Reconsidering the ‘Christian’ crusades of the Middle Ages

Is Muslim violence really comparable with 'Christian' violence?

Pope Francis is renowned for his outstanding concern for the poor and powerless. Long before he came to Rome he earned a reputation in South America as a pastor who cared for people and was constantly seeking to improve the lot of those who were downtrodden.

Could this be the reason why he has spoken recently, comparing the motive of Muslim jihadists with what he sees as Christian violence?

Understandable though this sensitivity might seem, is it not one more contribution to confusion and compromise concerning Islam and the true Christian witness?

The Pope's Contrast of Islamic and 'Christian'

Two things have prompted us to use our editorial this week to continue examining the challenge of the Islamic movement in the West.

First, is the reported comment to a journalist by Pope Francis on the murder of Fr Jacques Hamel. The Pope is reported to have said that "he doesn't like speaking about Islamic violence because there is plenty of Christian violence as well...[He] said that every day when he browses the newspapers, he sees violence in Italy perpetrated by Christians: 'this one who has murdered his girlfriend, another who has murdered the mother-in-law...and these are baptized Catholics! There are violent Catholics! If I speak of Islamic violence, I must speak of Catholic violence. And no, not all Muslims are violent, not all Catholics are violent. It is like a fruit salad; there's everything'."¹

Of course, Pope Francis is right in acknowledging that some who call themselves Christians do commit murder. As Protestants we would wish to point out that that all human beings are born sinful and baptising them as infants does not change their human nature - so baptised Catholics are still sinners liable to commit acts of murder. It is being born again through repentance and accepting Jesus as Lord and Saviour that changes human nature.

Do the Pope's recent comments just add further confusion and compromise concerning Islam and the true Christian witness?

We would also want to point out the difference between a man who murders his girlfriend in a fit of temper and another who deliberately carries out a cold-blooded act of assassination such as the mass murder of those in the Bataclan concert-hall. If we lump together jihadist attacks with all other kinds of violence, we close down debate and understanding about the very distinctive motivations and agendas behind radical Islam.

Christians and Muslims Praying Together

The second is widespread reference in this week's media to opinions concerning joint Christian and Muslim prayer. There is a growing idea that Christians and Muslims can find ways to pray together - the assumption being that both pray to the same god. Christopher Howse commented on this in the Daily Telegraph, referring to Christian Troll's chapter on this theme in the Bloomsbury Guide to Christian Spirituality.²

Born-again Christians and Muslims do not and cannot pray to the same god! But as these two examples show, there is clearly need for clarification!

These instances are among the growing number in our day that challenge us to be clear on whether Christians worship the same god as Muslims. They are not new questions, but they are questions that are closer to home than in previous times.

The point is that human beings, to avoid confrontation, are likely to compromise. This must not happen in the Christian Church at this crucial time in history!

To avoid confrontation, human beings are likely to compromise. This must not happen in the Church at this time!

Mission to Muslims

In the 1980s, I was led to become involved with the challenge of Islam, in terms of both the ministry of the Gospel and the advance of Islam in the West. In those days it was said that there was one missionary to a million Muslims because of the difficulty of witness in Muslim countries and because of the poor understanding about Islam in the West.

For a period, I had the privilege of leading prayer among serving and former missionaries to the Muslim world. I met men and women who had spent a whole lifetime of service in the Muslim world and had not seen a single convert. Some had begun to doubt that it was possible for a Muslim to become a Christian. This seems hard to believe now. Not only has Islam become centre-stage politically and religiously, but also multitudes of Muslims have been saved by faith in Jesus the Messiah.

At around the time that these things were happening in the 80s, a fresh wave of missionaries was going into Muslim countries. Some found the same difficulty as the previous generation, and a new word became prominent – contextualisation. It is amazing how often we can think of a word that sounds quite reasonable in and of itself, but which masks a major error. Here and there, some Christian missionaries were beguiled to think that a way forward was to put the Christian message into the context of Islamic communities. Hence, some experiments have been made to open mosques with the idea of Christians and Muslims sharing in worship together.

