Why Do We Encourage Crusaders? (Plus, thoughts on Covenants)

Volleyball games. An integral part of the fall sports season. I was at a volleyball game today and the opposing team was called "the Crusaders." Sure, it's a common name for Christian school sport teams in fact, I attended an elementary school with the same mascot. A question soon manifested itself in my mind upon further reflection. My question was, why would Christians voluntarily label themselves as crusaders?

When you think of crusaders, what do you think of? I think of many things. These things tend to be along the lines of murder, war, racism, rape, genocide, and religious fanaticism. Lovely, huh? Atheists and agnostics often use the crusaders as an example to decry religion. Why are Christians not trying to distance themselves from the crusades? The crusades were the product of a grotesque twisting of scripture and cannot be allowed to represent the views of Christians. I know that Christians do not agree with or condone what the crusaders did, then why do we continue to label ourselves and associate with the crusaders? It genuinely puzzles me. It is probably a product of failing to think things through, but it's just so widespread that I don't know what to think of it.

Today in the shower, I was considering the list of all the different covenants that we see in Scripture. There is the Adamic (or covenant of works), the Noahic, the Abrahamic, the Mosaic the Davidic, and the Covenant of Grace. However, it seems to me that these are all just amendments rather than separate covenants. We've created different covenants that are really just progressive revelation of the one before.

Beginning with the Adamic, we see that man falls into original sin through this covenant (setting the stage for God's story of redemption) but God preaches the proto-Gospel at the breaking of the covenant. It is then elaborated upon by the Noahic covenant. After Noah and his family exit the ark, God promises to preserve the earth. (Importantly, it also establishes capital punishment and man's ability to eat meat. :D) This is significant because it shows God's interest in the world. His desire to preserve a people and make an ongoing investment in this world is demonstrated. The Abrahamic covenant is very important because it establishes, in greater detail, God's plan to redeem his people. Abraham's descendants will be more numerous than the stars and through him the world would be blessed. Next, the Mosaic covenant fleshes out his people's guidelines as well as the basic moral code (Ten Commandments). Then the Davidic covenant describes to us in greater detail the Messiah's coming, namely, his being the son of David. Of course, the Covenant of Grace is a fulfillment of all the covenants that came before. As I write this it sounds less and less profound. Really, it's quite simple. It appears to me that it is all progressive revelation. That is, amendments to the ones before it that reveals God's story further each time.

I hope you somehow found this interesting. Hope you have a good day and God bless!

Stanley

P.S. I have a really stupid joke for you. What happened to the cannibal who showed up late to the feast?......... stumped? He got THE COLD SHOULDER! (insert comedy drum here)