Crusade against the Pope

Chapter 224 Life
Two years have passed since May 1186. The land of Transjordan has gone through the era of Gairis, and now, under the leadership of John and others, it has undergone various changes.

From basic food, clothing, housing and transportation to high-end pharmaceutical production and even self-sufficiency in weapons, basically everything has been set up.

The abundance of these commodities has led to rapid changes in people’s lives here.

In a study in the village of Scarr, Antoine recalled the past year and felt that it seemed particularly unreal.

He used to be a parish priest in Karak City, but now he has become the head of the holy land of the order in Skar Village, responsible for the operation of this land.

Every day I need to write a lot of information and organize theories.

Before starting his day's work, he took out a gold coin and a few supply coupons from his desk.

It mainly contains sulfur soap and white sugar.

These commodities are expensive and in short supply on the market. In order to meet the needs of local people, purchase restrictions are often imposed.

He handed the gold coin and the supply voucher to the student next to him and asked him to run an errand for him.

Antoine returned to his desk and continued his work.

On his desk are five thick and thin transcribed notebooks, which are the original theoretical core provided by Gellis.

Antoine is now using his profound theological knowledge to enrich the sect's doctrines around these theoretical cores.

One of Antoine's goals is to establish the idea that the soul belongs to God, while the body belongs to the secular world, and the purpose of the Taiping Order's existence is to make the world a reflection of heaven.

To this end, he inevitably reiterated the concept of "justification by faith."

In fact, the concept of justification by faith was not original to Martin Luther.

As early as the early days of Christianity, the apostle Paul put forward similar ideas in the form of anti-legalism.

This involves the history of religion and a fundamental shift in religious worldview.

First, we need to understand the Abrahamic religions.

They are called Abrahamic religions because they have a common ancestor in cultural origin - Abraham.

It is said that Abraham was the tenth generation descendant of Noah.

As to whether Abraham really existed, this remains controversial. After all, apart from Jewish records, there is no other independent evidence to prove his existence.

It is said that God sent a flood because of human sins, which almost wiped out all human beings, and only Noah's descendants survived.

After the flood, God made a covenant with Noah that he would not destroy mankind with a flood again. However, man's original sin did not disappear.

So God chose Abraham, made a new covenant with him, ordered him to go to Canaan, and declared that as long as Abraham lived according to God's laws, his descendants would be blessed by God.

This promise was fulfilled in the descendants of Abraham's grandson Jacob.

Isaac, also known as Shem, is the mythical ancestor of the Semites.

Jacob was a descendant of Isaac. After experiencing a wrestling experience with God, he was renamed Israel and became the ancestor of the Israeli nation.

Israel had twelve sons, each of whom had many descendants who formed the twelve tribes of Israel.

In the end, only the tribes of Judah and Benjamin remained, and because of its small population, the tribe of Benjamin was eventually merged into the tribe of Judah. ​​From then on, the only descendants of Israel left were the tribe of Judah, namely the Jews (and actually the Samaritans).

The Jews live strictly in accordance with the covenant between Abraham and God, follow the law of Moses (the Torah) and the commandments derived from it, and lead a life of strict discipline.

These laws stipulated strict lifestyles such as circumcision and eating kosher food, forming a closed cultural circle, which is the origin of Judaism.

Judaism was only taught to the Jews, who believed that only the descendants of Abraham were qualified to receive God's blessing, while others were not.

However, in the Christian worldview, this concept is broken.

Note that this is within the Christian worldview.

In the traditional worldview of Judaism, Jesus is not recognized as the Messiah and is therefore regarded as a "false prophet."

The origin of Christianity is that Jesus and his disciples spread the teachings of Judaism. The original Christianity still retained a large number of Jewish precepts and lifestyles.

Strictly speaking, the early Christians can be considered spiritual Jews: they had no Jewish ancestry but lived according to Jewish ways.

All this was broken by the Apostle Paul.

