Chapter 224 Life
Two years have passed since May 1186. The land of Transjordan has experienced the era of Garris, and now, under the leadership of John and others, various things have happened. All kinds of changes.
From basic clothing, food, housing and transportation, to high-end pharmaceutical production, and even self-sufficiency in weapons, we have basically spread out our stalls.
The abundance of these commodities makes the lives of people here change with each passing day.
In a study room in Skaar Village, Antoine thought about his life in the past year and felt it was particularly unreal.
From a parish priest in the city of Karak, he has now become the person in charge of the religious order's holy land in Skaar Village, and is responsible for the operation of this land.
Every day I need to write a lot of information and organize theories.
Before starting the day's work, he took out a gold coin from his desk, and then took out several supply coupons.
It mainly contains sulfur soap and white sugar.
These products are expensive and in short supply on the market. In order to meet the needs of local people, purchase restrictions are often implemented.
He handed a gold coin and a supply coupon to the student next to him and asked him to run an errand for him.
Antoine returned to his desk and began to continue his work.
On his desk, there are five thick copies of notes, which are the core of the original theory provided by Garris.
Antoine is now relying on his profound theological knowledge to continuously enrich the order's teachings around these theoretical cores.
One of Antoine's goals is to establish the concept that the soul belongs to God, while the body belongs to the world. The purpose of the Taiping Order is to make the world a reflection of heaven.
To this end, he inevitably reiterates the idea of “justification by faith.”
In fact, the concept of justification by faith is not original to Martin Luther.
As early as the early days of Christianity, the apostle Paul proposed similar ideas in the form of antinomianism.
This involves the history of religion and the transformation of a basic religious worldview.
First of all, we must understand the Abrahamic religions.
They are called Abrahamic religions because they have a common ancestor in their cultural origins - Abraham.
It is said that Abraham is the tenth generation descendant of Noah.
As for whether Abraham really existed, this is still controversial. After all, apart from Jewish records, there is no other independent evidence to support his existence.
It is said that God once sent a flood because of human sins, which almost wiped out all human beings. Only the descendants of Noah survived.
After the flood, God made a covenant with Noah not to use floods to destroy mankind again. However, man's original sin has not disappeared.
Therefore, God chose Abraham, made a new covenant with him, and ordered him to go to Canaan, claiming that as long as he lived according to God's law, Abraham's descendants would receive God's blessings.
This promise is fulfilled in the descendants of Jacob, the grandson of Abraham.
Isaac, also known as Shem, is the mythical ancestor of the Semites.
Jacob is a descendant of Isaac. After experiencing the incident of wrestling with God, he was renamed Israel and became the ancestor of the Israelite nation.
Israel had twelve sons, and each of them produced numerous descendants, constituting the twelve tribes of Israel.
In the end, only the tribes of Judah and Benjamin remained, and the tribe of Benjamin was eventually merged into the tribe of Judah due to its small number. Since then, the only descendants of Israel are the tribes of Judah, the Jews (actually there are also Samaritans). Asian).
The Jews live strictly in accordance with the contract between Abraham and God, follow the law of Moses (the Torah) and its derived commandments, and live a life of strict discipline.
These laws stipulate strict lifestyles such as circumcision and eating kosher food, forming a closed cultural circle. This is the origin of Judaism.
Judaism was only passed down to the Jews. It is believed that only the descendants of Abraham are qualified to receive blessings from God, and others do not have such blessings.
However, in the Christian worldview, this concept is broken.
Note, within the Christian worldview.
In the traditional world view of Judaism, Jesus is not recognized as the Messiah and is therefore regarded as a "false prophet".
The origin of Christianity was the spread of Jewish teachings by Jesus and his disciples. The original Christianity still retained a large number of Jewish precepts and lifestyles.
Strictly speaking, the early Christians can be seen as 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 commandments of the Torah and proposed the concept of "justification by faith."
Paul opposed obtaining justification through observance of laws, rituals, and circumcision. He believed that everyone in the world has sinned and owes God, and the law alone is not enough to be called righteous.
Only by being reconciled to God through the sacrifice of Jesus, by virtue of God's grace and human faith, can one be called righteous by God.
In other words, in the traditional Jewish worldview, only by strictly following the cumbersome laws can one be justified; but from Paul's point of view, these cumbersome laws are only superficial and cannot truly cleanse people. sin.
It was by abandoning these Jewish laws that Christianity was able to lower the threshold for entry into the religion and truly began to gain popularity.
Just as Martin Luther later proposed a new "justification by faith" based on Paul's point of view, Antoine also used this concept to carry out the second anti-religious classics movement.
In this movement, Antoine used the concept of "justification by faith" to challenge the sanctity of the Holy See, pointing out that because of "Gerris", everyone has the opportunity to become a priest Perhaps, one day in the future, everyone should become a priest.
The purpose of the Taiping Order is not to let people go to heaven after death, but to build a heavenly paradise on earth.
He emphasized the pursuit of this world and paid attention to the actual interests of the people.
“Although we come from all over the world, have different ethnic groups, and have different beliefs, from this moment on, we all swear an oath under this flag, and we will work together as one, and work hard for the common goal throughout our lives. We, We do not expect a paradise after our death, but we wish to use our efforts and sacrifices to benefit the world and bring the Kingdom of Heaven to this world.”
Antoine wrote the last summary paragraph, and his theoretical work came to an end.
The actions of Gareth and Antoine are precisely to establish a 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.
People firmly believe that only by following the old order can they obtain a good harvest and good health, and can they ascend to heaven. And if you violate this order, your life will be full of ups and downs, everything will go wrong, and you will not be able to achieve ascension to heaven.
