Introduction to the Threat of Islam to Christianity and Liberty
Stephen McDowell Welcome to America's Providential History Podcast, where we talk about the real story of America and explore the hand of God in our history. Now here's your host, Steven McDowell. Hello. I'm glad you're joining us for this edition of America's Providential History Podcast. Today I want to begin to explore a very pertinent topic that's found its way in the news in recent times, and that is I want to deal with the threat of Islam to liberty and Christianity. Now in recent weeks we have seen an uprising in France and Paris and other cities in France of riots. And a, major force behind these riots were Islamic, immigrants into, those nations. In recent decades we've seen a rise of Islam in France and in England and in much of Western Europe. We've also seen a rise of Islam in the U.S. from immigrants who come and began to attempt to implement their style of Sharia law and sharia courts, protesting and doing various things contrary to really our constitution. And this is occurring while at the same time in recent decades we've seen a growing, conflict among radical Muslims to physical force against the United states. Obviously on 911 when the twin Towers were taken down, this was a direct attack on our nation by radical Islam. But that was not a new thing. And as we'll see and explore over these next few weeks, that that actually is a, common thread historically of what Islam has done to advance this false religion. See, Islam is one of the two greatest external threats to Christianity in this century. The other external threat, great threat, is statism, which we've touched on in past podcasts. I will explore that more in future ones actually. But Islam has been at war with Christianity since the inception of Islam by Muhammad in the seventh century. And so, ah, what I want to do over these next few weeks is to provide a brief overview of the history of Islam and its teachings. And when we look at that, it reveals that its aggressive expansion and conflict with Christianity are normal. Then we'll also have an ideological comparison of Christianity and Islam which will show that Christianity historically has produced liberty, while Islam brings oppression.
The Foundation of Society and the Role of Religion in National Well-being
Now, to properly understand America's recent conflicts with Islamic terrorists, and not just America, but, other nations as well, we've got to recognize that we are at war with a false religion, a false ideology. All religions are not the same. The religion, our faith of a people is the lifeblood of their society. What is the function of the blood in the body? It's to carry nutrients and oxygens, oxygen to feed the body. And this is true of our physical and individual body, but it's also true of society at large. Because the religion of a people, in every nation is religious. Every nation is founded upon a set of presuppositions that are rooted in what people consider to be ultimate, as we've just looked at in detail in these past podcasts, that the, Biblical Christianity was the foundation of America and that provided good seed, that produced good fruit, great liberty and blessing and flourishing and advancement, because that's the fruit of the Christian faith. The Bible teaches that. And historically that's occurred as well as we've explored in past, podcasts. And so biblical Christianity, that blood carries nutrients and oxygens, brings life to the national body. It's produced liberty, virtue, prosperity. But Islamic nations have not produced good fruit. They produce death and bondage, corruption and lack. And the reason for this is that the religion or lifeblood of Muslim nations carries little nutrients because their faith is in a God of human invention and not in the true and living God.
Understanding Worldviews and the Ideological Differences Between Islam and Christianity
So all worldviews are not the same. If you are a nation acts as if they are, then their serious consequences will occur. Now France has been acting in that, that way in recent times because the French, for really ever since their revolution has been a secular nation. And in this secular nation it says, every religion's the same. You can come and do what you want to, kind of, view or mentality. But, but all, all rural views aren't the same. And so it's important that we understand the basic ideas behind Islam and how they differ greatly from Christianity. See, a person's worldview affects everything in his life, including how to view and deal with radical Islam, today. And so we will be, exploring this, the difference, the threat of Islam to liberty and Christianity. We'll compare and contrast the Christian faith with Islam and we'll see how Christianity has spread through internal transformation of the heart by a living supernatural God.
The History of Islam's External Spread Through Force Versus Christianity's Internal Transformation
But Islam has spread externally through the use of force and fear. Might be summarized by the Sultan Suleiman, who in 1529, he was a great leader of Islamic forces. In 1529, he said that the infidels will at last bow in submission to Allah. Now, the infidels are anybody who doesn't believe in Allah, but he was specifically referring to the Christians because that's who he was at war with the Christian Europe. And he said in his vision for what was going to happen for him, carrying out his aggressive, spread of Islam, he said the infidels will at last bow in submission to Allah. The Jihad has advanced its full course, and the end is now in sight. The abomination of the Christian heresy shall be no more. So his statement kind of really summarizes the, history of Islam since its inception by Mohammed. So we're going to. Let's first take a look at the historical conflict of Islam and Christianity.
