you should also know that Judas Iscariot betrayed Christ our Lord precisely because he was scandalized by Christ losing followers who refused to believe Christ’s teaching that we should truly drink of his Blood and truly eat of his Body. They said it was cannibalism and refused to believe in the Real Presence, just like so many Protestants.
You’re also a bigot. There is both good and bad bigotry–my bigotry is based upon Biblical facts and the facts of the heretical teaching of the Church of Rome. My assertions are clear–and they are not what you claim them to be. You’re a fool–I have written the truth and you do not care about truth. But you will when you are standing at the great White Throne judgement and are being cast into the lake of fire. Romans 10:9-10–is your only way to salvation. Catholic sacraments will not save you.
You are very clearly misinformed on the teaching of the Church. Have you ever read the Catechism of the Church or the original Bible which was established, as you said, by God – but through the authority and hands of His Church? How much have you actually studied the reformation history of the Church?
How many Catholic authors have you read? I bet you would find a wealth of knowledge and enlightenment reading the books of Scott Hahn and many, many other former Protestant, Jewish, Muslim, etc.believers who grew up hating the Church and then discovered the Truth that changed and enriched their lives.
And, if you’re right and they’re all wrong, just think of how you could change the world.
Yes, this is a challenge. A very, very big challenge. Because, once you commit yourself to discovering the TRUTH your life will change forever – and much of what you are going to face will challenge you to the core. Are you up to it?
To start, just – as I challenged – commit to finding the truth no matter where it may take you. Of course, ask God for His help and guidance along the way, and, just for argument’s sake, accept the possibility that you could be wrong.
I’ll do the same and let’s see if we end up in the same place in a year or two.
All the best.
Everything I wrote about the Church of Rome’s teachings are factual and current. Cite at least three examples of where you think I am wrong, that I wrote on the teachings of the Church of Rome. On reformation history I have read J.A. Wiley: The History Of Protestantism: A Complete History Of The Christian Church. I have read these Catholic authors: Martin Luther, Desiderius Erasmus, John Calvin. I have read also The Catholic Catechism.
Three examples:
1.The Church clearly recognized that Jesus is the head of the Church. He is the founder of the Church. He sent the Holy Spirit to protect it until the end of time. You, in effect, are calling Him a liar and a fraud.
2. The Church teaches that salvation comes only through the Grace of God. You are in error.
3. Catholics certainly do not worship anyone but God. We do not worship dead people or statues. You are grossly misinformed or a liar.
4. Jesus presented the Eucharist at the last supper saying,
“This is my body” and “This is my blood.” He then commanded His disciples to “Do this in remembrance of Me.” Your understanding of the Eucharist is extremely poor and not substantiated by scripture. Go back to school.
There is so much wrong with your writing that I don’t have time to respond. You will come to the Father when He is ready to call you. It wouldn’t hurt if you were open to Him and truly looking to find Him.
Either your hatred of that which you do not know is blinding you to the truth you seek or you are not a seeker of the truth.
It is you who are wrong on each of these points–you clearly could not even understand and do not want to understand what I wrote–which is all based on Biblical facts and the teaching of the Church of Rome. You are a fool–this conversation is concluded.
“No one comes to Me unless the Father sends him.”
I hope you get a call soon. Whether or not you care to communicate with me is irrelevant. But, this conversation is not concluded. It’s just been passed on to Another.
All the best.
Your favorite “Fool”.
The problem is not if you right or wrong, or if anything you quote correct. Your attitude towards people is what is wrong. Were is your love, your forgiveness. If you wish to change people do not attack them, teach them with love and kindness. Read what Jesus did. When the woman was brought to him for stoning, did Jesus rant and rave at her for the sin she had committed? No he was kind and forgiving.
It is Roman Catholics who are the heretics–according to God’s written word–the King James Bible.
You’ve got to be kidding. You don’t trust the bible that was put together by the Apostles, the disciples and their close associates but you trust the bible of a Protestant heretic who had no connection 1,500 years later?? It’s been proven that all Protestant bibles have far more errors of translation that the proper bible ever did.
You guys are following your own egos and you all want to pretend to be these Christ-like heroes who saved Christianity, denying Christ’s promise that the gates of Hell would NEVER prevail against his ONE Church. He didn’t promise that the gates of Hell would prevail for 1,500 years until some hero Protestants came around and fixed everything by sowing division among his people.
