“Understanding Islamic Aggression”

One of the most consequential dates in church history was 570 AD, the year that Muhammad, the founder of Islam, was born. His birth signifies the beginnings of a 1,000-plus year military struggle between Christians and Muslims. From the years 600 to 1600, the greatest external threat to Christianity was Islam. One historian explains,

“The overarching geopolitical shape of the Middle Age was given by Christendom’s rivalry with Islam. Leadership within Christendom during the Middle Age was assumed by the powers best able to defend the Christian world from the armies and navies of Islam. For a Christian prince to ally himself with a Muslim [leader] against fellow Christians was shameful—even damnable. Islam was not conceived of as a distinct religion . . . but as a heretical form of monotheism spread by the greatest [heretic] in history, the Prophet Muhammad. There were exceptions to this form of black-and-white thinking . . . [but in general] Christendom saw its geopolitics as dictated by an existential conflict with a single, indomitable enemy [Islam].” Guelzo & Hankins, The Golden Thread, 757–758.

The First Crusade (1096–99) served as the Christian response to Islamic conquest. When Muslims took over the Promised Land, Christians sought to take it back. These Christian efforts succeeded at first but ultimately failed, with Muslim occupation of the Holy Land generally lasting from the 630s to 1917.

Islamic aggression continues to this day, as do efforts to combat it. Take our nation’s recent war with Iran. The goals and methods of the Islamic Republic of Iran can’t be understood apart from Islamic doctrine. Further, the same strip of land is still at stake in this war: a nation of Christian principles (USA) seeks to protect the Holy Land (Israel) from Islamic aggression (Iran). Military struggle will continue until our Lord returns, because some Muslims (not all) follow Muhammad’s example of the sword.

Pastor Chance Sumner