The Christian Faith's Foundation and Its Historical Spread and Impact on Liberty
Now, to begin with, we need to understand, the foundation of the Christian faith and the principles upon which it was dealt. Of course, Jesus came into the world. We learn from the Bible for the restoration of all things. God created man in his image, as we've explored in past podcasts. Set him in the earth to take dominion over the earth, to rule it, to cultivate it, to be fruitful, to multiply. We read that in the first couple of books of the Bible in Genesis. And when man fell, God then had a plan to restore man's relationship to God and to restore his ability to fulfill the cultural mandate the creation commission he gave to Adam and Eve in the very beginning. So Jesus came for the restoration of all things. He came to liberate mankind, to liberate him from the bo. Bondage of sin that it had separated him from God, since the Garden of Eden, and also to liberate mankind from the fruit of sin that flowed out of fallen man. Since Christ's coming, there's been no end to the increase of his kingdom. And again, in past podcasts, I looked at the ever increasing kingdom of Christ. You can go back and listen to those to see and understand how there has been no end to the increase of his kingdom that since the time of Christ set foot in the earth, his truth, his righteousness, his joy, his peace has been expanding and bringing liberty to men, individual men, and to societies at large. So there's been no increase to his kingdom, though there has been much opposition. Satan and his cohorts do not want, Christ's kingdom to expand in the earth. And he's done all kinds of things to try to thwart that, including raising up false religions that will, in various ways, seek to destroy Christianity. Well, we know in Matthew 28 that Jesus commissioned His church to disciple nations, to go and make disciples. That commission said to go and make disciples of all nations and to establish the kingdom of God from the internal to the external, through the power of the Holy Spirit, by teaching all that he commanded. And so the nature of the Christian faith is first a supernatural transformation of man's heart, where Christ removes our heart of stone, gives us a Heart of flesh, a new nature. We become new creatures. And that new creature empowered by the Holy Spirit which was sent by Jesus as a promise, he said, I want you to go and live out my principles. Express your love to God the first four commandments of the Ten Commandments, and express your love to your fellow man, the last six commandments of the ten Commandments. And so that as God's people have gone out, it's brought great love into the world. Love for God, love for his fellow man. And with that has come flourishing and abundance and liberty over time.
The Expansion of Christianity and Its Positive Societal Impact Over Centuries
And so, that's the foundation of the Christian faith. It began in the heart of man with something the world had not known, with an expression of service and love and sacrifice by Christ himself. and then, followed by, to a much lesser extent, obviously, by those who professed the Christian faith to do what he said and to do it in a heart of service and love to others. And so with this new faith that Christ initiated, that it began to impact, many began to rapidly. We read about it in the Book of Acts. We see a great expansion of the Christian faith in the years that followed Christ's coming. By 100 A.D. that Christian faith had impacted a lot. Certainly most of the eastern part of the Mediterranean. See, the nations around the Mediterranean were greatly impacted. This is where Paul went in his missionary journal journeys, there from the time of Christ. And for the next generation, other disciples went out as well. And this continued. This Christian faith continued to advance in, not only the first century, but the second century and the third century. And by 300 AD you had just most of the nations around the Mediterranean Sea on north of Africa, throughout what is today, you know, Turkey and Greece and Italy and Spain and France impacted by the gospel up into Great Britain, as well. And by the time we get to around 600 or about, around 500 A.D. around 25% of the known world had become Christian and over 40% had been evangelized. And so a, love planted in the heart of God's people with a desire to bring truth to mankind began to spread throughout the known world. That was what was the known world. The world where the Roman Empire had gone forth and built roads. And was one of the things God used to spread the gospel. The Roman roads as well as the Mediterranean Sea, which was a God had placed there in his divine geography in order for this truth to spread as well.
Comparing Christ's Proclamation of Liberty with Muhammad's Moralistic Autocracy and Islam's Spread by Force
And so the advance of Christianity over those first four or five centuries had brought great advancements of personal liberty. Limited government, free trade, stable families, advancements in science and arts, prosperity, and a growing and strong, church. And that of course, as we've looked at in some past podcasts, that continued to occur in the centuries that followed. So in the early part of the first century, Jesus came proclaiming a message of liberty for freedom. Christ came to set us free. The spirit of the Lord is upon me to proclaim liberty to the captives. Release. Jesus came liberating man, bringing blessing and flourishing peace and righteousness. as his truth spread in the early 600s, Mohammed was born and came offering a message much different than the Christian method. Christ proclaimed liberty to the captives. Muhammad proclaimed a rigid, moralistic autocracy. Christianity spread rapidly by the supernatural transformation of the hearts of men. Islam spread rapidly primarily by militant force. So it was around the year 610 when Mohammed started Islam with, by some revelation supposedly he had. And it establishes a strong external morality by threat of punishment. You will do this or we will punish you. So motivated by its ideology, Islam spread primarily by force. Some Muslims were fearless as they saw themselves as fighting for Allah, fighting against the infidel. In fact, this is what Muhammad taught in the Surah 9:5. Muhammad taught fight and slay the pagans wherever you find them.
The Forceful Expansion of Islam and Its Conquests in Christian Lands
And so in his vision of how the world should work and his religion, it was going to be spread externally by force, whether you like it or not. Because I say this is what is true and this is how man made ideologies, spread their belief, whether it be, a religion, kind of a known religion where there's a God or a man made secular religion like communism, socialism, statism, those are really religions. They're religious in their origin, but they spread the same way. You've got to use external force or fight physically or get controls of the levers of government to push your precepts upon everyone else. And so by the time Muhammad had died in 632, Islam had spread throughout most of the Arabian, peninsula. But in the years following it would spread very rapidly under the Caliph Umar, Omar, it's kind of the caliph title that was given to leaders of this, of early Islam. He led his armies in a string of successful advances into Christian lands. Because remember, in the first few centuries, Christianity spread throughout all the Mediterranean, area. Many, many people were converted. As Paul writes, the, the gospel gone out to the world. He was speaking of the known world had gone all over the world. That was the known world of the Roman, empire. So it spread rapidly. But now when Islam entered Into the scene. The six hundreds. Omar, used armies to bring it over to conquer Christian peoples and bring Islam as the established faith in that area. So he conquered Syria by 634, much of Egypt by 635, gained control of the Fertile crescent by defeating the Byzantines at the great battle of Yarmuk in 600, 30, 6. In 638, Umar had conquered the holy city of Christendom, I.e. jerusalem was conquered. And by his death in 644, most of the mideast and northern Africa was under the dominion of Islam. Now, his successors would continue to press the expansion of Islam into Europe, and they did it by force. So by the time we get to the early 700s, the, you had the Muslim caliphate kind of region of governance that spread all throughout, the Arabian peninsula, northern part of Africa, from most today Egypt, all the way over to Morocco and had spread it spread up into parts of what is today Turkey and spread all the way up into the Iberian peninsula, covering what is today Spain and, Portugal. And with the whole desire, we're going to continue to forcefully spread throughout the Christian world and bring Islam to everyone. And so they came up the Iberian peninsula to go into what is today France and spread throughout the Christian world at that time. But an important event occurred in the year 732.
