Page 92 - Apologetics Student Textbook (3 Credits)

Matthew 7:16-20 (ESV) You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes,
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or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A
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healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not
bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.
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On November 25 , 1095, Pope Urban II summoned the first Crusade from the Council of Clermont. In
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calling for this crusade, the pope had plagiarized a similar strategy that Muhammad had used to put fire
in the bellies of his troops. Muslims were told that they would obtain favor from Allah and salvation in
paradise with many virgins if they were willing to kill or be killed in jihad. Per the pope, Christian could
also get benefits from God because according to the pontiff, if they died in their self-described Christian
“holy war”, they would gain a glorious entrance into heaven avoiding the refining fires of Purgatory.
Never in the history of man had a “Christian” leader offered a reward for violent behavior. It is
estimated that around 1.7 million people died in all the Crusades. Historians estimate the only 1 in 20
volunteer crusaders survived to even reach the Holy Land from Europe.

The Roman Catholic Church which claimed the name “Christian” called a
council in Vienna in 1311 and prohibited all relations between “Christians” and
Jews. Two years later, the Council of Zamora ruled the Jews be held in
absolute servitude and in 1431-33 the Council of Basil reestablished canonical
decrees strictly separating Christian and Jews. Pope Eugenius IV (1431-1447)
proclaimed that Jews could not hold public office, inherit property from
Christians, nor build synagogues (Robert Cornuke, Temple, p. 27). They must have ignored the fact that
the founder of their faith was a Jew.

It is quite obvious that the Crusades, encouraged and sponsored by the “Christian” church at the time,
and their treatment of Jews was certainly not in line with the teachings of Jesus Christ in the Word of
God. It is unfortunate that they claimed to follow Christ, but the fruit of their lives was certainly evil and
opposite of what is taught in Scripture. They named the name, but did not follow the Book. It is the
belief of this author that most of the leadership in the “Christian” world at the time of the dark ages
were not true believers in Christ and certainly did not teach the truth of God’s Word. The fruit coming
from their lives demand such a conclusion.

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