Those orders constantly emphasize their truth and warn the world not to violate it.
This is true whether it is Feng Shui, reincarnation, belief in gods, or blind obedience to capitalism.
To break this kind of subconscious indoctrination, it is necessary to combine hard facts with indoctrination and propaganda to shake the mountain of the old world that presses people’s hearts.
In Skaar Village, each farm worker can get 900 pounds of grain, and poverty will never be a problem; and the average of 60 pounds of meat per capita a year is even more important for those former serfs and lower-class free people. A dreamy idea.
What exactly is the superiority of the system?
This is the embodiment of superiority. Those who believed in the old system and accepted that the nobility could ride on the necks of the serfs were doomed to starve.
More circulable food means more non-agricultural population.
Although the total food production may not increase, the urban and non-agricultural population is growing rapidly.
These non-agricultural populations include blacksmiths in blacksmith shops, workers in soap factories, miners of saltpeter mines, waiters in taverns in Alhadi Town, and even an entire regiment of professional soldiers.
Those are 2,500 soldiers who are undergoing off-duty training. They eat a minimum of 1 pound of meat per week and train intensively for at least two days.
These talents are the cornerstone of the coming "Kingdom of Heaven" and have become enemies that Saladin never imagined when he assembled his troops to carry out the "bandit surrender" operation.
Now, Saladin is determined to assemble his army. He must first pull out the poisonous thorn behind him called "Transjordan".
……
Is there a paradise on earth in this world?
Whenever Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad walked on this land desolated by war, he always asked himself this unconsciously.
Cruelty, injustice, plunder, killing, hypocrisy, arrogance, greed... In this devastated world, it seems that everything has deviated from the will of God.
Prayer, fasting, almsgiving, pilgrimage, purity, jihad and martyrdom, these seven pillars of faith, seem to be powerless in his eyes to change the suffering in the world.
Altaïr often felt that those helpless prayers were just weak echoes of the tragic songs of the times, easily 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 try to use human power to bring the kingdom of heaven to earth.
They do not want to wait for the elusive salvation, but want to use their own hands and their own beliefs to bring peace and justice to the world.
The sect that Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad believed in was the Nichari Ismaili, and the order to which he belonged also had such ideals.
In the mountains on the southern coast of the Caspian Sea and in the mountains of Lebanon in the Eastern Mediterranean, castles rise one after another, enclosing a world completely different from the outside world.
That peaceful land is regarded by them as the Garden of Eden in the world, a safe haven for their followers in the midst of blood and fire.
“In Masyaf one can find Paradise, a place where nothing is assessed or collected except zakat.”
Whenever he met people who were displaced and living in poverty, Altaïr would always tell them this.
He knew that the paradise in this world was not perfect, but at least, in the land they guarded, the weight of suffering was slightly relieved and the dignity of life was preserved.
Altaïr walked out of Masyaf Castle in the mountains and rode a difficult one hundred and fifty kilometers to Antioch.
Before entering the city, he took off his turban and put on the traditional clothes of the locals. Despite his travels, he seems to have blended into this city, which is dominated by Armenian Orthodox residents.
Altaïr spoke fluent Greek and looked calmly at the noisy street. There was a calmness and alienation in his eyes that was far away 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 the corner, silently listening to the conversations of the people around him, trying to figure out what had happened recently, so that Jerusalem could be seen everywhere in the city. Flag of the Kingdom.
He heard about the Kingdom of Jerusalem’s control of Antioch, learned about Leonard’s defeat, and understood that a trial was about to await the former crazy Prince of Antioch.
A complex emotion surged in Altaïr's heart, including some relief and a deep sigh.
Although he was only in his twenties, he had not personally experienced those bloody years, but he had heard too many past events from his mentor—in those years, the arduous confrontation between the Order and Leonard almost Crush them.
Leonard's exploitation of the people was as greedy as a tiger's, and his annual levy of 60% to 70% made it impossible for countless people to survive.
But the sect attracts desperate people with its tolerance and shelter. Even the Orthodox believers turn to the sect and convert to Allah when they are desperate, just to escape under the protection of the sect. A life of oppression.
During those years, countless seniors came one after another, using their flesh and blood to withstand Leonard’s edge.
But in the end, they could only rely on cooperation with the Governor of Aleppo to eliminate this stubborn opponent.
After that, the enemy of the Order changed from the Crusader lord to Saladin, and in order to fight against Saladin, the Order even sought to cooperate with Amory I of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
Faith has never become a shackle for them. The core of the order's faith lies in peace and tranquility in this world, inner faith and loyalty to the Imam. Any means that can achieve this goal is worth trying.
For Altaïr, the mosque should not be a rigid symbol, and the inner peace is better than any external form.
Peace and obedience are the only goals that the Order should pursue, and for this goal, the Order can cooperate with any force, as long as that can make their castle independent from the world.
Altaïr stood quietly on the streets of Antioch, feeling the tense atmosphere of the city due to the war.
His fingers gently touched the two letters in his arms, one from Acre and one from Antioch.
Although the seals affixed to the letters are different, the contents of the two letters have the same expectation - to kill Garris.
He knew that this mission would put him on the edge of danger again, and every choice he made was like walking on a knife's edge.
But Altaïr did not hesitate at all. For the sake of peace in the world and for those who had found a moment of peace in Masyaf, he was willing to move forward, no matter what was waiting for him ahead.
The belief he carries is just like the sharp blade in his hand, cold and resolute.
Even if the world can no longer see the appearance of heaven, he is willing to protect the remaining light for more people with his hands.
(End of this chapter)