The Battle of Tours and the Financial Aspects of Islamic Expansion Through Tribute
That's when there was the historic battle of Tours, that took place in the city of Tours. Charles Martel, known as the hammer, met the Islamic forces in battle and he defeated the Islamic forces, kept keeping them from continuing to advance into, western Europe. And he held them at bay, where they stopped basically, and controlling Spain and Portugal and were kept out of France and, Italy. So by 750, we see that Islam had control and govern most of the eastern, western and southern part of the Mediterranean region. now, while the battle of tours stopped, Islamic jihad, now jihad is just the name of holy war. And they had been conducting jihad holy war since the time of Muhammad. And Islamic jihad had conquered much of the Christian world around the Mediterranean and was a continual threat to expand. Well, in the year 766, their greatest ruler, Harun Al Rashid, that is Eryn the Just, began to reign. He had the name Eryn the just. But few people had justice under Islam and under the rule of Eryn, Especially if you happen to find yourself as a non, Muslim living in his, territory. Because under Eryn the just, there was much slavery. There's polygamy, there's low status of women, There's a system of tribute to finance the empire. Because when Islam came into a place, it said, you will convert or you will die. So many people were converted under that threat. But some were given the option, well, if you don't convert, if you pay tribute, you give us money, then we'll let you survive.
Centuries of Conflict and Persecution of Christians by Islam in Asia Minor and Jerusalem
And so their expansion, was financed by those who were forced to pay tribute to the Islamic, nations. And so as we go into the 9th and 10th centuries, into the 11th century, there was where the Christian, dominions bordered the Islamic dominions. There was many areas. There's constant conflict that was, taking place. And that, initially was over there in Asia Minor, in the area of Turkey. That was, of course, the area where Paul first traveled on his missionary journeys and established various churches, which, since the time of Paul, had begun to grow and grow, in that area. But with the rise of Islam, there began to be that constant threat. And of course, as I mentioned earlier, Jerusalem, the holy city, was taken over by Islam. And Christians began to be persecuted and killed. And this persecution and conflict spread into those, what had been Christian area, Christian regions, and in Asia Minor and Greece.
The Call for the Crusades in Response to Muslim Atrocities Against Christians
So that conflict began, to grow. And there's many atrocities. In fact, things got so bad that the Christians who lived in that area and, this area of the Middle east and Asia Minor, sent a message to the Pope and said, come and help us. We need help because the Muslims are killing us, destroying us, taking our property, given we have no freedom to worship. And so because of the request from Christians, in, in the Holy Land and in this, area that had been historically Christian, but now coming under m great conflict with Islam, Pope Urban, in 1095, issued a call with the intent of countering the atrocities of the Muslims. So Pope Urban II called a, council. It's called the Council of Claremont. And in that they discussed and presented what can we do? How can we respond to this call from our Christian brethren who are being persecuted and killed and lands and property stolen by this false religion? What can we do to help them? And so he issued a call to action. From the confines of Jerusalem and from the city of Constantinople, a horrible tale had gone forth. Now, at this time, Constantinople was the capital of the Christian, empire, if you will, or the Christian community, the Christian world was settled, was at Constantinople. So a horrible tale had gone forth. And an accursed race, a race utterly alienated from God, has invaded the lands of those Christians and depopulated them by the sword, plundering and fire. So this is part of the call that pope Urban ii, put forth. And then he then said, okay, here's the situation. They've asked for help. He painted the condition of, mayhem and murder that was taking place there in these, conflict regions with Muslim. Then he said, start upon the road to the holy sepulchre to tear that land from a wicked race and subject it to yourselves, thereby restoring it to Christ. I call you to take the cross and redeem defiled Jerusalem. And so, as a request for help from fellow brethren, the pope issued a call for what we would now call, the first crusade.
The First Crusade's Success in Retaking Jerusalem and Its Mixed Motives and Actions
He issued this call to the Christian community, the Christian territories of the land. Our brethren need help. Come. Come and help destroy the. The wicked one. Take. call you to take the cross and redeem defiled Jerusalem. And so many people responded. 50,000 people responded to this call from the pope. And they marched and they went in, and in 1099, they take. Took back Jerusalem, from the Muslims. Now, some remained, some of these crusaders remained in that area, but most went back. And so they only held Jerusalem temporarily. And so they kind of put a temporary stop to the expansion of Islam. But it was only temporary because expansion, as time went on, continued to occur. So Urban's declaration of a Christian holy war against Muslims was conducted with mixed motives, and some actions violated aspects of just war criteria. So, of course, crusades today are depicted by modern m. Secular educators as, horrible occurrence. To look at the Christians, they used force to go and fight a battle to expand the Christian faith. Now, that's certainly an incorrect image of what happened in the Crusades. Yes, there were some wrong things done in the Crusades, but the whole motive of helping Christian brethren in response to asking for their help was right.
