AMERICA AND COLUMBUS DAY
Monday – October 23, 2017
We have recently celebrated, ignored or protested Columbus Day. To be honest I am not an expert on Columbus. I know that he discovered, or is given credit for discovering the America’s although the Norsemen may have been the first. He may or may not have actually ever landed in what we know today as the United States of America. Those who protested accused Columbus of all sorts of atrocities concerning slavery and the indigenous peoples of the lands he discovered. There has been a great uproar to tear down all sorts of statues across America including those honoring Christopher Columbus. The others including Columbus should be taken down because they were racist or some other favorite word or slur popular today true of not. These people it turns out were imperfect. Who would have guessed? Of course, images of the Cross of Calvary or of Jesus also should not be visible to the public least they offend someone and it be construed as the establishment of religion which is absolutely forbidden by the Constitution. The Cross is certainly offensive to the kingdom of darkness however is not forbidden by the Constitution. Many people started calling Columbus Day Indigenous Peoples Day to illuminate the many atrocities Columbus and those who followed committed bringing suffering to the preexisting population or indigenous peoples. To hear the protestors tell it Columbus is responsible for slavery and all the injustice associated as well as all of the atrocities against the indigenous peoples.
We commonly call these indigenous peoples American Indians of which there are many tribes. There is a great focus from time to time of what the “white man” did to the Indians and I am not an expert on Indian and early American settler relations either. However, I believe the Lord wants us to be very aware of what He has given me for this teaching. Scripture tells us that all people have opportunity to make Christ Lord and Savior and therefore are without excuse (Romans 1:20). This applies to American Indians and any and all other peoples. The American Indians were not in Covenant with God however the new settlers and the Jews who came here were in Covenant with God. God’s primary obligation is to His own people like ours is to our own children before someone else’s children. You may well have heard of the belief of “Manifest Destiny”. This was a widely but not universally held belief in the settling of the “New World”. On December 27, 1845 a man by the name of John L Sullivan published the following statement in the New York Morning News: “And that claim is by the right of our manifest destiny to overspread and to possess the whole of the continent which Providence has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty and federated self-government entrusted us.”
These United States of America are a Covenant Nation with the Almighty God. The only other Covenant nation is Israel. In the case of Israel God sought them out (Abraham) and in the case of America we sought Him out. In the same year that Columbus (an Italian) sailed the ocean blue, 1492, under the Spanish flag for Fernando and Isabella the king and queen of Spain the Jews were once again being dispersed. America was to be a safe haven for any Jews who would come, America has played a unique and vital role in preserving the Jewish peoples. President Harry Truman was the first to recognize Israel on May 14th, 1948, called the first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, and welcomed them to the family of nations. Since that time in one way or another we have been a guarantor of their sovereignty. Look at this excerpt from the Mayflower Compact.
“In the name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, defender of the Faith, etc.
Having undertaken, for the Glory of God, and advancements of the Christian faith and honor of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the Northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents, solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God, and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic;”
This general sentiment is echoed in the Consttutions of each State and of the Federal government. America was established to show the goodness (glory) of God to the whole world and to further the Christian faith. It was the will of God to raise up these United States of America in Covenant with Him to protect His first Covenant people and show His goodness and bring the gospel to all peoples. In the process of this a non-Covenant people were displaced by a Covenant people. Now, let us think if there is any example of this in Scripture. Consider the following.
Genesis 15:15-21 (KJV)
15 And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age.
16 But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.
17 And it came to pass, that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.
18 In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:
19 The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites,
20 And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims,
21 And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.
I wonder how fair the Amorites, Kenites, and so on thought it was when Joshua and the Israelites came and took their land? They did not have Covenant with the Almighty God however Israel did have Covenant. God gave these people ample time to repent, four generations or 400 years. I do not know how long the “Indigenous Peoples” of this land spurned God but we can be sure it was a long time likely in the hundreds of years like the peoples of the Scripture above.
I suggest we go ahead and celebrate Columbus Day recognizing that it brought a Covenant people with a manifest destiny given of Providence (God) to be a protector of the first Covenant people and a powerful light to the world.
By: Dr. David R. Wood, Author, Bible Teacher, and Prophetic Voice
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