Columbus, Israel, and Mormon Beliefs

Christopher Columbus—the Epic Hero who revived Judeo-Christian heritage in America

Dinner Topics for Monday



Columbus and the Jewish Connection

Little known is the fact that Columbus may have been a convert from Judaism to Christianity, and that he sought to gather the lost tribes of Israel to the fold of Jesus Christ.

Columbus Day, October 12,(observed this year on October 8) has been observed as an official U.S. holiday since 1934. The year 1992, marked the five-hundredth anniversary of Columbus's first landfall in the New World.

Since then, many of the epic stories that make up our great American history have been purged from the schools. The rising generation is growing to adulthood with little or no knowledge of their rich heritage of liberty and their Judeo-Christian roots. October 12, if observed, no longer has much to do with the far-reaching significance of Columbus’ discovery. Like the birthdays of Washington and Lincoln, Columbus Day is being overshadowed these days by the new state religion: Islam.

Even those who did study some basic history during the 20th century, however, did not have the opportunity to know the epic hero who was Christopher Columbus. Little known is the fact that Columbus may have been a convert from Judaism to Christianity, and that he sought to gather the lost tribes of Israel to the fold of Jesus Christ. Following are excerpts from an article by Shirley Heater which documents inspiring facts about this nearly-forgotten hero. Truly this is a story to save in your personal “Treasury of Epic Stories”, to pass on to your children and grandchildren.

Christopher Columbus: Man of Vision and Faith

by Shirley R. Heater

Was the discovery made by accident, or was Columbus led by God? The Book of Mormon says he was led by the Holy Spirit, and now we have confirmation of this in Columbus's own words, as well as additional new insights. An authentic Columbus manuscript has gone virtually unexamined until recent years. In Columbus's Book of Prophecies, translated into English in 1991, he provides his own answers about Divine influence in his accomplishments.
Christopher Columbus, as he is known to English speakers, was born Christopher Colombo in the seaport of Genoa, Italy, in 1451.
 His sailing career began when he was about 13 or 14 years old. He became a skilled seaman and navigator on merchant ships which traveled the Mediterranean Sea. In 1476, he joined his brother Bartholomew in the Portugal city of Lisbon, where they worked together on map-making. His Portuguese name was Cristovao Colom.

During his eight years in Lisbon, Columbus expanded his sailing experience into the Atlantic Ocean. He married, became the father of a son, Diego, and shortly thereafter was widowed. It was also during this period that his "vision" of sailing to new lands and saving lost souls germinated. He sought backing for his proposed venture from King John II of Portugal who turned him down.

Undaunted, he went to the port city of Palos de la Frontera in Spain, taking his young son with him. They were befriended by the friars of the monastery at La Rabida and then at Las Cuevas in Seville, who embraced and encouraged his ideas. His name took on the Spanish form, Cristobal Colon.

The magnitude of his intended enterprise soon opened the doors to Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand. Their interest did not wane even though other matters kept them from following through with their approval for seven years.

During that prolonged period, he made his home in Cordoba (Cordova) where he met a young woman who became the mother of his second son, Ferdinand. [Note: He is still known throughout the Spanish-speaking world as Cristobal Colon Christopher Columbus, the English form, comes to us by way of the early colonists. Whatever the version of his name--Cristoforo, Cristovao, Cristobal or Christopher--the meaning is the same: "Christ bearer" (Sale 1990: 254n)].

Isaiah and the Isles of the Sea
 
Columbus and Nephi [from the Book of Mormon] had special regard for Isaiah, the Old Testament prophet most often quoted or referred to in both Columbus's Book of Prophecies and the Book of Mormon. More intriguing is the fact that Nephi and Columbus selected the same portions of Isaiah and that each saw himself fulfilling those prophecies.

The Book of Mormon identifies the seed of Lehi as a remnant, a branch broken off which will be restored to the knowledge of their covenant and their Redeemer (e.g., 1 Nephi 4:15-17). Nephi and his brother, Jacob, are the only Book of Mormon writers who crossed the ocean, and they uniquely view their promised land as an island. Nephi, who delighted in the words of Isaiah (2 Nephi 11:8), "likened" them to his people (2 Nephi 8:3) in their literal fulfillment.
When Columbus was led to the "isles of the sea," the door was opened to the lands occupied by the remnant of the Book of Mormon people. This set events in motion for the eventual restoration of the knowledge of the covenants.

