THE CHRIST-BEARER

John 8:31-36 (KJV)

Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;

And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

They answered him, We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?

Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.

And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever.

If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.

No one ought ever be ashamed of the truth, 

·  Even if that truth is contrary to what we current think of believe

·  Even if that truth is different than our family and friends believe and

·  Even if that truth is different than what we have been taught

Truth, if it is truth, always sets us free.

The problem comes when we are told just enough truth for us to believe it is true, without being told all of the truth.

The stories of Washington and the cherry tree, for instance, were written to give children a sense of the well documented character of the man, George Washington.

Those people who attempt to disprove the event, do so not for the sake of historical accuracy, but to discredit the work of George Washington and the others in founding the United States. They suck their readers in with one piece of truth and proceed from there to bring doubt on the fundamentals of American democracy, liberty and Judeo-Christian ethic.

One of those persons who is, in my estimation, maligned and mistreated in modern history is Christopher Columbus.

I do not want to pretend that Columbus was the best Christian any of us will ever meet.

·  I am certain I disagree with his church affiliation

·  I am sure I do not agree with the doctrines he believed

I also understand that he did not actually discover America, and that he did some disappointing things after he made his discovery.

That in no way means that his contribution to history should be ignored, rewritten or attacked.

With that I want to give you some interesting lessons I discovered from a book called, The Light And the Glory, by Peter John Marshall.

I. THE "CHRIST-BEARER

Christopher Columbus probably knew better than anyone what his goals were when he set out to on the voyage that would lead to the discovery of America. In his journals Columbus quoted Isaiah 49: 6

I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.(KJV)

Christopher Columbus' discovery changed the known world. 

As kids, we were taught that little poem[1]"In 1492 Columbus sailed the Ocean Blue....[2]"

In 1492

In fourteen hundred ninety-two
Columbus sailed the ocean blue.

He had three ships and left from Spain;
He sailed through sunshine, wind and rain.

He sailed by night; he sailed by day;
He used the stars to find his way.

A compass also helped him know
How to find the way to go.

Ninety sailors were on board;
Some men worked while others snored.

Then the workers went to sleep;
And others watched the ocean deep.

Day after day they looked for land;
They dreamed of trees and rocks and sand.

October 12 their dream came true,
You never saw a happier crew!

“Indians! Indians!” Columbus cried;
His heart was filled with joyful pride.

But “India” the land was not;
It was the Bahamas, and it was hot.

The Arakawa natives were very nice;
They gave the sailors food and spice.

Columbus sailed on to find some gold
To bring back home, as he’d been told.

He made the trip again and again,
Trading gold to bring to Spain.

The first American? No, not quite.
But Columbus was brave, and he was bright.

More modern historians, with an almost dedicated hatred for everything American, reject that anything good came from the work of Christopher Columbus[3]. 

Here’s the thing,

·   The first poem was written to teach children an historic event.

·   The second was written to instill in persons a hateful bias

While Columbus did not actually discover America, it was his discovery that led to the discovery of America.[5]And there is some reason to believe that Columbus felt led this way BY GOD.  

A. Columbus worked in his early years as a mapmaker, which had fed him with the newest information about the world of his day.

His was an era of discovery.

Marco Polo (1254-1324) had returned with an eyewitness account of the treasures of India and Japan. 

A world map suggesting their locations had already been formed for Columbus to see and study.

Columbus had also studied the newest information coming in from explorers and sailors throughout the world.

To suggest that these explorers: 

·  Columbus, 

·  Da Gama, 

·  Vespucci, 

·  Cortes, 

·  Magellan, 

·  Etc.

were wicked because they sought fortunes is ridiculous.

There are only two reasons anyone does anything:

·  We want to earn a living (Capitalism) such as we do in the United States or

·  We are forced to do it (Socialism) such as they do in China or North Korea

Columbus was, of course, motivated to earn a living, and perhaps a good one. But he was also motivated by adventure and according to his personal journals, a missionary zeal.

B. Later, Columbus became a sailor and mastered his navigational skills and the theory for crossing the Atlantic, for which he became so famous.

Christopher Columbus sold his theory to the King and Queen of Spain (after some years of rejection)….

….by presenting it as a means to a shorter trade route to India and Japan.

C. But in his personal journals, Columbus revealed that he felt called to fulfill the literal meaning of his name, Columbus, “Christ-bearer."

Columbus' journals include verses such as Isaiah 49:1-6

And statements such as the following,

"No one should fear to undertake any task in the name of our Saviour if it is just and our intentions is purely for His holy service."

·   Columbus saw himself as a servant of the Lord and 

·   Columbus saw, as his first calling, to take the gospel to the people of other lands.

II. FOR GOD - OR GOLD

Columbus was human, I think his theology was wrong and because of that, there is a profound lesson that can be learned from the life story of Christopher Columbus.

It appears from the historical books, that Columbus was a proud and arrogant man. 

(You would have to have a strong confidence just to be willing to present your desire to sail across and un-sailed ocean to kings, let alone to actually do it.)

