SHOEBAT EXCLUSIVE
By Theodore Shoebat
The great New Crusade is going to happen. It will be a world war that will provoke the formation of a confederacy of Christian nations that will war with the coming Islamic empire headed by Turkey.
We have been writing on this for quite some time now, and in our continual investigation, we got a chance to interview a veteran of the Serbian Special Forces, named Lazar, who explained to us how a confederacy of Eastern Orthodox nations, headed by Russia, will be forming in the near future as a response to Islamic terrorism.
He told us that ISIS agents, backed by Turkey and Saudi Arabia, are right now in the Balkans, and that they will be working with Albanian and Bosnian Muslims to bring immense violence to the Christian Serbs, as well as conducting terrorist attacks in Greece, Macedonia, and other Eastern European countries:
They will use Kosovo Albanians, or Bosnians — Muslim Bosnians — from Sandzak region, they will use them to start attacking people in Serbia, in Macedonia, and Greece. So it will provoke response from Serbs, from Greeks and from Macedonians. And it will most certainly unite us at that point. And I think Russia is deeply involved in these areas, so I think Russia will react to anything that happens here.
It will be this violence, according to Lazar, that will eventually provoke the Orthodox nations to form a confederacy. When asked which nation will lead this confederacy, Lazar said:
I think Russia, for sure.
He also made some very profound and logical prognostications: that Turkey will try to invade Greece, and that Russia, as well as fighters from Serbia, will intervene and drive the Turks out:
I don’t think Turkey will conquer Greece. I think they will try, but I don’t think they will conquer Greece. Greece will defend itself, also Greece will have help from Serbian fighters, for sure, from Russian fighters for sure. Greece to us Serbs is a holy land. Its our duty, even if I am not Greek (I am Serbian Orthodox), but my brother is Greek Orthodox and I must defend him.
This future war will be a holy war, not some superficial battle done for gain. It will be a glorious and sacred war. One of the most significant focuses of the war will be taking the Hagia Sophia, the holiest church of the Eastern Orthodox that was seized and made into a mosque after the Ottoman Muslims invaded Constantinople in 1453. The Orthodox confederacy will be fighting for this sacred place, and as Lazar told us:
If Russia gets involved in this future war, the Hagia Sophia will be free.
The Hagia Sophia is so sacred to the eyes of the Orthodox, that, as Lazar told us, there is even a saying amongst the Serbian veterans who fought the Muslims in the Balkans, “Next year in Hagia Sophia”. The Serbian Christians who will fight in the New Crusade will not believe in secular war; for they will abide by a great maxim that Lazar shared with us:
We have a saying in Serbia, “God first, but family second, and country third.
You can watch the whole interview here:
It will not just be the Eastern Orthodox countries that will come together to fight in the New Crusade, but the Western nations as well. The Holy League, a confederacy of Catholic nations (that consisted mainly of Spain and Italy) that formed in the late 16th century to fight the Ottoman Turks, will rise again. This is not just some utopian dream, but an event foretold by God; for in the Book of Daniel it says,
For the ships of Chittim shall come against him: therefore he shall be grieved, and return, and have indignation against the holy covenant: so shall he do; he shall even return, and have intelligence with them that forsake the holy covenant. (Daniel 11:30)
Chittim consists of Cyprus, Greece, and Italy. The New King James renders it as “ships from Cyprus”, while the Douay-Rheims presents the passage as, “And the galleys and the Romans shall come upon him”. The Greeks, Cypriots, and Italians will be appointed by God to fight the Muslim armies of the Antichrist. The Greeks and the Cypriots are Eastern Orthodox, while the Italians are Roman Catholics.
The holy centurion, Cornelius, was amongst the first warriors to join the fold of Christianity, and he was “of that which is called the Italian band” (Acts 10:1). And the Italians of today, the inheritors of that mighty Cornelius, will be amongst the forces who will fight the Antichrist.
The Catholic world will therefore join forces with the Eastern Orthodox world, and together they will combat and crush the empire of the revived Ottomans and their Islamic confederacy. It will be a holy war; the Cross will be our banner; our souls will be armed with the Sword of the Spirit, and the hilt of the sword will be gripped in the thrall of mighty Christendom! The Holy League will rise again, and the New Crusade will end with the sword stained by pagan blood!
The New Crusade will be one based on Christianity, its foundation will be Orthodox theology; it will unsheathe the sword of truth and the eternal blade of the Spirit, and through Christ the warriors will sternly charge and conquer their enemies. Lazar told us something quite interesting: his Orthodox priest teaches him that Christ does not want us to be sweet, but strong:
I will quote my spiritual father from my church, “Does Jesus teach us to be sweet or to be strong?” …My Orthodox priest teaches me to be strong in my Faith, to stand my ground.
