The First Crusade & the Retaking of Jerusalem

Many took the cross and answered that call , including Bohemond , duke Godfrey and Count Raymond of Toulouse . They did so to shouts of Deus Vult . By 1097 , the Crusaders prepared for the first major conflict of their long march toward Jerusalem . It would take two more years for the crusaders to reach their final destination in 1099 .

The first major battle the crusaders fought in was at Nicaea . This campaign consisted mostly of the Prince's Crusade and a small detachment of Byzantine engineers to help with siege works . Nicaea was the capital of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum , the Turkish word for Rome , and was ruled by Kilij Arslan .

After defeating the People's Crusade , arslan was relatively unconcerned when word spread that a Frankish army was approaching . The siege of Nicaea began on May 14 , 1097 . Arslan gathered his army and prepared for an assault on Raymond of Toulouse and Robert of Flanders' forces located just outside the city gates .

After a brutal day of fighting , arslan was surprised by the skill of the Franks . As one historian said , man for man , his Turks were no match for the well-armed Westerners on open ground . As another said , the Turks came along gleefully , but as many as came had their heads cut off by our men , who threw the heads of the slain on the city of Nicaea .

To their surprise , and without their consent , alexius had sent a contingent to negotiate with Arslan . As a result , byzantine banners flew over the city and Arslan was given an escort to Constantinople . The crusaders , sensing a great betrayal , were enraged . This was only further confirmation to them that Alexius and his court were not to be trusted .

The Gesta Francorum said the emperor , who was a fool as well as a knave , was ready to injure the Franks and obstruct their crusade . On June 19 , 1097 , nicaea capitulated , so the crusaders marched on .

They were led by Bohemond , the Norman of heroic proportions , and his nephew Tancred , as well as Godfrey , lord of Bouillon and descendant of Charlemagne and Raymond . The crusaders were then ambushed by Arslan and his 30,000 Muslim troops near Dorylaim , which would be the fiercest of the battles they had yet fought .

Assaulted by a barrage of Muslim arrows and stunned , the Westerners fled . Bohemond in response sent word to Godfrey if they would like to see the beginnings of the battle with the Turks . What they want is now here , come quickly Regrouping .

After the initial attack and retreat that happened on July 1st , bohemond responded by putting all non-combatants at the center of his ranks . Women were called upon to draw water for the soldiers from a spring located within their perimeter . Part of the problem for the Turks was they thought Bohemond's forces were the entire crusader contingent .

As such , the Muslim forces were alarmed when they realized they were being attacked against their flank and rear by heavy cavalry charges from the remaining crusader knights Charged to fight bravely as Christians , by priests and commanders . The crusading forces formed a battle line . Now , writes Ibrahim , it was the Muslims' turn to become acquainted with Western warfare .

Shocked and awed by the heavy cavalry charges , the Muslims galloped off . Notwithstanding their vast numbers , many thousands from both sides were slain , end quote . Both sides were becoming acquainted with the other's fighting style .

Muslims would send clouds of arrows that blotted out the sun , crusaders would mount unstoppable cavalry charges , and best the Turks in hand-to-hand combat . One historian said in hand-to-hand conflict , horseman against horseman , foot soldier against foot soldier , the Europeans and the Byzantines had the better of the Turks . End quote .

Muslims also conceded this point To them . The Westerners were fearless knights who formed mountains of steel , seen by Muslims as descendants of Ad , that is , giants or not men at all . They carried stout , broad-headed lances or spears of tempered steel . Both the Turks and Crusaders suffered serious losses that day , but the losses on the Muslim side were far worse .

Eventually , the defeat was so thorough that Arslan's men fled in full retreat , were pursued and mown down by knights for a full day , and Arslan once again lost his entire treasury . As they retreated , however , the Turks burned everything in sight , leaving little provision for the Westerners to feed themselves .

The Crusaders marched for three months unopposed until they reached Antioch . On the way , they were met with starvation , thirst , disease , exhaustion and delirium , as Rodney Stark describes it . After resting for two days following the battle , the Crusaders set out to cross Anatolia on their way to Antioch . It was a dreadful march .

The summer heat was intense , there was no water , the wells and cisterns built to store rainwater had all been destroyed by the Turks .

As the Gesta tells it , they were passing through a land which was deserted , waterless and uninhabitable , from which we barely emerged or escaped alive , for we suffered greatly from hunger and thirst and found nothing at all to eat except prickly plants . On such food . We survived wretchedly enough , but we lost most of our horses" .

Meanwhile , eastern Christians marveled at the sight of these foreign titans .

Fulker writes "it was astonishing to see the Eastern Christian natives advance towards us with crosses and standards , kissing our feet in garments for most holy love of God , because they had heard there that we would defend them from the Turks , under whose yoke they had been oppressed for a long time . End quote .

Bohemond and the others carefully considered the city's weaknesses . Perhaps most importantly of all , the local emir had converted the Christian cathedral into a horse stable and had been enslaving or mistreating Christian residents . This , as Bohemond rightly saw , made Antioch a seedbed for potential traitors . In October of 1097 , the official siege began .

Unfortunately for the crusaders , their food and supplies grew increasingly low , and many died of starvation . As Rodney Stark points out , emperor Alexius could easily have sent ample supplies by sea , but did not . The crusaders did receive a resupply from 13 Genoese ships in November , but supplies were quickly consumed and hopes grew desperate .

As such , many deserted , including Peter the Hermit . Bohemond sent his nephew , tancred , to bring Peter back , and publicly disgraced him , though he did let him live . Later , a Turkic ruler began beheading Christians within the walls and throwing their heads at the Frankish forces .

Ready to return the gesture , bohemond brought those Muslims he had captured back to the gate of the city where , to terrify the citizens who were watching , he ordered that they be decapitated and their severed heads were launched into the city . Eight months into the siege , the crusaders were starving and desperate .

Finally , bohemond made a clandestine deal with a Muslim tower captain , formerly an Armenian Christian who had converted . During persecutions , and at night , western forces entered the city . As Ibrahim writes , the result was a bloodbath not unlike those visited upon Christian cities throughout Anatolia and Armenia at the hands of the Turks throughout the preceding decades .

One eyewitness reported All streets of the city , on every side , were full of corpses , so that no one could endure to be there because of the stench . Nor could anyone walk along narrow paths of the city except over the corpses of the dead End . Quote the next day , kirbin Ha , a Turkish lord , arrived with 35,000 reinforcements .

As a result , the besiegers now became the besieged . The crusaders were once again forced to eat filth and shoes , and many drank the blood of horses . Morale reached new , all-time low for the men . Was God not on their side ? Peter the Hermit was sent to deliver a scathing indictment to the entourage from the Muslim forces . In return , the Turks became irate .

As a result , the knights made preparations to ride out and meet the Turkish army . Men partook of the Eucharist and offered themselves to God . Overly confident , kerbin Ha idled his time away in his tent playing chess .

When he was informed that the Christian knights , some 20,000 in number , were advancing mightily against his troops , kerbin Ha barked at one of his subordinates . Didn't you tell me there were few Franks and there would never be a fight against me ? A wild battle ensued .

Knights stung by barrage after barrage , of arrows bristled like porcupines but moved forward with ferocity nonetheless . The knights held formation and kept in order to the point that Muslim forces fled in panic . Outnumbered , yet triumphant , virtually every medieval chronicler said the victory was a miracle from God .

Were not angelic hosts led by St George , patron saint of Christian warriors , witnessed by many fighting alongside the knights ? One chronicler asked According to one historian , modern military historians have attempted to come up with a more rational explanation for the Franks' success , but the task is difficult .

Explanation for the Franks' success , but the task is difficult . How did a force as spent and starved as the Crusaders manage to overcome a superior , well-fed and well-rested adversary ? For the rest of the year , the beleaguered Crusaders would recover their strength in Antioch .

Bohemond would remain there as governor In early 1099 , the Crusaders would resume their march to the final destination and ultimate goal , jerusalem . The King's Hall Podcast exists to make self-ruled men who rule well and win the world .

Yep , the Crusades are interesting , I find , because , particularly in Crusade one , you just have so much information .

He had gone on all these military campaigns in the Eastern Christian world in his youth with his father .

So now he's coming back and he knows this area and there's just little rabbit trails like that down that we could , doors we could walk through throughout these crusade stories and my hope , one of my big hopes in this series , is that we just spark the thirst for some of you listeners to want to start learning more about this , because there is so much in these

stories yeah , it really is incredible .

I think he had been before , but , dan , it seems like this is becoming part of the conversation for people and I want to ask you just kind of broad level question about that . You know it's Crusades , but also you know the first Christendom .

I think some of it is because of the Christian nationalism discussions and as , as people are in engaging on social media with men like Sulla or like Franco and hearing this , this idea of a Christian Prince and , uh , you know , curiosity of our forefathers and what does a Christian nation look like but ultimately leads down these paths of looking at the first

Christendom . I think that's part of it , and so I would like to take all the credit myself right now for sparking all of this interest . It's really just the King's hall , it's just the King's hall .

I don't mean like some revolutionary , unfettered you know revolution , you know type spirit , but that there has to be some category for Christian violence that is righteous . And so what is that ? Otherwise , we were just pacifists . That's where my interest suddenly turned to like , well , what did happen during the crusades ?

And I think it was Ben Garrett who was like , hey , you should watch these YouTube videos on history of the crusades and they're actually not as bad as you've probably been taught .

And so that's that was some couple of years ago really sparked my interest into the crusades , and I think that I'm just probably we're all products of our culture and so I'm not some original thinker . None of us really are .

There is a zeitgeist that is predominant amongst , uh , I think , the most based Christians right now to really have this curiosity of Christendom what does a Christian nation look like ? What is the way forward ?

