Yesterday was Columbus Day, at least here in the United States. I can still recall the image that was painted, and still is, about Christopher Columbus and his epic voyage: he was in search of wealth and fame--via a new trade route to the East Indies--and nothing else.
Although wealth and fame might have been consequences of a newly discovered trade route to the East Indies, such things were not what drove Columbus to persistently petition for financial backing for a westerly voyage. Rather, Columbus considered his voyage to be a spiritual journey, one that the LORD had called him to embark upon: "With a hand that could be felt, the Lord opened my mind to the fact that it would be possible . . . and he opened my will to desire to accomplish that project. . . . The Lord purposed that there should be something miraculous in this matter of the voyage to the Indies.”
And so, Columbus set out on his journey in obedience to the Holy Spirit, and not in bondage to a lust for wealth and nobility as many textbooks would have us believe. My point here is not to say that Columbus was a perfect man--far from it--but to illustrate that Columbus believed that God had ordained his voyages of discovery and that God would do wonderful things for the church through his discoveries. Seeing as this post is being written in the USA, the latter appears to be true, if not the former also.
As Columbus wrote in the logbook of his first voyage "I hope in Our Lord that [my recent voyage] will be the greatest honor to Christianity that, unexpectedly, has ever come about."
Although wealth and fame might have been consequences of a newly discovered trade route to the East Indies, such things were not what drove Columbus to persistently petition for financial backing for a westerly voyage. Rather, Columbus considered his voyage to be a spiritual journey, one that the LORD had called him to embark upon: "With a hand that could be felt, the Lord opened my mind to the fact that it would be possible . . . and he opened my will to desire to accomplish that project. . . . The Lord purposed that there should be something miraculous in this matter of the voyage to the Indies.”
And so, Columbus set out on his journey in obedience to the Holy Spirit, and not in bondage to a lust for wealth and nobility as many textbooks would have us believe. My point here is not to say that Columbus was a perfect man--far from it--but to illustrate that Columbus believed that God had ordained his voyages of discovery and that God would do wonderful things for the church through his discoveries. Seeing as this post is being written in the USA, the latter appears to be true, if not the former also.
As Columbus wrote in the logbook of his first voyage "I hope in Our Lord that [my recent voyage] will be the greatest honor to Christianity that, unexpectedly, has ever come about."
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