Chris, so the Roman destruction of Jerusalem and the Nazi Holocaust were examples of God being a "vicious enemy to those who purposely deny the Lord Jesus Christ" because of "those infamous words echo(ing) down the corriders of history...his blood be upon us, and upon our children".
Can you explain who God was being a vicious enemy to (and why) in the instances listed below?
- the genocide of Turkish Armenian Christians at the hands of Moslem Turks and Kurds;
- the Moslem conquest and destruction/replacement of Christianity in the Byzantine Empire and the whole of Christian North Africa and Middle East, not to mention parts of the Spanish and Balkan peninsulas for a period of centuries (as you probably know, at one time the population of the lands south and east of the Mediterranean were as Christian as the lands north of the Mediterranean, yet after the Moslem conquests, Christianity disappeared from most of these territories);
- the savaging of parts of Christian Europe by non-Christian invaders from central Asia (Huns and later Mongols);
- the conquest and destruction of the Roman Empire in the west by pagan invaders from northern Europe shortly after Christianity became the established religion of the empire;
- the eventual destruction of the kingdoms established by the Christian Crusaders.
And BTW, in regard to your statement "Don't equate the persecution of Christians with the Judeans because I
never saw the Judeans being persecuted for evangelizing in the name of
Jesus.", none of the examples I've listed involve Christians being persecuted for evangelizing. The Mongols, Huns, Moslems, Goths, Vandals, and the rest were out for power, riches, and booty and couldn't care less about evangelizing.
PS: I know there is a church tradition that "While Jerusalem was being destroyed the bishop of the church
had led all the Christians out of the city to safety (to Pella) because God told
him to." but I don't know whether this is historically accurate. If you know of any evidence, please let me know.
Bruce |