Because you also see the demise , like we're heading off the cliff as the government continues to to print a trillion dollars $1 trillion every month , per second and well per month it is per month . It's crazy .

And Biden just just proposed a new capital gains tax bill that would increase cap , increase capital gains taxes on the wealthiest people , ie the people that take the most risk in investing and starting businesses and , you know , the most intelligent , and so people like Dan people like Dan Berkowitz , the most wealthy of men .

But you see , like , as , as the economy continues to tank and as social , you know , programs continue to to overwhelm the world , social welfare , and then they're going to tax those that actually produce the most wealth , the most jobs , the best ideas , the best innovation . You know , that's just one aspect of our culture right now .

You see that everything's heading off the cliff , and so you have to wonder , like , what would it look like to actually change ? What is it going to take ? Because something has to change , it cannot continue this direction , and so I know that was a long and rambly answer , but I think that's really why this has found such fertile soil .

These ideas of the Chris , of Christendom , of the , the crusades , uh , what do you actually have to do in times with tyrants rule and the direction of a whole people is that which is off a cliff , and we have examples , we have many examples of this .

We talked about Alfred , you know , with yet to be England , as the people of God were being judged for licentious behavior and adultery and fornication , and even , like we talked at Yarmouk , where they thought that they were being judged because of cross-dressing and homosexuality transgenderism , if you will .

And so you see this happening and you know , the judgment of God is coming . What do we have responsibilities to do ? What ought we do ? And so I think that's why this is so popular right now .

You know , the story that lewis tells is that this dumb little darwin monkey , uh , named shift , is telling the people they're like , you know they have a fake donkey who's dressed as aslan and , uh , they're trying to pass this off , but one of the things he says , the calamarians , they have scimitars and turbans . Okay , who do they represent ?

Clearly , the muslims , no but , in the line . It's this propaganda which I found was really interesting . And , dan , this is kind of my answer to the question is that we have been propagandized so long and then , once people start to realize that parts of it are untrue , that they've been told a lie , I think people start waking up .

So you have again this darwin ape monkey and he says you know to everybody , tosh is aslan , aslan is tosh . And I was thinking this is you know , 60 years ago . But lewis really was on to something .

You've seen that rhetoric sped up now and you know , perhaps on steroids , but we're told all the time you know that um allah is the same as yahweh , same god , one religion . And you know . You go back , you read the Crusades and you're like clearly not . Yeah , clearly not the case . So , brian , I'll pitch that to you .

Why do you think this subject matter is resonating , taking hold ? Why do people find it so interesting ?

That's not like a conspiracy theory , that's not a tinfoil hat , that's like as solid as anything Alex Jones has ever said . So I mean a hundred percent . A hundred percent . I mean the guy's got a good track record for calling stuff .

But in all seriousness , that really is like we know this that there is a concerted effort towards essentially what is a religious utopianism , that that is prom down and deracinating every major competitor , every religious competitor , like Christianity and Islam , if they can , if they can syncretize both of those and they can say that , yeah , roman Catholicism and and

and Islam and Protestantism , these are all really fundamentally the same things in Judaism and they all worship fundamentally the same God . They have basically the same moral ideals . Well , to really to promote an idea as asinine as that because it's ever it's a completely stupid idea , it's just nonsense . They make completely opposite claims .

Their gods are totally different , their moral systems are totally different , their aims are totally different .

If you're going to successfully convert the world to your religion and subvert all of the competing religions to become a non-competing , syncretistic mush that is malleable in your hand which is really what is happening there , with Tash and Aslan in Shift and the Calormans in the Last Battle well , if you want your religion to win , you have to weaken all the other

ones and turn them into mush , and so you have to cut them off from their history so that you can make absurd claims like Islam and Christianity worship the same God .

Well , to do that , you have to cut them off from their history , their heroes and I mean the Muslims and the Christians and make a new kind of Islam and a new kind of Christianity that are both basically spineless and weak , and that you can bend to your purposes .

Well , what's happening right now is that there is a significant portion of Islam , the Islamic world , that laughs at that idea and just says , ah hot , the decadent West , there's no way we're going to fall , for that . We're not Christians , we don't worship the same God . In fact , we're going to conquer all of your . No way we're going to fall , for that .

We're not Christians , we don't worship the same God . In fact , we're going to conquer all of your lands . We're going to invade them via immigration and whatever means necessary , because that's what our prophet told us to do , and so we're going to do that . We're going to take over everything .

The problem is , the Christians , largely , are giving in to these ideas , and have been for some time , so they've been essentially successfully co-opted by this big globalistic push .

They've allowed themselves to become deracinated and cut off from the roots of their faith and their history , and so what we're seeing is Muslim ascendancy in a lot of these formerly Christian lands , which that should echo with narratives you've heard before . They've done this before by the sword . They're doing it now via immigration and other mechanisms .

And so to your question why are Christians now , especially in the farther right corners of Christianity , rediscovering things like the Crusades and the former glory and war-like capacities and muscular versions of our faith that have existed in history ?

Well , because we need to , because if we're not going to be overrun and replaced and destroyed , we're actually going to need to look back and say hang on , how did we deal with this in the past ?

And we find then that you can reconnect to the roots and no longer be deracinated , you can be rooted and you can rediscover the heroes of the faith , and you can . You can say no , we're not going to give into being co-opted by your utopian , globalist religious strategy . We're not going to worship your false gods .

In fact , um , we're going to do what our forefathers did when they were faced with such threats . I think that I think that's a big part of it . There's a million vectors that this interest comes through , um , in the providence of god , but yeah but that's , that's my basic reading of the landscape , of why these things are resurgent today .

Yeah , um , so 10 eighties into 10 , 99 , uh , pope urban actually , before calling for the first crusade , had called for aid to be sent to Spain , and part of the reason why was because Ferdinand the great has died , alfonso is defeated , um , and then you've got really two minor kingdoms in spain that remain and those belong to el cid , and somehow he fights

against everyone , including the african muslims who were , I think raymond ibrahim says they were what isis aspires to be . That's how brutal they were .

Yeah , as somehow el cid fights his entire life , he wipes him off of pretty much off of the Iberian Peninsula and it could be said , at the end of El Cid's life , in all the battles he fought against the Muslims , the most brutal of all Muslims , he never lost a single battle .

Wow , and the Muslim , one of the Muslim emirs , said he said , said , I hate the guy , he's a tyrant , but he said , of el sid . Of all the precious gifts given to men from the almighty , el sid perhaps might be one of the greatest , and that's from his enemy . So check that out . On the day's fault , you can get that on patreon only um el sid .

We've also recently done Richard the Lionheart , so we're going to go into more depth on a lot of these stories where you simply don't have time to do everything in the main show .

But , brian , I think you're right , it's stuff like that where it inspires you and you can look at your own condition and you say , yeah , we're beat back and we're outnumbered and the odds are stacked against us , but there's something in the heart and soul of man that will resonate with that , that pitch of masculinity .

By the way , there's a quote in that episode which may be one of the greatest quotes of all time . Another Emir said of El Cid he was a hard man . No way Like did he really His words ? Wow , not even a twinkle in his eye , just his words . It's the hard man podcast .

You know , we've read about antioch and nicaea and really there's fighting and it's impressive all the fighting , but the amount of suffering that these guys had to endure , the miles that they had to slog Last episode we talked about , you know , was like they basically lost a person every 35 miles or something . This was not an easy journey .

What kind of impression does that make on you when you realize you know , starvation , thirst , disease , this is really like much soldiering , not actually a lot of glory . Most of the time it's . It's brutal .

These guys were the lords of the earth in their land , they were the cultural elite , they had the respected honor of their nations and they were like the way that we look at the Navy , seals or special , for I mean plus nobility . And they left that behind and they were willing to slog through the , the haunt of jackals in the waterless places and unto death .

Why ? Well , because of Christendom , because they wanted they had heard of the suffering of their brothers and sisters under Muslim conquest , because they understood the danger . And so one of the first things it does for me is it just says what a fifth commandment violation for us to look back on them and think and slander them as money grubbers .

You were not supposed to use them in warfare on the mainland of Europe With Christians yeah , among Christians fighting each other . But then when the Crusades break out , they're like , crossbows allowed now .

The crossbows basically brought the peasant masses into war , and it was blurring the distinction between the nobility and the peasants , and so they were like no crossbows , which is .

Um , one of the other things , brian , I want to ask you , uh , as our sort of resident expert on the miraculous ? The answer is yes the supernatural the paranormal .

Um , I think this is tied together with this story that we get from saint george and I just want to ask you if we should reject this or accept this before you answer and this part of a bigger discussion .

I think we're not only trying to re-enchant or to break the magic , the dark magic enchantment that's over our history in the west , but part of what is tied to is this other project we have with haunted cosmos , which is every single one of the men in this era on the christian side believed in a supernatural world .

Yes , they believed in what we would call , quote-unquote , paranormal . So why do you think that's so important that we we talk about that ? Do you think this is real ? How do you read something like saint george coming to fight for his people ?

which everybody there they were like no , that happened even yeah , I think even you know , the muslims were like I'd , they had help well , because the battle was like there's no way they should have won , humanly speaking .

Haven't eaten in months really being fully healthy , let alone if you were starving to death , you know , on the verge of physical collapse you're eating boots and drinking horse blood .

Right , yeah , and they charge because they realize they're like well , yeah , they weren't we can't go through another siege .

They called him saint james the moore slayer , and the reason was they were like there was a battle , where again you have chroniclers who reported this , but they were like , yeah , saint james showed up on a white charger and was slaughtering muslims left and right in this epic battle , and so the question is what do you do with this ?

