What really caused the Crusades, and why does the history behind them still shape the world Christians are navigating today? In Part 8 of the Islamification of America series on the Under God Podcast, Pastor Nathan Brown sits down with Dr. John Holser — a professor of military history at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, a fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and author of multiple books on the Crusades — for a deep, wide-ranging conversation that covers four hundred years of Islamic expansion, the bloody fall of Jerusalem in 1099, the real history behind Saladin and Richard the Lionheart, and the 1229 agreement that still governs who can and cannot pray on the Temple Mount today. Pastor Nate also provides essential context that academic discussions often leave out and shares his own firsthand experience on the Temple Mount that challenged everything he had heard about who really faces restrictions in Jerusalem.

Dr. Holser walks through the complex, multi-layered causes of the First Crusade — beginning with the destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in 1009, the reports of Christian oppression and closed pilgrimage routes, and the eventual "call from the East" when the Byzantine Empire requested military aid from Western Europe. He explains why Pope Urban II's sermon at Clermont in 1095 finally set the expedition in motion after decades of failed attempts, and how a potent mix of political ambition, spiritual desperation, and eschatological anticipation drove tens of thousands of ordinary men to march three thousand miles toward a holy city most of them had only read about in Scripture.

The conversation then moves through the fall of Jerusalem in 1099 — an event Dr. Holser calls "the original sin of the Crusades" — and the centuries of conflict that followed: the failed Second Crusade, Saladin's recapture of Jerusalem in 1187, Richard the Lionheart's anticlimactic Third Crusade, Emperor Frederick II's controversial deal in 1229, and the final collapse of Christian holdings at Acre in 1291. Pastor Nate pushes back on the tendency to equalize both sides, pointing to four hundred years of one-directional Islamic conquest — through bloodshed, enslavement, and economic coercion — that preceded the Crusades entirely.

Pastor Nate also shares his visceral, personal reaction to standing on the Mount of Olives and looking at the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount, and what he witnessed firsthand about the restrictions placed on Christians and Jews — including the threat of removal for reading Scripture aloud — that flipped the "apartheid" narrative on its head.

What You'll Discover:

✅ Why the First Crusade was not a single-cause event and the multiple drivers behind it

✅ The destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in 1009 and its shockwave through Christendom

✅ How the fall of Jerusalem in 1099 became the event Islam has never forgotten

✅ The real Saladin — political savvy, ethnic tensions, executions, and enslavement alongside tolerance

✅ The 1229 Frederick II–Al-Kamil agreement that still restricts Christian and Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount

✅ Pastor Nate's firsthand account from the Temple Mount and what it revealed about who actually faces restrictions

✅ Four hundred years of Islamic conquest that preceded and contextualized the Crusades

✅ How a U.S. Army War College historian connects medieval holy war to today's conflicts

✅ The Ottoman push into Europe, the Battle of Lepanto, and why a unified Christian response never materialized

📖 Scripture Study:

📖 Zechariah 14:4 — The prophecy that the Messiah will stand on the Mount of Olives and a great earthquake will split a new valley running east to west toward the East Gate. Pastor Nate connects this to a geological fault line discovered in the same area.

📖 Joshua 6 — The Israelites' march around the walls of Jericho. Dr. Holser notes that the First Crusade forces performed a procession around Jerusalem in deliberate imitation of Joshua before their assault in 1099.

Questions this episode answers:

What caused the Crusades? — No single cause. Dr. Holser identifies three major categories: the "call from the East" driven by reports of Christian oppression and the destruction of holy sites, the personal spiritual motivations of crusaders seeking salvation, and eschatological anticipation that recapturing Jerusalem would usher in the return of Christ.

Were the Crusades a response to centuries of Islamic expansion? — Dr. Holser argues no, calling them a "flash in the pan" driven by a perfect storm of conditions in the late eleventh century rather than a natural reaction to four hundred years of conquest. Pastor Nate pushes back, pointing to the sustained one-directional Islamic expansion through bloodshed and economic coercion that preceded the Crusades.

What is the 1229 Temple Mount agreement and is it still in effect? — Emperor Frederick II and Sultan Al-Kamil divided Jerusalem's holy sites: Christians received the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Muslims received the Temple Mount with exclusive prayer rights. That arrangement remains the governing framework today.

Who really faces restrictions in Jerusalem today? — Pastor Nate shares his firsthand experience: Christians and Jews face restrictions on the Temple Mount, including the threat of removal for reading Scripture aloud, while Muslim worship proceeds without restriction — a reality that contradicts the apartheid narrative often applied to Israel.

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