Christendom and the Franks

The Franks were a German tribe. This tribe invaded the Roman empire while the the western half of the was collapsing. The Franks settled in the Roman territory of Gaul. Over time they gave their tribal name to the place, so we no longer call that land Gaul, as the Roman’s did, we now know it by the name it took from this German tribe, We call it France after the Franks.

In 496 AD Clovis, king of the Franks, converted to the Christian faith and with him the tribe of Franks converted to Christ as well. The Franks would become important defenders of the church and the Christianity.

In 632 AD Mohammed died and his followers began many years of conquest. Muslims soon controlled territory from India to the Straits of Gibraltar, in North Africa. In 711 AD they crossed into Spain and soon conquered the Iberian Peninsula. In Oct. of the year 732 AD the Arab army and the Frank’s Christian Army lead by Charles Martel (the Hammer), meet on the fields of Tours, in France. The Muslim Army was made up mostly of cavalry and the army of the Franks was an infantry army. This was a bloody day. The bodies of men and animals lay strewn on the body field and at the day’s end, the Franks held the field. The Muslims retreated back across the Pyrenees into Spain where they would maintain control of all or part of Spain until the year 1492.

At the Battle of Tours the Franks and their allies halted one hundred years of conquest and expansion by the Muslim armies of Islam. All of Christian North Africa and Spain were in Arab hands and it looked, for awhile, as though the Arabs, under the banners of Islam would conquer all of Christendom but this was not to be.

Today, at times, it looks like the forces arrayed against the Christian faith are overwhelming, and many Christians believe that we are destined to decline and cultural defeat. I strongly believe that is a mistaken belief, and Christians will triumph against the forces of modernity and the Muslim terrorist as well, just as the Franks triumphed against the Arab Muslims at the Battle of Tours.

Christ is our King and we are his soldiers. He has given us a powerful weapon to do battle with the enemy; it is the two edged sword of the Gospel. It is that Gospel that will win the day in God’s timing. The Holy Spirit will yet bring all the World into the Kingdom of our Lord.

Dominus vobiscum,
Kenith