1410. News + Why Columbus Sailed the Ocean Blue

As we continue our look at some facts from our nation’s heritage that the Cancel Culture wants to erase, today we’ll consider some of Christopher Columbus’s personal thoughts which he wrote down regarding why he embarked on such a risky endeavor long before our first settlers were even born.

           I am a most unworthy sinner, but I have cried out to the Lord for grace and mercy, and they have covered me completely. I have found the sweetest consolation since I made it my whole purpose to enjoy his marvelous presence. For the execution of the journey to the Indies, I did not make use of intelligence, mathematics or map. 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 holy service. The working out of all things has been assigned to each person by our Lord, but it all happens to his sovereign will, even though he gives advice. He lacks nothing that is in the power of men to give him. Oh, what a gracious Lord, who desires that people should perform for him those things for which He holds himself responsible. Day and night, moment by moment, everyone should express their most devoted gratitude to Him.

Most of us have been taught that Christopher Columbus discovered the New World by accident while seeking a trade route to the Indies. However, I have never read anything about his faith, let alone that he believed his life’s mission came directly by God. According to his own words from an obscure volume regarding his life, He believed that he had been called to bear the light of Christ to undiscovered lands in fulfillment of biblical prophecy (Christopher means Christ-Bearer). Now we know that he had been guided by the Holy Spirit every league of the way.

This is just one brief sampling of what the Cancel Culture doesn’t want future Americans to know. If future generations learn the facts—the bigger picture regarding our history, their woke, godless narrative would be exposed for what it is—a giant lie.

Sadly, Columbus’s life didn’t end the way it began. During his subsequent voyages back to the east coast of the Americas, his love for God gave way to a love for power, prestige, and gold. As his heart became corrupted, so did life on all of his discovered territories. Things got so bad that his was replaced as governor, put in irons, and shipped back to Spain to stand trial for his follies. Despite his occasional moments of remorseful introspection, his last entries in his journal revealed that he had been suffering from gold fever. The gold he found at Costa Rica led him to conclude that he had found King Solomon’s mines.

Columbus may have turned away from God, but God never turned away from Columbus. He brought him and his remaining men safely home to Spain. This time there was no royal summons inviting him to court. His 53-year-old body had aged far beyond his years, rendering him unfit for any future voyages, even if an invitation had been offered. In his remaining few years, instead of repenting over his failure to complete his God-given mission, he fretted over not receiving his proper share of the Indies gold which had begun to arrive in abundance.

My point is not to highlight his failures but to remind us of why he embarked on such a perilous and uncertain endeavor. A hundred years later, the Separatists and the Puritans would arrive and settle on our east coast for reasons very similar to Columbus’s. The fact that it looks like this venture isn’t ending well either doesn’t mean the original motivations were faulty. Far from it. Things are the way they are today because people, like Columbus, became distracted by worldly pursuits.

Remember how Obama campaigned on hope and change?

My son, fear the Lord and the king; Do not associate with those who are given to change (Proverbs 24:21).