I mean , yeah , I think even me , my , my sensibility as a modern is I read that and go well of course that's right .

Because you have to understand that in this time this was one of the reasons that Constantine probably didn't come out as fully Christian , like fully supporting Christian , calling the Council Nicaea , until he had won significant military victories .

Because military victories in that time for a leader was what showed people that you were the legitimate ruler , because you had the divine assent , that winning battles was what showed , via the divine powers , that you were the correct ruler .

So Constantine had just won significant military victories in the 320s and then he kind of came , he had the political power at that point to come out fully as a Christian .

So there are dynamics like that at play to where , certainly like can we look back and see that there are clear moments in history where people fabricate or at least they have a really strong motive that we can see for why they would say like , oh no , god is the one who validated me via this victory .

But when I look at some of these stories in the Crusades , I don't see the same type of motives at play , right , you think about like they had just won this stunning victory . The temptation in my mind would be more look how great we are , we were the strongest , we're the best , we're the baddest . Look , we were starving and we still beat these Muslims .

Look how great our armies are , and instead they all said no , god supernaturally came and we would have lost . We had no hope , but God fought for us . And I think , before we too quickly dismiss these stories as fabrications , we have to say hang on . Well , I mean , is that ? Is there anything in scripture that would forbid us from saying that could happen ?

Well , no , is there anything in scripture that might lead us to say that that's a thing that does happen ?

Well , yeah , that happens in the Bible , like where God shows up and , for example , strikes , you know , tens of thousands of soldiers blind and then sends them home , or when armies are seen in the heavens for those with eyes to see , fighting on behalf of God's people .

So to me , it would make perfect sense that this would be something that would be with the grain of God's character to do , and so I'm not prone to assume that my forefathers were liars , and I have no biblical reason to reject it as a possibility and in fact have biblical reason to say that's more the kind of world that we live in than this default

materialist world where everything's just atoms moving . So what I'm saying is 100% St George led the angelic hosts to the Muslims .

Converting your savings into gold and silver will protect and preserve your wealth so that one day you'll be able to pass down a true inheritance to your children's children .

That's where our friends at Alpine Gold Exchange come in , offering 0% buy-sell spread gold leases with up to 3.5% annual return paid in gold , by the way and secure vaulting right here in Utah . Alpine Gold approaches every transaction with fairness , honesty and respect , reflecting a strong Christian business ethic in all that they do .

Head to ogdengold today or tap the link in the description to sign up or schedule an appointment to speak with an Alpine Gold advisor today and see what would best serve your family . And just so you know , if you schedule a call , you'll be speaking with Jace , ethan or Stu , three members of Refuge Church right here in Ogden .

Head to ogdengold and check it out today .

Well , joe Garrisi , with Backwards Planning Financial , integrates investments , debt insurance , tax strategies and legacy planning in a holistic approach , coaching his clients to act wisely . You can do better than you received . You can affect your family trajectory and maximize your efforts to set up long-term fruitfulness .

Joe starts with your values and goals , then provides impactful counsel to help you form and implement your financial plan . Click on the link in the description for Backwards Planning Financial and contact Joe today to get started . Today's episode is sponsored by Premier Body Armor your top choice for safeguarding your family . What sets them apart ?

Well , premier isn't here to convince you to wear a plate carrier around town . Nope , they're focused on innovating armor right into your normal everyday life down . Nope , they're focused on innovating armor right into your normal everyday life .

Think bulletproof laptop case or lightweight armor insert that fits into your favorite bag and stops most handgun , shotgun and even rifle ammunition . Unlike much of the tactical industry , choosing Premier Body Armor not only ensures that you're getting amazing armor , but you'll be doing business with a family-owned Christian company .

Visit premierbodyarmorcom today and use promo code KINGSHALL for 10% off your order today . Got questions ? Reach out to customer service or send their president an email directly at alexatpremierbodyarmorcom and you can speak to him yourself . Don't wait to invest your family's security , but reach out today to Premier Body Armor . Don't carry a bag , no worries .

How about a moisture-wicking athletic t-shirt with minimalist and lightweight soft armor panels built in ? Check the link in the show notes or visit premierbodyarmorcom today . Red meat is a staple of a healthy , protein-packed diet , but not all meat is created equal . That's why I buy my meat from Salt Strings Butchery .

Salt Strings is owned and operated by my friends Quinn and Samantha Bible , and the meat they offer is raised , harvested and processed exclusively in Southern Illinois . It's cut and packaged by my friends Quinn and Anthony , and not only is it the best meat I've ever had , well , all their meat is sourced from local farms that share our Christian values .

Salt and Strings is now offering a beef and hog box that can be shipped directly to your door . The 15 pound beef box features 100% black Angus beef and includes ribeyes , t-bones , sirloin , chakros , fajita meat and ground beef . You can order your beef box today for just $259 . They will send it directly to your door .

The hog box is $239 and features premium Duroc pork , including eight thick pork chops one of my all-time favorites pork steaks , cured and sliced bacon , ground pork , bratwurst and breakfast sausage links . You can place your order today at saltonstringscom or use the link in the show notes , and also be sure to follow Salt and Strings on Instagram .

We'll also include the link in the show notes .

The adjacent hill is called Dragon Mound , or Dragon Hill , I think is what it's called , Whereas reported that that's where the dragon laid that saint george had killed , and it was so large it left a mountain anyway . So , uh , what do I think about this ?

Yeah , it's interesting as I read these stories , because you'll see this a couple of times , like you had mentioned , in the crusades , where you have some supernatural event happen , where there is somebody fighting alongside them or they find like the spear that was thrust into the side of christ while he was on the cross , uh , things like that .

And it is difficult especially as a protestant , by the way to look at icons and relics and things like that and immediately your knee-jerk reaction is none of that , absolutely none of that as a protestant .

But , like Brian had said , if you actually just think in biblical categories , what would prevent God from sending even if it wasn't St George , but sending like a terrible angel of death to fight with them ? What prevents that from happening ?

Is there something in the new covenant that says that where God says like oh , by the way , I'm actually not going to intervene anymore , you now have the Holy Spirit and so you're enough ? Like you know , god never says , uh , something like that .

And and so if we believe our Bible , then you have to come to some conclusion , like if these men were not lying which , like Brian said , I think there's compelling reason through their motives , because there wasn't a man who was trying to ascend to become a legitimate king or something like that .

They were beleaguered and there's no reason that they should have been able to win . And they say that there was some supernatural event in the form of St George who was killing the Mohammedans .

I mean , I don't have any reason to not believe them , and in fact , there is probably a part of all of us that we have to be a little bit careful of , but I want to believe it .

Yeah , and so angels are superintendents and they are used by God , particularly in the old covenant , aeon , in ways that as , as man matures , he grows into his own and eventually becomes one who judges angels . So there's this , you see it in Lord of the Rings , actually with Gandalf . Gandalf is a Maya .

He is essentially , to put it very ham-fistedly he's kind of like an angelic being who's given embodied form in Middle Earth to perform certain tasks . There's limitations on his power until he's kind of like an angelic being who's given embodied form in middle earth to perform certain tasks .

There's limitations on his power until he's reincarnated after his fight with the Balrog , and then those limitations are largely removed .

So he comes back and he's kind of like an angelic figure who leads the men and the hobbits , but he leads them into full maturity until they can rule hobbits , but he leads them into full maturity until they can rule , and then he says my time has passed . His goal wasn't to enthrone himself as angelic powers over the men .

In fact , that's what you see , with demons ruling over the nations prior to christ's defeat of the powers on the cross , and now we see the powers fleeing . However , I do so there's an arc where man we should expect through history , for man in Christ in his maturity , to end up taking governing roles in God's world .

That are the roles of maturity , where they don't need angelic hosts , oversight in the same way , kind of thing .

However , it would make sense to me in that narrative when you would see the powers fighting , like where a nation that is ruled over by demon gods and the cross is advancing , that you would see the battle of a cosmic nature along with the battle of flesh and blood .

And so to me it would be consistent , even with that narrative arc Again , I don't know but to see that there are spiritual battles happening behind thrones and dominions and powers , with the advance of Christianity to go and claim an idolatrous land ruled by a demon God . So who's to say ? I mean so , who's to say ?

I think that all plays into how we view these stories and and what we need to do is retrain our mind this is one of the projects of haunted cosmos and of the King's hall is that we're retraining our minds to stop thinking the way that those globalist , um utopian elites have tried to train us to think , which is anti-supernaturalist and anti-Christian , and instead

we need to train our minds to think truly supernaturally , christianly and Christianly in all things . So to me , I'm like I look at it and go why not ?

So the crusades happen over a very large span of time , and so , as you read the narratives , the number of people across a large span of time that mention the muslims being like demons or calling them demons , yeah , and I think some ways , justly because what they're identifying is that no human being could act the way that some of the Muslims were acting and

some of the deeds that they had done were subhuman in nature . Yeah , and I so I think I think you're right . What we're seeing is is almost like , closer to the surface of the material world , the supernatural is bleeding over , or like spilling over into a lot of these events .

So it shouldn't surprise us that we see saint george that's what I think , yeah , no , I think that's great .

Yeah , now , obviously some of these guys would look to you know a divine uh , you know divine right of kings , or that that god had ordained it . I might agree with him in many cases there .

Um , but , dan , this , this kind of idea that you know , even even in our time period , that you have to be successful in battles , you have to win battles to win the hearts of men Um , can you think of any modern examples of this , I guess , and then like , why is that so important ? Do you agree with ?

I mean colloquially , it was the classic mythology of rome that they would appeal to their gods and their gods would give them victory and that would validate a king . So there's elements of idolatry there , but it's usual .

It's latching onto something true , which is that we ought to follow courage and proven mettle and success in leadership and fighting the right battles . So today you see this in .

