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Crusades-Encyclopedia
The Bible and War |
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Modern Christians often view the Crusaders as "bad Christians" because of their willingness to resort to violence. The fundamentalist minister Jerry Falwell, for example, once referred to the crusades as unrepresentative of "Biblical Christianity." Yet it should be understood that the militant Christianity of the Middle Ages was, perhaps reasonably, believed to have had a biblical warrant.
Although it is often claimed that for the first three centuries of Christian history, Christian thought *generally* held a pacifist position, this has been shown to be untrue. Although it is true that Christians rarely offered little or no resistance to sometimes violent Roman persecutions, Christians served in Roman armies from the second century onwards and major early Christian theologians held varying opinions on the issue. From the mid fourth-century, as Christianity became more dominant politically, writers from Ambrose and Augustine to Thomas Aquinas, wrote of the occasional need for Christian warriors to fight in a "just war." Additionally, if the Hebrew Scriptures are to be considered authoritative and providing a useful moral code for a Christian, such as with the Ten Commandments, then perhaps instances of divinely ordained combat in the bible offer equal insights into the historical compatability of warfare and the Christian ethos.
Listed on this page are biblical citations concerning this topic. All references are taken from major biblical translations. All verses have been cross referenced to insure there are no substantive differences. Selections provided below are far from exhaustive and represent only a small sampling. See also the Crusades-Encyclopedia entry on Christian Pacifism |
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| God Desires War |
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Related Links |
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"The Lord is a man of war; the Lord is his name."
Exodus 15:3 |
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Biblical References in Crusades preaching and Propaganda |
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"Happy shall be he who takes your [Edomites] little ones and dashes them against the rocks"
Psalms 137:9 |
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Click here for articles concerning violence and warfare in the Bible |
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Online Bible & Concordance |
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"Cursed is he who does the work of the Lord with slackness; and cursed is he who keeps back his sword from bloodshed."
Jeremiah 48:10 |
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Link to this website's section on the
Just War Theory |
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Link to this website's section on The Koran and War |
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"And the Lord sent you on a mission, 'Go utterly destroy the sinners, the A-mal-e-kites and fight against them until they are consumed'"
1 Samuel 15:18 |
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Link to this website's section on Concepts of Jihad |
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"And Saul said to Samuel, 'I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, I have gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me, I have brought A-gag the King of Am-a-lek and I have utterly destroyed the A-mal-e-kites.'"
1 Samuel 15:20 |
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Articles on War and Violence in the Bible |
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Dr. Helen J. Nicholson: Serious Violence: Church Justification for Violence in the Middle Ages Paper based on 1998 Conference Presentation |
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"And Joshua mowed down Am a-lek and his people with the edge of a sword."
Exodus 17:3 |
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Dr. Joseph J. Fahey Columbus and the Catholic Crusades Human Quest 2002 |
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Harold O.J. Brown The Crusades: Time for Another? Islam and Christendom National Review, 1985. |
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| "He said, 'For hands were lifted up to the throne of the LORD. The LORD will be at war against the Amalekites from generation to generation.'" Exodus 17:16 |
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Click Here for more articles on violence and warfare in the Bible. |
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| "Then he said to them, 'This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.' The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people died." Exodus 32:27-28 |
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Did Jesus Advocate Violence?
Many think the following two verses must be interpreted as prophecy, rather than advocacy, as they are stikingly at odds with many of the New Testament writings dealing with Jesus. However, some have cited the following verses to justify Christian violence. |
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"And moses said to the people, 'Arm men from among you for the war, that they may go against Mid-i-an, to execute the Lord's venegence on Midian."
Numbers 31:3 |
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"Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household." Matthew 10:34-36 |
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| "When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations...seven nations larger and stronger than you and when the LORD your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy." Deuteronomy 7:1-2 |
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"Do you suppose that I came to grant peace on earth? I tell you, no, but rather division; for from now on five members in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three..." Luke 12:51-52 |
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| "However, in the cities of the nations the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes. Completely destroy them—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—as the LORD your God has commanded you." Deuteronomy 20:16-17 |
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