Don’t Be A Knights Templar; Evangelism Is Not Done Through Coercion

Word-Of-The-Day: ‘(5) Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; (6) in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.’ (Proverbs 3:5-6)

One of the regular TV shows we watch is ‘Oak Island’, which details the search for an allegedly lost treasure buried deep within the island. The treasure is guarded with a booby-trap; whenever they dig close to where the searchers believe the treasure to be, seawater flows in and floods their shafts. The search team also goes across the island, finding various locations showing where those who put the treasure into the ground and made the booby-trap ‘flood tunnels’ may have lived and set up ‘shop’, where they docked their ships, and where later residents may have found at least some of the treasure and hid their findings as well.

As the team searches for the treasure and they are finding coins, old iron tools, buttons, and other ‘bobby-dazzlers’ as one of the searchers describe the items they find, I personally believe they already found the treasure, namely the royalties paid to the team by the television network filming and broadcasting the show. It is likely the treasure, if any at all existed, was taken soon after it was ‘deposited’ there by local residents and is long gone. The searchers of today, however, believe there is a more enticing treasure that has yet to be found, so we, like many Americans, weekly tune in to see what ‘bobby-dazzlers’ are revealed.

One of the many theories is the unfound treasure yet to be discovered (or rediscovered) contains artifacts of the Jewish Temple of Jerusalem, including the Ark of the Covenant, the lampstands, golden bowls, and other articles of worship associated with the Temple. The theory proposes the Knights Templar, who led the European Crusades into the region of the Holy Land between roughly 1100AD and 1200AD, removed the artifacts from Jerusalem and moved them under their possession back to Europe.

After the Catholic Church turned on the Knights and began persecuting them (it was feared by the Church the Knights Templar had grown too strong and influential), the theory is the Knights Templar teamed with the Norse (aka Vikings) and carried the artifacts (along with other valuables) across the Atlantic Ocean to Oak Island, where they buried them in order to protect them. There is some evidence found on the island and elsewhere close by to support this theory, including markings, coins, and some instruments and tools.

Though the thought of the Knights Templar is initially noble men riding horses to protect the Holy Land, and perhaps this was the initial charge given to the Knights; is skewed somewhat by the reality that they killed many of the Muslims and Arabs that had taken over Israel, after the Diaspora or the scattering of the Jewish population occurring soon after the burning of Jerusalem in 70AD by the Romans. When the Knights arrived and conquered Jerusalem, those who they captured, almost all Arabs, were often given an ultimatum, ‘Accept Jesus as Lord, or die a heretic.’ While the phrase is technically correct, their methodology was if the prisoner did not accept Jesus on the spot, they executed the person on the spot – they planted the seed, then ground it into dust.

The Knights Templar failed to understand that coercion is not the way to successfully evangelize to those who do not yet accept the gift of Jesus’ Salvation. Their ‘Accept or Else’ method actually caused some of the issues Christianity has today with the Islamic world. The Islamic clerics do not allow their constituents to forget the atrocities of the Crusaders, and the animosity remains strong. The Knights did not use the loving and benevolent power of Christ but their own power of military force as a misguided attempt to reestablish the Kingdom of the Lord over Jerusalem and Israel, and ultimately over time, they failed.

My prayer for all of us today is not to go and attempt to do the Lord’s work in our own power.  As much as I admire the stories of the Knights Templar and their dedication to Jesus, they definitely got it wrong when it came to evangelism during the Crusades.  Running roughshod over people, putting a sword at their throat, and telling them ‘Convert to Christ now, or die!’ was not the way to win friends and influence others – especially if those who they witnessed to said ‘no’ and then decapitated them – this is not conducive to being successful when going door-to-door witnessing, especially for the next person getting the knock on the door.

While we cannot compromise on the Word of God, we also cannot force the Gospel upon others who have not yet accepted Jesus. While there are those occasions when a person first hears the Gospel and immediately accepts the Word, most ‘seeds’ don’t germinate and grow that quickly into blossoms of fruit. Often the seed has to be nurtured; watered and fertilized to encourage it to grow, then supported as it grows until it can stand on its own, and only then it becomes strong enough to bear fruit. Like a seed, sharing the Gospel is not typically a ‘one-n’-done’ event but requires multiple actions over time before a person gains the realization that they need Jesus in their lives.

However, if we try to apply compromises to God’s Word to win over people to Christianity, we have not won them over to Christ, but only to their secular view of what Christianity should be.  If we attempt to appease groups by ignoring their secular leanings (aka sinful nature), then we are not following the doctrines of the Gospel.  A current example to watch is the Catholic response to American politicians who are pressuring their Catholic bishops to allow them to continue to receive Holy Communion, despite these politicians supporting abortion and other activities written as being sinful in Scripture. 

The Catholic bishops have stated that they have a decree stopping the provision of Communion to these politicians, but will they follow through and follow God’s Word, and not provide communion to those who are openly sinning and not repenting, or will they compromise to secular political whim? 

We can be more accommodating, and more welcoming, to those who we see as being of the world to draw them into the church, but only to the point before it compromises God’s Word.  Invite those who live a secular lifestyle to church so that they hear the Word, but in all times they must be told the Truth and the principles of God must be upheld, so they can be led by Jesus to repentance and salvation in Him, and not led by us in appeasement and thus staying in separation from Jesus. Just don’t (figuratively) decapitate them and abandon them if they don’t get it on the first try.