Transcript

Stephen McDowell: Christopher Columbus has been under attack in recent years

>> Stephen McDowell: Welcome to America's Providential History podcast, where we talk about the real story of America and explore the hand of God in our history. Now here's your host, Stephen McDowell. Hello. Glad you're joining us for this edition of America's Providential History. Now, today I want to pause from the story that we've been telling over the last many podcasts where we began to trace God's hand in the founding, birth, growth and development of the United States. And we were, talking about events that were taking place during the 19th century. But since this week, we are remembering or honoring, ah, Columbus or Columbus Day, because It was in October 1492 that he opened up the New World to colonization with his, discovery. So I want to, pause from that story that we've been discussing. Pick it back up after we take a look at Christopher Columbus. Christopher Columbus certainly is a man who has been, under attack in recent years. And really the attack against Columbus is not so much against Columbus, but it's against really Christianity, which is the source of the values of Western civilization. So we see in these attacks and assault the humanistic worldview against the Christian worldview. And it's manifested against anybody in history that has really done anything positive, certainly anything done in the name of the Christian faith, has been assaulted by modern secular academia and others. And Christopher Columbus is certainly one of those. Just a few years ago when these, leftist seculars began to tear down statues all over the United States, Columbus was singled out in his statue to destroy and remove so that people won't even seem to remember this man, Christopher Columbus. Now, in 1492, what happened? Well, most Americans know that Columbus sail the ocean blue. That is, one fact of history that most Americans know. They don't know too much at all about true history, but they've learned that one fact. But while they may know that Columbus sailed across the Atlantic Ocean and ran into a big, huge, continent, or really landed on an island, but discovered the Western Hemisphere, they don't know what motivated Columbus to do what he did, but Columbus, Columbus reveals that motive to us in his log, of the first journal. And here I'm going to read some of that here shortly. And letters that he wrote giving reports of his various journeys, but he especially makes it clear and succinct. And a book that he compiled and wrote after his third voyage in 1502, it's called Book of Prophecies. Now that book, which is an interesting title for a semen to write, really lay hidden in the the library of Madrid. For centuries now, historians knew about it. And some, some historians who wrote about Columbus looked at that and, and had a little excerpts translated from it in their, their, histories. But it wasn't till 1992 and the whole thing was translated into modern English and even into modern, modern Spanish. And this book, Book of Prophecies, contains hundreds of scriptures, prophetic scriptures that speak about carrying the Gospel to the ends of the earth. And Columbus put those scriptures in there because he believed that God had called him to carry the Gospel to, the ends of the earth. In fact, in particular, he wanted to carry the Gospel to the Great Khan of China. That khan is a title, kind of the supreme leader, the chief, the king of kings, if you will, of that area. Because Columbus had read Marco Polo's journals. Marco Polo was, from Genoa, Italian, who had traveled to what is today China about two centuries before Columbus's adventures. And while there, he told the leaders and the people about the Christian faith. And the Great Khan had told him, asked him, hey, when you return, you know, tell your, tell your people to send us missionary so they can tell us about this God that you serve. And that never really had been fulfilled. And so Columbus said, well, I'll do that. I will fulfill that. You know, Columbus, his first name, Christopher, means the Christ bearer. And Columbus believed that he was doing that very thing, carrying the Gospel of Christ to those who had had asked for it and needed, to hear it. And now in the Book of Prophecies, it contains these scriptures, many, many scriptures, but also contains some letters that he had wrote, one of which was to the King and Queen of Spain, Ferdinand and Isabella, who was financing his voyages. And in that letter he said this, speaking of his voyage. It was the Lord who put into my mind I could feel his hand upon me to sail from here to the Indies. All who heard of my project rejected it with laughter, ridiculing me. There's no question that the inspiration was from the Holy Spirit, because he comforted me with rays of marvelous illumination from the Holy Scriptures for the execution of the journey to the ND's. I did not make use of intelligence, mathematics or maps. It is simply the fulfillment of what Isaiah, had prophesied. No one should fear to undertake any task in the name of our Savior if it is just and if the intention is purely for his service. The fact that the Gospel must still be preached to so many lands in such a short time. This is what convinces me. So here we have. This is the words of Columbus pointing out my primary motive for doing what I'm doing, for committing a huge portion of my life to fulfill the vision that I believe that I can reach the east by sailing west. He reveals it was the desire to carry the gospel, to those peoples who did not know him, to fulfill what Christ. That commission Christ gave us to make disciples of the nations, to proclaim the truth of his gospel to all, peoples. While that book, book of prophecies, and it's been reprinted, you may be able to find, copies of that and read his words for yourselves, look at all the scriptures that inspired and motivated him.

