Columbus, Part II

Opening a Western Route. During the end of his life, Columbus compiled an anthology of prophetic texts, Libro de las profecias. In the preface, he speaks to Ferdinand and Isabella about how he was convinced, long before he approached them, that his westward journey was part of his divinely appointed destiny.

During this time, I searched out and studied all kinds of texts: geographies, histories, chronologies, philosoph[ies], and other subjects. With a hand that could be felt, the Lord opened my mind to the fact that it would be possible to sail from here to the Indies, and He opened my will to desire to accomplish this project. This was the fire that burned within me when I came to visit your Highnesses.

We are certainly dealing with an unusual kind of explorer here, one who is moved to his dangerous enterprise by an "invisible hand." Scholars have found notes that Columbus wrote in 1481, over a decade before his voyage, wherein he writes a shorter list of prophecies. These prophecies seem to have shaped Columbus' vision for his life. And as we all know now, the consequences were great.

Mixed in with his other motives, he seems to have believed that his life's purpose was to open a western route to Asia so that the gospel could be preached to all nations. This was necessary in order for the Lord Jesus's return. Some at the time (the Joachimites, which Columbus may have been) believed that Christ was going to return sometime in the mid-sixteenth century.

Next time: Columbus: Hero or Satan?