Next week we celebrate our public holiday marking the epic changes brought about by the landing of Christopher Columbus in America and his dream to create a Christian society here.
The Native American people he found were descendants of ancient Siberian immigrants, but had lived in isolation from the rest of mankind for about three thousand years. Nevertheless, their pyramids, their religions, and their cultures still contained the stamp of their origins with the rest of mankind in ancient Babylon. Unfortunately, they also retained some of the worst pagan practices of Babylonian Religions, as the Aztecs demonstrated by sacrificing 50,000 human victims every year.
Our study of history shows that human sacrifice is a flash point for God’s judgment, and we believe that the Aztec and Inca civilizations were judged and destroyed by God through the technology and diseases of the Europeans. Sadly, the Conquistadors enslaved the survivors and forced them to “Convert” to Christianity, thus losing the opportunity to achieve a real Christian society. Those sins were compounded by bringing in African Slaves to replace the decimated Native American populations working the European Plantations.
The establishment of a Christian society did finally occur when a small group of English Christians landed in New England. Over time the English settlers in Eastern North America adopted the concept of religious freedom and went on to build the greatest Christian society on earth, the United States. And, with all its failures, backsliding, and flaws, the United States, with its 250 million who claim to be Christians, remains the World’s most powerful beacon of the Christian Dream.
Christianity has also experienced a comeback in Latin America, thanks to the Catholic Charismatics and the Evangelical Christians. Today Latin America is 92% Christian, the highest proportion of any continent, and there are 800 million Christians in the Americas.
So, on this Columbus Day, let us join with all North, Central, and South American Christians in praying that we will continue to follow the dream of living in a Christian Society in the Americas.