The student of history will often read and hear terms relating to "the Christianizing of the World." Such terms will often be used in conjunction with either broad or specific treatments of the spread of belief in Christ into Palestine, the Roman Empire, then into perhaps Northern Africa, the Middle East, Europe, the New World and even in studies describing the spread of "Christianity" throughout the farthest reaches of the World.

We cannot help but notice that in today's revisionist history telling, the spread of "Christianity" is blamed with many world woes and seldom receives any praise. Those who have done missionary work in far off places are blamed with destroying native religions and upsetting them to the point that when European nations were finally kicked out of those 3rd World countries by their indigenous peoples, it is the missionaries that are said to be the root of their current problems and not primarily the greed of the governments of men. You can see it told over and over on "The Learning Channel" or "The Discovery Channel" or documentaries on PBS. It is often the reason given that the natives of these places only wear clothes because they were made to feel so overwhelmingly guilty by the "uptight, puritanical Christian Missionaries" of centuries past.

Those of European descent who are most closely associated with such evils are reminded of such horrible things as the conquest of South American Indian cultures like the Mayans, Aztecs, Incans and others. The brutality shown by Spanish soldiers and clergy was a real event and the bloodshed in the name of Christ a great travesty. Thousands upon thousands of Indians, we are told, were butchered when they would not convert to "Christianity." Every school child can tell you this.

The hatred that Islamic cultures and nations feel toward Westerners today is rooted in the Crusades of the Middle Ages. During that time, over a span of a couple of centuries, wave after wave of zealous European "Christians" seeking to relieve Jerusalem from the hands of Arabic and Islamic inhabitants assaulted the Middle East and the bloodshed was again, horrendous.

In Winston Churchill's "History of Great Britain" he mentions how Saxon "Christians" battled the Pagan Vikings and at the end of battles where the Vikings were defeated that the Saxons would force the Vikings to "convert" and would baptize them; causing Churchill to comment that there was one well known Viking who converted over 40 times! In "The Last Apocalypse" the author says that Otto the Great, a fierce ex-pagan Viking king forced all his followers to become "Christians." From the German comes this little poem: "And wilt thou not a Christian be, I'll smash thy skull, just wait & see!"

Marx, Lenin, and Mao Tze Tung were relentless in their blame of "Christianity" for global bloodshed and the economic plight of the poor and downtrodden "masses." Marx's famous quip that "religion is the opiate of the people," no doubt, brought derision and much worse upon many believers in Christ.

Having reminded ourselves of these historic perspectives it is important that we take the initiative in correcting this perception whenever we can to those who espouse it. The thing I would like to make clear here, is that historians rarely if ever clarify the difference between those who truly believe in the doctrine of Christ, that is, those who look only to the New Testament for what they believe, and the operations of the Catholic Church in Rome. Catholicism IS NOT the New Testament doctrine of Christ! There is a big difference in the words "Christian" and "Catholic." I know of no time in all of history where actual members of the church of Christ compelled by force anyone to become a Christian.