Critique of Crusades: Church vs. State Authority and Violations of Just War Principles
And so this was one thing that was right about the Crusades. Responding to the request to aid fellow believers who were being killed and suffering at the hands of Muslims. This was right and good, but there was wrong aspects of the Crusades as well. And of course, this right action was, countering all the wrong, activities or actions of Islam in the many centuries prior, prior to this, of their, aggressive external expansion through use of force. But things that were wrong in the Crusades is that the pope called for aggressive military action. Now, this is not the jurisdiction of church leaders. this is the jurisdiction of civil government. Paul says in Romans 13 that the government is given the sword to yield a sword, basically protect the righteous and punish the evildoer. This was the first time church leaders sanctioned killing in Jesus name. So it shouldn't have been the Pope. It should appeal to some civil authorities, to, sanction the use of force coming to the aid of their brethren. Also, some actions violated biblical principles of war. Now there is just war theory, which we'll cover that in future podcasts. We talk about that in some of our writings, the concept of just war theory. But, some of those aspects of just war theory were violated through the Crusades. For example, the Crusaders didn't show, much civility toward their defeated enemies. There's great carnage of fighters and civilians. Of course, the Muslims had been doing that and much worse, for centuries. That's how Islam advanced through death, destruction, enslavement and everything else. But that didn't justify Christians doing some of those same things. Also, to encourage enlistments, the Pope said the Crusaders would receive remission of their sins and would be assured glory and have. Well, that's certainly not a biblical, doctrine. We don't receive remission of sins because of some external thing we do. We receive it by the gift of Christ and having faith in his atoning, work. And so the Pope had no authority or ability to declare remission of sins. And this was, wrong as well. So as I said, the Crusades did take back Jerusalem and did stop the spread of Christianity. But Jerusalem was later retaken by the Muslims. And there were some succeeding crusades in the 1100s and 1200s. A handful of them, dozen or so, perhaps.
The Crusades' Limited Success in Abating Islamic Spread and Their Role as a Defensive Response
Conflicts that occurred with various Crusades is kind of hard to exactly count, you know, how many Crusades there were. But there weren't many. Certainly weren't more than a dozen Crusades. Half a dozen perhaps, but they produced little success and some more atrocities. But despite some wrong principles and actions, the Crusades did abate the spread of Islam into Europe. As one historian, Thomas Madden, says, the Crusades were not the brainchild of an ambitious pope are rapacious knights, but a response to more than four centuries of conquests in which Muslims had already captured two thirds of the old Christian world. At some point, Christianity as a faith and a culture had to defend itself or be subsumed by Islam. The Crusades were that defense. The Bible does teach that a defensive war and a just cause is sinless before God. And there comes a time that we have to stand up and defend ourselves through legitimate authorities, counting the cost and doing it in a legitimate way. We explore just war and how to conduct that in many of our writings. the example of the American Revolution was a great example of A just war and defensive war and a just cause is sinless. But here in the Crusades, regardless of some of the negative things, it did help stop the spread of Islam for a time. But as we will see in next week's podcast, we're going to continue to trace the history of the spread of Islam from the time of the Crusades up into, the present and its conflict, with the United States of America. Now, if you're interested in reading about the threat of Islam, the Liberian Christianity, I wrote a small, book, giving on that some years ago that you can get a copy on our website, providencefoundation.com it's also available at Amazon and will tell cover what I'm going to be highlighting in these next number of podcasts and much more.
The Unstoppable Advance of God's Kingdom Despite Opposition from Religions and Ideologies
So I think you'll find that a wonderful tool to help you understand why Islam is one of the two greatest threats, external threats to the Christian faith and the 21st century. we need to understand the nature of this conflict if we ever help, ever hope to succeed in, suppressing it, defeating it, and it will be defeated. There will be no end to the increase of God's kingdom. God's kingdom will continue to advance in history, in the earth, but with great opposition, as that we said. But the good news is God has the ultimate plan for man, and that's to liberate man, bring his kingdom to earth as it is in heaven. And religions and ideologies of man will stand in the way and will seek to defeat, Christianity. But it can't be defeated. that leaven will leaven the whole lump. It will be like a mustard seed and grow to be the greatest biggest tree in the forest. And to the increase of Christ's kingdom, there will be no end.
Preview of Next Week: The Ottoman Empire and God's Continued Protection Against Islamic Advance
Well, hope you can join us next week as we continue this story. We're going to, pick up the history of the spread of Islam with the rise of the Ottoman Empire and other things, and, how God continued to move to keep Islam from advancing. And this is going to help us, us to understand the conflict we have Today in the U.S. in Western Europe, in Africa, and many places where Islam is attempting to, to exert its influence. So hope you can join us, then as we carry on this very important story. God bless you. It.