Lost Tribes and Other Sheep
 
Through Columbus's writings, it is obvious that he fully expected to find the lost tribes of Israel (Wiesenthal 1973:61). He saw himself as "Christ-bearer" (the meaning of his name Christopher), God's messenger to bring a knowledge of the Savior to the lost tribes
Particularly noteworthy is Columbus's inclusion of John 10:16 in his Book of Prophecies: "I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen [fold], and I must bring them also; they will hear my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd" (Brigham 1991:264-265). It is with great foresight that he believed that the "flock" would not just be "Israel after the flesh" but that a "spiritual Israel" would be formed of all who would come to Christ (208-209).

When Jesus visited Lehi's descendants, he told them that they were the other sheep of which he had spoken and that he had still other sheep (3 Nephi 7:20, 24-26). He also told them that those Gentiles who repented would also be numbered among his people (v. 37). There are specific promises in the Book of Mormon to restore the Lamanites to "the knowledge of their Redeemer, ... and be numbered among his sheep" which are yet to be fulfilled (Helaman 5:104). This restoration was set in motion when Columbus was led to the New World, followed by Gentiles who brought the "record of the Jews" 0 Nephi 3:155-161). It will culminate when they receive the Book of Mormon and the two books "grow together" (2 Nephi 2:17-23).

The Jewish Connection
 
Was Columbus Jewish? There are several proponents of Columbus's Jewish heritage, with varying viewpoints. Some believe "What there is abundant circumstantial evidence that Columbus was of a Jewish background, at least on one side of the family" (Fuson 1987:16).
The description of Columbus in the Book of Mormon as "a man among the Gentiles" could be interpreted either as a Jew or a Gentile (1 Nephi 3:145).

Columbus is seen either as a converso, a converted Jew (Madariaga 1949:54-65,119-135), or a marrano, a professing Christian who was still a secretly-practicing Jew (Wiesenthal 1973:124-133). Whether or not he was of Jewish ancestry is an interesting proposition. Columbus's writings are abundantly interwoven with professions of faith and belief in Jesus Christ as his Savior (Brigham 1991:179-181), and he affirms his faith in a letter to the king and queen of Spain (182-183):

Columbus's mission was permeated with a "Jewish flavor." Many Jews supported his venture, providing maps, instruments and finances. Many crew members are believed to have been Jewish. In anticipation of finding the lost tribes on his first voyage, Columbus took along a converso, Luis de Torres, an experienced interpreter who "knew how to speak Hebrew, Chaldean, and even some Arabic" (Fusan 1987:100-101).

Upon arrival in the New World, Hebrew was probably spoken in an attempt to communicate with the natives. In the log of his first voyage, Columbus linked the beginning of his voyage to America (early morning of August 3rd) and the expulsion of all professing Jews from Spain (effective at midnight of August 2nd) (Fusan 1987:52). The Jewish people were hopeful of finding a new place of refuge (Wiesenthal 1973:88). The New World was to become a haven for Jews and a new promised land. In fact, the first refugees came in the late fifteenth century; many were marranos (Sachar 1992:10). Columbus also desired to free Jerusalem from the Muslims and restore the Holy Land to the Church. This could only be financed by discovering new lands and gathering enough gold, silver and precious stones (Fusan 1987:34). However, he knew that his desire to bring freedom to the people of the Old Testament could ultimately come only through their conversion to Jesus Christ.

World War 2, Eisenhower, and the Holocaust

General Eisenhower Warned Us 

The following is an excerpt of an article written by Spanish
writer Sebastian Vilar Rodriguez and published in a Spanish
newspaper on Jan. 15, 2008. It doesn't take much imagination to
extrapolate the message to the rest of Europe - and possibly to the rest of the world.

Sebastian Vilar Rodrigez article part 2: Truth about the Jewish Holocaust

ALL EUROPEAN LIFE DIED IN AUSCHWITZ By Sebastian Vilar Rodrigez , Part 2

What a terrible mistake was made by miserable Europe .


General Eisenhower Warned Us

It is a matter of history that when
the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, General
Dwight Eisenhower, found the victims of the death camps
he ordered all possible photographs to be taken, and for the
German people from surrounding villages to be ushered through the
camps and even made to bury the dead.

He did this because he said in words to this effect:

'Get it all on record now - get the films - get the witnesses -
because somewhere down the road of history some bastard will get
up and say that this never happened'
 
Recently, the UK debated whether to remove The Holocaust from
its school curriculum because it 'offends' the Muslim population
which claims it never occurred. It is not removed as yet.
However, this is a frightening portent of the fear that is gripping
the world and how easily each country is giving into it.

It is now more than 60 years after  World War 2 in Europe
ended. This was written as a memorial,
in memory of the 6 million Jews, 20 million Russians, 10
million Christians, and 1,900 Catholic priests who were 'murdered,
raped, burned, starved, beaten, experimented on and humiliated'
while the German people looked the other way.

