The Crusades: The 400 Years They Don’t Tell You About

Were the Crusades really a sudden, unprovoked act of Christian aggression—or does that version of history begin the story centuries too late?

In this follow-up to our 9/11 episode, Nick Carter and Pastor Brandon Scroggins go back before 1095 to examine the Christian world that existed before Islam and the centuries of conflict, conquest, and cultural change that preceded the First Crusade.

Nicaea. Constantinople. Ephesus. Chalcedon. Antioch. Jerusalem. Alexandria. North Africa.

These were not obscure territories on the edge of Christian history. They were some of the great centers of the early church—the places where Christians worshiped, theologians wrote, church councils met, and foundational doctrines concerning Jesus Christ were defended and articulated.

Then the map changed.

Following the rise of Islam in the seventh century, large portions of the historic Christian world came under Islamic political rule. By the time Pope Urban II called for the First Crusade in 1095, Christians and Muslims had already been encountering one another for more than four centuries.

That history matters.

In this episode, we examine what happened before the Crusades, why modern Christians often begin the story too late, and how to acknowledge the sins and atrocities committed by Crusaders without pretending the Crusades appeared from nowhere.

We also ask a larger question: What happens when a civilization assumes its Christian inheritance will preserve itself?

The ancient churches of the Middle East and North Africa remind us that possessing churches, creeds, theologians, and centuries of Christian history does not guarantee a Christian future. Faith must be believed, taught, practiced, defended, built upon, and faithfully handed to the next generation.

This episode is not an exercise in medieval nostalgia. It is a conversation about history, Christian responsibility, cultural inheritance, and the duty of Christians today to preserve the good deposit entrusted to them.