Introduction to the Threat of Islam to Christianity and Liberty
Stephen McDowell Welcome to America's Providential History Podcast, where we talk about the real story of America and explore the hand of God in our history. Now here's your host, Steven McDowell. Hello. I'm glad you're joining us for this edition of America's Providential History Podcast. Today I want to begin to explore a very pertinent topic that's found its way in the news in recent times, and that is I want to deal with the threat of Islam to liberty and Christianity. Now in recent weeks we have seen an uprising in France and Paris and other cities in France of riots. And a, major force behind these riots were Islamic, immigrants into, those nations. In recent decades we've seen a rise of Islam in France and in England and in much of Western Europe. We've also seen a rise of Islam in the U.S. from immigrants who come and began to attempt to implement their style of Sharia law and sharia courts, protesting and doing various things contrary to really our constitution. And this is occurring while at the same time in recent decades we've seen a growing, conflict among radical Muslims to physical force against the United states. Obviously on 911 when the twin Towers were taken down, this was a direct attack on our nation by radical Islam. But that was not a new thing. And as we'll see and explore over these next few weeks, that that actually is a, common thread historically of what Islam has done to advance this false religion. See, Islam is one of the two greatest external threats to Christianity in this century. The other external threat, great threat, is statism, which we've touched on in past podcasts. I will explore that more in future ones actually. But Islam has been at war with Christianity since the inception of Islam by Muhammad in the seventh century. And so, ah, what I want to do over these next few weeks is to provide a brief overview of the history of Islam and its teachings. And when we look at that, it reveals that its aggressive expansion and conflict with Christianity are normal. Then we'll also have an ideological comparison of Christianity and Islam which will show that Christianity historically has produced liberty, while Islam brings oppression.
The Foundation of Society and the Role of Religion in National Well-being
Now, to properly understand America's recent conflicts with Islamic terrorists, and not just America, but, other nations as well, we've got to recognize that we are at war with a false religion, a false ideology. All religions are not the same. The religion, our faith of a people is the lifeblood of their society. What is the function of the blood in the body? It's to carry nutrients and oxygens, oxygen to feed the body. And this is true of our physical and individual body, but it's also true of society at large. Because the religion of a people, in every nation is religious. Every nation is founded upon a set of presuppositions that are rooted in what people consider to be ultimate, as we've just looked at in detail in these past podcasts, that the, Biblical Christianity was the foundation of America and that provided good seed, that produced good fruit, great liberty and blessing and flourishing and advancement, because that's the fruit of the Christian faith. The Bible teaches that. And historically that's occurred as well as we've explored in past, podcasts. And so biblical Christianity, that blood carries nutrients and oxygens, brings life to the national body. It's produced liberty, virtue, prosperity. But Islamic nations have not produced good fruit. They produce death and bondage, corruption and lack. And the reason for this is that the religion or lifeblood of Muslim nations carries little nutrients because their faith is in a God of human invention and not in the true and living God.
Understanding Worldviews and the Ideological Differences Between Islam and Christianity
So all worldviews are not the same. If you are a nation acts as if they are, then their serious consequences will occur. Now France has been acting in that, that way in recent times because the French, for really ever since their revolution has been a secular nation. And in this secular nation it says, every religion's the same. You can come and do what you want to, kind of, view or mentality. But, but all, all rural views aren't the same. And so it's important that we understand the basic ideas behind Islam and how they differ greatly from Christianity. See, a person's worldview affects everything in his life, including how to view and deal with radical Islam, today. And so we will be, exploring this, the difference, the threat of Islam to liberty and Christianity. We'll compare and contrast the Christian faith with Islam and we'll see how Christianity has spread through internal transformation of the heart by a living supernatural God.
The History of Islam's External Spread Through Force Versus Christianity's Internal Transformation
But Islam has spread externally through the use of force and fear. Might be summarized by the Sultan Suleiman, who in 1529, he was a great leader of Islamic forces. In 1529, he said that the infidels will at last bow in submission to Allah. Now, the infidels are anybody who doesn't believe in Allah, but he was specifically referring to the Christians because that's who he was at war with the Christian Europe. And he said in his vision for what was going to happen for him, carrying out his aggressive, spread of Islam, he said the infidels will at last bow in submission to Allah. The Jihad has advanced its full course, and the end is now in sight. The abomination of the Christian heresy shall be no more. So his statement kind of really summarizes the, history of Islam since its inception by Mohammed. So we're going to. Let's first take a look at the historical conflict of Islam and Christianity.
The Christian Faith's Foundation and Its Historical Spread and Impact on Liberty
Now, to begin with, we need to understand, the foundation of the Christian faith and the principles upon which it was dealt. Of course, Jesus came into the world. We learn from the Bible for the restoration of all things. God created man in his image, as we've explored in past podcasts. Set him in the earth to take dominion over the earth, to rule it, to cultivate it, to be fruitful, to multiply. We read that in the first couple of books of the Bible in Genesis. And when man fell, God then had a plan to restore man's relationship to God and to restore his ability to fulfill the cultural mandate the creation commission he gave to Adam and Eve in the very beginning. So Jesus came for the restoration of all things. He came to liberate mankind, to liberate him from the bo. Bondage of sin that it had separated him from God, since the Garden of Eden, and also to liberate mankind from the fruit of sin that flowed out of fallen man. Since Christ's coming, there's been no end to the increase of his kingdom. And again, in past podcasts, I looked at the ever increasing kingdom of Christ. You can go back and listen to those to see and understand how there has been no end to the increase of his kingdom that since the time of Christ set foot in the earth, his truth, his righteousness, his joy, his peace has been expanding and bringing liberty to men, individual men, and to societies at large. So there's been no increase to his kingdom, though there has been much opposition. Satan and his cohorts do not want, Christ's kingdom to expand in the earth. And he's done all kinds of things to try to thwart that, including raising up false religions that will, in various ways, seek to destroy Christianity. Well, we know in Matthew 28 that Jesus commissioned His church to disciple nations, to go and make disciples. That commission said to go and make disciples of all nations and to establish the kingdom of God from the internal to the external, through the power of the Holy Spirit, by teaching all that he commanded. And so the nature of the Christian faith is first a supernatural transformation of man's heart, where Christ removes our heart of stone, gives us a Heart of flesh, a new nature. We become new creatures. And that new creature empowered by the Holy Spirit which was sent by Jesus as a promise, he said, I want you to go and live out my principles. Express your love to God the first four commandments of the Ten Commandments, and express your love to your fellow man, the last six commandments of the ten Commandments. And so that as God's people have gone out, it's brought great love into the world. Love for God, love for his fellow man. And with that has come flourishing and abundance and liberty over time.
