Because of tech glitches I couldn't publish this on Columbus Day but thought, in the spirit of the holiday, you might enjoy this passage from Founding Faith. It's a reminder that throughout history, there's always been a noticeable chunk of people with solid evidence that the End of Days was imminent:
"Christopher Columbus believed the world would soon end. In the year 1652, to be exact, Christ would return and usher in a glorious new Kingdom -- if certain prophecies were fulfilled before then. Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492 was one such event, he wrote later, a clear 'fulfillment of what Isaiah had prophsied.' He was quite certain that God had guided him. '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.'"Another precondition for Jesus's return was the conquest of Jerusalem, which was held by Muslims. His voyages to the New World would help with that, too, providing a glorious model to inspire Christian warriors, and the gold to pay their way.
"Finally, his discovery of the new lands would enable Christians to fulfill another essential requirement, the spreading of the Good News to all corners of the world. 'The Gospel must now be proclaimed to so many lands in such a short time,' Columbus explained to Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand.
After encountering hospitable natives in the Caribbean, he had become quite optimistic that he would indeed be able to bring these generous but unsaved souls to God, plus get some cheap labor. 'If one asks for anything they have, they never say no,' he wrote. 'They should be good servants...and I believe they would easily be made Christians, for they appear to have no religion.'"
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Like all great Italians, Columbus was a man of some contradiction and while he may have been a religious zealot in a time when that was not a sin, he also said reasonable things, like "Gold is most excellent, with gold all things can be obtained," which proves that he had his head screwed on pretty tight where it mattered.
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