Christopher Columbus opened up the New World for colonization from Christian Europe

But it wasn't just in this book, it's in so many of his other writings that Columbus reveals this same mission. Now, 1492, Columbus, you know, set out, hoping to reach what he thought would be the Indies, that the area, you know, around the China and the southeastern Asia peninsula at the time. And, and, so he set out, and it was in October, October 12th, that he, sighted an island in what is today the Bahamas. He went ashore, he knelt down, kissed the ground, then he led his men in prayer and stood up and took possession of the island for Spain, the country for which he was sailing. And he named it San Salvador, which means Saint, Savior, Holy Savior. He named it after his Savior. Many of his. The names he chose for places that he found and discovered were named after his Savior as well. Now, there is a painting in the United States Capitol rotunda that depicts Columbus landing on that island, discovering that island in 1492. Now, we know that, Columbus wasn't the first person to go to the, you know, the New World, as it began to be called. There were people, obviously people who lived here, and Europeans had been here before too. The Vikings had come to, to the Americas, around the year 1000. And we have evidence of that. But what Columbus uniquely did is he opened up the New World for colonization from, Christian Europe. And so, that is certainly what we remember and honor Christopher Columbus for, and we have for centuries. We even still do today, still have a holiday, though he has come under great assault from many different academics and the leftist mainstream thinkers and others. but it's very important that we understand this man and what motivated him to do what he did. Now, you can't understand Columbus if you don't understand what motivated him, but we also need to understand the time, the age in which he lived. 1492 is before the event that we've discussed in previous podcasts of the Protestant Reformation. Protestant Reformation brought the Bible in the language of the people, made it available so everybody could have access to the truth of God's word, read it for themselves. And that access transformed many, many people and was the seed that became the United States of America. And the Bible contains truth. Truth of how to build our, life personally, but truth of how to build a civil society. And so I believe, like Columbus did, that God used him to open up the New World to colonization. But it wasn't Columbus or the nation of Spain for which he sailed that would colonize what became the United States. Now colonies were started by Spain, later Portugal. They colonized to Central America, islands in the Caribbean, South America. But it would be over a century before Protestants, English Protestants, German Protestants, and some from other countries as well, came and planted the seed of what became the United States, America. So God used this man. And when you read his writings and read his book of prophecies, here was a man who had a knowledge, a relationship with God, was sincerely motivated. Did he have any shortcomings and problems? Certainly he did. He was a product of his age. He carried some ideas of civil and religious tyranny with him. And but we can't judge him in light of things that we know today. Just like we don't want to be judged by things that we've done today. You know, we've in the United states, murdered over 60 million unborn children in the last 50 years. And we want future generations to look back us and assign blame, or to all, everybody who lived in America, at this time. so because so many people have been working to end the slaughter of the unborn. So we, we can't judge everyone, based upon ah, the society at the time or even the shortcomings that they may face because, you know, so many people recognize Christopher Columbus as a man motivated by his faith. In his biography of Christopher Columbus, Washington Irving writes, he was devoutly pious. Religion mingled with the whole course of his thoughts and actions and shone forth in his most private and unstudied writings. Whenever he made any great discovery, he celebrated it by solemn thanks to God. The voice of prayer and melody of praise rose from his ships when they first beheld the New World. And his first action on landing was to prostrate himself upon the earth and return thanksgivings. This is what that painting, the capital Rotunda, shows. Irving goes on to write every evening the Salve Regina and other vesper hymns were chanted by his crew and masses were performed in the beautiful groves bordering the wild shores of this heathen. Land. All his great enterprises were undertaken in the name of the holy Trinity, and he partook of the communion previous to embarkation. He was a firm believer in the efficacy of vows and penances and pilgrimages, and resorted to them in times of difficulty and danger. The religion thus deeply seated in his soul diffused a sober dignity and benign composure over his whole demeanor. His language was pure and guarded and free from all imprecations, oaths and other irreverent expressions. So, historians have recognized this man was motivated by his faith. If we were to evaluate his doctrine, would we conclude today it was all in line with biblical