This is a very it seems like a silly example when you compare it to like the Muslims ruling over the East in Antioch and freeing people from the rape , rapine and murderous rule of Muslims , like . So I get that .

But when you look at some of the battles that are fought today in the fronts of the fight in Christendom , their battles over things like anthropology and the correct Christian view of human sexuality against the enslaving , demonic ideologies of transgenderism and homosexuality and gender sex roles what what is a man ? What is a ? What are they for ?

And I think what you'll see more and more is that people will follow courage in these battles where it's one of the patriarchy . The way that we do is because we really believe that , even though some of these are minority views , that they are not only correct views , but they are essential areas of attack by the demonic , false gods of the day .

They're not doing it via swords yet . They're doing it via mind virus , discipleship , and so what we need to do is say no . We need to courageously stand here , win that battle .

And what's happening is that the men , even of the previous generation or two in Christianity that were leaders , have not stood strong on these fronts and they have given way and their institutions have been conquered by wokeism and other sexual perversions or softness on sex roles or things like this , and so what they're in the process of doing is losing the hearts

of young Christian men and women coming up in the next generations who look at them and say , in the exact places where you needed to be courageous , and say , in the exact places where you needed to be courageous , you were soft and political and your institutions are cooked .

And so what's funny is that God will then raise up , some of the time , in situations like this , leaders that are kind of like funny in the sense that we've led in some of these conversations or we've had parts to play in some of these conversations from Ogden . And who are we ?

We're like there's nothing about Ogden that you should look to and say we joke that we finally have a pastoral candidate with an MDiv , like now for the first time . And so why do people listen to the King's Hall ? I hope it's because we were courageous in some of these battles .

That were the correct battles and unwilling to be political or soft on some of those battles .

When you go into the public sphere and you defend female modesty and you get attacked by Adidas UK and you get attacked by everybody in the world and you stand your ground and you defend your principles , I think in some ways , like that can be , that can feel like winning a battle .

I think when you build a community and it thrives , that is winning a battle . When you build a community and it thrives , that is winning a battle .

I think when you faithfully go through changes in the church , as you guys have , and you lead your people and you faithfully discipline sin and you hold strong even though people hate you and leave , I think those are battles won .

And then you get to a point where more people will say , OK , I'm willing to follow you because you fought your battles and you won your battles . I love this in Judges , chapter 11 . The elders of Gilead . This is after Gideon the elders of Gilead . They come to Jephthah and they say we want you to be the head over us , we want you to lead .

And Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead this is Judges 11 , verse 9 , if you bring me home again to fight against the Ammonites and the Lord gives them over to me , then I will be your head , and I think this is that principle ? of .

If you win battles , then you know there is , as Brian said , there's some sense of validation from the Lord , but also that if you really want people to follow you , I mean this is kind of like the guy like say , say , we have a business podcast , and we say , oh , follow us for all these great tips , and we're like , oh , where's your business ?

There's a level where you can become superstitious and idolatrous and in a similar error to the prosperity gospel , because we have righteous men who suffered and suffered defeat and setback , and it wasn't one to one because God hadn't appointed them as a leader and it wasn't one-to-one because God hadn't appointed them as a leader .

However , it's right often for civilizations and a people in a church or a family to introspect , to look and , before God , say we're suffering defeat here . Is there sin in the camp ? Is there something that we're putting ourselves out of the way of God's blessing when he tells us do you want to be out of the way of my blessing ?

Well then , sin in these ways . Okay , do you want to be in the way of my blessing ? Then , in faith , obey my commands . And we're so quick to boil these things down to superstition and legalism that sometimes we don't properly weigh God's covenantal judging and blessing that he's still doing across all sorts of domains .

He's still doing that because his nature didn't change .

And I say not so fast , read revelation , because Christ is the one who walks among the lampstands of the seven churches and he's the one who still pronounces post-resurrection , post-enthronement , he pronounces his blessing and curse for obedience and disobedience upon the churches in Thyatira and in , you know , in these various regions of the church .

It's not like a crazy idea .

He's so many times looking at us going , are you ?

You know , fighting the British and everything like that , and he was he should have been actually continue .

And actually you can see this best , I think , in smaller spheres like the church , to where you have examples We've talked about them in season one of the King's Hall where you have men who start out courageously , and I think this is where temptations lie for people like us .

In similar ways , as you look at the Crusades , a story that we just told in Antioch , the guys are starving . There's like well , what are they going to do ? They have to fight or they're going to die . There's really not a lot to lose .

Same thing for men in our situation and a lot of ministers that have pastors that have gained a larger platform in the past is like what did they have to lose ? They had a small church and they just they fought the battles that they needed to fight and they did it courageously .

And and then , all of a sudden , they gathered themselves a larger church and larger influence and larger platforms . And where does the temptation lie ? Well , it's to rest on your laurels . And this is where I think you get a lot of the older men who are like well , you know , yeah , you think you guys are courageous .

You know all of you young bucks , all of you zoomers out there that are meme posting and stuff like that , but I've been fighting this battle since the 1970s . You know I've been fighting this in the 80s Were you around for this ? And the answer rightly from a lot of the younger men is like well , yeah , but where are you today ? Where are you today ?

Because the fire and the courage that won you the hearts of men , you have since abandoned for comfort and for ease and you're now resting on your laurels . So you once were a great warrior of the faith and have since . You have retired , but you're still filling the position of a courageous man and you're just pretending you're a poser .

But you're still filling the position of a courageous man and you're just pretending you're a poser . And so I think that is definitely a temptation , not just in in history for kings and but also for for men that are in any area of authority , including fathers . I think it's especially true for fathers as well .

It's , in some ways , it's easy because your decisions are very limited when you have a young family and you have an early career and courage doesn't cost as much .

But what happens when you have a 401k that's rather large and you have , you know , a high position at a company you know and you're known in these circles , and courage , you know , comes knocking and says are you going to actually embrace me or are you going to reject me ?

We saw this in 2020 , 2021 with masks and vaccines and all that you know , and it was a really good apocalypse and unveiling of who is going to be courageous and stand the test . But the thing is that was just , that was like training wheels .

Right , that was the first first of many to come as things continue to devolve in our culture and in in in Western , in the Western world , with immigration and all of the things that are posing threats against us . Is that that was like the first test here .

Let's let's , let's see how you measure and then we'll , we'll do the training and the things that are going to be hard will come , and so I think that this for all men in all areas of authority , is to not rest on your laurels of times that you were courageous .

Don't be like the overweight 40 year old guy that's still living as high school , you know , state championship football team days and that was a good season , though it was a good season .

Sometimes it's saying to your daughter , yeah , we're actually not going to buy the new Taylor Swift album , and I know people think this is crazy , but it's like for a lot of men who even listen to the show , like to say something to their wife or daughter about something like that would cause a problem totally .

And so I think being courageous even in the little things , uh , gentlemen , I want to kind of transition to a question I have about the crusades for you . I read these and I think this seems a little Old Testament . They seem a little barbaric . The crusaders were cutting off heads . Maybe Karen Armstrong was right that Jesus was a pacifist .

He was more like Gandhi and these guys were man , just brutal . So , brian , let's start with you . They didn't have a Geneva Convention back then . How do we understand this type of warfare and not be limp-wristed , effeminate moderns like so many people are ?

Stonewall Jackson , his initial instinct and conviction as he was a teacher at a military college and looking at this impending war , he said the only way for the South to win is a black flag war where we storm the North and we raise and burn and destroy until they lose their political will to fight and capitulate quickly .

You can debate with with Stonewall Jackson about that , but but he was probably right in that that was the only way the South could have won .

There are legitimate tensions in wisdom with respect to one principle ramming into another principle . So you're going . There's the sheer pragmatism of waging a war when you go . If you want to win , you must fight like this , just humanly speaking . And some people are going to land more on the side of that sort of persuasion . They're going to say no , militarily .

I know that you might not have the stomach or political will for a war like this , but so , a , don't fight wars if you don't have to , because this is what wars are like . Make sure you're waging just wars . But B , if you want to win , this is how you're going to have to do it .

On the other hand , I think you also have you do have men who argue convictionally from a more covenantal , supernatural view , where they say no , we have to fight Christianly , and that means that we have to abide by black flag . War is out .

We're not allowed to do what the nations do when they wage war , and I think the truth is going to take elements of both of those . For sure and I'm not trying to be limp-wristed middle of the road but , genuinely speaking , christians ought not to wage war via rape .

We shouldn't be sending soldiers out the Christian forces yeah , go terrorize them by raping all their women . That's what the nations do . That's how war has been fought from the beginning . Christians shouldn't do that . So there are going to be lines that are going to fall more on that .

We must please the Lord in how we fight as well , lest he give us over to our enemies . That's absolutely part of it . And then there's also the part , though , where , in terms of political will and stomach , where you're , you're killing . That is what war is . It's killing people .

Beat his brains out , yeah , or they would hack limbs off or whatever it is . It is gruesome and it's it's face to face and I I've obviously I've never been in that position where you're you're doing hand to hand combat with , with edged and blunt weapons of that nature .

But I can't imagine what it does to a man when the like , the blood fury is , is on you and it's . It's different because of the distance in which which we now fight our wars , and so it seems cleaner , is my point . Yeah , it seems like a cleaner war when you shoot someone or when you drop a bomb .

But I I think also rodney stark is really helpful here , because he says , like you know , cutting heads off and throwing them into the city , what we do have to give , we can't read our history back into it . Right , that was the way that wars were fought . And so you again to Brian's point . You can make arguments .

Lots of people Augustine and others had just war theory and people were always trying to work this out . What's interesting to me is that modern warfare it sort of portrays itself as like more sanitary .

