The New Crusades: Apologetics as War

• John Vandivier

Can ideas be weapons? Can Christianity be used by Israel to counteract Islam? I think the answer to both of these questions is yes.

In the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=First_Crusade&oldid=619256807">first Crusades the Christians responded to a Muslim assault on the Holy Land by military action. Today, Israel is under assault by Muslims of all stripes; Islam in a variety of outfits. Israel is justifiably taking a strong military defense of itself, but I would argue that this military defense is at once both ultimately insufficient and misdirected, even if it will almost certainly results in a temporary peace.

The reason Israel's military defense will never lead to ultimate peace with Muslims is the ideological reason. Islam calls Muslims to destroy Israel. Even if every Muslims were physically killed, Islam as an idea lives on. This is why an ultimate peace between Israel and Islam depends on addressing the real, underlying issue head-on. Islam, not Muslims, must be killed.

This is where the New Crusades come in. The New Crusades does not refer to a campaign of physical conflict. It refers to an ideological assault on Islam by Christianity for the sake of the defense of Israel.

The U.N. cries about Israel's supposedly inhumane treatment of Palestinians. The U.N. should sponsor a $100 M USD evangelical Christian apologist training program. These Christians are at once great at converting Muslims and at the same time about as humane and caring people as ever existed. I would like to see Israel do the same.

Why would Israel, a Jewish nation, support Christian evangelism instead of something like Jewish evangelism? At least 3 reasons:

  • Jews don't really practice evangelism. They're not really good at it.
  • If Islam, Christianity, and Judaism are all true then it still follows that a rational actor should prefer Christianity for the following reasons:
    • Under Islam, even the perfect Muslim cannot be assured of salvation.
    • Under Judaism, salvation is far from assured. At least as far as I'm aware.
    • Christianity has assured salvation by faith alone. It is the rational return on investment choice. It is also the best explanation of the universe; while Judaism explains nearly everything it doesn't account for the miracle of Jesus Christ. Islam contains out-and-out obvious falsities.
  • Muslims would have to oppose both Jews and Christians to oppose Christian apologists. Today, Muslims in the west are trying to play nice with Christians and secularists and it has results, in my opinion, in a weakened relationship between Israel and the States. The niceness between Westerners and Muslims would rapidly end if Muslims openly opposed both Christians and Jews.
  • Consistent with the previous point, Israel supporting Christian apologists would allow it to call on a much greater, larger, and more powerful network of people. On the one hand, Christianity is a larger and more powerful network as a religion than Judaism, and on the other hand the U.S. is also a large network of powerful people which would be endeared by Israel's embracing of Christianity due to the strong Christian population here in the States.