While Columbus' original intentions may have been pure, it did not take long for those intentions to be spoiled through two different means:

A. Through Pride

Although Columbus' proposal was rejected by Portugal, and England, and was originally rejected by Spain, 

When Ferdinand and Isabella finally consented to finance Columbus' expedition He swelled up with pride and required that: 

·  If he should be successful, the King and Queen would give him 10% of all the riches discovered

·   He be declared the Admiral of the Ocean Sea, and

·   He be made the Governor of all lands he discovered

Proverbs 16:18

Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.(KJV)

Columbus' pride contributed to what eventually destroyed his characterand his reputation.

B. Through Gold

Columbus did not come up with a new trade route to India.

What he did discover were the Islands just 90 miles south of Florida.

And, unfortunately for Columbus, he also discovered gold.

The prospects of riches created strife between Columbus and his men, especially the captains of his two companion ships.

1 Timothy 6:10 says;

For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, andpierced themselves through with many sorrows.(KJV)

The love for the gold caused, it appears from the records, Columbus to entirely abandon the idea of evangelization of the people of the Islands.

He became governor of them, and began to tax the Indians their gold, and to force them to mine it for Spain.

And the rest of his life was spent in bitter disappointment because he never felt like he got his share of the gold.

Every one of us are wise to keep money in its proper place, which is WAY DOWN TO THE BOTTOM OF OUR LIST OF PRIORITIES.

Allow me to speak finally on

III. THE BLESSED MISTAKE

Christopher Columbus missed our continent by only 90 miles.

That mistake turned out to be one of the greatest blessings for our country that history has recorded.

The Spaniards, under Columbus's leadership, for the most part, did not explore to the north of the Islands Columbus had discovered, but to the South

That left the North American Continent open for the French, English, and for a people, whose desire would not be power, position, or wealth, but simply for a place to worship God according to the dictates of their conscience.

Since we believe that God is in control

A. We can see how God was in control of Columbus' dream and desire to find the new world.

I guess God could have chosen anyone to discover this new world. But the man He chose, although as weak as any of us are, had as His original intention, to try to glorify God and bring the gospel to unsaved souls.

And

B. We can see how God was in control of Columbus' failure to actually discover this continent,while still making a discovery significant enough to open the way for its discovery by the right people.

Conclusion

Our patriotism is based upon a belief that GOD HAD HIS HAND in the discovery of and settlement of the place that eventually became the United States of America.

I believe we live in a post-Christian America today.

But let us never forget that the roots of the United States of America are Christian.

Not perfect Christianity – for there is no such thing so long as fallible men have anything to do with it – but the pursuit of that perfect Christianity.

·  The right to worship God according to the dictates of one’s own conscience and

·  The desire to reach others with the hope that is found only in Christianity.

---

[1]I think the one that I learned, so long ago is, 

In fourteen hundred ninety-two
Columbus sailed the ocean blue
He said, “I think the earth is round
I’ll sail around it; I’ll be bound.”
But the wise men said,
“The earth is flat.
You’ll fall off the edge
If you sail like that.
You’ll meet strange monsters
In the sea,
And what a calamity that would be!”

[2]Apparently this was a simple two line jungle that was expanded by Jean Marzollo (1942-2018) and published in 1948.

[3]Some of the comments I found concerning this poem are: 

·     “Why are we still celebrating a song that represents a man who was responsible for the death and destruction of an entire people?” and another one, 

·     “Why don’t you teach the children the real truth about this mass killer and SLAVE trader??? How he brought back Natives to Spain for slaves and KILLED babies to feed his dogs…”

https://www.mamalisa.com/blog/columbus-day-poem-in-1492-columbus-sailed-the-ocean-blue/, accessed 6-14-18

[4]© 2007 Dana W. Hall, All Rights Reserved

[5]A few positive comments I found concerning Columbus:

·    “…can we not focus on what Columbus accomplished?

Columbus accomplished a dream despite others telling him “No” for years. Despite being told bymany authorities, “No you are wrong.” “No, you can’t do that.” “We will punish you if you try.” Columbus DID succeed with his dream; voyages of discovery. Did he make mistakes? [of course]. But who really drove the negative events; slavery etc. Columbus? Or the government and political powers of the time, and those that followed.

·     Columbus was not the first Westerner to reach the New Word – the Vikings did it and there’s plenty of evidence that Africans had too. But Columbus didusher in a new era of history – the Columbian exchange is a major part of this. The two hemispheres are forever linked after this event and goods, ideas, people, and yes, diseases will freely travel back and forth. The potato and tomato will be introduced to Europe for the first time. The orange and sugar will meet North and South America. African slavery is expanded (not invented) to cover the globe. Small pox devastates native populations, but I think it’s sophomoric to blame that on Columbus. It’s not like he set out to do that. ….

https://www.mamalisa.com/blog/columbus-day-poem-in-1492-columbus-sailed-the-ocean-blue/, accessed 6-14-18