 Now, more than ever, with Iran, among others, claiming the
Holocaust to be 'a myth,' it is imperative to make sure the world
never forgets.

How many years will it be before the attack on the World Trade Center
'NEVER HAPPENED' because it offends some Muslim in the United
States ?

Dwight D. Eisenhower

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Eisenhower's two terms were peaceful ones for the most part and saw considerable economic prosperity. Eisenhower is now often ranked as one of the top ten U.S. Presidents.

Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was the 34th President of the United States from 1953 until 1961. He had previously been a five-star general in the United States Army during World War II, and served as Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe; he had responsibility for planning and supervising the invasion of North Africa in Operation Torch in 1942–43 and the successful invasion of France and Germany in 1944–45, from the Western Front. In 1951, he became the first supreme commander of NATO.^[2]

Eisenhower was of Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry, and was reared in a large family in Kansas, by parents with a robust work ethic and religious background. As one of six sons, he was conditioned by a competitive atmosphere which instilled self-reliance. He attended and graduated from West Point, and later was married with two sons. After World War II Eisenhower served as Chief of Staff under President Harry S. Truman, then assumed the post of President at Columbia University.^[3]

Eisenhower entered the 1952 presidential race as a Republican, to counter the non-interventionism of Senator Robert A. Taft, and to crusade against "Communism, Korea and corruption". He won by a landslide, defeating Democrat Adlai Stevenson and ending two decades of the New Deal Coalition. In the first year of his presidency Eisenhower deposed the leader of Iran in the 1953 Iranian coup d'etat, and used nuclear threats to conclude the Korean War with China. His New Look policy of nuclear deterrence gave priority to inexpensive nuclear weapons while reducing the funding for conventional military forces; the goal was to keep pressure on the Soviet Union and reduce federal deficits. In 1954 Eisenhower first articulated the domino theory in his description of the threat presented by the spread of communism. The Congress agreed to his request in 1955 for the Formosa Resolution, which enabled him to prevent Chinese communist aggression against Chinese nationalists and established U.S. policy of defending Taiwan. When the Soviets launched Sputnik in 1957 he had to play catchup in the space race. Eisenhower forced Israel, the UK and France to end their invasion of Egypt during the Suez Crisis of 1956. In 1958 he sent 15,000 US troops to Lebanon to prevent the pro-Western government from falling to a Nasser-inspired revolution. Near the end of his term, his efforts to set up a summit meeting with the Soviets collapsed because of the U-2 incident when an American spy plane was shot down over Russia and its pilot captured.^[4]

On the domestic front, he covertly opposed Joseph McCarthy but contributed to the end of McCarthyism by openly invoking the modern expanded version of executive privilege. He otherwise left most political activity to his Vice President, Richard Nixon. He was a moderate conservative who continued New Deal agencies, expanded Social Security and launched the Interstate Highway System. He sent federal troops to Little Rock, Arkansas, for the first time since Reconstruction to enforce federal court orders to desegregate public schools, and signed civil rights legislation in 1957 and 1960 to protect the right to vote. He implemented desegregation of the armed forces in two years, and made five appointments to the Supreme Court. He was the first term-limited president in accordance with the 22nd Amendment.

Eisenhower's two terms were peaceful ones for the most part and saw considerable economic prosperity except for a sharp recession in 1958–59. Eisenhower is now often ranked as one of the top ten U.S. Presidents.

Continued

President Obama, Abortion, and Infanticide

Obama not only supported Abortion, but Voted 4 times for Infanticide

Abortion Survivor Asks: What Will You Answer?

Ad by Susan B. Anthony List

Parenting Value: Responsibility, Not Blame

Self-reliance and Potential

Dinner Topics for Wednesday

Individuality. Awareness and development of gifts and uniqueness. Taking responsibility for own actions. Overcoming the tendency to blame others for difficulties. Commitment to personal excellence.

 Richard and Linda Eyre

Introduction

Our fifteen-year-old daughter, true to her age, her hormones, and her nature, had spent the evening alternating between hot anger, cool sullenness, agitated irritation at other family members, and woeful, sorrowful withdrawal. "I'm going to flunk math because the teacher is so weird. He never explains anything. He grades way too hard. He never calls on me when my hand is up. I don't care anyway, grades are way too important to most people. Actually, it's my brothers and sisters who are ruining my grade. They're so loud and noisy, I can't study around here. Forget about an A. A B- is okay. It's not best, but it's good, and no one should be dissatisfied with good. If you'd been around more to help me study, maybe I wouldn't be in this mess." It was a not-so-rare collection of statements illustrating self-criticism and the blaming of others that goes on so often with some adolescents. But it wasn't our daughter's truest self. We had learned that at such moments there was little to do but wait for that truer inner self to emerge.