The Expansion of Christianity and Its Positive Societal Impact Over Centuries
And so, that's the foundation of the Christian faith. It began in the heart of man with something the world had not known, with an expression of service and love and sacrifice by Christ himself. and then, followed by, to a much lesser extent, obviously, by those who professed the Christian faith to do what he said and to do it in a heart of service and love to others. And so with this new faith that Christ initiated, that it began to impact, many began to rapidly. We read about it in the Book of Acts. We see a great expansion of the Christian faith in the years that followed Christ's coming. By 100 A.D. that Christian faith had impacted a lot. Certainly most of the eastern part of the Mediterranean. See, the nations around the Mediterranean were greatly impacted. This is where Paul went in his missionary journal journeys, there from the time of Christ. And for the next generation, other disciples went out as well. And this continued. This Christian faith continued to advance in, not only the first century, but the second century and the third century. And by 300 AD you had just most of the nations around the Mediterranean Sea on north of Africa, throughout what is today, you know, Turkey and Greece and Italy and Spain and France impacted by the gospel up into Great Britain, as well. And by the time we get to around 600 or about, around 500 A.D. around 25% of the known world had become Christian and over 40% had been evangelized. And so a, love planted in the heart of God's people with a desire to bring truth to mankind began to spread throughout the known world. That was what was the known world. The world where the Roman Empire had gone forth and built roads. And was one of the things God used to spread the gospel. The Roman roads as well as the Mediterranean Sea, which was a God had placed there in his divine geography in order for this truth to spread as well.
Comparing Christ's Proclamation of Liberty with Muhammad's Moralistic Autocracy and Islam's Spread by Force
And so the advance of Christianity over those first four or five centuries had brought great advancements of personal liberty. Limited government, free trade, stable families, advancements in science and arts, prosperity, and a growing and strong, church. And that of course, as we've looked at in some past podcasts, that continued to occur in the centuries that followed. So in the early part of the first century, Jesus came proclaiming a message of liberty for freedom. Christ came to set us free. The spirit of the Lord is upon me to proclaim liberty to the captives. Release. Jesus came liberating man, bringing blessing and flourishing peace and righteousness. as his truth spread in the early 600s, Mohammed was born and came offering a message much different than the Christian method. Christ proclaimed liberty to the captives. Muhammad proclaimed a rigid, moralistic autocracy. Christianity spread rapidly by the supernatural transformation of the hearts of men. Islam spread rapidly primarily by militant force. So it was around the year 610 when Mohammed started Islam with, by some revelation supposedly he had. And it establishes a strong external morality by threat of punishment. You will do this or we will punish you. So motivated by its ideology, Islam spread primarily by force. Some Muslims were fearless as they saw themselves as fighting for Allah, fighting against the infidel. In fact, this is what Muhammad taught in the Surah 9:5. Muhammad taught fight and slay the pagans wherever you find them.
The Forceful Expansion of Islam and Its Conquests in Christian Lands
And so in his vision of how the world should work and his religion, it was going to be spread externally by force, whether you like it or not. Because I say this is what is true and this is how man made ideologies, spread their belief, whether it be, a religion, kind of a known religion where there's a God or a man made secular religion like communism, socialism, statism, those are really religions. They're religious in their origin, but they spread the same way. You've got to use external force or fight physically or get controls of the levers of government to push your precepts upon everyone else. And so by the time Muhammad had died in 632, Islam had spread throughout most of the Arabian, peninsula. But in the years following it would spread very rapidly under the Caliph Umar, Omar, it's kind of the caliph title that was given to leaders of this, of early Islam. He led his armies in a string of successful advances into Christian lands. Because remember, in the first few centuries, Christianity spread throughout all the Mediterranean, area. Many, many people were converted. As Paul writes, the, the gospel gone out to the world. He was speaking of the known world had gone all over the world. That was the known world of the Roman, empire. So it spread rapidly. But now when Islam entered Into the scene. The six hundreds. Omar, used armies to bring it over to conquer Christian peoples and bring Islam as the established faith in that area. So he conquered Syria by 634, much of Egypt by 635, gained control of the Fertile crescent by defeating the Byzantines at the great battle of Yarmuk in 600, 30, 6. In 638, Umar had conquered the holy city of Christendom, I.e. jerusalem was conquered. And by his death in 644, most of the mideast and northern Africa was under the dominion of Islam. Now, his successors would continue to press the expansion of Islam into Europe, and they did it by force. So by the time we get to the early 700s, the, you had the Muslim caliphate kind of region of governance that spread all throughout, the Arabian peninsula, northern part of Africa, from most today Egypt, all the way over to Morocco and had spread it spread up into parts of what is today Turkey and spread all the way up into the Iberian peninsula, covering what is today Spain and, Portugal. And with the whole desire, we're going to continue to forcefully spread throughout the Christian world and bring Islam to everyone. And so they came up the Iberian peninsula to go into what is today France and spread throughout the Christian world at that time. But an important event occurred in the year 732.