And then you get to like World War I and II and you're like the barbarism of modern mechanized warfare is so much greater in scale than anything that was happening here . Oh yeah , it's just to your point . It's like , well , you know , we just do it away where you don't see it .

You know , like today , it's like we don't actually see people being gassed in trenches we could kill .

There are Americans today who are defending dropping nuclear bombs on civilization , on citizens of Japan , and Tucker's point was he was like are you kidding me ?

This is the same debate in principle , by the way , about the people who are now saying Christians should not vote for Donald Trump , no matter what , even though Biden's the worst president in history his recent comments on abortion you can't vote for Donald Trump .

So I think what you're seeing here and they'll say , because that would displease the Lord and all you're doing is inviting God's judgment . If you actually want to put yourself in the way of God's blessing , you have to fight the war the way that God commands , and so what you're seeing in that debate is the same thing as in these debates .

It is the question of it's the people who are . I think what you're seeing is the people who are wired primarily politically versus the people who are wired primarily theologically .

So you have people operating in different worlds and they're each bringing the rules of their world into the other , and they're in the political sphere and they're thinking like the theologian , or they're in the theologian or the politician thinking in the theologian's world , and it's actually , I think the first thing you have to say is that these are very difficult

questions and one thing we do know is that if we're going to succeed , we have to have political coalitions amidst people who disagree about some of these finer points in any given application or another . Because otherwise , in any given application or another , because otherwise we'll we'll purity spiral until we have the tiniest factions of like well , what do you ?

What do you think about the atomic bombs ? Well , I was not okay with those . Okay , good , we're not okay with those . But what about the firebombing of Dresden ? Okay , well , we're , we're not okay with those . But what about the because you , it's not just the the the nuclear bombs in Japan , we firebombed civilians for five years before that .

All the allies did in Europe and everywhere , and they did it back . Killing civilians was just a part of it's the same kind of idea as doing what they did in the Crusades . That was the rules of how war was fought , and just because you didn't do it doesn't mean the other guy's not going to do it .

So a lot of the time , the question genuinely , which is difficult , is that do we want a war where civilians are being firebombed , everyone would say no , but what happens when they start firebombing your civilians ? What are you going to do ?

And a lot of people are like well , we're going to raise the Jolly Roger , we're going to go Stonewall Jackson , end this war as quickly as possible , try to save as many lives as possible , and we're going to go wage a black flag total war , a hyper war .

That's what we're going to do , and I think my point isn't that I know the answers to all these things . My point is that it's genuinely a difficult question .

It's genuinely a difficult question and you have to remember that what we're talking about are issues of where intestinal fortitude is going to be needed because you're dealing with horrific , horrific effects of sin in the world when you get into these subjects , yeah , I guess the one thing I would say , dan , interested to get your thoughts on this .

You're calling for Israel to destroy an entire people group or to nuke Iran or whatever it is , and you have a problem with the crusades . Yeah , that's silly . To me it's like hold on , let's maybe look at some of our . Let's look that in the mirror .

You're either a hypocrite , you're ignorant or you're incorrect and your principles were wrong in the first place and you're right to have the opinion you do today , and it's your prior commitment that was wrong . So so I keep coming to this point .

But it's really difficult , humanly speaking , to think purely objectively about a lot of these things , because we don't recognize the way in which our prior commitments and assumptions about the moral landscape are affecting the glasses we're viewing the world and history through . Like you actually have to start by saying but what do I actually believe about war at all ?

What do I actually believe about this issue ? That I mean because otherwise you're just You're going into the debate with a bunch of assumptions that you haven't tested or proven and you might find out that you actually completely change your mind .

Uh , again , brian , we are leaning on you here .

I'm tempted to read this whole like 200 word description that she made of him , because it is like the description every single man since hopes to be . He was slender of waist and flanks , with broad shoulders and chest , strong in the arms . Overall he was neither too slender too , heavily built and fleshy but perfectly proportioned .

One might say that he conformed to the ideal of the polyclitos . His hands were large , he stood a good , firm stance and his neck and back were compact , like she thought about this guy . Clearly his legs were like ivory towers . She , she talked . His eyes were light blue and gave some hint of the man's spirit and dignity .

He breathed freely through nostrils that were broad , worthy of his chest , nose breathing , and a fine outlet for the breath that came in gusts from his lungs . This man was like a Greek God .

mean you might feel a little threatened .

It's like when the you're the you know the normal preacher at a church and all of a sudden some absolutely amazing preacher comes in like brian salvation , not me , someone else comes and preaches and you're like rc sproll comes and preaches at your church and you kind of feel a little inadequate and you have a little bit of an instinct to like knock him down a

few yeah , I mean , but he smokes , so I mean . And then everyone's like , yeah , that makes him better . He's ripping heaters . He borrowed a Bible to preach from and ripped a half a pack of camels before he went up , you of camels before he went up . You know . Uh , times have changed .

Sure , um , one of the things that you hear a lot of is that the crusaders particularly if you're Eastern Orthodox and I know we have some Eastern Orthodox listeners so if you have opinions on this , definitely love to hear them . But one of the issues is they're like the crusaders like late in a later crusade . They , you know they wrongly captured Constantinople .

Why was how ? Why would they ever do such a thing ? And Rodney Stark at least , seems to really paint the picture that Alexius and the you know , the future rulers in Constantinople were less than honorable toward the crusaders . When you look at those stories like what Alexius ?

Basically they're going to lay siege to Nicaea he doesn't tell them , he sends an entourage and brings the guy in the city back to Constantinople and then they sort of capitulate . But do you , I guess ? Where do you guys land on that ? Do you see problems with Alexius ? Yes , and kind of reasons why there would be , you know , animosity .

People are not perfect , movements are not perfect . There's disagreement . There's it's one of the things we're hoping to address in some ways at our upcoming conference in June , the new Christendom conference building Christian boroughs .

I'm hoping to ask the panelists this how do we maintain coalitions across disagreement , with different boroughs that are governed according to different principles and ideas ? Because this infighting amongst people who you look at it and go , who do you want to be in charge ?

You could say this to the byzantines and the westerners , the muslims or the other guy right like , even if , even if I lost some of my , what I wanted , would I rather be ruled by the muslims , not ?

Like you said , they had to ban crossbows on the continent because they were all killing each other constantly over empires and realms and nations and power and wealth and resources and political rivalries and all sorts of things . And it just shows you that we're not yet done , like we're not yet ready for total self-governance .

We haven't reached full maturity of unity as Christians . We're not the hobbits coming back to scour the shire yet we haven't finished . And one of the ways that we'll know and that we will growingly know our maturity is is actually Christians getting along .

They wept with joy for having arrived , but yet they remained so far from accomplishing their mission . They immediately set about laying siege to the city , but it didn't give way so easily . To make matters worse , the Muslim inhabitants had blocked and poisoned the wells outside the city . Then Providence smiled on the crusaders .

Six Christian ships had arrived from Genoa and England at the port of Jaffa , about 25 miles away . All six ships carried food , but , even more vital for the conquest , they brought cargos of ropes , nails and bolts , all necessary for the construction of siege machines . By July 14th , the crusaders had planned to wage an all-out assault on Jerusalem .

Before they did , a certain man of God called for a painful regiment of fasting and continual prayers made in devotion to God . A priest had received a vision that promised victory if the crusaders put an end to their constant internal dissensions , fasted and marched around the city , much as the people of God did at Jericho in the book of Joshua .

The Christian army walked barefoot around the city while making loud supplications , crosses held high , the knights marched around the walls of Jerusalem . They next congregated on the Mount of Olives , where Peter the Hermit preached an impassioned sermon . Muslims , for their part , jeered and shot arrows at the knights .

As Raymond Ibrahim writes , the Muslims spat on them and did not refrain from urinating on them in sight of all" . Christians who survived would call the Muslim forces demonic and deranged . Priests cried out . Think of Christ , who , until today , has been outlawed and crucified in this city .

When the final siege took place , miraculously , godfrey and his men were able to get their siege tower against the walls . He stood atop the siege works , shooting Muslims with his crossbow . For his part , godfrey's men told a seemingly impossible story .

They all had seen him single-handedly hoist a siege ladder against the walls , an object that is reported to have weighed around 800 pounds . His men breached the city and opened its gates for the remainder of the Christian army . Crusaders wildly stormed the city and massacred everyone in sight , according to Raymond Ibrahim , he goes on to write .

Heard everyone in sight . According to Raymond Ibrahim , he goes on to write . Young Tancred , who was among the first to enter , hacked his way till he reached the dome of the rock , a mosque erected high above and looking down on the sepulcher of Christ and decorated with the Quran verses denouncing Christian truths .

Its entryway was firm and inflexible , made of iron but Tancred harder than iron , beat it , broke it and wore it down , and it entered . He slaughtered his way into the building until he came face to face with a strange idol , possibly an elaborate candelabrum containing oriental images foreign to the Frank . Was it a Roman god ?

Thought the bewildered man to the Frank ? Was it a Roman god , thought the bewildered man . No , it could only be one wicked Muhammad , evil Muhammad . He cried while smiting it . If only his companion were here , now the one to come . At this moment , my feet would stomp on both Antichrists .

When the smoke had cleared and the bloodletting subsided at Jerusalem , the surviving crusaders did what they had abandoned all and endured years of deprivation and disease to do , that is , they did what must seem amazing to modern sensibilities they cleansed and dressed themselves in white , removed their shoes , held crosses and going to the sepulcher of the Lord and his

glorious temple , the clerics and also the laity singing a new song unto the Lord in a high-sounding voice of exaltation and making offerings and most humble supplications , joyously visited the holy place , as they had so long desired to do .

