Page 94 - Advanced Apologetics and World Views Revised
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Chapter 13: More Questions about World Issues
Connect …
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When you study church history from the first century to the 10 century, you will see that the church
became political and walked away the doctrines of the faith. In fact, the church of the 10 century
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which called itself “Christian” was totally in defiance to God’s Word and Christ’s commands. They were
Christian in name only, but not in actions.
Today we are going to see how some people claim to be Christians but do not demonstrate the truth of
their claim by their lives or actions. James spoke to this when he said, “Faith without accompanying
works is a dead faith.” In the 10 century, the pope (leader of the “Christian” Church) declared war on
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the Muslims who had conquered the Holy Land and started nine Crusades. “Christians” invaded Israel,
especially Jerusalem, and slaughtered millions of people in the process. Skeptics look back and remark,
“If these guys were Christian, I want nothing to do with Christianity.” Is their remarks correct? Let’s see
what happened….
Objectives …
1. The student should be able to explain how the Crusades where not really a movement of true
Christians, rather what a true believer is.
2. The student should be able to explain to a skeptic what makes Christianity unique among other faiths
in the world.
3. The student must be able to demonstrate that not all faiths lead to God; only Christianity will bring
them safely to heaven.
The Lesson …
Aren’t most of the wars in history caused by people claiming to be Christians? (ex., the
Crusades)
To answer this question, one must first make a differentiation between someone who claims to be a
Christian and a person who a Christian is genuinely. Throughout history, people have claimed to be
“Christian” as one who claims to be the son of a family. They think of a Christian as one who is born into
the religion. There is no understanding in their minds of what a person must believe to be a genuine
follower of Christ.
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