The Battle of Tours and the Financial Aspects of Islamic Expansion Through Tribute
That's when there was the historic battle of Tours, that took place in the city of Tours. Charles Martel, known as the hammer, met the Islamic forces in battle and he defeated the Islamic forces, kept keeping them from continuing to advance into, western Europe. And he held them at bay, where they stopped basically, and controlling Spain and Portugal and were kept out of France and, Italy. So by 750, we see that Islam had control and govern most of the eastern, western and southern part of the Mediterranean region. now, while the battle of tours stopped, Islamic jihad, now jihad is just the name of holy war. And they had been conducting jihad holy war since the time of Muhammad. And Islamic jihad had conquered much of the Christian world around the Mediterranean and was a continual threat to expand. Well, in the year 766, their greatest ruler, Harun Al Rashid, that is Eryn the Just, began to reign. He had the name Eryn the just. But few people had justice under Islam and under the rule of Eryn, Especially if you happen to find yourself as a non, Muslim living in his, territory. Because under Eryn the just, there was much slavery. There's polygamy, there's low status of women, There's a system of tribute to finance the empire. Because when Islam came into a place, it said, you will convert or you will die. So many people were converted under that threat. But some were given the option, well, if you don't convert, if you pay tribute, you give us money, then we'll let you survive.
Centuries of Conflict and Persecution of Christians by Islam in Asia Minor and Jerusalem
And so their expansion, was financed by those who were forced to pay tribute to the Islamic, nations. And so as we go into the 9th and 10th centuries, into the 11th century, there was where the Christian, dominions bordered the Islamic dominions. There was many areas. There's constant conflict that was, taking place. And that, initially was over there in Asia Minor, in the area of Turkey. That was, of course, the area where Paul first traveled on his missionary journeys and established various churches, which, since the time of Paul, had begun to grow and grow, in that area. But with the rise of Islam, there began to be that constant threat. And of course, as I mentioned earlier, Jerusalem, the holy city, was taken over by Islam. And Christians began to be persecuted and killed. And this persecution and conflict spread into those, what had been Christian area, Christian regions, and in Asia Minor and Greece.
The Call for the Crusades in Response to Muslim Atrocities Against Christians
So that conflict began, to grow. And there's many atrocities. In fact, things got so bad that the Christians who lived in that area and, this area of the Middle east and Asia Minor, sent a message to the Pope and said, come and help us. We need help because the Muslims are killing us, destroying us, taking our property, given we have no freedom to worship. And so because of the request from Christians, in, in the Holy Land and in this, area that had been historically Christian, but now coming under m great conflict with Islam, Pope Urban, in 1095, issued a call with the intent of countering the atrocities of the Muslims. So Pope Urban II called a, council. It's called the Council of Claremont. And in that they discussed and presented what can we do? How can we respond to this call from our Christian brethren who are being persecuted and killed and lands and property stolen by this false religion? What can we do to help them? And so he issued a call to action. From the confines of Jerusalem and from the city of Constantinople, a horrible tale had gone forth. Now, at this time, Constantinople was the capital of the Christian, empire, if you will, or the Christian community, the Christian world was settled, was at Constantinople. So a horrible tale had gone forth. And an accursed race, a race utterly alienated from God, has invaded the lands of those Christians and depopulated them by the sword, plundering and fire. So this is part of the call that pope Urban ii, put forth. And then he then said, okay, here's the situation. They've asked for help. He painted the condition of, mayhem and murder that was taking place there in these, conflict regions with Muslim. Then he said, start upon the road to the holy sepulchre to tear that land from a wicked race and subject it to yourselves, thereby restoring it to Christ. I call you to take the cross and redeem defiled Jerusalem. And so, as a request for help from fellow brethren, the pope issued a call for what we would now call, the first crusade.
The First Crusade's Success in Retaking Jerusalem and Its Mixed Motives and Actions
He issued this call to the Christian community, the Christian territories of the land. Our brethren need help. Come. Come and help destroy the. The wicked one. Take. call you to take the cross and redeem defiled Jerusalem. And so many people responded. 50,000 people responded to this call from the pope. And they marched and they went in, and in 1099, they take. Took back Jerusalem, from the Muslims. Now, some remained, some of these crusaders remained in that area, but most went back. And so they only held Jerusalem temporarily. And so they kind of put a temporary stop to the expansion of Islam. But it was only temporary because expansion, as time went on, continued to occur. So Urban's declaration of a Christian holy war against Muslims was conducted with mixed motives, and some actions violated aspects of just war criteria. So, of course, crusades today are depicted by modern m. Secular educators as, horrible occurrence. To look at the Christians, they used force to go and fight a battle to expand the Christian faith. Now, that's certainly an incorrect image of what happened in the Crusades. Yes, there were some wrong things done in the Crusades, but the whole motive of helping Christian brethren in response to asking for their help was right.