Though deemed most worthy of honor , godfrey rejected the title of King of Jerusalem , refusing to wear a golden crown in the place where Christ was crowned with thorns , and was instead coronated Advocate , meaning defender or guardian of the Holy Sepulchre . The Syrian and Armenian Christians who were ejected before Jerusalem's capture were returned to repopulate the city .

Jews and Muslims were also later invited back . End quote the bloodbath at Jerusalem is the main point used today to vilify the efforts of the crusaders . But , as Rodney Stark points out , there are several reasons we should be slow to condemn them . First , muslims had committed many more and similar acts of bloodshed .

As a result , it is quite false to say they were more civilized or tolerant . Dozens of Muslim massacres of entire cities have been recorded in the decades and centuries before Christians recaptured Jerusalem in 1099 .

Second , we should consider that , under the terms of siege warfare , if a city did not surrender before forcing the attackers to take the city by storm , the expectation was a total massacre . Finally , under the terms of warfare , then , everyone accepted the notion that to the victor goes the spoils when a city refused to settle before the attack , if it was taken .

It was common practice to loot for treasure . One other thing that is worth mentioning it is commonly stated that when Jews fled to their synagogue , they too were massacred . No doubt there was a hatred of the Jews among many of the crusaders , for they had often sold Christians into slavery under the Muslims or ratted them out to be killed .

But , as Stark points out , jews frequently sided with Muslims and even fought in this particular army alongside them . There is no reasonable reason why , therefore , the Jews would have been given special treatment . Rodney Stark's concluding thoughts on the Crusades are helpful . He writes what Pope Urban had begun in the field in Clermont had now come to pass .

God's battalions had been victorious and the unbelievers had been driven from Jerusalem . Almost immediately , large numbers of Crusaders began to head for home . After all , they had been gone much longer than anyone had expected .

Within several months , the crusader forces remaining in the Holy Land had fallen to perhaps no more than 300 knights and an unknown but not very large number of foot soldiers . This was a very dangerous development , for surely Muslim forces would come again . The Holy Land remained encircled by a large Muslim world .

Unfortunately , no plans had been made at the outset for maintaining a liberated Jerusalem , because it was thought that the Byzantines would take the lead . No one believed that now . Thus , the question that had been bothering many leading crusaders for several years was how can our miraculous achievement be sustained ?

I mean , they , they thought on setting out that it was possible or they wouldn't have gone , they wouldn't have tried if they thought , well , there's no way we're going to succeed .

But after all of the trials they went through , after , at nearly every point , they discovered as one often does when undertaking a project that it is much , much more difficult than they expected and seemingly only possible through divine intervention .

I think what they saw , I think what they felt when they succeeded in capturing Jerusalem , was the Lord is on our side .

Their opponents , the Muslims , are well-supplied , well-fortified and did not have to travel across the entirety of Eastern Europe , you know , to get down to Jerusalem , and so they're coming against , in a lot of cases , superior numbers who are more well rested .

But it really does go to show that they actually believed , that God willed it , that they were , they were completely convinced . Otherwise you would have seen many of them retreating , that you would have seen many of these lords giving up or capitulating or just remaining , like at Nicaea . You know they would have just not not continued .

But they so wholeheartedly believed in their mission that they actually continued to fight and they won , which , I think , back to our earlier conversation , was probably affirmation for their cause , for what they were trying to do . Yeah , there was affirmation , for their whole mission is that they could act . They actually did the thing .

They actually took Jerusalem and there were supernatural things that seemed to have happened along the way , so I think that's why it's important .

But then it really did and for whatever reason it inspired the people . You get to the mount of olives , obviously a very significant part of that landscape . Peter the hermit is preaching this impassioned sermon . Um , just the picture of them having arrows shot at them as they're walking around the city barefoot , that you have .

You have Muslims on the wall urinating on them , and yet , for all that , it brought again a miraculous victory for Christendom . So I think that's really interesting .

One of the other interesting things , I think is I think it's easy for Christians , particularly Christian conservatives today , to read this story in light of a Zionist lens which , you see , clearly in the time period did not exist . So they're not retaking Jerusalem for the Jews so that the Jews can have a homeland , they're retaking it for Christendom .

Yes , they believed it was a Christian land . They believed it was a Christian land , and this goes , brian , back to Constantine , which I think he's the one that built the church of the Holy sepulcher , yep . So they valued this place highly .

As you get into some of the themes , like the destruction of some of the Jews , this is maybe where we see some of the messy elements of siege warfare , with them being slaughtered . What do you make of that ? Again , we've talked at length about some of these stories aren't as clean cut as we might . It's probably not like if disney made a movie .

Max D builds innovative , hardworking trailers for the builders , fixers and growers of the world . You can follow their stories by checking out Max D Trailers on Instagram or by visiting the link in the show notes . Learn more about Max D Trailers by visiting maxdtrailerscom , where you can check out the article 10 Ways to Make Money with your Trailer .

Try them out and you'll savor exceptional coffee , while knowing that your investment supports a company committed to following God's teachings and upholding truth and righteousness , ensuring your hard-earned money contributes to the growth of God's kingdom . We'll be right back , shipping Head over to squirrelyjoescom to claim your free bag of coffee .

To join this growing community that is already building wealth into future generations and converting Postmill Talk into Postmill Action . Contact private family banking partner Chuck DeLaterante at his email chuck at privatefamilybankingcom . Again , that's chuck at privatefamilybankingcom . Again that's Chuck at privatefamilybankingcom .

To set up an appointment and to receive a free copy of Chuck's new book Protect your Money Now how to Build Multigenerational Wealth Outside of Wall Street and Avoid the Coming Banking Meltdown . Go to the link in the show notes for more information .

Now picture this wisdom applied to your small business , introducing Keep Wise Partners , where we blend the power of professional bookkeeping with the biblical virtue of seeking wise counsel . We understand that running a business is a journey with twists and turns , but fear not .

Keep Wise is here to be your trusted counsel on the path to financial success , as you work to take dominion and build Christendom through your labors . Just as the scriptures encourage seeking counsel from many , we've assembled a team of skilled advisors who will be your partners in prosperity .

We'll meticulously manage your finances , ensuring your business books are tax-ready and allow you to make better business decisions . What's more , our team isn't just about numbers , we're about wisdom .

We'll help you make informed decisions that honor your values as Bible-believing Christians and steer your business toward growth and prosperity , all while keeping your finances in order . Worried about the cost ? Remember , even Proverbs advises prudent planning . Keepwise offers flexible pricing options that'll keep your financial house in order without breaking the bank .

But wait , there's more . For our fellow new Christendom Press listeners , keepwise is offering 50% off of bookkeeping services for your first three months . So don't wait , embrace the wisdom of seeking counsel in your business affairs . Listeners , keep Wise is offering 50% off of bookkeeping services for your first three months .

So don't wait , embrace the wisdom of seeking counsel in your business affairs . Visit our website at keepwisepartners to learn more and to take the next step in surrounding yourself and your business with the wisdom of many counselors . Or reach out to Derek directly at Derek at keepwisepartners Wise , your partners in small business , finance and accounting .

So the terms in a siege war at that time were yes , you can negotiate good surrender terms if you don't think that you're going to be able to withstand the force . What you should do is negotiate terms of surrender and you'll say , yeah , we'll give you this much . This is going to what's going to happen to the local government .

You know you're going to be able to enslave these people . It stinks , but if you didn't do that and you got defeated , the rule was and this is what everybody did , muslims did this , everybody did this is that they would just kill a lot of people like it was their convention yeah , that was the rules .

Eleven eighty seven is when Saladin at the Battle of Hattin , or however you say that after the battle , after this battle , they retake Jerusalem Eventually . You know , the old defenders of Christendom are expelled . So they did hold it for some time . But why was this so important ? You know we'll get to people like Richard the Lionheart .

He , in fact , won't take Jerusalem because he thinks it's useless , like taking a city that you're just going to lose again . Why is the long-term strategy ? Why was that so important ? That they , you know , didn't think through it but , you know , should have .

So they were trying to come in and say we have a state of affairs where , essentially , lands that have been Christian for centuries , christian civilization , christian cities , christian cultures had been brutally conquered , had been erased , converted into the centers of idolatry to a false god , and then their brothers and sisters for generations had been subject to

functional slavery at best and vicious mistreatment , murder , rape and abuse at worst . So that's one of the biggest motivations of these men going to free these lands . So to them , even with the hindsight of looking back over the strategic failures and in terms of holding the crusader kingdom for long , you have to give them credit , man .

I mean all of these Christian men and women now , and children that were the day before slaves and now they weren't , and now they had Christian rulers and Christian lands being reestablished so strategically and maybe we'll talk about this in the future .

But yes , there were failures in supplying , there was a loss of political will in the West in the cost of maintaining these empires and really what you needed to do is essentially Colonialize it . Yeah , you needed to make total war and continue and conquer them . Muslims don't coexist peacefully . You can't long-term . They would have had to just conquer them .

That was it . Or be conquered by them , and what happened is that they were reconquered by them in many cases . So you have to look back to their motives , the outcome , even though it was imperfect and there was lots of setback and defeat and there was intrigue and there was political rivalry amongst in their own camp .

They fundamentally they were aiming for what I think are noble ends and made some errors and holding them as the years went on . And there's lots of lessons for us in their failures , but there's also lessons for us in their defeat , in their victories .

Like man , what are we willing to do , what are we , what are we willing to give for the sake of the glory of christ and his people ?

And and part of it may be that , you know , stories like this inspire us Um , it certainly seemed like it was impossible to retake Jerusalem , uh , but where are areas where Christians could or should concentrate force and efforts for this work of retaking ?

