In November 1095, Pope Urban II addressed a gathering of clergy and laity at the Council of Clermont in France. According to the chronicler Fulcher of Chartres, Urban began: “Most beloved brethren: Urged by necessity, I, Urban, by the permission of God, chief bishop and prelate over the whole world, have come into these parts as an ambassador with a divine admonition to you, the servants of God.”
Urban’s language and goals were not mere Christian nationalism. They were a Christian globalism asserted by numerous Medieval popes, claiming a worldwide authority over church and state as the very vicars of Christ on earth. He urged those present to end the unbridled violence that was dividing European Christendom by accepting a peace process called the Truce of God and uniting in a collective response to Muslim presence and power in the Holy Land, noting:
Bill Leonard
For, as the most of you have heard, the Turks and Arabs have attacked them and have conquered the territory of Romania (the Greek empire) as far west as the shore of the Mediterranean and the Hellespont. . … They have killed and captured many and have destroyed the churches and devastated the empire. If you permit them to continue thus for awhile with impurity, the faithful of God will be much more widely attacked by them. On this account I, or rather the Lord, beseech you as Christ’s heralds to publish this everywhere and to persuade all people of whatever rank, foot-soldiers and knights, poor and rich, to carry aid promptly to those Christians and to destroy that vile race from the lands of our friends.
He proclaimed: “All who die by the way, whether by land or by sea, or in battle against the pagans, shall have immediate remission of sins. This I grant them through the power of God with which I am invested.”
Another chronicler of the era, Robert the Monk, reported:
When Pope Urban had said these and very many similar things in his urbane discourse, he so influenced to one purpose the desires of all who were present, that they cried out, “It is the will of God! It is the will of God!” When the venerable Roman pontiff heard that, with eyes uplifted to heaven he gave thanks to God and, with his hand commanding silence, said, … ‘Let this then be your war-cry in combats, because this word is given to you by God. When an armed attack is made upon the enemy, let this one cry be raised by all the soldiers of God: It is the will of God! It is the will of God!’ *
Pete Hegseth tattoo
Deus vult is Latin for “God wills it,” words tattooed on the body of the current Secretary of Defense/War Pete Hegseth, who has linked the Medieval crusades with current U.S. military action, particularly the war/excursion in Iran. Speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast Feb. 6, Hegseth declared: “(Christ’s) mission was to divide truth from lies, the things of the world from the things of God, light from darkness, good from evil. And like Christ, in earthly ways our brave warriors are not called to appease the world, they must confront it.”
Echoing Urban II 931 years later, Hegseth asserted:
The willingness to make sacrifices on behalf of one’s country is born in one thing: a deep and abiding belief in God’s love for us and his promise of eternal life. The passage says, ‘For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.’ The warrior who is willing to lay down his life for his unit, his country and his Creator, that warrior finds eternal life.
Writing in “A Public Witness,” Brian Kaylor observed that Hegseth “claimed that soldiers fight for the U.S. because they believe in Jesus — even though there are many members of the armed forces who are Jewish, Muslim or from other religions or no religion. And he suggested that someone who dies fighting for the U.S. gains salvation, making dying for a country a salvific act.”
At a Pentagon-based prayer meeting March 24, Hegseth prayed: “Let every round find its mark against the enemies of righteousness and our great nation. Give them wisdom in every decision, endurance for the trial ahead, unbreakable unity, and overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy.”
“He suggested that someone who dies fighting for the U.S. gains salvation, making dying for a country a salvific act.”
He concluded: “We ask these things with bold confidence in the mighty and powerful name of Jesus Christ, king over all kings and amen.”
Is this militant rhetoric an effort to cast the current Middle East war as a missile-armament-crusade between Christian America and Islamic Iran? Is this “war” a sign of a pending, two-millennia anticipated apocalypse before the return of Jesus Christ?
Some apparently believe so. Cornell University sociology professor Landon Schabel comments:
Over 110 service members across every (military) branch and more than 30 installations have reported commanders framing the Iran war as fulfillment of biblical prophecy. That pattern is consistent with what we’ve seen at the top of the Defense Department: prayer services at the Pentagon, affiliation with pastors who advocate Christian theocracy, a Bible study that preaches (dispensational) divine obligation to support Israel. End-times theology didn’t infiltrate the military. It was invited in.**
Staff from the Military Religious Freedom Foundation showed Guardian reporter Sara Braun a complaint filed by a noncommissioned officer asserting his commander “urged us to tell our troops that this was ‘all part of God’s divine plan’ and he specifically referenced numerous citations out of the book of Revelation referring to Armageddon and the imminent return of Jesus Christ.”
Apocalypse is an “unveiling” of secret truths, a new day, at once destructive and constructive. Some Christians interpret the apocalypse as the ultimate battle between good and evil. Others see it as a process of purification and new life for world and church alike. Some combine those two themes.
Linking the apocalypse with ancient Crusades and/or certain millennial speculations — pre-, post- or amillennialism — illustrates the increasing influence of what might best be called fundamentalist Christian nationalism, wedging its way into every facet of American life.
Yet there are other voices. On Palm Sunday 2026, Pope Leo XIV declared of the crucified Jesus:
He did not arm himself, or defend himself, or fight any war. He revealed the gentle face of God, who always rejects violence. Rather than saving himself, he allowed himself to be nailed to the Cross, embracing every cross borne in every time and place throughout human history.
Brothers and sisters, this is our God: Jesus, King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war. He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them, saying: “Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: your hands are full of blood.”
At last, a pope who calls us not to another Crusade, but to another Reformation.
Deus vult!
Bill Leonard is founding dean and the James and Marilyn Dunn professor of Baptist studies and church history emeritus at Wake Forest University School of Divinity in Winston-Salem, N.C. He is the author or editor of 25 books. A native Texan, he lives in Winston-Salem with his wife, Candyce.