Columbus III

This final installment of the three-part series on Christopher Columbus was written September 28 to October 1, 2008 during a global crisis which is being portrayed politically and by the media as the near total collapse of the U.S. economic system, and consequently much, if not all, of the world’s.  I’m reminded of I Timothy 6:17-19:

17  Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy;

18  That they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate;

19  Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.

Psalms 62:10:

Trust not in oppression, and become not vain in robbery: if riches increase, set not your heart upon them.

Fix your eyes on and invest your time and money in things and issues that have eternal value.  This world is a vanity—a house of cards—and all of its systems that are not firmly built on Jesus Christ will come to naught.  Jesus said in Matthew 6:19-21:

19  Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:

20  But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:

21  For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

It is marvelous to consider that the disciples of Christ Jesus have the ability to turn earthly dust into eternal wealth.  This miraculous ability begins the day one becomes born-again—born a second time, this time of the Spirit—and begins to invest himself in things that have eternal value.  Imagine the ability to convert temporal, earthly things into eternal wealth.

Are you born-again?  Have you repented of your sins and surrendered your life to Jesus Christ and the Holy Word He delivered unto man?  Are you ready to begin investing in eternal things?  Are you ready for life and life more abundantly?  Click onto “Further With Jesus” for childlike instructions to find immediate entry into the Kingdom of God.  NOW FOR TODAY’S SUBJECT.

GOD SAID, I Samuel 3:1-10:

1  And the child Samuel ministered unto the LORD before Eli.  And the word of the LORD was precious in those days; there was no open vision.

2  And it came to pass at that time, when Eli was laid down in his place, and his eyes began to wax dim, that he could not see;

3  And ere the lamp of God went out in the temple of the LORD, where the ark of God was, and Samuel was laid down to sleep;

4  That the LORD called Samuel: and he answered, Here am I.

5  And he ran unto Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou calledst me.  And he said, I called not; lie down again.  And he went and lay down.

6  And the LORD called yet again, Samuel.  And Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou didst call me.  And he answered, I called not, my son; lie down again.

7  Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, neither was the word of the LORD yet revealed unto him.

8  And the LORD called Samuel again the third time.  And he arose and went to Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou didst call me.  And Eli perceived that the LORD had called the child.

9  Therefore Eli said unto Samuel, Go, lie down: and it shall be, if he call thee, that thou shalt say, Speak, LORD; for thy servant heareth.  So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

10  And the LORD came, and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel.  Then Samuel answered, Speak; for thy servant heareth.

GOD SAID, I Kings 19:7-14:

7  And the angel of the LORD came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for thee.

8  And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God.

9  And he came thither unto a cave, and lodged there; and, behold, the word of the LORD came to him, and he said unto him, What doest thou here, Elijah?

10  And he said, I have been very jealous for the LORD God of hosts: for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.

11  And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD.  And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake:

12  And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.

13  And it was so, when Elijah heard it that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave.  And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah?

14  And he said, I have been very jealous for the LORD God of hosts: because the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.

GOD SAID, Deuteronomy 28:9-10:

9  The LORD shall establish thee an holy people unto himself, as he hath sworn unto thee, if thou shalt keep the commandments of the LORD thy God, and walk in his ways.

10  And all people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the LORD; and they shall be afraid of thee.

MAN SAID: The idea that God speaks to man and interacts in his affairs and the affairs of the world, is ludicrous—absurd!  There is no God.  He only exists in the small minds of the uneducated and the easily-led.

Now THE RECORD.  Yes, God does interact in the affairs of man universally, globally, regionally, and personally.  Yes, God speaks regularly to those who have ears to hear and reveals Himself to those who have eyes to see.  Yes, God did speak to Christopher Columbus and sent him to discover the Americas, bringing the testimony of Jesus Christ.  Yes, we were discovered in Jesus’ name and evangelized in His name.  The governments were developed and established in His name.  The people were educated in Jesus’ name.  America—the United States in particular—is a Christian nation.  But, the revisionists tell another story.

Christopher Columbus was a lover of God and the Christ of Glory.  When his feet first landed in the new world, he brought this prayer and praise unto God:

O Lord, Almighty and everlasting God, by Thy holy Word Thou hast created the heaven, and the earth, and the sea; blessed and glorified be Thy Name, and praised be Thy Majesty, which hath deigned to use us, Thy humble servants, that Thy holy Name may be proclaimed on this second part of the earth.  [End of quote]

Part Two of this series concludes with the return of Columbus to Spain to deliver the story of his discoveries to his benefactors, the king and queen of Spain.  The Columbus narrative in Part Twoends with the following paragraph:

As the excitement and whispering died away, a silence fell upon the court.  Then, without warning, the Sovereigns fell on their knees, and all others did the same.  Lifting their faces heavenward, Ferdinand and Isabella thanked God for all His bountiful mercy, and the Te Deum was sung.  At the last line, the Sovereigns were in tears and so was Columbus: “O Lord, in thee have I trusted, let me never be confounded.”  [End of quote]

An important note concerning the search of Columbus for marketable commodities such as gold, exotic creatures, etc., is that the cost of these expeditions was enormous and the need to help underwrite these ventures was critical. 