truth? Well, probably not, but to neither of any of ours. But here was a man who again reveals in his writings that motive. And now, Columbus kept a journal of his first voyage. Now, the actual journals have been lost, but two of his companions, Ferdinand and Bartlem Bartolome Las Casas, recorded abstracts of the original journal. And at places they quote Columbus and other places, they summarize his findings. But when you. And these have been published, you can get copies of this and go and read for yourself and see. Even in this first journal, his Christian motives are revealed. Writings in his journal reveal his primary motive for sailing was his Christian convictions. He had a desire to preach the gospel throughout the nations, and in particular, as I've said before, to take Christianity to the great Khan of eastern Asia. Because he had read Marco polo's journals from 200 years before and that the Khan had requested send us missionaries, send us people who would tell us about the Christian faith. So he had studied those, he understood that and believed that he would fulfill, that very thing. So he opens his journal of his first voyage with the following. I'm, quoting from his journal. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Whereas most Christian, high, excellent, powerful princes, king and queen of Spain and the islands of the sea, our sovereigns, this present year, 1492, after your Highnesses had terminated the war with the Moors reigning in Europe. The same having been brought to an end in the great city of Granada, where on, the second day of January this present year, I saw the royal banners of your highnesses planted by force of arms upon the towers of the Alhambra. What he's talking about here is that, you know, the. The, Muslims had taken control of a large portion of the Iberian peninsula, and that Ferdinand and Isabella, waged war with them to drive them out of that territory and, and were successful. And that success, then enabled them to divert their resources to other Things like financing Christopher Columbus to carry out his mission of taking the Gospel to the great, Great Khan and to, to explore. And so this is what he's referencing. He goes on to write, your highnesses, as Catholic Christians and princes who love and promote the holy Christian faith and are enemies of the doctrine of Muhammad and of all adultery and heresy, determined to send me, Christopher Columbus, to the above mentioned countries of India because he thought he had just landed on the, in the Indies, but it was a whole new territory that he had run into. So it goes on to say, to see the said prince's people and territories and to learn their disposition and the proper method of converting them to our holy faith. And furthermore directed that I should not proceed by land to the east, as is customary, but by a westerly route in which direction we have hitherto no certain evidence that anyone has gone. Marco Polo, when he traveled to that area, he went by land. When Columbus was attempting to go and carrying the gospel to the Great Khan, he was going by sea by route that they didn't know, anything about it. That there is, there's little, little knowledge. There was some reference, some, some possible understanding that the Vikings may have run into some land before this. But, but in essence Columbus's knowledge and people's knowledge of that time is that, that there's no land there, that if we sail that way, they knew the world was round. But we're going to eventually get over, get to China or what is today China. Now. In his journal of the first voyage, he records from for Friday, October 12, as I saw that they were very friendly because they landed on an island. He named it San Salvador, sailed and went to other, other islands in the Caribbean. And Columbus saw many natives whom he called Indians because he thought he was in the Indies. And he spoke often of his desire to, to convert them to Christianity. So he wrote on October 12, As I saw that they were very friendly to us and perceived that they could be much more easily converted to our holy faith by gentle means than by force, I presented them with some red caps and strings of beads to wear upon the neck and many other trifles of small value, wherewith they were much delighted and became wonderfully attached to us. I am of opinion that they would very readily become Christians as they appear to have no religion. Then on Tuesday, October 16, he records of, speaking of the natives, they have no religion and I believe that they would very readily become Christians as they have a good understanding. on Monday, November 12th, you record your Highnesses should therefore adopt the resolution of converting them to Christianity, in which enterprise I am opinion that a very short space of time would suffice to gain to our holy faith. Multitudes of people. I am reading these things because there's abundant evidence in primary source materials, the writings of Columbus and others, that this was the motive, this was their, their desire to carry the gospel, the Christian faith to, to these, had it not been introduced to it. Then on Tuesday, November 27 he writes, the language of this people neither I nor any of my company understand and we are perpetually making mistakes in our conversation with one another.

