The NEXT Crusade

The world's largest church is The Basilica of Our Lady of Peace in Yamoussoukro, the capital of Cote d'Ivoire, Africa. The Basilica of Our Lady of Peace was completed in 1989, stands over 500 feet high, covers a total area of 30,000 m², and can seat 18,000 church-goers.

(New York Post) - The Islamists have it wrong: Islam isn't the world's fastest-growing religion. By birth numbers and convert tallies, it's Christianity.

And Africa's at the forefront -- a fact that's going to body-slam Muslim extremists sooner or later.

The bombings that recently butchered World Cup fans in Uganda were just the latest in a long line of crazed attacks on African Christians by Islamist fanatics. In the central states of Nigeria -- Africa's most-populous country -- religious pogroms and counter-pogroms between Muslims and Christians have become routine.

In Kenya, al Shabaab terrorists from neighboring Somalia stir up trouble and make grotesque threats. And we all know what bestial acts Sudan's Islamist government has perpetrated against black Christians over the decades.

Throughout the region, patience is wearing thin. Africa's impassioned forms of charismatic and Pentecostal Christianity won't turn the other cheek forever. The coming backlash could be ferocious (even dictatorships could exploit a vengeful popular mood)...

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THE CATHOLIC KNIGHT: Historically speaking, Christianity is long suffering. This is how the last crusades got started. It wasn't until nearly ALL of eastern Christian territory was taken by Muslim force a thousand years ago that the Church finally fought back. During the days of the late Roman Empire, all the way up to the middle ages, Christians occupied all the land from Northern Africa, around the Mediterranean, including the Holy Land, up through Syria, Asia Minor (now Turkey) and all throughout Europe. A good portion of that land was taken (by force) by Islam. It wasn't until Muslims began moving into Western Europe that it became clear the total demise of the Church was nearly at hand. At that, the pope (under the pressure of a Christian emperor) sanctioned the crusades. What many secular history books won't tell you is that the Christian crusades were a military retaliation after centuries of Islamic jihads.

What followed was a series of military campaigns against radical Islamic fundamentalism. These campaigns were sloppy at times, and unfortunately a lot of innocent people (Eastern Christians and Jews) were caught in the crossfire, but the eventual result was a successful punch against radical Islam that kept these fundamentalists in check for nearly 1,000 years. To this day the Muslims remember the crusades as a powerful blow against their empire. They are frequently chanted in their battle cries, and Western powers to this day are often referred to (inaccurately) as "crusaders."

In spite of the secular military campaigns against Islamic nations today, there hasn't been a Christian crusade in nearly 1,000 years. Make no mistake about it, the military campaigns from Israel's occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, to America's occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, are Secular Masonic wars, not Christian crusades. Muslims often fail to see the difference, and that is to their own detriment. Many Christians currently oppose these Secular Masonic wars, but if Christians continue to suffer at the hands of Muslims, that prevailing attitude may change. In fact, I would venture to say that if the sleeping giant of Christianity's military side is ever reawakened, the war that will result will dwarf anything that the Secular Masonic powers have dished out over the last fifty years. It will be global, it will target radical Islamic fundamentalism everywhere, and it will know no bounds, attacking religious shrines, destroying "holy books," disrupting Islamic culture in every way possible. The Muslim world will not know that hit it, and it will be unable to effectively resist.

Please understand that The Catholic Knight does not condone this violence. Christ taught us to forgive our enemies and bless those who persecute us. In the Christian economy, martyrdom is to be desired over military conquest and victory. It is generally not the Church itself that sponsors crusades. The last crusades were the result of political pressure by a Christian emperor, and that was the catalyst that turned Christianity from a crucified faith of martyrdom to a conquering army of conquest. Granted, it was the Muslims who started it, no doubt, but once these radicals pushed their way into the realm of the Western Christian emperor, the fight was on.

Like it or not, for better or worse, this seems to be how things go. There is some Biblical justification for it, and St. Thomas Aquinas developed the theory of "Just War" based on it. After all, while Jesus did instruct his disciples to turn the other cheek (Matthew 5:38-41), he also told them to purchase a sword (Luke 22:35-38), and so in that we have the implication that there comes a point eventually when "enough is enough."

The challenge for Christians has always been knowing when, and the tendency of Christians is to suffer martyrdom endlessly until such a point that it threatens the very existence of the Christian faith. The key seems to be in the interpretation of Jesus' saying in Matthew 26:52. Here Jesus tells St. Peter that those who live by the sword shall die by the sword. We could interpret this to mean that those who resort to violence first, will end up falling victim to the same kind of violence. In this sense, we could say that the endless jihads of Islam (living by the sword) resulted in the crusades (dying by the sword). Of course, if Christians did the same, they should expect a similar result.

For now Christians continue to suffer martyrdom, and that will likely be the long term status quo. However, if the radical Muslim extremists keep pushing, they may eventually wake the sleeping giant, and this will likely come with the reestablishment of some kind of Christian imperialism - emperor king and all.  There are many approved Catholic prophecies by approved Catholic visionaries that predict this.  The best resource for these can be found in Desmond Birch's book "Trial, Tribulation & Triumph: Before, During, and After Antichrist."