Paul is the author of many letters in the New Testament. He proposed the abolition of the Torah commandments and put forward the concept of "justification by faith."

Paul opposed obtaining justification through observance of the law, rituals, and circumcision. He believed that all people have sinned and are in debt to God, and that the law alone is not enough to be called righteous.

Only through Jesus' sacrifice, and reconciliation with God, by God's grace and human faith, can we be declared righteous by God.

In other words, in the traditional Jewish worldview, only by strictly following the complicated laws can one be justified; but in Paul's view, these complicated laws are just superficial and cannot truly cleanse people's sins.

It was by abandoning these Jewish laws that Christianity was able to lower the threshold for entry and truly begin to become popular.

Just as Martin Luther later proposed a new concept of "justification by faith" based on Paul's views, Antoine also used this concept to carry out a second anti-religious classic movement.

During this movement, Antoine used the concept of "justification by faith" to challenge the sanctity of the Roman Catholic Church, pointing out that because of "Gailis", everyone has the possibility of becoming a priest, and one day in the future, everyone should become a priest.

The purpose of the Taiping Sect's existence is not to allow people to go to heaven after death, but to establish a paradise on earth.

He emphasized worldly pursuits and paid attention to the actual interests of the people.

“Although we come from all corners of the world, have different ethnic groups, and have different beliefs, from this moment on, we all swear under this flag to be one, work together, and work for the same goal for the rest of our lives. We do not expect a paradise after death, but only hope that through our struggle and sacrifice, we can benefit the world and bring heaven to this world.”

Antoine wrote a final summary, and his theoretical work came to an end.

The actions of Guéris and Antoine are precisely to establish a completely new order, which requires breaking the existing system and convincing the public to accept and believe in it.

So, how can we convince the general public?

From the moment they are born, countless voices and actions constantly remind them that the order they live in is eternal and unchanging.

People firmly believe that only by following the old order can they obtain a good harvest and good health and ascend to heaven. If they violate this order, their life will be full of ups and downs, and everything will go wrong, and they will not be able to ascend to heaven.

Those orders constantly emphasize their truthfulness and warn the world not to violate them.

This is true whether it is feng shui, reincarnation, belief in God, or blind obedience to capitalism.

In order to break this subconscious indoctrination, we need to combine ironclad facts with indoctrination propaganda to shake the mountain of the old world that weighs on people's hearts.

In the village of Skarr, every farm worker can get 60 pounds of food, so poverty will never be a problem; and the average of pounds of meat per person per year is something that the former serfs and lower-class free people have only dreamed of.

Where exactly does the superiority of the system manifest itself?

This is the embodiment of superiority. Those who believe in the old order and recognize that the nobility can ride on the necks of serfs are doomed to starvation.

More available food means more non-agricultural population.

Although the total grain production may not have increased, the urban and non-agricultural population is growing rapidly.

These non-agricultural populations included blacksmiths in smithies, workers in soap factories, miners in saltpeter mines, waiters in taverns in the town of Alhadi, and even an entire regiment of professional soldiers.

There are 1 soldiers who are undergoing full-time training. They eat at least one pound of meat a week and undergo high-intensity training for at least two days.

These talented people are the cornerstone of the coming "Kingdom of Heaven" and have become enemies that Saladin had never imagined when he assembled his forces for the "bandit subjugation" operation.

Now, Saladin has decided to gather his army, and the first thing he needs to do is to remove the poisonous thorn behind him called "Transjordan".

……

Does this world have a paradise?

Whenever Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad walked through this desolate land caused by war, he would always unconsciously ask himself this question.

Cruelty, injustice, plunder, killing, hypocrisy, arrogance, greed... In this devastated world, it seems that everything has deviated from the will of God.

In his eyes, prayer, fasting, alms, pilgrimage, purity, jihad and martyrdom, the seven pillars of faith, seemed powerless to change the suffering in the world.

Altaïr often felt that those helpless prayers were nothing more than faint echoes of the sad song of the times, which could easily be dissipated without a trace in the wind in the wilderness.