Columbus' journal reveals his Christian motivation and his reliance upon God

Henceforth, with the permission of our Lord, I shall use my exertions and have the language taught to some of our people. For I perceive that thus, for the dialect is the same throughout. Thus we shall acquire a knowledge of all that is valuable here and shall endeavour to convert to Christianity these people, which may be easily done as they are not idolaters, but are without any religion. You know, it's as we mentioned in some past podcast that where Christian missionaries have gone, a, development of language has occurred. Written languages. There many, many, many hundreds or thousands of written languages first came into being because of the desire to give God's word to people who've never heard it. And that required many to first learn their spoken language, but then to give the people a written language. If you remember John Elliot, a pastor of around Boston, Massachusetts in the early 16 early to mid-1600s, he learned the Algonquin Indian language and then he first gave them a written language so that he could translate the Bible into that language so the people would have a permanent access to the truth, to God's word. And so this was Columbus's we want to learn the language so we can communicate and in particular communicate the Christian faith so that they might follow the way, follow that truth. On Monday, December 24, Columbus writes in his journal, your Highnesses may be assured that there is not upon earth a better or gentler people at which you may rejoice, for they will easily become Christians and learn our customs. Finer country or people cannot exist and the territory is so extensive and the people so numerous that I know not how to give a description description of them. And, and so many other actions and writings of Columbus as revealed in his journal of the of the voyage reveal his Christian motivation and his reliance upon God. For example, Wednesday, December 12th he writes, a large cross was set up at the entrance of the harbor upon a beautiful spot upon the western side as an indication in the words of the admiral that your highnesses possess the country and principally for a token of Jesus Christ our Lord and the honor of Christianity. Then on, Wednesday, December 26, he adds that he hopes to find at his return from Castile, a ton of gold collected by them and trading with the natives, and that they will have succeeded in discovering the mine and the spices and all these in such abundance that before three years, the king and queen may undertake the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre. Now, what's he talking about here? Well, one fault leveled at Columbus today said, well, he didn't really care about the natives or anything else. He just came to get glory for himself or to get gold. He wanted to strike it rich. And that what he referencing, he hopes at his return to have a ton of gold collected, while gone. But then he mentions, as he said, that before three years the king and queen may undertake the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre. And he goes on to say, for I have before protested to your highnesses that the prophets of this enterprise shall be employed in the conquest of Jerusalem at, ah, which your highness has smiled and said you were pleased and had the same inclination. See, what's he saying here is that at this time, the city of Jerusalem, the holy city of God, the God, the city where God's covenant people worship God. The temple was built and then with the coming of Christ, the beginning of the Christian church, the Christian faith, it took place there, but it for centuries had been under the control of the Muslims. And as we will explore in future podcasts, you know, here are these Muslims who for centuries after Muhammad advanced their faith through the sword, over 500 battles, they were involved in, to push their faith and promote their, their faith. And as I mentioned earlier, you know, the king and queen were fighting against them to get them out of this, the, the, these invading forces that had been there in the Iberian peninsula for quite a while, to get them out of there. And so Jerusalem though, was still under the control and there was no freedom for Christians to go there, no freedom for any kind of pilgrimage if you wanted to go and see the site where the Lord Jesus walked. So he's saying that his desire, I want to get some gold, but I want to use it to liberate the holy city so that we might go freely and see the land where God's covenant people lived and where, the father of our faith, Jesus Christ, walked and lived. So that's why he wanted to, you know, to benefit, financially from what he had done. And so we can see if you can go and read excerpts from his logs, we see his desire to propagate the Gospel, but also after his arrival in Lisbon, after he concluded his first voyage, sail back to Spain, that Columbus wrote a summary account of his voyage as a report for Ferdinand and Isabella. And it was written as a letter to Rafael Sanchez, who was the treasurer for Ferdinand and Isabella. And this letter again clearly reveals his Christian motivation. In his voyages, Columbus discovered many islands. He wrote, I named the first of these islands San Salvador, as I mentioned before, which means Holy Savior then. And Columbus writes thus, bestowing upon it the name of our Holy Savior, under whose protection I made the discovery. And other names he chose include Trinidad, named for the Trinity, Monte Christi, Christ, Mountain, Mount of Christ and others. Now, Columbus forbade his men from trading worthless articles to