Critique of Crusades: Church vs. State Authority and Violations of Just War Principles
And so this was one thing that was right about the Crusades. Responding to the request to aid fellow believers who were being killed and suffering at the hands of Muslims. This was right and good, but there was wrong aspects of the Crusades as well. And of course, this right action was, countering all the wrong, activities or actions of Islam in the many centuries prior, prior to this, of their, aggressive external expansion through use of force. But things that were wrong in the Crusades is that the pope called for aggressive military action. Now, this is not the jurisdiction of church leaders. this is the jurisdiction of civil government. Paul says in Romans 13 that the government is given the sword to yield a sword, basically protect the righteous and punish the evildoer. This was the first time church leaders sanctioned killing in Jesus name. So it shouldn't have been the Pope. It should appeal to some civil authorities, to, sanction the use of force coming to the aid of their brethren. Also, some actions violated biblical principles of war. Now there is just war theory, which we'll cover that in future podcasts. We talk about that in some of our writings, the concept of just war theory. But, some of those aspects of just war theory were violated through the Crusades. For example, the Crusaders didn't show, much civility toward their defeated enemies. There's great carnage of fighters and civilians. Of course, the Muslims had been doing that and much worse, for centuries. That's how Islam advanced through death, destruction, enslavement and everything else. But that didn't justify Christians doing some of those same things. Also, to encourage enlistments, the Pope said the Crusaders would receive remission of their sins and would be assured glory and have. Well, that's certainly not a biblical, doctrine. We don't receive remission of sins because of some external thing we do. We receive it by the gift of Christ and having faith in his atoning, work. And so the Pope had no authority or ability to declare remission of sins. And this was, wrong as well. So as I said, the Crusades did take back Jerusalem and did stop the spread of Christianity. But Jerusalem was later retaken by the Muslims. And there were some succeeding crusades in the 1100s and 1200s. A handful of them, dozen or so, perhaps.
The Crusades' Limited Success in Abating Islamic Spread and Their Role as a Defensive Response
Conflicts that occurred with various Crusades is kind of hard to exactly count, you know, how many Crusades there were. But there weren't many. Certainly weren't more than a dozen Crusades. Half a dozen perhaps, but they produced little success and some more atrocities. But despite some wrong principles and actions, the Crusades did abate the spread of Islam into Europe. As one historian, Thomas Madden, says, the Crusades were not the brainchild of an ambitious pope are rapacious knights, but a response to more than four centuries of conquests in which Muslims had already captured two thirds of the old Christian world. At some point, Christianity as a faith and a culture had to defend itself or be subsumed by Islam. The Crusades were that defense. The Bible does teach that a defensive war and a just cause is sinless before God. And there comes a time that we have to stand up and defend ourselves through legitimate authorities, counting the cost and doing it in a legitimate way. We explore just war and how to conduct that in many of our writings. the example of the American Revolution was a great example of A just war and defensive war and a just cause is sinless. But here in the Crusades, regardless of some of the negative things, it did help stop the spread of Islam for a time. But as we will see in next week's podcast, we're going to continue to trace the history of the spread of Islam from the time of the Crusades up into, the present and its conflict, with the United States of America. Now, if you're interested in reading about the threat of Islam, the Liberian Christianity, I wrote a small, book, giving on that some years ago that you can get a copy on our website, providencefoundation.com it's also available at Amazon and will tell cover what I'm going to be highlighting in these next number of podcasts and much more.
The Unstoppable Advance of God's Kingdom Despite Opposition from Religions and Ideologies
So I think you'll find that a wonderful tool to help you understand why Islam is one of the two greatest threats, external threats to the Christian faith and the 21st century. we need to understand the nature of this conflict if we ever help, ever hope to succeed in, suppressing it, defeating it, and it will be defeated. There will be no end to the increase of God's kingdom. God's kingdom will continue to advance in history, in the earth, but with great opposition, as that we said. But the good news is God has the ultimate plan for man, and that's to liberate man, bring his kingdom to earth as it is in heaven. And religions and ideologies of man will stand in the way and will seek to defeat, Christianity. But it can't be defeated. that leaven will leaven the whole lump. It will be like a mustard seed and grow to be the greatest biggest tree in the forest. And to the increase of Christ's kingdom, there will be no end.
Preview of Next Week: The Ottoman Empire and God's Continued Protection Against Islamic Advance
Well, hope you can join us next week as we continue this story. We're going to, pick up the history of the spread of Islam with the rise of the Ottoman Empire and other things, and, how God continued to move to keep Islam from advancing. And this is going to help us, us to understand the conflict we have Today in the U.S. in Western Europe, in Africa, and many places where Islam is attempting to, to exert its influence. So hope you can join us, then as we carry on this very important story. God bless you. It.
In this thought-provoking episode of America's Providential History Podcast, host Stephen McDowell addresses the pressing issue of Islam's impact on liberty and Christianity. Delving into historical conflicts and contemporary events, he examines the rise of Islam in Western nations and its implications for society. As McDowell explores the ideological differences between Christianity and Islam, he highlights the historical context of their interactions, including the Crusades and ongoing conflicts. Join us as we unpack the complexities of faith, freedom, and the enduring struggle for truth.
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