This same idea is still alive, as our second example above illustrates. The bottom line is that it raises the question as to whether or not the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the same as the God of Islam.

Christian mission to the Muslim world has raised the same question – do we worship the same god?

Personal Experience

Personal experience helps us to know where to draw the lines. My personal experience of a short spell in a Moroccan jail for our Christian witness took me behind the scenes of the Islamic world. It begged the question as to why God would have sent us to witness to seekers after truth in a Muslim country only to be imprisoned by those who follow the god of Islam. Same God? Surely not. It also gives us the ability to contrast the rigid exclusion of everything Christian in hard-line Islamic countries like Saudi Arabia with the freedom offered to Islam in countries with an ingrained Christian heritage.

Returning to the first quote, what had Pope Francis in mind? Was he thinking of the Crusades when he considered that Christians had as much to answer for as Muslims in their violence? Perhaps he was thinking of the troubles in Northern Ireland or even the world wars that were fought in the last century.

He has a point - but one also senses a disturbing possibility that some Christian leaders are finding ways to unite with Islam in a quest for peace. Of course we must seek and defend peace, but at what cost? Is this another thread of compromise? Again, we are eventually led to the same question as to whether the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the same as the god of the Qur'an.

God is Great!

All Christians would agree that the God of the Bible is Great! We sing it and proclaim it, loud and clear! But when we hear that yet another terrorist has proclaimed 'Allahu Akbar!' prior to a murderous act of violence, and we discover that he has simply repeated (in Arabic) the Muslim proclamation 'God [Allah] is Great!' then we must ask whether this can be the same god.

Some Christian leaders seem to be finding ways to unite with Islam in a quest for peace.

Of course, many say that these terrorists are not true Muslims and are misguided. However, the question still remains. When one investigates what the Qur'an says about the god of Islam one sees clearly that it is not the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Just because we use the same words, it does not mean that we address the same god.

If the god of the Qur'an were the God of the Bible, he would not say that he did not have a son, as is written around the ceiling of the Dome on the Rock on Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The foundation of the Christian faith is that Jesus the Messiah is the Son of God. Neither would there be incitement to jihad against Christians and Jews in the Qur'an. On close study, the god of Islam is not the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.³

We must not compromise on this issue either through guilt trips on violence that true Christians would not have perpetrated anyway, or through seeking some sort of joint expression of worship, as if there were two paths to the same God - one through Islam and one through Christianity.

True Seekers

Among the millions of Muslims in the world, particularly the young, there is a true seeking after the One True God. Jesus, the Saviour of the world, is working to redirect their prayers to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and away from the god of Islam.

It will not help to muddy the waters through compromise, but this does not mean taking up arms to defeat violence with violence.

Now is the time for a clear and true proclamation of the Gospel. It is also time for a winning Christian lifestyle, a witness of the One True God borne out in true Christian discipleship. Our God is Great and far greater than counterfeits. The rise of Islam and the tides of response from the Pope and others challenge us to stand on the clarity of whom our God is.

Now is the time for a clear and true proclamation of the Gospel – and for winning Christian lifestyles.

The foundation of our concern for Muslims and of our witness to them is that there is difference between Islam and New Testament Christianity. The teaching of Jesus stands in stark contrast to that of Muhammad. They cannot both be the final revelation of God to mankind. Compromise, however humanly well-meant, will not help.

This is a matter of life and death, not so much of the physical kind but concerning eternal life in fellowship with the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

References

1 Quoted from Ibrahim, R. Pope Francis Equates Muslim and Christian Violence. FrontPage Magazine, 2 August 2016, re-published on the Middle East Forum.

2 2012, ed. Richard Woods and Peter Tyler. Bloomsbury. See also Howse, C. Can Muslims pray with Christians? The Telegraph, Thursday 11 August 2016.

3 For further reading on this subject, see James R White's What Every Christian Needs to Know About the Qur'an. 2013, Bethany House, Minnesota.