Almost 1,000 years ago a monk named Peter the Hermit traveled throughout Europe telling the people, “God wills it.” Reciting the many trials that pilgrims to Jerusalem were experiencing, the monk proclaimed that God wanted the leaders and people to go on a crusade and recapture Jerusalem from the Moslems who had held it for 300 years. In 1095 Pope Urban II preached a sermon which stirred the people to leave their homes for a crusade to the Holy Land.

Over the next 200 years, thousands of kings, nobles, knights, soldiers, monks and even children traveled east with the assurance from their church that they could have penance from their sins. And if they died, they would go to heaven. Thousands of those who went on seven major crusades and many smaller ones (such as the Children’s Crusades) never made it to Jerusalem. They became sick, were sold as slaves, and died.

Some groups of thousands could not wait for everyone to gather, and were slaughtered before they reached Greece. The knights in the first Crusade succeeded in capturing Jerusalem on July 15, 1099 and then the “Christian” soldiers killed almost all the inhabitants of the city. The crusaders ruled Jerusalem from 1099 to 1187, they reconquered the city in 1229 and lost it for good in 1244.

A recently released movie Kingdom of Heaven tells a fictional story of a blacksmith who went on one of the later crusades. The movie shows some of the many evils that were committed on both sides of this strife. The crusades and inquisition are often cited as examples of the evils that the Christian faith has perpetuated. However, God did not “will” the crusades nor command that believers go on them. Jesus told His disciples to “go into all the world and preach theGospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15) and “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you” (Luke 6:27).

The Crusades should serve as a warning to Christians as to what will happen should they no longer believe that God speaks to them only through His holy Word, or when they no longer trust that His Word is without error. Then anyone can claim that they have received a message from God and who can speak against it?

Consider how one faith-healer claimed that God told him to build a hospital! Other preachers declare, “The Lord laid a message on my heart to tell you.” People believe some faith-healers that when they say “God does not want you to be sick,” or “God will make you rich!” All such messages are not from God but from the devil himself since they contradict what God revealed in His word of truth.

The Holy Spirit moved Paul to write, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16). The Bible is profitable because its words are God’s words, and He cannot lie. It is also profitable because the Bible speaks with absolute truth about man’s sinful condition and God’s merciful salvation.

God speaks in absolutes because He has all the information. What He says is true for all people. When God says, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23) God knows of no exceptions, save His Son, Jesus. Again, the Bible says, “By the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight” (Romans 3:20). No one, save Jesus, can perfectly keep God’s law—another absolute truth. Finally, Jesus declared, “Everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life” (John 6:40). Because Jesus paid the ransom for the sins of all people (1 John 2:2) this promise is true for all people for all time. The Bible is full of such absolute truths because God inspired the very words that were written down.

God did not will the Crusades, sinful man did. Nevertheless, through the Crusades God worked all things for good by restoring to Europe the interest in learning Greek and Hebrew and thereby preparing for the Reformation by Dr. Martin Luther. That Reformation succeeded because Luther trusted in the clarity and power of God’s Word to work true faith in Jesus as the only Savior of the world. The only “crusade” Jesus wants of us is the one which proclaims the pure Gospel to the ends of the earth. At our synod convention the delegates will hear about the opportunities God has given the ELS to bring God’s Word to India and Korea in addition to our mission work in Peru and Chile and eastern Europe. Let us thank God for teaching us the absolute truths of His Word, ask God to help us keep His Word pure, and request that God would use us to proclaim the Gospel at home and in the world.