the Indians for things of value. He wrote this. And this is in the letter given a report to the treasurer to the king and queen of Spain about his voyage. He said, I prohibited their traffic on account of its injustice. And made them many presents of useful things which I had carried with me for the purpose of gaining their affection in order that they may receive the faith of Jesus Christ, be well disposed toward us and inclined to submit to the king, queen and princes and all the Spaniards, and furthermore, that they may furnish us with commodities which abound among them and we are in want of. So he wanted not just to give them trifles or things, even though there were certain things that might not have cost him much, but they would have greatly valued. He wanted to make sure that any trade that took place, that, it was valuable things to reflect his desire for them. Desire for them to come to the Christian faith. For desire to. For them to be really, blessed by their encounter with, Columbus and Europeans. And then Columbus goes on and ends his letter and says, and now ought, ah, the king, queen, princes and all their dominions, as well as the whole of Christendom, to give thanks to our Savior Jesus Christ, who has granted us such a victory and great success. Let processions be ordered. Let solemn festivals be celebrated. Let the temples be filled with boughs and flowers. Let Christ rejoice upon earth as he does in heaven, to witness the coming salvation of so many people heretofore given over to perdition. Let us rejoice for the exaltation of our faith as well as for the augmentation of our temporal prosperity, in which not only Spain, but all Christendom shall participate. Such are the events which I have described to you with brevity. Adieu.

Christopher Columbus is honored because of his contribution to colonization of New World

So here's just a little introduction to some of Columbus own words, his writings, his letters. the reveal is motivation to propagate the gospel, his motivation to be a blessing to Native Americans to extend God's kingdom in different ways through what he had done. And so Columbus is a man that we for most of our history have honored because we recognize his courage, we recognized his great contribution to the colonization of the New World. And that's why there's so many different things named after Christopher Columbus. In fact, Washington D.C. the District of Columbia is named to honor Christopher Columbus. And that's why their cities named for Columbus. There are statues, many, many statues all over the nation that honor Christopher Columbus. And though some have been, were torn down a few years ago, they still remain. But it's important that we understand what motivated this man. Yes, he had shortcomings. Yes, there needed to be new ideas to help, to help elevate the world, but elevate Christian Europe and a greater understanding of what God requires for us to live. That's why God sent a Protestant Reformation to help further that story of the advancement of truth in the world and history. So that certainly needed to be done. And as I said before, you know, God held this land, in, in reserve as the great field on which the experiment was to be made in favor of a civil religious liberty. And as one historian wrote, he suffered not the foot of Spaniard or Portuguese or Frenchmen or Englishmen to come upon it until the changes had been wrought in Europe which would make it certain that it would always be a land of religious freedom. And so yes, God himself recognized the shortcomings of Columbus. He used Columbus to open up the New World, used Columbus to really, save lots of lives. And in fact, in the next podcast, I want to look a little some more at Columbus, and in particular to address some of the falsehoods that have been presented or misconceptions been committed about. Oh, didn't Columbus enslave a lot of the natives and treat them wickedly and other things. And it wasn't under the policies of Columbus that many of these natives were put to death. And didn't he carry hundreds of these natives back to Europe as slaves? Well, that we're going to address, I'm going to tell you the rest of the story and you're going to begin to see that when we look at this, that Columbus wasn't an oppressor as is presented today by so many educrats, but he was really a liberator. And he liberated many, many of these natives from those who actually were oppressing them. So I want to tell that story. So I hope you can join us next week on the podcast as we look a little bit more in depth at, at Columbus, at this man. As I say, just this week that we are should be remembering him. You know, it is Columbus Day, and it's a day where we used to honor, and some still do, the courage and the great work that this Christian man, Christopher Columbus, did in response to what God had put into, ah, his heart, that God used him in a significant way that we have benefited from today. Well, if you want to learn more, I encourage you to Visit our website, providencefoundation.com actually, we have a couple of articles on Columbus. One gives a lot of these excerpts from his first journal that you can go and read for yourselves. And you can, order a book, America's Providential History, where we look at Columbus and the chain of liberty and how God used him to open up the new world to colonization and give some excerpts from his book of prophecies that you can take a look at as well. So Visit our website, providencefoundation.com look at some of the resources and then, I hope to see you next week as we look a little bit more at this man, Christopher Columbus. Well, God bless you.