That is , uh , it's obvious to everybody , but he's the one that's going to get in , you know , behind the microphone and actually say the thing you know .

So I think that's one area that Christians definitely need to be um active in is truth telling through media , in is truth telling through media , and and I I mean I'm not just saying that for this podcast , because there is plenty of space for more truth tellers , absolutely , and so we're trying to do the best we can to do that .

Uh , the other area is most obviously is is like churches . Churches need to be , which sounds crazy . Churches need to be retaken by Christians .

But before we're going to be able to do any of that , what we need to recover is the political will to be Christians and understand adequately what that means culturally , politically , in the family , in the church , in the state .

We need to recover the political will to actually be the kinds of Christians that can then go in in taking these institutions , do something Christian with them .

So we need a thick enough view of what it means to be Christian that when you go and retake the family , you know what to do with it , that when you go and retake the education of children , you know what to do with it . When you go to the church , you know what to do with the church when you go to a business . But then I would say well , but how ?

But then what I think we do with it is that we need to retake and either retake or build institutions in all of these areas of life so that we can begin to . In some ways it's specializing more , because right now , a lot of the this happens at the beginning of movements often is that you'll have a lot of generalism .

We kind of fit in this where we speak to a lot of things . We're generally not attempting to come up with new ideas ourselves . We're trying to get the right ideas communicated the right way to the right people .

But as Christianity regains its chest in a lot of ways , one thing I hope to see happen is the rise of specialists who will own some area of culture and the life under the sun and that they will go and lead the charge there . So , christian politics we need Christian politicians who are not pastors . We need businessmen who are not pastors .

We need , like right now , the pastors . The church is kind of doing a lot of the heavy lifting or in this world of like , let's reclaim this .

But we need , like a political theorist , to be a political theorist and do the work in that area and build institutions of political think tank and political influence that are overtly right wing , conservative Christian politics . And that's what they do . They're not theologians .

And we need people who are going to go out and say and here's how to be a businessman and take economic space , and I'm , that's what I am , that's what I do . I have a good pastor . He does ministry of the word and sacrament and prayer and leads the church and discipline and keys to the kingdom and all that .

And it gives me the space to then go and be an unashamed , unapologetic Christian businessman attempting to build a Christian business empire , christian businessmen attempting to build a Christian business empire Like .

We need institution building that is focused in focusing the energy of that Christianity with a chest , a full orbed vision of Christianity , into every area of what it means to be human .

So he says , for example , like legacy media is largely lost to the left , and so what needs to be done ? Instead of trying to expend effort like retaking the new york times or something right , we just need to build more new christendom presses and more 1819 news and stuff like that . Um , so , agree , disagree with that sentiment .

Uh , it's sort of parallel versus when to retake . Do you think that we ? It would be a wasted effort , for example , to try to retake public education right now ?

or , like tucker , he , he starts his own tucker did a parallel thing , and I'm thinking about this politically kind of like this could um christians tomorrow tomorrow our brand retake the Senate ? Probably not , but can a politically active , astute and blessed by the Lord Christian community retake a city council in a medium-sized city ? I actually think yes .

So some of these things are going to be strategic , where you look at the nature of the institution you're targeting and you say what's feasible and it's like can you start a parallel city council ? Not really , you actually can't basically do that . You can .

You can start influential other types of institutions that might ultimately give you the political power in an area to win that city council . You might need other institutions first , but you can't start a parallel city council really in the same way that you can start that Tucker can start a parallel news network . So I think Christians really need to .

They need to get clear , not just thinking general principles , but think specifically about a . What am I , as an actual person in an actual place , gifted and called to do ? Most people are not going to be media creators . Most people are not going to be pastors . Most people are not going to be politicians .

But can you start a business that takes ground and and hires Christians . Yeah , a lot of people can do that , can you ? So I'm , I'm so , I'm thinking of this institution level question very , very practically and I think it needs to be thought out first on that level .

Otherwise we spend all of our time theorizing instead of actually saying but what institutions in my community could I actually the Republican caucus like , what institutions could I actually have a meaningful effect on with the size and power and abilities that I have ?

You know who is going to rule , how is our administration going to work , how's the justice system ? How are we going to fortify it , you know , and how are we going to make that now like the new beachhead where we then fight all of our wars out of that , so we have more well-supplied armies and things like that to go out ?

I don't think they actually thought they could win it and keep it .

They were actually then seen as enemies , like , oh great , the West is going to gain all this power in this region . I don't know if I'm reading that that rightly . I think that was probably a dynamic , yeah .

But anyway , one of the things that I think , along with what you said Brian about taking you said Brian about taking city councils and starting businesses and things like that I think one of the things that we're in danger of what happens if God moves and all of a sudden there are doors open to the federal level power , like the Senate , the US Senate or

something like that who do you put in place ? Because even , as you , as you said , like , well , do we have a hundred senators that are Christians that we could even draw from ? Well , no , because we haven't done the basic work yet to get to that point .

So I guess all that to say is one of the things I think we should think through is aspiring to be those things so that , when the opportunity does come , we're ready because this is what often a failure of administration yeah , those lower level institutions need to be taken and because they're the pipelines that are going to create .

He talked a lot about this problem politically , that when you have leaders , the problem is that when you have leaders , the problem is that even take a leader like Donald Trump , he has thousands of political appointee positions to fill the bureaucracy of leadership , but there aren't people who have been adequately trained to take those exercises .

It's generally the exercise of bureaucratic power where the left wins . Conservatives haven't been good at creating bureaucratic level leadership .

They can create populist executive level leadership , but then we're bad at creating a pipeline in political internships and you know , you know in law and in business , where we're creating a lot of these leaders who really are the ones who actually carry out the majority of the governance Right .

I imagine that the crusaders didn't find it to be particularly enjoyable to throw heads over the wall back at the Muslims , but anyway , so that's how I feel about bureaucracy .

Leadership of churches is not just about saying things from the pulpit , it's also about bureaucratic executive leadership . So we've seen this in our own organizations in the church . As the church has grown , new christian impress has grown um .

We've had to identify , train and empower key leaders in that middle kind of segment who are actually going to then go and carry out the bureaucratic leadership of an organization , and organizations don't work . I prefer administration versus you're an administrator , but this is an example where we're .

We have a bad taste in our mouth about bureaucratic leadership , but it's actually essential , and the majority of leadership in the world is actually not the highest level executive leadership . It's management , competent management of systems . You can't have systems that are . Think about it .

How could you hold the crusader kingdom through an extremely complex system of management that would require supply chains across hundreds of miles of potentially hostile territory ? That's where the failure was .

It wasn't that they didn't have some charismatic leaders at home and then the management leadership to execute this enormously complex task of maintaining this forward deployed forces essentially in hostile territory .

It's like why , you know , in Iran I think the Gulf War was like this where you have the Middle Eastern forces , you know Saddam , they come way out , and then they got to the end of their supply chain and they were out of fuel . They didn't have resupply capabilities like we do .

They didn't realize that an army marches on its stomach and its fuel tank in the modern day , and so they really couldn't win ultimately , like they just couldn't Used to cut off their supply chain and they're dead . So that I mean that's why our military today , in its vast amount of power , a lot of its bureaucratic power , mean .

That's why our military today , in its vast amount of power , a lot of its bureaucratic power . So I think it's unsexy , but this is like everybody wants to be a voice kind of leader .

But the way God made the world , the majority of where we win is actually going to happen in millions or thousands and thousands of people being competent Christians on these levels of just , faithful execution , on doing what the Lord has put in front of them , working heartily as unto the Lord .

I don't know if I'm making sense , but this is an issue I've been thinking about a lot since Nick Solheim talked about it at our conference last year . I've been thinking like man , that's true , and I didn't realize how important that not just the president but his 8,000 staffers is .

Where are we going to get those people in our communities if we're not making them ?

Because it's Roman . It took Roman ideals and it applied it to their governance and that's pretty much what the Roman Catholic church is is the oldest bureaucracy in the world .

It seems , brian and you mentioned this before a lot of times what happens right now is we have pastors who are trying to be all things . They're trying to be everything in all spheres , and so you'll get a , you know , a pastor who gets in the political realm and he'll say something like my .

You know , the main function in a political role is to preach the gospel and we say well , actually it's to be a politician and that is a different thing than the ecclesiastical sphere . But I'm just wondering .

It seems like if you look at a Moscow or an Ogden , one of the things we're trying to do is not just tell all the guys in our church , you need to be a pastor , right , we're trying to say to them you could be great at business and this is how it could impact your community for the kingdom . You could be great at politics and all these other spheres .

So I'm just curious from you guys' perspective , as pastors who've pushed that sort of thing ? How do you equip and inspire other pastors to kind of ?

Like , how do you have churches that function well ? You need a lot of women who are good at managing the home . That's a type of this leadership I'm talking about . They need to be able to be managers of their home , and I mean under their husband's authority .

But the way that Titus two is talking about , they're becoming experts in running the home such that it loves husbands and children , feeds people , overflows in hospitality . So how do you get those ? Well , you need men who are competent as lords in their home .

They know how to equip their wife , give her the right vision and resources that she needs to rule the to be that he needs to rule the home well . This is why , when you take that into the church , in 1 Timothy , 3 , 4 , and 5 , paul says that a man has to manage his household well to be equipped to manage the household of faith .

That's the kind of leadership he's going to go and exercise in the church if it functions well . He's not just going to do everything himself , he is going to equip the saints for the work of the ministry .

So , pastors , I think they need to be in the business of setting their congregation up so that the men aren't hearing that what it would look like for you to successfully be discipled is largely for you to be a pastor . You should all aspire to the pastoral office . That's really the elite that .

