“Bless
those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who
rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.
Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate
with people of low position. Do not be conceited.
Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the
eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but
leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written:
“It is mine to avenge;
I will repay,” says the Lord. On the contrary: “If your enemy
is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty,
give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
Romans 12:14-21
give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
Romans 12:14-21
It
is often noted that Christians have no ground to stand on when it comes to
criticizing the violence of Christian Crusaders.
No doubt
the crusades are a black mark in Christian history.
I think it is important to note however that, historically speaking, the
crusades were
not simply Christian aggression against innocent Muslims. It is important to note two things.
not simply Christian aggression against innocent Muslims. It is important to note two things.
First
any nation that calls itself officially a Christian nation is by definition
doing what the New Testament does
not permit. Jesus
was very, very clear that Christianity could never be an officially sanctioned
“state religion”.
He told us that his kingdom was “not of this world”, that it is
“inside you”, that we are to “give to Caesar what is his and to God what
is his”. Every
time in history when church and state has joined it has done ugly things in the
name of Christianity but it wasn’t Christianity doing, rather it was sinful
human beings misusing power in the name of God.
In the case of the Crusades I think it is accurate to say that the west,
in the name of Christ, but without the sanction of Christ, conducted a defensive war
against the aggressive encroachment of Islam.
Of course there’s so much more to say but my point is that the crusades
1,000 years ago were no more sanctioned by God in Christ than America’s
invading Iraq. Each
were the actions of nations out to defend themselves against what they perceived
to be threats to their survival.
Second,
while our Bible, when read through lens of Jesus, never sanctions any nation
becoming the standard bearer for Christ, the Koran does exactly this.
The Koran, which has the same function for Muslims as Jesus has for
Christians, (the perfect revealed word of God) contains the words that Mohammed felt were
revealed to him over
a period of 23 years from the time he was 40 years old.
The earlier parts of the Koran reflect a peaceful period of 10 years when
he was in Mecca. The
rest of the Koran reflect his sayings during and after his time of aging war from Medina on
other cities, raiding caravans, and eventually conquering Mecca.
From there Islam spread by the sword as far as France via north Africa
and Spain and as far east as the border of India.
All this
in less than 150 years! How then does one choose which part of the Koran to follow, the peaceful parts or the violent parts? That issue is resolved by the Doctrine of Abrogation which states that the latter portions of the Koran take precedent over the former. In this way Radical Islam, or Islamism, in its aggressiveness to create a world=wide Islamic State is based on its scriptures. It has as much scriptural basis, even more, than Islam that proclaims peace.
in less than 150 years! How then does one choose which part of the Koran to follow, the peaceful parts or the violent parts? That issue is resolved by the Doctrine of Abrogation which states that the latter portions of the Koran take precedent over the former. In this way Radical Islam, or Islamism, in its aggressiveness to create a world=wide Islamic State is based on its scriptures. It has as much scriptural basis, even more, than Islam that proclaims peace.
In
this way Jesus and the Koran are totally different.
Biblical Christianity spreads by the influence of love from the bottom of
society up and it never seeks a position of political power (even though many
Christians act differently which means that political Christianity and biblical
Christianity are often quite different even opposites).
Intrinsic to Koranic Islam is that it become the religion of states and
nations and also the law of the land.
For
more:
follow on Twitter @jefflampl
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