Ego has nothing to do with it. You’re self deceived. Its the church of Rome who has sowed division and mass murder–with over 60 million they murdered for not bowing down to the Eucharist.
Where are you getting this 60 million number? I’ve never even seen a bigoted Protestant lie put the number that high.
Anyway, there have been bad Catholics, but for the most part Catholic princes and kings were protecting themselves from Protestants because they rightly foresaw how many of their innocent, orthodox Christian subjects would be murdered by Protestant heretics if they let Protestant heresy flourish in their lands.
Anyway, your Protestant sect wouldn’t even exist if it hadn’t had the Church to pick and choose beliefs from.
You write like being bigoted is a bad thing–which it only is when one is whoring themselves after evil, e.g., the heretical Church of Rome–Biblical Christians are bigots for the written word of God! Actually I was being conservative–others claim 68 million. Those Catholic rulers–ruled at the pleasure of the Pope–they did the bidding of the Pope in mass murdering those who would not bow down to the idol of the Eucharist. You are typical of your father the Devil–you twist things around backwards to suit and promote your evil heretical agenda. You’re pathetic you cannot win this argument with facts–so you resort to name calling. The historical record clearly shows it was the Church of Rome who committed mass murder against those who would not submit to the Pope. There have always been Biblical Christians outside of the Church of Rome–long before the Church of Rome abomination was established.
Where is your love and forgiveness? Follow Jesus and the way he lived. It is sad for me to see how you try and run down someone that should be your brother or sister in Christ.
Let bygones be bygones. We will not change the history of mankind. We can only live in the here and now and try to follow the Lords word.
The original bible was written in Greek and is therefore not a translation. All translations even the new American version used and authorised by the catholic Church has discrepancies in the translation. But what are you fighting about. Jesus has asked us Christians to love one another, no one is perfect. Read the bible in whatever language you can. Most translations today are very good and very close to the Greek original.
Most translations can’t be good because they all differ from each other so thoroughly. This is why I trust the translation that the Church began as soon the gospels were written down and the canon was codified more than those of Protestant sects, which they dreamed up a millennium and a half later to try to justify their newfangled heresies.
I do love all Christians, including Protestants, which is why I tell them the truth even when it hurts. I don’t think it’s bad when Protestants make truthful criticisms of the many failures of members of the One True Church.
The Original Bible was written in Hebrew, later transcribed into Greek. The Hebrew bible was written by the JEWS, not Catholics. These Jews wrote what was revealed to them by the Holy Spirit.
God did not wright the King James Bible. It is an English translation (a good one) of the original Greek texts put together by the Christians in the first 300 years after the resurrection of Jesus.
Please try and be a little more Christian. Luther did not want to split from the Catholic church, but wanted to reform it as the Catholics of the day were not behaving very Christian. Luther was not a Prophet but a reformer so your statement that all protestant sects began with false prophets is wrong. Where is your love and forgiveness of your neighbour that Jesus asked of you? Turn the other cheek and forgive.
Luther was a bad man. He wanted to become pope and when that didn’t happen he responded by trying to convert everyone to his heresy. Then he tried to have everyone who refused murdered.
I do love all Protestants. I’m a flawed man and I’m sorry if I got too aggressive or rude in my attempted defense of the Church.
God bless you!
That is not correct. The Catholic Church did not write the Hebrew bible. The Holy Bible was written by the Hebrew Prophets of old given to them by the Holy Spirit. The Catholics have never honored or used the Hebrew Bible or the King James Bible. The Catholic Church wrote their own bible and that is what they use.
The Church compiled the bible we use. Protestants mistranslated what they inherited in order to support their heresies.
I pray that all Protestants will return to the only church Christ founded before it’s too late.
In the days the Roman Catholics were the bible Christians of those days. Most people could not read especially the bible that was written in Latin. Therefore it is save to say that only very few crusaders actually had read some part of the bible. So to compare the Christians of the crusades to the Christians today is a really relevant. Instead of lamenting about Islam how about making recommendations how to reach them the Good News.
You are right. Everything you said is correct. Those people who are writing these kind of articles don’t even understand God’s Holy Word. They cannot even get History right.
Surely Mr Ibrahim knows the difference between the Old and the New Testaments. The Old Testament was directed to the Israelites, and is their history. It is not directed to us. The New Testament preaches love over and over and over. While you’re trying to figure out Jesus’ “sword” comment, consider this one:”I have come so that the may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10)
No mention of “self defense”? Or ” just war”?