Crusades
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VirginiaHuguenot
Puritanboard Librarian
"Think of all the heartbreak and misery that have been caused by the cruciata, by the indulgences and crusading-taxes, with which Christians have been stirred up to take the sword and fight the Turk, when they ought to have been fighting the devil and unbelief with the Word and with prayer." -- Martin Luther, On War Against the Turk (1529)
Puritanhead
Puritan Board Professor
and so relevant tooThanks for the link to Luther's pamphlet On War against the Turk. Luther makes the excellent point that the Turk was the rod of God's wrath against the sins of Christendom. We in the US need to be reminded that Islam was and Islamic terrorism is today judgment on our wicked society. The rod needs to be removed from God's hands by repentance and prayer before it can be defeated. He also makes the point that war is defensive; by nature an extension of the magistrates police powers, in his words, that overlords are duty bound to protect their subjects. and on this ground he condemns the earlier crusades of the popes and bishops who made a matter of faith to destroy the Turk for his wickedness. He also rightly compares the similarities between the popery, the Antichrist, and the Turks. The popes say the words of Christ are too difficult to follow and mere councils or advice as Mt 5:20 and so like the Turk hold the NT as fulfilled and make their decretals a Koran. They both bost in works righteousness. The pope has his bans as a sword and uses the temporal sword to persecute and bring destruction. He corrupts marriage by forbidding it to priests and so all kinds of abominations prevail in Rome and Italy. etc.
Puritanhead
Puritan Board Professor
I do believe the Austrians were right to defend themselves when the Turks were knocking on the City Gates of Vienna.
...Constantinople had a right to defend herself before they made their way to Vienna.
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