But there are always some people who choose to transcend the constraints of tradition and no longer pray for heaven after death, but instead try to make heaven come to earth through human power.

They are unwilling to wait for the unattainable salvation, but want to use their own hands and their own beliefs to bring peace and justice to the world.

Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad was a member of the Nizari Ismaili sect, and his order shared these ideals.

In the mountains on the southern coast of the Caspian Sea and in the Lebanese mountains on the eastern Mediterranean, castles rise up one after another, enclosing a world that is completely different from the outside world.

That peaceful land was regarded by them as the Garden of Eden on earth, a safe haven for their followers amidst blood and fire.

“In Masyaf, one can find paradise, a place where there are no levies or taxes other than the zakat.”

This is what Altaïr would always tell them whenever he met displaced civilians living in poverty.

He knew that the paradise on this world was not perfect, but at least, in that land guarded by them, the weight of suffering was slightly reduced and the dignity of life was preserved.

Altaïr emerged from Masyaf, a fortress nestled in the mountains, and rode a horse across the arduous 150 kilometers to Antioch.

Before entering the city, he took off his headscarf and changed into the traditional clothes of the locals. He seemed to blend into this city where the majority of residents are Armenian Orthodox.

Altaïr spoke fluent Greek and looked calmly at the bustling streets. There was a calmness and detachment in his eyes that seemed to be detached from this place.

Everything is just a temporary illusion, and his real goal is somewhere far away in his heart.

The air in the tavern was turbid and lively. Altaïr sat in a corner, listening quietly to the conversations of the people around him, trying to figure out what had happened recently, so that the flags of the Kingdom of Jerusalem could be seen everywhere in the city.

He heard about the Kingdom of Jerusalem's control over Antioch, learned of Raynald's defeat, and understood that a trial was about to await the once crazy Prince of Antioch.

A complex feeling welled up in Altaïr's heart, a mixture of relief and a deep sigh.

Although he was only in his twenties and had not experienced those bloody years personally, he had heard too many stories from his mentor - in those years, the tough confrontation between the Order and Reynard almost crushed them.

Reynald's exploitation of the people was as greedy as a tiger. The annual collection of 60% to 70% made countless people unable to survive.

However, the sect attracted those desperate people with its tolerance and protection. Even Orthodox believers turned to the sect and converted to God when they were at their wits' end, just to escape the oppressive life under the protection of the sect.

During that period, countless predecessors came forward one after another, using their flesh and blood to withstand Leonard's edge.

But in the end, they were only able to eliminate this stubborn opponent by cooperating with the Governor of Aleppo.

From then on, the Order's enemy changed from the Crusader lords to Saladin, and in order to fight against Saladin, the Order even sought cooperation with Amalric I of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

Faith has never been a shackle for them. The core of the sect's faith lies in worldly peace and tranquility, inner faith and loyalty to the Imam. Any means that can achieve this goal are worth trying.

For Altaïr, a mosque should not be a rigid symbol; inner peace is more important than any external form.

Peace and obedience are the only goals the cult should pursue, and for this goal, the cult can cooperate with any force as long as it can make their castle independent from the world.

Altaïr stood quietly in the streets of Antioch, feeling the tense atmosphere of the city caused by the war.

His fingers gently stroked the two letters in his arms, one from Acre and the other from Antioch.

Although the seals on the letters are different, the contents of the two letters have the same expectation - to kill Gellis.

He knew that this mission would once again put him on the edge of danger, and every choice he made would be like walking on a knife's edge.

But Altaïr did not hesitate. For the sake of peace in the world, for those who had found a moment of tranquility in Masyaf, he was willing to move forward, no matter what awaited him.

The belief he carries is just like the sharp blade in his hand, cold and resolute.

Even if this world can no longer see the appearance of heaven, he is willing to use his hands to protect the only remaining ray of light for more people.

(End of this chapter)