It finally did, about ten-thirty. "I'm sorry, Mom and Dad. That was stupid. It's my class and my grade. It's my own fault about the last test. I'll go and see if I can make it up. I know I have the ability to get an A."

Jekyll and Hyde? So many adolescents are. The challenge for parents is to encourage the Jekyll and help it win over the long run. 

There are two separate but closely related principles involved here. The first is the self-reliance of accepting the responsibility for and the consequences of one's own actions and performance, rather than blaming luck or circumstances or someone else. The second is trying to be one's best self and asking the best from oneself -- the conscious pursuit of individuality and potential -- and the conscious rejection of avoidable mediocrity.

"Self-reliance and potential," as we have called it, is a powerful value. Those who have it help others by accepting responsibility and doing their best in the world. Those who don't have it hurt others by blaming them and by failing to develop the gifts and talents that could serve or enlighten or benefit other people. One who reaches his potential helps others in many ways as he develops himself. One who never seeks his full potential indirectly hurts others by not doing the good or setting the example he is capable of.

This value is about trying to know ourselves, to do our best, and to accept the consequences both of who we are and of what we do. 

One way to think of self-reliance and potential is as two sides of the same coin. Self-reliance has a lot to do with taking the blame or the responsibility for negative things that happen. Potential has a lot to do with taking a little credit and taking the right kind of pride in what we are able to become and what we are able to accomplish. 

When we take blame and responsibility, we resolve and grow and improve. When we don't, we become bitter, jealous, and defensive. When we take positive pride in what we're doing with ourselves and our gifts, we feel the growth of individuality and self-esteem. When we don't, we tend to become followers or plodders in the standard ruts of life. 

Good luck in making this your value of the month for October!

"Parenting-by-Objective"

Review the activities and stories that go along with this months value. Make sure everyone in your family understands the value so they can see how they can apply it in their own lives and situations.

Talk about the Monthly Value every morning and remind your family to look for opportunities to use the value throughout the day. They may also observe how others don't understand the value. Get your children to share their experience with the value each day at the dinner table or before you go to bed. Be sure to share your experience each day as well. It will help your children know that you are thinking about the value too.

President Obama, Libya, Terrorism, and Truth

What is the Truth? Is there a Cover Up? Demand that Congress Investigate.

Sign a petition; Demand the Truth.

Steve Elliot, Grassfire Nation

Is the Obama administration intentionally withholding information about the terror attack in an attempt to cover up the truth about the killing of these four Americans? It's a question that must be asked ... and answered!

It's been more than two-and-a-half weeks since an attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya killed four American diplomats, including widely respected ambassador Christopher Stevens. Yet, President Obama STILL has not publicly acknowledged that attack as terrorism.

Even though it has been widely reported that the Obama administration knew within 24 hours that the tragedy which transpired on the eleventh anniversary of September 11 was not a "spontaneous action" to an anti-Islam YouTube video, our "Commander"-in-Chief refuses to call this deadly attack what it is -- TERRORISM.

Why hasn't the President publicly acknowledged that the murders in Benghazi were the result of a terrorist attack? His Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta did in a Pentagon news conference on Thursday saying flatly: "It was a terrorist attack."

+ + Demand Congress Investigate the Libya Attack

Yet for more than two weeks, the White House stuck to its story that Chris Stevens' murder was committed in retaliation for the ridiculous and laughable "Innocence of Muslims" clip. Remarkably, the President still blamed the anti-Islam video for Stevens' death in his speech before the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday.

Is the Obama administration intentionally withholding information about the terror attack in an attempt to cover up the truth about the killing of these four Americans? It's a question that must be asked ... and answered!

Go here now to take immediate action:

www.grassfire.com/278/petition.asp

+ + Americans Demand the Truth

Grassfire is moving quickly to mobilize 50,000 Americans who want to know exactly what the Obama administration knew before and after terrorists attacked our consulate and murdered our fellow citizens.

As Americans, we deserve answers to these and other critical questions that continue to surface about the Benghazi attack. Go here to sign our Grassfire petition and demand that Congress determine whether or not there's been a cover-up by the Obama administration:


P.S. You can do something to hold the Obama administration accountable. Demand that Congress investigate and reveal any efforts to cover up the deadly events in Libya. Go here now to sign our Grassfire petition and demand Americans learn the full truth about the Benghazi attack: