columbus day

{photo and map source}

520 years ago. 
October 12, 1492, is recorded as the day that Christopher Columbus {and the many sailors and adventurers with him} landed upon an island in the Bahamas, thus discovering America.

 

{photo credit}

You can read for yourself in most modern accounts of the controversies or atrocities attached to this man - and to most of the other explorers of his era.  I won't debate or defend it, although I imagine those who would also contest my worldview might exaggerate the claims to further their own agenda.  While I do not espouse the concept of a "noble savage," neither do I believe that God would condone sin, no matter how admirable the motives.  {The ends does not justify the means.}  God did allow Columbus' discovery to lead into widespread exploration of the New World.  However, it is interesting that our beloved land of the USA was not colonized by Spain {except for Florida}.  Or by the Vikings led by Leif Ericson so many centuries earlier.  Columbus himself never visited the mainland of North America.  Spain's influence and control focused on South America ~ which is noteworthy when you compare modern-day life on these two continents, hmm?  Instead it was the Cabots who explored the eastern coast of North America in the years following 1496 and claimed it for the King of England.


Consider the time of the Reformation amidst these years of Exploration ...and the new printing presses producing copies of God's Word in English.  What a difference it would make in the years to come!