Part Three of this series begins with the return of Christopher Columbus to the Americas—specifically Dominica.  The following excerpts are from Marshall and Manual’s book The Light and the Glory:

They departed the port of Cadiz and sailed down to the Canaries, there heading west again in perfect weather and sighting land in a remarkable twenty-two days!  Even more incredible was Columbus’s landfall at Dominica—the navigating target which mariners would recommend for the next four centuries.  To aim north meant possibly missing the strong trade winds; to aim south was to risk hitting dangerous reefs.  No wonder the sailors of his age considered Columbus to be the best dead-reckoning navigator of them all!  By the grace of God, he was.

But the dream turned to a nightmare when finally they reached La Navidad.  Every one of the thirty-nine colonists had been killed—some by each other, most of them by tribes of Indians other than those they had befriended.

When they found the Indians who were not frightened to talk to their interpreters, the story finally came out.  No sooner had the Nina departed the year before, than the men had started indulging their lust with Indian women.  Nor were they satisfied with one each but took as many as they could get.

No longer did they barter for gold.  They simply seized it, doing violence to any Indians who protested.  Quarrelling among themselves and killing one another, they had split into factions, and were thus easily ambushed and overrun.  [End of quote]

The dream soon turned into a nightmare and Columbus was at the center of it, being the appointed governor of the island.  Columbus imposed a tax on the Indians, which they were often unable to pay.  This resulted in the Indians being savagely beaten by the Spanish tax collectors.  Things ended up getting so out-of-hand that the king and queen reluctantly removed Columbus from being governor.  Eventually making his way back to Spain, Columbus had become somewhat of an embarrassment to the people, who assigned mocking titles to him behind his back.  Columbus also eventually gathered another fleet to go search the Indies for gold, which they did find, but at great cost.  At one point, Columbus learned that one of the Indian tribes was planning an attack against him.  So, he launched a preemptive strike against them, taking a large number of hostages and a large quantity of gold.  At a nearby river, Columbus heard shooting further upstream.  Later that evening, Columbus noticed several of his men’s bodies floating down the river.  What took place next is best described in Columbus’s own words, taken from his journal:

I toiled up to the highest point of the ship, calling in a trembling voice, with fast-falling tears, to the war captains of your highnesses, at every point of the compass, for succour, but never did they answer me.  Exhausted, I fell asleep, groaning.  I heard a very compassionate voice, saying: “O fool and slow to believe and to serve thy God, the God of all!  What more did He for Moses or for His servant David?  Since thou wast born, ever has He had thee in His most watchful care.  When He saw thee arrive at an age with which He was content, He caused thy name to sound marvelously in the land.  The Indies, which are so rich in a part of the world, He gave thee for thine own; thou hast divided them as it pleased thee, and He enabled thee to do this.  Of the barriers of the Ocean Sea, which were closed with such mighty chains, He gave thee the keys; and gained honorable fame.  What did He more for the people of Israel when He brought them out of Egypt?  Or for David, whom from a shepherd He made to be king in Judea?  Turn thyself to Him, and acknowledge thine error; His mercy is infinite; thine old age shall not prevent thee from achieving great things; He has many heritages very great.  Abraham had passed a hundred years when he begat Isaac and was Sarah young?  Thou criest for uncertain help.  Answer: who has afflicted thee so greatly and so often?  God or the world?  The rewards and promises which He gives, He does not bring to nothing, nor does He say, after He has received service, that His intention was not such and that it is to be differently regarded, nor does He inflict suffering in order to display His power.  His deeds agree with His words; all that He promises, He performs with interest; is this the manner of men?  I have said that which thy Creator has done for thee and does for all men.  Now in part He shows thee the reward for the anguish and danger which thou hast endured in the service of others.”

I heard all this as if I were in a trance, but I had no answer to give to words so true, but could only weep for my errors.  He, whoever he was who spoke to me, ended saying: “Fear not; have trust; all these tribulations are written upon marble and are not without cause.”  [End of quote]

Columbus made it back home to Spain, and in 1506, after saying, “Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit,”  Columbus gave up the ghost.  And so ended the life of Christopher Columbus.