This is what happened in the Acts 29 young , restless and reformed culture is that the church planter was set up as the ideal man , and so he's the Cicero figure , the rhetorician of the day . He's the one who's like . That's the pinnacle of glory , pinnacle of competence .

He is the charismatic CEO , entrepreneurial church planter leadership that's what men were basically given to aspire to , and that's fine in the sense that we should want really good , competent pastors .

But the church actually needs to have a far more robust vision for what a man is than just well , if you're successful and you want to be the best man , you should be a church planter .

Instead , it should be like yeah , god's going to call some men to ministry , but you should actually aspire to be what God made you to be , with the kind of competency that goes and wins glory you should want to be . If you are an entrepreneur , you should be an entrepreneur to the glory of God .

If you are , you know , not wired for that and you are to work heartily for somebody else and assist and then do that , I mean it's setting up the vision for success as broadly as the human vocation is , and I do think this is an area where we failed a lot .

I don't know if this is that was super practical , but just getting that right aim is such an important starting point that we've been handed , I think , the wrong model for men to aspire to and women to aspire to .

But you need warrior types and you need prince types and you need funding . You need all sorts of different people to make this work . Dan , I want to get your closing thoughts on that .

Obviously , if you feel the strong calling of being a pastor and you think it's a very high calling which it is you're going to encourage men to be like you . Right , and there is a way that that's good and a way that that can be dangerous .

And the way that it can be dangerous is like you said , it's the temptation is to suck everybody , all of these competent men , into the ecclesiastical sphere . Yeah , and essentially what you do is you're set up a lot of guys for failure , like you had mentioned in Acts 29, .

It was , it was , it was a , you know , throw the spaghetti against the wall and hope that some of them stick but a lot of those guys really should have just gone into marketing . Yeah , they should have done that's right , because because their , their failures , are actually amplified .

It's not just they made a mess of their own life , but you also have people that are somewhat successful at their marketing and they attract hundreds of people . You know dozens of families and then when the implosion inevitably happens with some of these not every single one then you're affecting . You know it's multiplicitous .

You have many people that you've just you've just failed , and so I think that is a definitely a temptation for pastors is to over state the importance of their office for every single man that shows competency and to try to suck them in .

The other thing that I know , I notice in in just the uh , the Christian culture that we have at hand , is like this , like you had mentioned , eric , that your job is actually to preach the gospel . You're an evangelist in everything that you do . So if you pour concrete , you're a concrete Christian evangelist .

If you're a politician , you're a political Christian evangelist . You preach the gospel everywhere you go is kind of your job .

Yet we might say , well , what kind of work do you ?

If that's the target for how you live your life , if that's the story that you're trying to live , I mean , go for it , knock yourself out , but it definitely lacks subtlety . It's better . I would rather hire a guy that's really good at concrete . That's what I would , really , that's what I want and let your reputation shine .

It's like nobody does concrete better than this guy . He's going to charge a premium because he's going to pour a concrete driveway that your grandkids are going to still enjoy .

I work to please the Lord Jesus Christ , who made heaven and earth and everything in it , and I want this to land stand for your generations . Yeah , that's a much more powerful gospel message , in my opinion , than just hey , here's a quote .

By the way , the Lord Jesus Christ died for your sins and , you know , on the third day rise again and please put your faith in him .

And so what you're often doing is not saying , hey , you know , the only really valuable thing is to preach the gospel , and so you know , and , and you know , to fund missions overseas or something like that , you're saying no , no , no , you have a , have a vision for your legacy , for your people . How can you build this community ?

How can you start businesses that other people here work at , so that we can be an anti-fragile community ? I think that's a pivotal role for the pastor and for the message guy .

You do get some guys that that you look at and you can see the potential and you're like , actually you should be somewhat of a Christian Lord in a way lowercase L Lord , you know , but they have the means and the skills and God has just gifted them with the talents .

You know 10 talent guys that the work that they do could actually benefit the guy who needs to just work and provide for his family and maybe even call him up , you know , the , the guy that has fewer talents to say , hey , you should think about your life this way and business this way and you're investing this way .

Those sorts of guys need to be called up farther than just let's see how big you can get your 401k , your retirement accounts and how many vacation homes you can buy , you know , and how much , how early you can retire . You can retire at 35 .

Congratulations , you're just going to die , you know , you , you , uh , what was that quote that we mentioned the other day ?

Uh , all men , uh many men are die at 30 , but they're put in the ground at 80 , you know , and that's that's essentially what you're solidifying with a guy like that is , you're taking your tent , you have 10 talent guy and you're just burying it in the ground , you know so .

So that's what I I really try to do with a lot of these guys that have high capacities is , instead of saying you've been successful at business , brother , you should be an evangelist because you could be successful in convincing many people to make a decision for Jesus Christ . I want them to actually pour into the lives of the men in the church .

If our theology is true , not everything is theology , meaning that we don't need to mark out success for the ideal man , as every man being a theologian , there's a level on which every Christian is a theologian in that he thinks thoughts about God and we want them to be accurate and he must , you know , excel in the faith . And those are all true .

But so often we just collapse success , our model for success , down , instead of saying man , I would love to see a . You know who's a good ?

Dave Ramsey's actually a good , a pretty good example , a normie example of this where Dave Ramsey's like purportedly Christian and I I've got a lot of stuff from like Dave , come on , man , he's a very normie , kind of even blah evangelical , from my perspective , or at least impression of him .

But you look at that guy and you go and this isn't endorsing everything Dave Ramsey believes financially . But look at what he's done . He's like I'm a finance guy , I'm going to tie my finances . My counsel definitely to like be generous . You're you're ending with be generous and he will talk about God and things like that .

But generally speaking , dave Ramsey's whole thing is like I'm going to build an excellent media company that's really good at communicating financial ideas that I think are important , and I just wish we had so many more Christians who were like excellently building institutions like that .

I wish that I had 10 people that I could point to and say if you want to learn about real estate investment , go talk to this guy . And what it's not going to be is just like a podcast about post-millennialism , where they occasionally talk about real estate .

It's going to be like real , practical and helpful , and they're going to be actually building you know eight , nine , 10 figure real estate portfolios and guess what ? They're institutions led by and owned by Christians who actually are based in . That'd be great .

Give me one of those over a hundred podcasts about real estate investment that are basically just thinly veiled podcasts about post-millennialism or something else . You know , whatever the thing is of the day .

You know a really good carpenter'll look at their , their trade and it makes sense to them , they can just read it . You know a really good carpenter can look at the grain of the wood and they know the direction it's going .

They know how to plane it , they know whatever , how to cut their dovetails , they know the different pitfalls with different pieces of wood . They just know how to read their craft .

Yeah Right , why is it then that guys that are in the business sector or in communications pastors don't tend to see them in the same way that you do the carpenter , where they see , like , oh for a finance guy , it just makes sense to them . A real estate guy . They know real estate , it makes sense to them , it just clicks , there's something about it .

And so when you say , well , you're successful in this thing , you should actually come into the ecclesiastical realm .

But the point is let's actually make sure we have a broad enough idea for success that we're creating all the way from those high cap leaders who are one in a thousand down to the everyday , ordinary guy who is genuinely not that , but he is going to push the needle culturally in his sphere and there is a genuine glory in him being successful down on that

level that God created him to live and work on and he has one talent and he's going to turn a profit on that one talent .

So a lot of guys actually need to evaluate and think wait a second , am I actually supposed to be a pastor or am I ? Am I really just gets it in these other three things that overlap with that idea of a pastor and I really actually need to do something different .

Because we've had that too , where guys show up and I'm a church planter here in Utah or I'm this , and we're like actually , no , you're not . And I'm not denigrating you by saying no , you're not , I'm actually trying to help you . You're actually not a pastor .

We've got a host of great speakers . So give me the pitch , give me the plug for the conference , and then you can close us down .

We've got , you know Dan's going to be give it , you know , closing out the whole conference Dan's , I think , going to have the last word of just issuing a charge to the to the go charge the gates .

Not only that , the content's going to be great , but I think the fellowship and the friendship and the networking opportunities are going to be huge , because a lot of us are lonely where we're at , and if we could put some faces with names of Twitter friends and if we could forge some alliances with people that we've actually met and shook hands with and had a

meal with , I think that's extraordinarily valuable and really , to me , the most interesting thing about a conference that's why I would go to any conference is for that . Not just what's this ? You guys , you can get lectures on YouTube , like . We know that . That's not the number one reason we put a conference together . So we've .

We've tried to think through and make sure that there's lots of contexts um to hang out and get to know folks , Um , but we'd love to have you come . We've tried to make it . We got a much bigger venue this year .

We've worked to make it affordable for families , so the kids tickets are like cheap to free for the most part and there's there's just it's going to be a great time . So , and stay for Sunday worship . Yeah , stay for Sunday worship the 9th .

And then , yeah , come to the park . We've rented out a local park and we're going to be putting on a picnic that you can just come and hang out in the sun , hopefully , lord willing , and get to know folks , get a feel for how we worship together in Ogden and man , I just I hope it encourages a bunch of you .

I hope you guys have make lifelong friendships and connections through this weekend .

You have 12 months to seal the deal Now , well , that's it for this episode , unless you got any last words before I close it out here . Nope , that's great . All right , guys . Well , thanks for listening .

We hope that you are inspired by the zeal and by the courage in faith of men like Bohemond , and we hope that the Lord blessed you through hearing those stories and really , above all , we hope that you are , through them , conformed to the image of Christ and that he puts steel in your spine to do the work that he's put before you in your communities .

So may the Lord bless you . Remember wink it queesa . Wink it , he conquers who conquers himself . Make sure the first enemy you fight is your own flesh , but then be bold with all the enemies that follow , and we'll see you next time on the King's Hall . Thank you .