To view Christ, not as some preacher of empty and jejune peace, but as a warrior Who fights the devil, as a knight Who with sword crushes His enemies to establish true peace, is inherent within Christianity. The warring Christ is the essence of the Christian spirit. To use the words of the medieval theologian Peter Abelard:
The Lord is strong and powerful, triumphing over conquered foes; with his strong hand so powerful in battle, the devil crushed, a victor he returns. (Abelard, When Unto the Heights the Lord, 5, trans. Walsh & Husch)
To the Orthodox Christian of the East, holy war is not something to look down upon, and nor is it deemed unbiblical, but instead it is something that is praised and glorified.
Christ said, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” (John 15:13) And surely is this verse applied to Holy War. As Lazar explained:
Its an honor and a glory to give your life to defend your friends, weak people who cannot defend themselves, or women or children. Its an absolute honor, it gives you a place in Heaven after you die. …It is an honor for an Orthodox Christian to give his life for friends and for people who he loves.
It was quite refreshing to see a fellow Christian give high esteem to Christian militancy, especially one who was a warrior of the Special Forces. Their theology is the same as the Christian Crusaders of the glorious Middle Ages, with the Holy Cross being their banner, the sacred right to defend the Faith with arms and zeal, and the praise of Holy War. As Lazar declared:
In Orthodox teachings … you have a right to fight.
Absolutely beautiful! We were reminded of the great words of Adamantius, the ancient Christian theologian of the fourth century, when he said:
even the Gospel recognizes the right of retaliation and the slaying of evil men. Thus it says, “The lord of that evil servant will come on a day when he knows not, and in an hour when he is not expecting, and will cut him in two and will assign him a place among the unbelieving” [Luke 12:46]. Hence it is right to wage a just war against those who go to war unjustly. (Adamantius, Dialogue on the True Faith, 1.10, in The Early Church on Killing, ed. Sider)
Christ tells us, “Love your enemies,” (Matthew 4:44) but against the enemy of the Faith does the King declare, “cast him into outer darkness” (Matthew 22:13). There is law and there is grace, and what intertwines them into harmony is love. In Holy War there is therefore a balance, between mercy and justice, peace and ferocity.
Lazar reminded us that when the Christians and the Muslims fought in the Balkans, that it “was for sure a religious war between Muslims and Christians.” Thus, it was a holy war, and a holy war it shall be in the New Crusade.
Christianity is against cruelty, but it is surely not against justice; it is surely not adverse to the prevention of evil-doers trampling over the Faith and oppressing the helpless. As Lazar explained to us:
The Eastern Orthodox Church is against war, against oppressing people. It teaches you to love people, to love your neighbor, to love your family. But, in case you are attacked, if you have to defend yourself, if you have to defend your neighbor, if I have to defend Orthodox Greeks, I will do so, because they are brothers, and you have to defend your brothers.
To lay down one’s life for the brethren, by taking up arms and fighting for them, was beautifully done by the holy Crusaders of wonderful Christendom. The great knight, Payns, lay down his life to defend the poor pilgrims who were being slaughtered by the pagan Muslims in the Holy Land. As the medieval writer, Walter Map, writes of this gallant warrior:
Having heard that at a cistern just outside Jerusalem Christians watering their horses were frequently ambushed and killed in pagan attacks, he defended them to the best of his ability, often lying in ambush himself and then coming to their aid, killing several of the enemy. (Walter Map, In Barber and Bate, The Templars, ch. 1, p. 29)
The Holy Cross is the banner of the Christian warriors; it is the image, not of death, but of life; not of superficial peace, but of war and victory. The Christians of the Orthodox Church uphold the Cross as the sign of conquest, conquest over the devil, his followers, over tyranny and demons, oppression and all that is an enemy to the sacred.
Lazar told us that the Cross plays a very significant role in Holy War, for it was the sign that the emperor Constantine the Great took with him when he crushed the pagans in the Battle of Milvian Bridge:
It [the Cross] has a big role. It goes back to Constantine the Great. “By this sign you will conquer.”
On that battle on Milvian Bridge in Rome, the valiant Constantine defeated the pagans when the bridge collapsed and their leader, Maxentius, drowned. Prudentius, the Spanish Christian writer of the fourth century and first of all Christian poets, beautifully described the battle, and how the Holy Cross — the mark of Christ — was the emblem of the warriors, as both their standard and the image engraved on their shields:
The Mulvian bridge, by hurling the usurper into the waters of the Tiber when he set foot on it, bore witness to the divine power which it saw directing the victorious arms of the Christian general who was approaching Rome, the standard which the avenging hand bore at the head of his array, the emblem with which the javelins gleamed. The mark of Christ, wrought in jeweled gold, was on the purple labarum; Christ had drawn the bearings on the shields, and the cross blazed on the crests atop. (Prudentius, Symmachus, 2.482-490, trans. Thomson)
What we also found quite fascinating was how the Serbian fighters associated the Virgin Mary with Holy War. Lazar explained to me that because Mary exhibited profound endurance when having to watch her Son suffer, the Christian soldier esteems her as a model for mental forbearance when they must suffer the sight of their fellow soldiers dying.
Lazar also described how when he and his company were in war with the Muslims in the Balkans, they would ask the saints in Heaven to pray for them, for their protection and for victory:
We were praying everyday, whenever we had the possibility to do that. I was praying, in some situations, every minute — every second. I had with me a picture of my patron saint [St. Petka]
To ask the saints in Heaven for their protection and their intercession is something that is not new to the Church, but very ancient. The fourth century Doctor of the Church, St. Ambrose of Milan, saw the martyrs in Heaven as the warriors of Christ who defend Christ’s Church. St. Ambrose declared:
Such defenders do I desire, such are the soldiers I have, that is, not soldiers of this world, but soldiers of Christ. I fear no ill-will on account of them, the more powerful their patronage is the greater safety is there in it. And I wish for their protection for those very persons who grudge them to me. (Ambrose, Letter 22.10, trans. Romestin)
The medieval theologian, Adam of St. Victor, saw the Virgin Mary as the one who prays for warriors who combat the evil of Satan, as he wrote in one of his hymns:
O Mary, star of the ocean, you are one unique in merit; your position is exalted over all ranks in heaven above. Stationed in the peak of heaven, to your offspring recommend us, lest our enemies’ fright or cunning make us stumble in our course. As we gird ourselves for battle be we safe in your defenses; may the obstinate and crafty Satan’s force yield to your power, his guile to your providence. (Adam of St. Victory, Hail O Mother of Our Savior, 11-12)
In the Battle of Cintla, between the Spanish Conquistadors and the pagan Indians of Tabasco, it was said that an unknown horseman appeared in the middle of the fight and chased the enemy away, giving the Christians the victory.
After making his attack, and forcing the pagans to flee, the horseman disappeared. It was believed by the Conquistadors that this mysterious horseman was the patron saint of Spain, St. James the Apostle, or as the Spaniards called him, St. Jaime Matamoros, or “James the Muslim killer,” since it was said that St. James would appear in the battles against the Moorish Muslims and slay them. Gomara, the Spanish historian, writes on the mysterious horseman as such:
Our men told him [Cortes] what that single horseman had done and asked him whether it was one of his company. Cortes answered that it was not, and they believed, since no other horseman had appeared, that it was the Apostle St. James, patron saint of Spain. (Gomara, Life of Cortes, 20, trans. Simpson, brackets mine)
The angels of Heaven strengthen the warriors in the Holy War against the devil and his acolytes. For when Christ was in His war against the devil, and was in His anguish praying in the garden, “an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him.” (Luke 22:43)
When Elisha was surrounded by the pagan Syrians, his servant was sorely afraid, and Elisha, in strengthening him, asked God to reveal the army of Heaven that surrounded him, and when he saw what was unseen, he witnessed the true protection of the saints. As the Scripture says,
Therefore he sent horses and chariots and a great army there, and they came by night and surrounded the city. And when the servant of the man of God arose early and went out, there was an army, surrounding the city with horses and chariots. And his servant said to him, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?”
So he answered, “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” And Elisha prayed, and said, “Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. So when the Syrians came down to him, Elisha prayed to the Lord, and said, “Strike this people, I pray, with blindness.” And He struck them with blindness according to the word of Elisha. (2 Kings 6:14-18)
The Serbian warriors of the Balkans always take with them the icons of saints into battle, believing that these very saints of Heaven protect them in battle, as they protected Elisha. As Lazar told us:
We also cary icons, always with us. Its part of being a Serb, to carry your icons wherever you go, including war.
To carry holy icons into battle goes all the way back to far antiquity. The ancient Christian emperors of Christendom always took with them an icon of Mary into battle. This icon was called the Theometor, the Mother of God. As the Byzantine historian Psellus tells us, the icon of the Theometor was
the image which Roman emperors habitually carry with them on campaign as a guide and guardian of all the army. (Psellus, Fourteen Byzantine Emperors, 3.11, trans. Sewter)
Christendom will rise again, and she will be adorned with all of her beauties, and surrounded by here mighty defenders, she shall conquer with Christ as her Mighty General. Behold the glowing lamp of Christendom; behold her mighty warriors, as they traverse from the lands of the East, honoring Heaven’s saints, laying down their lives to defend the brotherhood; witness with awe the holy crusaders, who through love accomplish the most daring feats for the sake of compassion for the persecuted; look with reverent eyes to such fighters, who through Faith crush the slaves of the old serpent, and through the Holy Cross, vanquish the sons of Cain!
The Holy Crusade will rise again! The New Crusade will soon transpire! Let us prepare our souls for such a day, and let us be ready for the wonderful empire of the Cross to manifest.
Christus vincit! Christus regnat! Christus imperat!