Take time to read the listed features concerning the marvelous Christian roots of America:           

In Jesus’ Name

Is America A Christian Nation? – Part One

Is America A Christian Nation? – Part Three

Is America A Christian Nation? – Part Two

Round Earth and Christopher Columbus

Split Down the Middle and Choosing Sides

Following are a few paragraphs from these features for your edification:

The suggestion by some that George Washington, our founding father, was anything other than a Christian, is blatant falsehood.  Regardless of what the revisionists attempt to read into history, the pen of George Washington clearly testifies of his powerful confession of Jesus Christ.  An example is our first president’s personal prayer book in which he wrote, by his own hand, his daily prayers: one in the morning and one in the evening.  Part of his Monday morning prayers follow:

MONDAY MORNING...O eternal and everlasting God, I presume to present myself this morning before Thy Divine Majesty, beseeching Thee to accept my humble and hearty thanks...direct by thoughts, words and work, wash away my sins in the immaculate Blood of the Lamb, and purge my heart by Thy Holy Spirit...Daily frame me more and more into the likeness of Thy Son, Jesus Christ, that living in Thy fear, and dying in Thy favor, I may in Thy appointed time attain the resurrection of the just unto eternal life.  Bless my family, friends and kindred, and unite us all in praising and glorifying Thee in all our works.

In 1785, James Madison, known as the father of the U.S. Constitution and the fourth President of the United States wrote:

We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it.  We have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government; upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.

Madison also wrote concerning Christ:

Christ’s Divinity appears by St. John, chapter 20, verse 28: “And Thomas answered and said unto Him, my Lord and my God:”  Resurrection testified to and witnessed by the Apostles, Acts 4, verse 33: “And with great power gave the Apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.”

In April of 1803, Jefferson wrote the following to fellow signer of the Declaration of Independence, Dr. Benjamin Rush:

My views...are the result of a life of inquiry and reflection, and very different from the anti-Christian system imputed to me by those who know nothing of my opinions.  To the corruptions of Christianity I am, indeed, opposed; but not to the genuine precepts of Jesus himself.  I am a Christian in the only sense in which He wished any one to be; sincerely attached to his doctrines in preference to all others...  [End of quote]

The final excerpts deal with the vaunted battle cry of all who are anti-Christ, called the “separation of church and state:”

Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1811 by President James Madison, the father of the U.S. Constitution.  Concerning the two religion clauses of the First Amendment, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,” and, “or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” he wrote:

Thus, the whole power over the subject of religion was left exclusively to State governments, to be acted on according to their own sense of justice and the State Constitutions.

Probably, at the time of the adoption of the Constitution, and of the . . . [First Amendment], the general, if not the universal, sentiment in America was, that Christianity ought to receive encouragement from the State, so far as such encouragement was not incompatible with the private rights of conscience, and the freedom of religious worship.  An attempt to level all religions, and to make it a matter of state policy to hold all in utter indifference, would have created universal disapprobation, if not universal indignation.

Again, Justice Story:

We are not to attribute this prohibition of a national religious establishment [in the First Amendment] to an indifference to religion in general, and especially to Christianity (which none could hold in more reverence than the framers of the Constitution)....

Another quote from Justice Story:

The real object of the First Amendment was not to countenance much less to advance Mohammedanism, or Judaism, or infidelity, by prostrating Christianity, but to exclude all rivalry among Christian sects [denominations] and to prevent any national ecclesiastical patronage of the national government.

In a speech at Harvard, Justice Story boldly said:

There never has been a period of history, in which the Common Law did not recognize Christianity as lying at its foundation.  [End of quote]

The United States is a Christian nation that Satan is attempting to steal.  And yes, God does intervene in and directly communicate with man.

GOD SAID, I Samuel 3:10:

And the LORD came, and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel.  Then Samuel answered, Speak; for thy servant heareth.

GOD SAID, I Kings 19:11-13:

11  And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD.  And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake:

12  And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.

13  And it was so, when Elijah heard it that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave.  And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah?

GOD SAID, Deuteronomy 28:9-10:

9  The LORD shall establish thee an holy people unto himself, as he hath sworn unto thee, if thou shalt keep the commandments of the LORD thy God, and walk in his ways.

10  And all people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the LORD; and they shall be afraid of thee.

MAN SAID: The idea that God speaks to man and interacts in his affairs and the affairs of the world, is ludicrous—absurd!  There is no God.  He only exists in the small minds of the uneducated and the easily-led.

Now you have THE RECORD.

 

 

 

References:

Authorized King James Version

Marshall, P., D. Manuel, The Light and the Glory, Revell, 1977

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